Send Me

Send Me


[Is 6:8] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I send me!”


As I write this I am enjoying the second day of my annual prayer retreat. The solitude has been refreshing as well as the time to read, pray, and meditate. It seems God is exploding vision in my heart and mind while I am here which is both good and also frightening.
He has dreams and purposes He wants accomplished and during my time here He is inviting me to join Him in those dreams and purposes. They are HUGE! They are bigger than anything I have ever dreamed for my own life. As I sit at this lap top computer trying to compile my thoughts, I am awestruck by His invitation. My initial response is much like Moses’ response in Exodus three. “Who am I?” [Ex 3:11]
If you look back over my life you will find it very ordinary. I made average grades all through my years in school in the Lufkin Independent School District as well as during my time at Howard Payne University. I was never a part of any distinguished organization for academic excellence. I was an average kid who admittedly did not take school very seriously through High School or college. I did not complete a seminary degree despite three attempts at it. I often found myself bored in class and got lost in day dreams about ministry.
My ministry track record has been far from stellar. I know the Lord has used me but there have been plenty of failures and flops along the way. I have traveled many laps around the road less traveled strewn with bumps, bruises, and brokenness. I have dreamt large dreams but at the same time have seldom realized them no matter how hard I prayed or labored.
When God gave me the invitation to come to Paradise, TX I really did not have any idea what He had in store. Now, three years later I am staggered and wobbly kneed by His invitation to step out further in faith and believe Him for impossible dreams. He has invited me to believe for visions that would take a lifetime to see fulfilled. After my initial response of who am I, I am now thinking through the scriptures of the ordinary people God used in extraordinary ways. Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, and John, just to mention a very few from the scriptures.
Just like me, many of you feel like ordinary nobodies without special talents or abilities. If you listen closely though, you might just hear Him inviting you to join Him in some kingdom venture that is larger than you and your abilities. Your response and my response to those invitations will determine the trajectory of our lives. Will we live out our days dutifully as good church men and good church women or will be believe God for what the experts say cannot be done? Will we dutifully fulfill our church obligations and leave a nice tidy legacy after we are gone or will be make ourselves available to God for His own purposes and live to promote His glory? These are some of the most crucial questions of our lives.
Churches are filled with people who have rejected God’s invitation and shrunk back in fear and unbelief. I am not saying that God’s invitation will always be easy, make sense, and lead to more comfort and security. What I am saying is that God is looking for people who were created to join Him in eternal plans and do works that give life meaning and intention. We were not created to take up space for seven or eight decades and then fade from the scene having done nothing with our lives to gives God glory. We were put here to labor for God and join Him in exploits that defy imagination.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before hand so that we would walk in them. [Eph 2:10] Before you and I were even born God had plans for us. We were created with purpose but those purposes can be daunting. There are good works which we are supposed to accomplish through God’s help for the glory of His name. It is up to us to accept God’s invitation and by faith to believe Him for those good works. Sometimes those purposes create raw fear that paralyzes us with unbelief and leaves us frozen in our tracks. Will faith triumph fear and you and I do what we were born to do for Him.
One of those things for me is to write. It is a calling from God. Just like I was born to breathe I was also born to write. God is inviting me to believe Him for a greater impact on this writing ministry. Whether it is through the avenue of a blog, through our church and No Compromise Ministries newsletters, or through books, God has created me to do the good work of writing for Him. I was born to do this. Two of the things I do that make me feel most alive is writing and preaching for Him. Here comes the faith part. Do I believe God can and will take these writings and books and use them for His purposes not only in Paradise, Wise County, and even across our own state and nation? God is challenging me to believe Him to distribute my books and writings around the world. I found myself praying for those books to sell and be distributed not by the thousands or tens of thousands, but by the hundreds of thousands and even millions. As soon as I write that the next thing that comes across my mind is “Who am I?”
It is the sin of unbelief. It is the enemy trying to keep me living beneath God’s intended destiny for me. I am reminded of what Paul wrote in First Corinthians, For consider your calling, brethren, that there was not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no many may boast before God. [I Cor 1:26-29] The issue is not who am I but who is the God who wills this to happen and invites me to join Him.
Yes, who are we to be used of God. We are nobodies. We are weak, base, not wise, foolish, but we have been chosen by Him and invited to join Him for the purpose of His glory.
Your invitation will be different than mine. You are not all called to preach or to write. You are not all called to teach Sunday School, or hop on a plane to serve as a missionary. All are not called to ministries of prominence but that does not mean that you are not called to ministries of eternal impact, influence, and significance.
You can sit around the rest of your life hearing God’s invitation and shrinking back in fear and live a life of unbelief and lack of destiny. I do not think that type of life will be a rewarding one. I am challenging you to push through the tissue paper thin walls of fear and cry out to God with your most sincere prayer, “HERE AM I. SEND ME!” You don’t even have to know what all that means at this time. You must come to the point where you are available to God to do anything, anywhere, at anytime, for any determined length of time. It’s total surrender.
I know for many that is a down right terrifying proposition. Saying yes to God with no strings attached may sound frightening but if you believe that God is going to call you to join Him in something you were born to do and probably already long to do down deep, what is there to be scared of? God responded to all of Moses’ excuses by simply saying, “I AM WHO I AM…!” [Ex 3:14] There is nothing you will ever need to join God’s invitation that He is not sufficient to provide. Courage. Strength. Provision. Open doors. Wisdom. You can go on and on. My challenge is to scream this short prayer in your soul and then wait on God, “HERE AM I. SEND ME!” It will be a thrilling ride.