GOD IS FAITHFUL TO HIS GIFTING AND CALLING (PART 1).
TEXT:
"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." (Romans 11 verse 29, King James Version).
Repentance is often taken to mean to change one's mind. Except for these occasions (Genesis 6 verse 6; 1st Samuel 15 verse 11), God never repents because the Bible says that *he is in one mind, and who can turn him?” (see Job 23 verse 13).
Today's Scripture reading relates especially to God's immutable and unchangeable dealing with His people based on election. Here, we are told of the constancy of the gifts and the calling of God towards us. The Bible says that they are without repentance. Truth is, we never find God repenting as regards His love for man or of blessing him with grace.
In 1st Samuel 10 verses 10 to 11, we find Saul prophesying after he was anointed king of Israel. Again, in 1st Samuel 19 verses 23 to 24, he prophesied again in like manner as when he was first anointed. This was so despite that he had sinned against God and he was under the torment of an evil spirit from God (see 1st Samuel 16 verse 14). It's amazing that a long time after he had fallen out of favour with God, King Saul could prophesy again by God’s Spirit. This shows that the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. They are irrevocable, so to speak! What He promises to do, He will fulfil.
While this is a soothing thing to know about God, for us it's something to ponder on. I have noticed that the irrevocability of God's gifts and calling upon a man can give a false picture of him before others. Like the example of King Saul above, his prophesying after he had backslided could send a wrong signal to others about him and his relationship with God. Since he was permitted to function in the gifts and calling of God upon his life, people could assume that all was spiritually well with him.
This is what happens today in the Church, especially in the Pentecostal circle of believers. Little do men know for instance, that the anointing of God on a man is as oil that takes time to evaporate or dry up; hence you'll find a minister still functioning in God's anointing, though he's long out of touch with Him.
It was so with Samson in the Bible who could still function in the anointing despite his sinful state at the time (see Judges 14 verses 8 to 9 and verse 19) In Judges 16 verses 1 to 3 for example, Samson woke up at midnight from the laps of a harlot and could still do the extraordinary; to wit, taking "the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron."
Let's not take the Lord's generosity and goodness for granted. That His gifts and calling are without repentance shouldn't mean that we are to live carelessly and without restraint, supposing that God's gifts and calling in our lives are irrevocable and unalterable. May the Lord help us!
PRAYER:
Lord, in spite of Your irrevocable gifts and calling upon me, I strive to live daily to Your pleasure, in Jesus name.