That One Thing He Is Calling You To

Bless you, Lord. I don't want anything

else. I don't need anything else.

He is our one thing. Amen? Amen. The beauty of that

is when he tells us, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all of these things will be added unto

you. It's all within him. It's, you know, if you get

him, you really don't need anything else because he

encompasses all of it. What a good and faithful God

we serve. Amen? Amen. I'm so excited about what God

is doing in this place. I was walking

through earlier and there is a testimony wall out there

right now that you can just stop by and jot, you know, two or

three sentences, four paragraphs, whatever. You know, whatever's on your heart.

I might erase the bottom two, but it'll be fine. But I walked past

it and it said when somebody had written down, I am so

thankful that God said no.

And I went, wow, I wanna meet that person. Because

we are so, I love the wisdom behind that to

go, whatever God speaks, whatever he says, whatever he tells

me, that's what I want. That's where I wanna go. And,

tonight we are going to talk about one

thing. It's

so easy to just go there. But tonight, we are gonna talk about

the one thing that he has called us to.

The one thing that he has called us to. And I love that it's

not entitled, The One Thing He Has Called Us to Do.

It is, What He Has Called Us to. And that's

exciting to me. So we are going to jump into the word

tonight. You know what, guys? There

are so many beautiful servant hearts in this

house tonight. There there are people, you know, climbing

through Styrofoam ball pits. There are people who

are, you know, blowing up balloons. There are people who are chasing your

babies right now with one ponytail over here and one

eye that has mascara on it, but they're happy. And,

you know, they're just serving so beautifully and I'm so grateful for that.

So let's get into the word tonight and see if we can grow a

little bit and look a bit a little bit more like that as we step

into what God has for us, this morning or this

evening. What what time is it? First Samuel,

with me and let's read this together. And I just need you to shake your

arms for just a second. That was a very worshipful song. And

I saw a couple nod off right over here. And,

so either that or we're gonna serve some coffee. Ready? Let's say it as

pastor Kevin says with gusto. The boy,

Samuel New

Is this reminding anybody of your toddlers at home? I'm just asking

for a friend, go lay down, go lay down, go lay down. I actually

love this next verse because he finally gets

it.

Now this first line should remind all of us that even

leaders are not perfect, and it takes us a while to get there. Then Eli

and Eli, said the Lord. Call you.

Servant is listening. So Samuel went And lay

down in his place. So that we're praying to

their calling as to where all he has to live from us.

Samuel. Samuel. And Samuel says,

Can you even imagine? The Lord went and stood there.

The Lord went and stood there. He was issuing a calling

to Samuel, and it was taking a moment for it to get

across. And I want you to understand that as the Lord begins to call us,

sometimes it takes a little while for it to get across. But

father, I am so grateful that you are persistent.

I am so grateful for your faithfulness and the way that you

pursue your people, Lord. I thank you, Father, that you

never give up. I thank you that your gift and your call are irrevocable,

and I thank you, Lord, for the way you love us enough to just wait

and to clarify things with us over time. Lord, I ask

that our hearts be teachable tonight. I pray, Father God, that anything that

is of mine would just be forgotten, and yours would stand in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. There was just something about

that that I got tickled at when it said, and

then then Eli realized.

It's interesting to me that there are so many

so many conferences on calling.

There are so many books on calling. There are so many things.

If you Google it, I don't advise it, but if you do,

especially those of you who are supposed to be fasting social media, don't do it.

Because it was like, you know, five steps to find your calling,

three steps to know your calling, stop chasing your

calling, and live your life. You know, it's just like this constant thing,

book after book after book on purpose and and

and leading and all of this and, you know, how to find that place in

your life. And and I think the one that probably

struck me most was the one that said, stop chasing your

calling. Stop chasing your calling.

Calling. It is a divine

interdrawing. You know, I've heard this all of my life. You know, you

gotta find your calling. You gotta find what God has called you to do because

once you know what God has called you to do, then everything is just

everything is gonna just fall into place and it's gonna fall into a lie. And

it's gonna fall into a lie. And anybody who ever found their calling. Is that

true? Was your life easier before?

