We Died Before We Came...

As they arrived at the Islands the ship’s captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the life of those with you if you go among such savages.” To which Calvert replied ‘We died before we came here.” James Calvert (1813–1892) A missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands.

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We died before we came... we died to ambition, goals and dreams. We died to self and everything the self desires. We died so that Christ and Christ alone may live in and through us. That whatever we attempt within this missionary call of God, succeeds to bring Him glory... and only Him.

We died before we came so there would be no hindrance, no barriers within ourselves to follow Christ into areas of the world where there is great darkness yearning for light... We died so there would be nothing to lure us back to lives of seeming comfort, lives of our own wants, desires, dreams. We wanted God's call... and so in order that Gods' call would blossom, yield full baskets of fruit, acres of healthy crop... we died to all that would stand in the way of such a harvest. For where our treasure is, there our hearts are also... where Gods' desire, calling and work in our lives means more to us than anything or anyone... For our treasure is God, His kingdom and His call!

A call will 'kill' you, a dream will coddle you. That is the difference between a call of God and a dream of the flesh or the heart. There is a false teaching surrounding these two things. We are told by the world to 'follow' our hearts but the Word of God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and utterly wicked, who can know it? But I the lord search the heart and mind of a man to reward him according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” What deeds? The deeds of 'embracing' the motivations, leanings and seductions of the heart that lead us away from the 'call' of God and convince us that a dream of the heart is the same thing as a call. That God wants you to discover your 'dream' that He supposedly gave you... but God does not give dreams, He gives 'calls'... The flesh gives dreams, not calls. The difference between the two is how they are played out and acted upon within our lives... the consequences on the flesh of following the 'call' or the smooth seductive influence on the flesh from following the 'dream' shows itself in the end to be of God or not to be of God.

And in the end, as Christians, we want to make sure we were following the call and not a dream of the flesh that disguised itself in shiny raiment and smooth words... but in essence feeds the flesh and not the Spirit. A true call of God will 'kill' you! It will not suffer the flesh to live, it will not feed the flesh, it will crucify the flesh. You will die on that cross many times... The first time is when you surrender yourself to Christ in repentance and embrace His redeeming salvation... then life in Him will continue to lead you there so that 'dying to self' and 'living for Christ' becomes as common and expected as breathing. The Christian should know no other way of life... anything short of this is not real Christianity... but is a false hope... for God will not leave you where you are and the words “I will not change' will be driven from your lips and your heart by the cross.

Any supposed 'dream' of God that does not kill the ego, self, personal ambition... is not Gods' call. It is merely the flesh feeling 'good about itself' and refusing to die. And the stronger the call of God, the more dying needs to take place. There must be no place for self so that the beautiful call of God can go forth and bring forth all that God plans and desires for His wondrous work. Because it is His work and He wants it done His way and He knows best how to do it.

And you will go forth on your knees, while He paves the way... and you will stay on your knees for the rest of your life. For no great missionary work of God ever went forth without continual sustaining prayer and continual death to self!

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But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:23-24