Hear His Call

 

God speaks to His children through His Word, His creation, and through His orchestration of details in His universe to send us a direct message that the unsaved might interpret as “coincidence.”

But with God there are no coincidences, for He works all things together for our ultimate good and for His glory Romans 8:28). It is always better to listen to His still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12) than to ignore it, as He may be forced to smack us with a baseball bat just to get our attention!

Once we are saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), God speaks to us through His Word, whether we read it in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16), hear it preached from the pulpit (Romans 10:14-17), sung in a Christian song Ephesians 5:19, or brought to our remembrance by the Godly counsel of a brother or sister in Christ Proverbs 27:17. His written Word came directly from His Son, the Living Word (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The beauty and complexity of God’s creation should reveal His existence even to the unsaved, for the heavens and earth declare the handiwork of the supreme Intelligent Designer (Psalm 19:1), so that even unbelievers who have not heard or read Scripture have no excuse to doubt Him (Romans 1:20). God often speaks to believers by lifting their spirits with a cheerful bird song or beautiful flower blooming through a crack in the pavement, by reminding them of the Gospel through specific creations that reflect it, or even by a juxtaposition of seemingly random natural elements or circumstances that tell us His will in unique messages intended for our eyes and ears only.

When we clearly hear His voice in these ways, we ignore it at our own peril. How can we be sure the message is from God? He cannot lie (Titus 1:2) or change (Hebrews 13:8), so we know that God will never speak against His own Word. Any message that contradicts it must come from our own flesh or from Satan, and not from Him.

When we pray to God to hear His will, follow and obey Him, He will give us peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4: 6-7), for He is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). Feeling at peace about a difficult decision is a confirmation that we are trusting God to lead us in His perfect will, and not relying on our own “wisdom,” resources or strength (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Often God calls His children to change direction even when they seem to be fruitful in their current situation or ministry. The founding pastor of the church my husband and I joined after we were saved had grown that church from a small gathering in his home to a much larger congregation. Many souls had been saved under his powerful preaching and many believers were nurtured, schooled, comforted and strengthened through his role as devoted and loving pastor.

Despite his fruitfulness in that church for many years, he felt God calling him to change direction. He left to become a founding member of HELP Ministries, which now supports and trains more than 400 native missionary pastors in 48 countries on five continents! Untold numbers of souls have been saved in these native churches and through evangelistic journeys and church planting!

And the souls he “left behind” at his former church also flourished under the new leadership of the youth pastor who took the helm as undershepherd. This great man of God grew and matured in the Lord, leading countless souls to Him, feeding, training, befriending, teaching and loving his flock, and acquiring a large church campus, building a large new sanctuary and fellowship hall, and growing the church spiritually, physically and financially. Although God called him home at the age of 40, after a short but agonizing bout with widespread lung cancer, his legacy in the hearts and minds of his congregation, and the crowns he won to lay at Jesus’ feet, cannot be underestimated.

He was a great blessing to us, and we are forever thankful for the spiritual growth and opportunities to serve that we experienced under his leadership. I sang solo specials and in the choir and taught a ladies’ class, while my husband served as a greeter and usher, and helped in the sound booth.

After we had been members for 12 years, one day the new pastor preached on Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

As we drove home, past a neighboring church that we passed nearly daily in our travels, my husband wondered out loud whether God might be calling us to serve Him in our “Jerusalem”—this church right around the corner from our house.

We discovered that the church had gone through difficult times because of many leaders and members dying or moving away, and we strongly felt led to help that church by transferring our membership and looking for new service opportunities there. It was a difficult decision, as we loved our church family and pastors and were thankful for our ministries. But we trusted God to lead us according to His perfect plan, and as we drove to the new church one Sunday morning we prayed that He would make His will crystal clear.

As we pulled into the church parking lot, we were surprised to see the pastor, whom we had met only once before, coming out to greet us warmly. I asked him about openings in the music ministry, and I was shocked when he said, “Would you like to sing a special today?”

Even more surprising was when he asked if I would like to start a ladies’ class. I was silently thanking and praising God for these opportunities, and for giving us these confirmations that this new church was indeed His will for us.

But God answered our prayers exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ever imagine or think! (Ephesians 3:20). As we walked into the sanctuary for the first time, there on the back wall greeting all who entered there was a huge banner with the full text of Acts 1:8, the very verse that had led us to this church in the first place!