No answer to that. It's probably a whole lot less

peaceful though because there's something on the inside of each of us that

needs to know that God is calling us. But here's the

interesting thing to me.

This is what I get asked more than anything. What has God called me to

do? I got stopped in the lobby one day and

if I had if I had been, you know, having one of my mean streaks

that day, it probably would have worked out a little bit better because somebody said,

I know that God has told you what I'm supposed to do.

And I should have said, I hear maintenance in your

But I'm like, Lord, please speak to them. You know,

God does use, spiritual authorities to speak into

your life. But when he does, nine times out of 10, it's

because they're just gonna confirm what God's already told you Because

you hear from God, you hear from him. And so this is

what I hear so much. What am I called to do? Well, there

are a thousand verses in the word that give us direction and they

give us insight and that give us a little bit of leading, but

here's the thing. We're not instructed to seek our

calling. I can't find that anywhere. We're instructed to

seek him with all of our hearts. Now scripture does tell us

that we are to make our calling secure and that

we are to, be worthy of the high

calling of Jesus Christ, that we are supposed to, you

know, be solid in that foundation.

But when he's addressing that, he is literally

saying, make sure that you're saved. Make sure that

your relationship with Christ Jesus' whole. Make sure that you're

pursuing the right things. And so it's interesting to

me, kind of weird to teach on calling

and then throw up, don't do that. Anyway, but we're

not called to pursue it. We are called to pursue him because

everything about that ties into what we just say. If we will

pursue him, if we will pursue him with our

whole hearts, what happens is that that he just begins to

unfold these things in our life that we hadn't seen

before or that we hadn't paid attention to before.

A lot of what I feel like I'm supposed to share with you today has

to do with personal testimony, because listen, I

can give you the five steps to find your calling or the four

steps to find your calling or the don't chase your calling,

but all I can tell you is how God did it in my life.

And then I can tell you some of the steps and some of the things

that he used in my life. And yours may look very different, but

my hope would be that the Holy Spirit would minister to you just as

he ministered to me in trying to bring me to the

place in my life where I would actually submit to what

he had designed me to do.

And, you know, that fancy definition

earlier, really all it boils down to is what my mama would say. This is

what God created you to do. This is what God created you for,

and ultimately, it's to worship him, and ultimately, it's to follow him.

But we gotta busy ourselves on the planet too and do the

things that he has designed, those works that he foreordained

for us to do in the earth. So as I

was praying about it, I thought, Lord, when was the first

time you began to direct me? When was the first time that I could

honestly say you were tugging me in a specific

direction? And I was about 11 years

old. And for those that don't know, my parents are pastors,

which that in and of itself makes you never want to be a pastor ever

in your life. And, because when you're a child and you're

immature, understanding that

shepherding a flock costs your parents something,

that their resources do have to be spread out about more than

you. But so that I I I really wanted

nothing to do with that, but I I was about 11 years old and we

were at a church and we had a traveling youth evangelist.

Those those three things scare you in and of itself. A

traveling youth evangelist can mess up our youth group and then leave

the mess to us. But, he came,

his name was Hank Davis. Hope he's not watching. Anyway,

he gathered us all together, and it was a weekend and we had had a

lock in. And, he gathered us

all together and he said, okay, guys, I believe you can hear

from the Lord. I believe you can hear from the Lord. I know you

trust your parents to hear from the Lord for you, but I believe you can

hear from the Lord. So this is what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm

