The Gifts and Calling of God

September 13
The Gifts and Calling of God

The gifts and calling of God are not to be repented of and the office of prophet is no different than any other calling of the Holy One.

While the office of a prophet is not something to be pursued, it is something that should be respected. A prophet is not nurtured for his position in a ‘school of prophets,’ rather it is something for which he is ordained in the womb (see Jeremiah 1:5).

The prophet is crafted for God’s exclusive purposes. Prophets are God's mouthpiece, and therefore are His messengers to people—and the people to whom he takes the word of God are often thankless and abusive toward him.

Here is a well-known list of prophets and their reflection upon the office to which they were called.


Moses, in Numbers 11:14-15 says, "I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”

His sense of unworthiness and inability for the office to which he was called left Moses unwilling to live under the burden.

In I Kings 19:4, Elijah expressed the same frustration when it was said of him, "But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life...” I Kings 19:4

Job, another of God’s esteemed men said at the onset of his lengthy ordeal, "Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said Let the day perish on which I was to be born, and the night which said, A boy is conceived.” Job 3:1-3.

In Jeremiah 20:18, the prophet asked, "Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow, so that my days have been spent in shame?"

Jonah survived being swallowed by the great fish but when confronted with the disdain of men said to God, "Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life. Jonah 4:3

How is it that such men can be used so powerfully by the Lord an then be unable to face the relatively ordinary challenges of life?

Perhaps the most prevalent reason is that the rebuke of men is much more difficult than ordinary believers ever have to face. Perhaps the crushing rejection of the holy word they bring forth places an unbearable burden upon the prophet, for he bears a profound sense of having failed the mission with which the Holy One entrusted him

Men who do not begin to grasp the significance of the truth the prophet bears falsely label God’s messenger as being judgmental, legalistic, intolerant, critical, bigoted, narrow mined, unloving. The relentless sting of critics who do not understand his motive is a weighty burden from which he seeks relief—even unto death.

Though the prophet may pray the prayer of Ephesians 1:18, 19, “May the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength that raised Jesus from the dead,” the burden of unbelief the man of God must bear is a weight no human can bear alone. We know God heard their cries and they went on in power to represent Him another day.

From their example, we know that we, too, can face life’s trials in victory; we, too, can fulfill the calling He places upon us.