Leaving All For The Call

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat.  He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair, Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.  Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah.  “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”  “Go back,” Elijah replied.  “What have I done to you?”  So Elisha left him and went back.  He took his yoke of oxen and did away with them.  He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate.  Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.

– 1 Kings 19:19-21

Has the Lord God called you to do something for him and for his glory?  Have you gotten in tune with his Holy Spirit in order to hear him speak to you and let you know EXACTLY what he desires for you to do for him in this life?  The Lord has a calling for each and everyone of us!  It is our responsibility to get in tune with him in order to know what he wants us to do with our lives.  And when we do, he will direct us to do exactly what he wants us to do for him while we are here on this earth!  Yet there are some people who do not believe that the Lord is going to compel you to leave all things behind in your life in order to pursue this calling for him!  Yet He Absolutely will compel you to do that!  The Lord is going to turn your heart to him in such a dramatic way that you actually desire to do PRECISELY what he wants you to do with your life.  All the things you used to desire, all the plans that you made for your own life, you will have to give them all up for him!  All the things you have put in front of him and have held on so tightly to, he will make you choose between him or all those things!  He will make you give them up!  Because he will bring you to the point where you realize that it is all or nothing with him!  The Lord wants all of you or nothing!  It’s either you are all in or all out!  You might even have to go so far as to give up your own family for the sake of following the Lord!  And trust me, you will be tested in this!  You will be persecuted even by those closest to you!  You will be made out to be the worst person on the face of the earth for following the Lord!  And on top of all that, the Lord might even push you to give up your career for the sake of following him – your very source of livelihood!  Even when Elijah sought after Elisha to appoint him to be his attendant, he found him plowing with a yoke of oxen tending to his livelihood and Elisha in turn did away with all 12 of his oxen, left his whole livelihood, and said good-bye to his family!  Now, in all reality, do you think Elisha doing away with his oxen, leaving his entire livelihood behind, and walking out on his family would have settled all that well with his family?  Absolutely Not!!  People will look at you like you are absolutely off your rocker for following the calling the Lord has place on your life!  Yet when it is all or nothing with God, who are you going to choose?  God or everything else?  When it is either black or white, which side are you going to choose??  The choice is yours, but rest assure that the Lord God will compel you to leave all for the call!