gonna ask you to take an hour by yourself and go

that's like seven years in a teen life to

have to go off by yourself with nobody to talk to, nothing

for an hour. You know? But we did, and we went

and we gathered. You know, some went downstairs, some went over here, and people

found corners or or whatever, and we prayed as best

we knew to pray. And he had specifically

said, ask the Lord to show you what he has planned

for your life. Ask the Lord to show you what your calling might be, what

you might be destined to do. And, and so

we all did. And in about an hour, we all he called us back together,

and he started around the circle. And he said, you know, what are you called

to do, Steven? And, of course, Steven, who played the piano

like Mozart, said I'm called to be a worship minister. That made

total sense. You know? Isn't it funny how when you are in a

religious setting that somebody asked you about your calling and it

always has to do with the church? Does that mean everybody

out there is missing their calling? Because I am really

glad there are plumbers and electricians and that there

are craftsmen and people who can fix my car and,

you know, people who walk in their

callings just as we walk in hours. And so we're going

around the circle and one's gonna be a missionary. And I'm thinking, girl,

you don't even like to be outside. If you see a bug, you are out

of here. You are not gonna be a missionary. I

was a little cynical as an 11 year old. Anyway and so

he gets to me and he says, Barbie, what did you see? And I said,

I saw a platform and a pulpit.

He said, really? I said, yeah. I'm gonna marry a pastor.

And so that set me on a journey to date

no one who would ever be a pastor in their whole

life, And then I

met Hal.

I met him, and God began to do what only God

can do.

See, eternity is written on the hearts of men. Eternity

is written on the hearts of men. That's what

scripture says. And all of these things that start taking place in

our life is just literally the eternity,

the thing that you are designed and called to do, the thing that

God etched on your soul that says there's more to this life

than the life that I am living now that that causes you to

go, God, I need you to show me. Well, when the

Lord is trying to reveal something to you, you know, it's funny to me because

I think, God was trying to show me something when I was 11 years old,

but I didn't have the wisdom or the understanding to understand that he might

be doing something different than what I expected him to do

or what I wanted him to do. But as time goes on and the

Lord increases our wisdom and increases our knowledge, we begin to

understand the things that the Lord had maybe shown us when we were young or

when we were whatever. But I'm telling you guys,

from that point forward, it's like I was so hesitant in

anything that had to do with teaching or calling or

pastors or anything like that because

I had a different plan. I had a different plan.

And, I'm so glad that I listened to his plan, but it

it took a while to get there. And I want you to know if God

has called you to something and has set things in motion, it

might not happen in the timing that you think it should happen,

but God doesn't change his mind. God doesn't

change his mind, and he always finishes what

he starts. He always finishes what he starts. We don't,

but he does, and I'm so grateful for that. So what he did is he

set this thing in motion in my life where everything,

man, everything started to touch that eternity. Everything.

I remember sitting and watching a video of a

pastor of a teacher, and I just remember crying and

thinking, why does that hurt? Why does that hurt? This

isn't even a sin message. But I found myself sitting there

going, how did how did he

come up with that? How did he get there?

God, what did you do? I've studied that same passage of

scripture before and that is not at all what I got. And I would

just be challenged and I would think,

God, that it was it was as if they were

running their fingernails down the the eternity that was

written in my soul, leaving gouge marks that

weren't gonna go away, fully awakening that thing. And let me tell

you something. When God has called you to something, that's gonna happen to

you over and over and over again to the point that it

will frustrate you. If you are called to be a teacher and you are listening

to somebody teach you, it will frustrate you because there's something in

you that knows that's what you're supposed to be doing.

And you're like, Lord Jesus. And so that eternity

on my heart begin to get, challenged. It

begin to do that. And to me, that's that is the equivalent

of deep calling to deep. You ever just get

around somebody and everything in you testifies?

It's like this wavelength that you get on together in the

spirit, and it's the the eternity in their hearts and the calling,

and it's touching yours, and everything in you is waking up

and and whether you want it to or not.

And I love that God uses things in that way.

I can't remember what I put up here.

God uses God

uses familiar voices to speak to the eternity

on your heart. Now, I found it

interesting that every time God called,

Samuel, he went to Eli because that was the voice of

authority. That was the spiritual covering that he had.