God doesn’t ask or expect us to always understand His plan, to know how He will provide us with opportunities, or to anticipate our destination. All He asks is obedience, for us to take that first step of faith just as Abraham did when God told him to leave behind his country, idols, power and wealth and to set out for the Promised Land (Genesis 12:1-4). May we always hear, follow, and obey His call, for we cannot begin to imagine the countless blessings (1 Corinthians 2:9) with which He will reward our faithfulness!

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  

Copyright 2025 Laurie Collett

Unlikely, Unexpected Ministry

 

Photo by Rolf Dietrich Brecher 2014

I had a dream in which a dear lady from church entered Hospice care. It was a small place, with only one visitor per patient at a time. Her family all had to go together to attend to an urgent matter, so they asked me to stay with her.

She is in pain, but as I pray with her, she starts to relax and falls asleep. Her husband returns soon thereafter and I leave so that he can stay with her. Outside it’s dark, and I have no car, phone or money with me. As I walk away from the hospice facility toward home, the road becomes pitch black. I can’t even see my hand in front of my face and am frightened of getting lost or attacked.

Way off in the distance, in the middle of nowhere, I see an Outback chain restaurant, lit up, with nothing around it. I decide to go in to get my bearings and be in a place of safety. The restaurant is noisy and crowded, and aromas from the kitchen make me realize I’m hungry, but I have no way to pay for the food.

A man who used to attend our former church comes up to me and I see that he’s sitting with some members from that church. He says the church would like to pay for my dinner. I thank him and tell him that’s not necessary, but he insists, saying, “You have to eat, because you have a long night ahead of you.”

He explains that he has a message to deliver to me. There is a chronic care facility further up the road that would like me to visit and pray with the patients one-on-one. I agree to go, and again find myself walking in the dark with no landmarks other than the restaurant getting smaller and dimmer the further away I get.

Finally I spot a well-lit building, with a sign saying it is a chronic care facility. When I get there, many hospital staff are busy around the nurses’ station. I introduce myself to one of the nurses and tell her why I’m there. She says that I’m needed in the operating room, where one of the surgeons has asked for me.

I go there and he explains that he needs me to give a patient a spinal injection of stem cells. I protest, saying that I’m not qualified, that it’s been years since I even did a spinal tap, and that I have never given a spinal injection. He says it will rejuvenate the patient’s spinal cord and allow him to walk again. He hands me a large metal contraption holding a very large needle and syringe full of clear fluid.

I awake with mixed emotions – wanting to help the patient by letting God use me for a miracle of healing, but fear that I could injure him, and regret over being rusty in my medical skills. And yet the dream gave me hope that God could use me in unexpected ways, thankfulness that He has not placed me on the shelf (1 Corinthians 9:27), and that He guides me and provides for me in the opportunities He gives.

When trying to interpret the dream, I realized that the ministry doors God opened (1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12) were unexpected and outside my comfort zone. On our way home to Heaven, to eternal life with Jesus Christ, the path may sometimes be dark, and how we serve Him may take unexpected turns, at least from our perspective.

Despite my medical training and profession, I have never felt led to minister by visiting and praying with those in the hospital, although I have provided informal counsel to those who ask me about various aspects of their medical care or conditions, and I pray daily for family, church family, friends and acquaintances who are ill or going through other special trials. However, I greatly respect others who have chosen this highly valued ministry. Visiting someone in the hospital is as if we have visited Christ Himself (Matthew 25:34-40), and the prayer of faith shall save the sick (James 5:15).

Nor have I ever felt led to use my training or profession to go on a medical mission, and I have been retired from clinical practice for so long that I doubt it would even be possible. But nothing is too difficult for God! (Isaiah 59:1).

As the saying goes, “God looks not for ability but for availability.” When He uses an unlikely subject to accomplish an unexpected ministry, God gets all the glory, for that person could not have done it in His own strength. Once we are saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), God empowers us to learn, follow and do His will through His Holy Spirit living in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:22).

Lately my prayer has been, “Father, please use me in whatever way you see fit.”  I am blessed that God has called me to sing to His glory, including Christian lyrics I have written, and to teach His Word, both of which seem unlikely and unexpected in my own ability, as I grew up challenged by an often severe stuttering problem.

I began writing this blog on Memorial Day weekend 11 years ago, after seeing the movie “Julie and Julia” in which the heroine decides to test one of Julia Child’s recipes daily and write a blog post about it. An unlikely inspiration for a Christian blog, and unexpected that God would allow me to continue it to the present day!

