Calling and Sonship
In the first part of this writing, I submitted that the believer’s destiny, or the destiny of all mankind is to be the sons of God, however, I also submitted that this destiny was truncated at least temporarily by the fall of man and that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was to set in motion the process for discovering that destiny.
Salvation is the pathway into that destiny and following Jesus is the process by which we attain it.
This the scriptures agree to
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Rom 8:29-30
Sons are what we were destined to be in God through Jesus and the callings belong to sons, what are these callings? they are allotments of service from the Son (Jesus) through his sons (us) to continue the ministry and work of the Son.
In other words, Jesus allocates sons certain responsibilities of His so that through them he may continue to bring more people into the family of God, developing more sons and thus growing the house of God numerically and spiritually
And He (Jesus) Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Eph 4:11-16
Look at it from the message translation
Eph 4:10-16
He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, 11 filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole tr, truth and tell it in love — like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
Jesus is the pattern Son, the last Adam, from Him, a whole family of sons is being developed and through this process, God’s dream of sons is being fulfilled.
However just like it was in the garden, the devil seeks to truncate this dream in many places. At many times he has succeeded in derailing it, how you may ask by targeting the believer, particularly those who are called to provide leadership, in Christ Jesus, supplanting our understanding of our destiny of sonship with one that is carnal, self-serving, corrupt, and at cross purposes to God.
These derailed ‘sons’ now corrupted as Adam was, now misuse their callings and begin to propagate after their kind.
When destiny is abused, calling is corrupted. God does not withdraw His gifts and callings but now instead of producing after the order of Jesus, we reproduce after the order of fallen man.
This is the root of the corruption in the Church today.
Those who were called in Christ and have misunderstood their destiny to be that of naira, pounds, and earthly success, have transmitted this error to the people they were called to help grow in their destiny of sonship.
Again I repeat, if the nature of our destiny is not understood and is replaced by any other thing no matter how noble or good it may sound, it will end up in corruption.
Our gifts and callings are supposed to be in Christ and through Christ so they must reflect his heart and purpose which is to bring many sons to glory.
It is time to return to the pursuit of our destiny, it is time to return to Christ. If the present leadership of the Church in Nigeria does not repent and return, God will raise through Jesus Christ a new generation of sons who will lead His people to Christ our promised land.
There is a mystery about the Lord Jesus and this revelation of sonship that I want you to see, in John 14:6 Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.
This means that Jesus is the path to sonship (the way), the reality or living demonstration of what it is to be the Son (the truth), and also the life or enabler (( the life)
Sonship is the land of promise flowing with milk and honey that Israel was promised, Jesus is that land. God never promised Adam things he made him a son and the son is the heir of all things, in that place is the possession of everything, now you understand why the Apostle Paul said, ‘All things are yours and you are Christs’
Called in Christ
Each believer as a part of Christ is called and empowered to be part of the process of raising sons in one capacity or the other, we receive the ministry of the fivefold ministry so that we can share that ministry with others, this process produces sons and fulfills the heart of God.
Our callings are not things that were decided after we came to Christ, I believe that there is a foreordaining of our calls in Christ and that salvation activates that call, it is as we grow in Christ that we can effectively deliver on that call.
This is why someone can come to Christ, and be conscious of that call, still, if he does not understand the nature of his destiny, he will mistake his call for his destiny and inevitably abuse it, because only in the walking in our destiny of sonship through Jesus will our calls be adequately directed.
This is why Jesus said
Follow me (destiny and its pathway) and I will make you fishers of men
In other words do not pursue ministry first, pursue Christ first and then the ministry will be properly rooted in him.
Let me say this: God’s heart is for sons and nothing else will satisfy it, not overflowing Churches, not giant crusades (these are all good) but it is sons that God had in mind in the beginning and it is sons that he will have now.
As we close to the end of the ages, the Spirit of God is quickening us to begin to press into Jesus, to grow and to mature into sons of God so that we will satisfy His heart and purposes.