And let me tell you something, guys. I don't think it is a stretch

by any means to go. A lot of times, the voice of

authority in your life that God uses is the one that's very familiar,

very familiar. For me, there were two

that really changed my world, and that was Jeannie Gibson and

Ronnie Mink. And, they were

both just such strong voices in my

life. And and the first time I remember,

I was fine with serving in the church. I

was fine with organizing events. I

was fine with doing women's ministry or playing piano.

I was fine with all of those things. I just didn't wanna go

any deeper. I wanted to attend and I didn't wanna go

any deeper, but somehow I went somehow. Somehow,

I wound up with me and Jeannie Gibson and another woman that were and we

were leading women's ministries. And can I tell you something? When you are

being disobedient to the Lord, everything makes you mad. When

you are being disobedient to the Lord, everything steps on your

toes and you step on everybody's toes. You get

offended. You get angry. You think they should be doing that this way,

and really, you're the one that God is trying to deal with. At

least that's what I've heard. Anyway

and so we were the three of us were having a little bit

of a conflict because I wanted to run things my way. I

know that's a shock. I wanted to run things my way, and they were had

the other things. And pastor Ronnie called us into his office. Do you remember

this? Did you?

Confirmation. Anyway, he said

he he called us into his office. It's like getting called into the principal's

office, you know? And he scoots three chairs over in

front of himself, and he's sitting here, and he was like,

Okay, ladies. And I'm like, Oh.

He said, I wanna he said, You are not in competition with each

other. And he shared a little bit more, and then he looked at

Mary, and he said, Mary, your gift

is encouragement. Your gift is encouragement, so

you need to encourage. And then he looked at Jeannie, and he said,

Jeannie, your gift is hospitality, and

you need to use that gift to serve the ladies in this body.

And he said, And, Barbie, you are a teacher.

And, man,

it was like somebody gut punched me. I mean,

it it just was, and because

sometimes when truth hits, truth hits. Emphasis

on the word hits. When truth hits, it hits.

And, you know, I I thought about that, and he I remember him

saying, listen. Your gifts are supposed to work

in tandem. They're supposed to work in tandem.

And if you will do that, the ministry will flourish. Quit

competing with each other. But all I heard was, you are a

teacher. Anyway, and,

I am very sure that Mary and Jeannie left that

building, left his office with so much peace. And I had

to go find a corner somewhere and cry for a little bit.

But it was okay. It was good, and it confirmed in my spirit all

the things that I didn't want confirmed. And so I

rushed immediately. No, I didn't.

So about it was probably a year later, and we're in that other

sanctuary, and we're having a women's meeting. And, you know, it's

been a good day. I've led a women's meeting. It's been a good day. And

I start to leave, and Jeannie Gibson gives it one of these

right into the aisle way where I'm going. And she looks at me and she

says, how long will you reject the

mantle?

How long will you reject the mantle? And the smart, elegant me

went, how long have I got? But I didn't

but I didn't say it, and that was two.

That was two. And I was like, okay, God. I

hear you. I hear you, Lord.

I heard him, but I didn't obey him.

And sometimes when the natural is not

working, God can go supernatural. He can do something in

your life that can go, oh, really? Now she's asleep. Let's talk to

her here. And, that's exactly what

happened, exactly what happened to me.

And, I went to sleep one night, and

I had this dream. And it and in this dream,

I was running down the hallways at this church, which was not unusual

because we do that a lot here. And I was running down the

hallways in this church, and I had an armful of clothes, and

I knew that I was supposed to change clothes. And,

as I was running, trying to get where I needed to be, I didn't know

where I needed to be, but I knew I was going somewhere and that there

was a time limit. And as I ran down this

hallway with his clothes in my hand, I saw pastor

Ronnie, and he was standing in the doorway of

what we now call the mail room. And he was

standing in the doorway, and there was this large,

tall man standing in that doorway, and pastor

Ronnie was on the outside of it, and he had his arms hooked under that

man. And the man was just kinda bending over,

and as I was trying to run past,

pastor Ronnie turned and he said, can you be

instant in season? Can you be instant in

season? And I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. I can.