My husband and I are blessed that He continues to use us in a physically challenging form of dance ministry, which is unlikely and unexpected given our age and my husband’s battle with cancer.

Yet looking back, we can see God’s provision and preparation in our lives for these ministries long before we were even saved! He gave me a love of music, poetry, dance and song, and a home where these gifts would be encouraged. I attended a school where we had writing assignments every day, and continuing to write medical articles after retiring from clinical practice no doubt helped with the discipline of writing a weekly blog.

God brought my husband and me together through a series of “coincidences” defying all probability, and He strengthened our marriage even when others thought the unexpected partnership was unlikely to succeed, given differences in our upbringing and backgrounds. We danced together at our first meeting and loved it, giving us motivation to hone our dance skills for years before we were saved and devoted this gift to Him.

I don’t believe that God has called me through this dream to shift gears and abandon the ministries He has so graciously appointed to us. However, sometimes He does ask His children to set a different course, even when a current ministry seems to be fruitful. For example, we are blessed to know a missionary leader who followed God’s call to resign as Pastor from a growing church he had planted, and to become the full-time founding director of a missionary organization that has trained and supported indigenous pastors all over the globe.

Thank God that no matter what form our primary ministry takes, no matter where we are, and no matter what physical or financial limitations we may have, we can and should pray for souls to be saved, and lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), interceding for them as we come boldly to His throne of grace! (Hebrews 4:16).

I believe God is showing me that He is my Commander, Provider and Guide in all that He has set forth for me to do. In the dream, He gave various assignments, which I could complete only with His help. Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), but with Him, all things are possible!  (Matthew 19:26).

When the path was dark, He supernaturally led me to the next destination (Psalm 119:105). When I didn’t know where I was going, He illuminated the buildings where I had divine appointments and communicated with me through His children. When I was hungry, He fed me (Psalm 37:25), using brothers and sisters in Christ to do so, as we are to build up and help one another, bearing one another’s burdens and fulfilling His law (Galatians 6:2).

The restaurant being an Outback restaurant I believe is a reference to the Australian Outback, which Wikipedia describes as “a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia.… more remote than the bush.” It reminds me that sometimes God’s calling on the lives of His children is to spread His Word across the globe, to the most desolate places, and yet that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), for He is with us wherever we go (Psalm 139:7).

Had I taken the leap of faith in the dream and administered the spinal injection, I believe He would have guided my hands and used the surgeon who asked for my help to instruct me in the proper technique, to perform a healing miracle, allowing the lame to walk (Matthew 11:5) through His power and grace! What a blessing when God uses us to accomplish His perfect will! And yet, what regret and loss we will experience if we learn at the Judgment Seat that we failed to walk through ministry doors He opened (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

May we all let God use us as He sees fit, even if it is in an unlikely and unexpected ministry that takes us far from our comfort zone! May we be blessed in knowing that God sees our labor and will reward us richly!

© 2023 Laurie Collett

Two by One

Missionaries distributing food in COVID-19 pandemic

I dreamed that my husband Richard and I are seated at the round dining table in the kitchen of a small house we rent out in a rural area. He starts to make breakfast and sets out a loaf of bread and a box of cereal. But then he is interrupted by a phone call from Bill, the next door neighbor.

Richard says he has to leave because he wants to share the Gospel with Bill, and he thinks this would be a good time as Bill said he had some questions about the Bible. I offer to go with him, but Richard says that I should stay at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After Richard leaves I brew some tea and set it on the table, awaiting his return.

When I awaken, it is with a sense of longing and sadness that I was not able to be directly involved in this ministry opportunity, even though it was in a dream, and that I was instead left alone at home. It reminded me that Jesus sent out His disciples two by two to witness and spread the Good News of the Gospel (Mark 6:7).

In normal circumstances, that tradition has continued to the present day, and with good reason. Two or three witnesses are required to establish the truth of a matter (Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15, Matthew 18:16, 2 Corinthians 13:1) and Jesus said that when two or more are gathered in His Name, He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).

Two can support one another (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) in their unified purpose of leading others to the Lord, of telling them how they can receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16) by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6).

When I took part in weekly visitation at our former church, home visits were assigned to a married couple, or to two women visiting a single woman or family, or two men visiting a single man or family. This was not only for propriety, abstaining from even the appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22), but to make those being visited feel more comfortable.