And he said, get over here. I need you to help me take this

weight. And I went under the man's arm into the

what's the mail room now, and I got behind him,

and, pastor Ronnie was still holding him, and I and I put

my arms there to try and hold him. And

pastor Ronnie said, Can you take that weight? And I said, Yes,

sir. And he started to let a little bit go, and when he did, man,

my feet started sliding. They just started sliding, and

he looked across that shoulder and in one of his stern voices and if any

of you have ever experienced one of his stern voices,

you do pay attention when he does that. They're very,

very rare, and you know that he means business. And he looked across

it, and he said, I need you to take this weight. And

I said, let me plant my feet. And I planted my feet, and

I changed my position, and I tucked into the to the

back of that man. And when pastor, Ronnie

started, pushing or starting to release some of the weight,

I could carry it. I could carry it, but the man

just started to slump a little bit. And this time in the dream, I

looked across the shoulder of the man and I looked at Pastor Ronnie and I

said, will you release me?

You, man, a prayer language hit me. And when this prayer

language hit me and I put my hands on that man's

back and that man stood upright and the

Holy Spirit just began to minister to this man,

and just strength came. And I

turned around and I looked. I stuck my head through, and I could see

pastor Ronnie. He was down the hallway, and he was ministering to

people, and he was loving on them and he was hugging them

and he was praying with them and he was encouraging them. He was

shepherding them. He was shepherding them. And the

Holy Spirit spoke to me and it became so clear

that the man he was holding up in the doorway was the

body. The man he was holding up and trying to support

was the body of Christ that he was given charge to.

And there was something about that, guys. I'm telling you. Something

clicked on the inside of me when I thought, Lord,

I need to do this so that he can do what he has been called

to do. And then all of a sudden in my spirit, I

understood calling for the first time. It was never

about me. It was never about what I could do. It was

never about any of that. It was about ministering to the body of

Christ and supporting one another so that everybody else can go and do what

they have been called to do. See, your calling is not

about you. I missed that somehow.

But in that moment, to watch the joy on

his face as he was doing what God called him to

do gave me the most tremendous

peace to go, God, this is absolutely

what I want to do, whatever it looks like, whatever it feels like,

whatever it sounds like, whatever is required in it, God. I

wanna do this so he can do that. And if we

can get in that mindset and begin to understand that our gifts

and our callings and the things that God has designed us to do

have everything to do with everybody else. And God's just

going, can you be that support?

And every position from the top

to the bottom is a support position,

every position, because that's what we do in the body

of Christ. It changed everything for me.

And twenty two years later, is still changing

things for me.

He will use supernatural means if he wants to. Now here's the

kicker on this, guys. I walked out of that space and out

of that place, and I went, God, I hear you. I

get it. Absolutely, Lord. I wanna do that,

but I'm not gonna talk to him. Lord, if you really

want me to do that, you're gonna have to talk to pastor Ronnie, and

I'm not gonna approach it. Because let me tell you something, the moment you seek

a position, you lose it.

Most of the time when you don't want one, that's when you get it. Anyway,

but I did. I said, lord, I'm not I'm not going to him with this.

I'm not gonna do that. That just lord, I know what you've done in my

spirit. Now if you do something else here, lord, I'm I'm

with you, whatever you wanna do. Well, he

listened. And literally

forty eight hours later, forty eight hours later, I

didn't even have time to get all of the, are you sure Jesus is

out of my system? But anyway, forty eight hours later, I'm

down here in the church office and pastor Ronnie steps out of his

office and he says, hey, Barbie, can I see you for a minute? No. And,

and I and I walk in and I'm telling you guys, I had not told

anybody any of this. None of it. Nobody knew. I hadn't even told

Hal, and I tell him everything. Hadn't told him

anything, and pastor Ronnie, I go in and I sit down in his office, and

he says, Barbie, what's God been telling you?