Usually one visitation partner would take the active role, leading the conversation, answering any questions, and sharing the Gospel as the Holy Spirit opened the door (John 14:16-17; 16:13). Meanwhile, the other partner would sometimes contribute to the flow of conversation as the Lord led (1 Corinthians 2:13; Ephesians 4:15), but often would just pray silently for the Spirit to soften the heart of the unsaved or backslidden person to move closer to the will of Jesus Christ for their life.

But that was in “normal” circumstances, in the pre-COVID-19 era that seems like ages ago, even though it has only been several months. Now, many such ministries have been stifled by the need for social distancing to avoid transmitting the virus, and home visits have become rare or nonexistent. The Gideons are no longer able to distribute Scriptures in person, and many missionaries have encountered restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings that have severely limited their ministries.

In the dream, my longing and sadness over having to stay at home I believe reflect the feelings I have over currently lacking in-person opportunities for ministry, such our dance ministry, teaching a ladies’ Bible study class, and singing in church. But one opportunity that still remains is that of the “silent partner” – the member of the visitation team who prays while the other witnesses.

We may not be able to go to the mission field ourselves, but we can still pray for those who go, and we can give out of our abundance (2 Corinthians 8:14), or even out of our want (Mark 12:44), to support missionaries, pastors, and fellow saints who all have a role in sharing the Gospel. We may not be able to go out two by two, but rather two by one, as each of us in isolation can still do our part to support the two (or more) that go.

Praying for fruit from these missions, and for our fellow-laborers in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9), is no less important than actually doing the legwork, and I believe will also be rewarded when we see Christ face-to-face (1 Corinthians 13:12).

As I think about the other symbolism of the dream, I consider the bread and cereal my husband set on the breakfast table. Breakfast is a particularly important and enjoyable meal, because it follows an overnight fast. In many ways, the period of lockdown and isolation because of the pandemic has been an emotional and spiritual fast, as many of us are at least temporarily deprived of our usual activities and social interactions.

But periods of rest and spiritual renewal are often prescribed in the Bible, and often precede times of great revival, as in the case of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17). As we are still (Psalm 46:10) and wait upon the Lord (Psalm 37:9; 123:2, Isaiah 8:17; 40:31), we can trust that He is doing great things, and that He is preparing us for greater opportunities to serve Him, once all the elements are in place.

Meanwhile, we must pray for wisdom and His strength to empower us to do whatever we can in whatever setting He places us, for we are pilgrims in a foreign country (Hebrews 11:13), longing for our true home in Heaven. It seems fitting that the dream took place in a humble, rural rental home.

In the dream, the table reminded me of the communion table, which should also be preceded by self-examination and fasting (1 Corinthians 11:20-34). The bread, symbolizing Christ as the Bread of Life, had been set out by my husband, the spiritual head of the household. The cereal, which is grain broken in small pieces, I believe symbolizes the breaking of bread in the communion sacrament (1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:24), and ultimately the body of Christ, broken for us (Matthew 26:26).

But the meal was put on hold while my husband went out to share the Gospel. In the interim, I brewed tea, perhaps symbolizing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives when He infuses us with the Living Water (John 7:38; Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13). The tea plant must be crushed and heated before it can produce tea.

Jesus Christ was bruised and suffered to pay for our sins (Isaiah 53:5), and Gethsemane, the place He prayed for us before His crucifixion (Matthew 26:36-46), means “olive press.” Just as an olive is crushed before it can yield its precious oil, so did Christ endure agony, shedding every drop of His precious blood (Matthew 26:28), so that all who trust Him could be anointed with the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22), often symbolized as oil in Scripture (1 Samuel 16:13; Isaiah 61:3).

Because I brewed the tea while awaiting my husband’s return, the symbolic elements of communion were ready, but the sacrament itself could not yet take place in his absence. It reminded me that the church, or bride of Christ (Revelation 21:2), is waiting for the Bridegroom’s return (Matthew 9:15) at the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), to meet with us in the sky and to celebrate our eternal union at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! (Revelation 19:9).

Like the ten wise virgins awaiting the Bridegroom, may we use the time wisely, keeping our lamps filled with the oil of the Spirit (Matthew 25:1-13), serving Christ in whatever ways He appoints to us, until His imminent return! 

© 2020 Laurie Collett