I don't know. What have you heard?

Oh, nothing. What's God been

telling you? What's God been telling you?

And I told him part of it, but

not all of it. And what was interesting to

me is that, like, the week prior, the elders had

met, and they had decided that pastor Roni needed help, and

nobody told me that. And, and then he had walked in his

garden, and while he was walking going, God, I don't know who this person

is that the elders think that I need, and the Lord

gave him my name. Nobody told me that either. Otherwise, I might

not have stepped so easily into his office. But here's the

thing, guys, God is so able to put you

where you need to be. You don't have to pursue a

calling. You don't have to pursue a destination.

You pursue him. If you delight yourself

in him, he will give you the desires

of your heart. And that doesn't mean, you know, I'm

gonna get that roller coaster in my backyard. It just

means he changes and shifts the desires of

your heart if you will delight yourself in him. So yes, the

one thing you need is him. The one

thing you need is him.

I'm struck by the fact that he spoke to me in the night watches,

and I'm struck by the fact that he speaks when

you get still and set your heart to listen.

That's what he did. Every time Eli told Samuel, go back and lay down.

Go back and lay down. Go back and lay down. And then when the lord

speaks, just say, speak, lord, your servant's listening.

Sometimes we are not still enough to listen. We are so

busy and we are so caught up and and we just don't get still

enough to listen, and that's actually why I'm excited about the women's retreat

this year because it has everything to do about getting still and

being quiet before the Lord and trusting him to speak to us.

But if you will get silent and you will spend some

time with him, He will speak to you.

He will give you clarity.

Here's where I got hung up. Sometimes the Lord will speak through

gifts and talents and specific

anointings, but not always. But not

always. See, when I moved here, I was a songwriter in Nashville,

and I thought, this is what I'm supposed to do, even though I didn't like

it. This is what I'm supposed to do, but I

think sometimes God uses your gifts and your talents and your abilities to

move you to the place where he is actually going to use

other gifts and abilities and talents that you don't even know you have

yet. You know what? And it's not that he did away with the

things that brought me here. He's been he's incorporated those into the

things that he's actually called me to, and the reason I say

that is don't make assumptions about what your

calling is based on how well you sing, how well you teach,

how well you dance, how how well you write poetry. Don't

make assumptions on that. You have a God who is much bigger than your abilities.

He is much bigger than your abilities. And living in Nashville, there's,

like, I think the latest statistic was 2,400,000,000

songwriters and singers.

But you know what, guys? That may not be the thing he chooses to use,

and I'm so glad that it wasn't. That is not the world that

he wanted me in, and I'm so grateful that it wasn't.

And I'm so glad I didn't pursue it beyond where God said

no. Thank you, Lord, for the no. I'm gonna go

write that right under her words. Thank you for the times that

you said no. And here's the thing, guys.

Until that time comes when you know for sure,

for sure, for sure this exact thing that you were supposed to do with your

life, the thing that you were gonna go to, can I give you a couple

of ideas? What about this?

You shall love one another. You shall love one

another. You shall love your God with all of your heart and your

soul and your mind and your strength.

That's what you're called to do right now. Love him.

Love him. Love him.

Do justly. Love mercy.

Walk humbly with your God. You can do that today. And

every time you do it, you're gonna grow. And every time you do it, you're

gonna mature in your faith. Do these things that the Lord has

already made clear to everyone.

Read this one

to me.

Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Let's do one more.

That's a whole list of stuff you can do right now until you find out

if you're gonna be a plumber or a teacher or an orator or a

veterinarian or a pastor or a teacher. Until he

reveals those things to you, you got a whole lot of things you

can pour into and allow God to grow you. Just to allow God

to grow you, I'm so grateful that he does this.

Here's one of the things that struck me, and I'm getting ready to close this

out. One of the things that struck me is

when you talk about calling, the word

vocation always comes up. Right? This is what I'm gonna do.

This is gonna be my vocation, and I'm it's gonna

encompass, you know, the people that I live with. It's gonna involve

community. It's gonna be all this, and it's gonna be my vocation.

And it literally, vocare

literally means calling, vocation, but the

root comes from the word voice.

Voice, to vocalize, could mean to sing,

could mean to say, could mean to preach. But here's the thing. It

literally means when you step into

that thing that God has designed you for, those places

that he has called you to be, the things that he has called you to

do, you finally find your voice.

You finally write your song. You

begin to speak. Your life begins to speak,

and you begin to grab hold of the voice

that he's given you. And I just have this thing in my spirit, man,

that I can just see every single person walking along here on

this little planet with their voice,

with their song being lifted. It's a symphony.

And I have to tell you that it lifts toward the father

as you begin to walk in his path for

you. So often I know that my voice in

that symphony was the one that was singing off key. I know that

I was the one playing in the wrong key, because I didn't

want to take this path that God had laid

for this voice. But when you

do, guys, you join a symphony

unlike anything that you could ever encounter. There's camaraderie and

there's peace and there's Holy Ghost and there's leading

and there is direction and there is

purpose. When he calls you,

whether it's through familiar voices or whether it's through the

supernatural, or whether it's through a dream, or what whatever,

say yes. Say yes,

and let the song begin.

The Lord reminded me when he called

me, after I stopped fighting,

he gave me this poem.

And it says my hope, and I remember this, I

remember feeling like this because I wouldn't let go.

And he said, my hope is fading swift my Lord, how can

I, the standard meet? Just not too far

to climb my child, when you're sitting at my feet.

Lofty thoughts soon come to heal and troubled minds find

rest. When lying close to hear your heart resound,

just do your best. But Lord, my best has

never been acceptable this far. And he said, you've you've sought the wrong

opinions, child. You are fine just as you are.

More than I have created, child do not strive to be. The anointing

flows easily. It is a gift from me.

If what you do seems difficult beyond this peace of mind,

search your heart for motives true and your answers that you

will find. For what I've placed within you flows directly from my

throne, the ease with which you translate, tells if the source

is me alone. So dear

child, let rivers run and let my spirit be swift

spread upon the wounded crying soul that you will touch in

my stead. Be tendered by emotions that at times will

overwhelm. Listen to the spirit's heart and discern the

soulish realm. Call white as white and black as black, no

grays your eyes will see, for quite distinctive is the

difference between this world and me. There's a

counterfeit to meet each circumstance and you're sure to face.

Look to me, to wisdom grant, and depend

upon my grace. Speak what you hear and

see of me. No words from others speak. Be

careful of the sinful pride, and make sure that it's me you

seek. For much I give into your hands.

This call a price will pay. But with it comes

greatest reward, and it will all be yours someday. For now

though, heart be quite content to seek my face and grow.

Patience learn and peace do plant, and mind all seeds you

sow. Expect the least expected, for you

know not this place. You've cried for it, fought hard for it, but

you've never seen it twice. Surprised my child, surprise

I bring your heart once more, it's true. But you cannot even

fathom the plans I have for you. My

thoughts are so much higher than what you could yet perceive.

I ask but one concession, child. You must

just believe. Believe me when the circumstance

just says this cannot be true. Believe me,

child. Then stand back and see what your

God can do. For you have been

commissioned. You have been called.

Samuel is told we find this passage. It

just tells us that Samuel grew. It just tells us that

Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and not one of his words was

allowed to fall to the ground. And then I love the last

portion. It says that God continued to reveal

himself to Samuel and Shiloh. He continued to

reveal himself through his

word. Until you know what?

Until you know, just grow.

Just grow. Allow him to reveal himself

to you in a place of peace.

Just grow. Father God, I thank you so

much. I thank you so much

again, Lord, for your persistence, for your

faithfulness, the way you love, the way you

never give up. May we all know

your voice. May we listen, and may we

obey father. In Jesus name,

amen.

Amen.