Steve Hill, the evangelist for the Brownsville Revival, still loves to hear Lindell Cooley sing, “Creation Calls,” a song we heard often throughout the revival. I hear that theme in this prophetic sense: the call is invested in the creation. The “creation call” is the sound of purpose invested into whatever Jesus creates.
That is, the moment of creation is a release of a word. When God wants to create something, He says something. When God wants to do something, God says something. Within that word is both creation and calling. Creation arrives pregnant with purpose; the chicken comes first with the capacity to produce the egg.
The embedded calling remains. Often drowned out in the cacophony life, it remains in place to be awakened to the hearing of spiritual ears.
Appointment, Assignment, Alignment
“Call” is a common Bible word. We tend to apply the idea of invitation or summons to it. However, that is the meaning of the word only about a third of the time it is used. The most common and basic meaning of the word is “appoint, assign, designate, place, position, or name.” Calling, in this sense, is strategic and intentional, personal and filled with purpose. Calling is essential to destiny, arriving at the moment of creation. The Creator calls.
We often observe the awakening the calling as the beginning of the calling, but this isn’t the spiritual reality. Paul, for example, says that he was called “from his mother’s womb,” and whatever awareness of calling he had was certainly not clear until the Awakening of his calling when Jesus knocked him down in front of his friends and yelled at him on the road to Damascus. The awakening calling is simply the revelation of God’s original intentions. Calling may be hidden, preserved, and unknown but remain valid and intentional in the mind of God.
God has very specific things in mind at the moment of creation, and there is never confusion or contradiction between creation and calling. God doesn’t create someone to be who they are and call them to do something inconsistent with the person He created. The calling is consistent with creation. Jesus creates what Father wants. Jesus redeems because Father loves. Jesus restores what Father originally had in mind. For us, restoration reveals the original intentions, and calling becomes more clearly and progressively defined the more restoration we experience.
In other words, hidden purpose awaits your restoration because you must be restored to be what the person you were created to be in order to do what your calling appoints you to do.
To see destiny, dream destiny, even articulate destiny is a beginning. You must become the person your calling requires. Perhaps this is why Abraham and Sarah waited so long for Isaac – they needed to become the people who could hold the promise. Perhaps. It is certain that Jesus experienced this process: He became the Author or Source of Eternal Salvation by obedience learned through enduring pathos and passion: “Though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience by what He suffered, completely His preparation to become the source and fountainhead of eternal salvation for those who obey Him.” [Hebrews 5:8-9] He was perfect in every way but the calling had to be perfected. That is, Jesus was worthy as the lamb of God because He is the Lamb sacrificed, and He walked a pathway of destiny fulfillment to fulfill that purpose. He wasn’t created because He is eternal, but He did receive a body given to Him by Father through which He could experience destiny fulfillment. He is worthy because of what He did: “Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed.”
That is, He is worthy, has always been worthy, will always be worthy – He is God! However, to be the worthy Lamb, He must be sacrificed. To fulfill purpose, He must become the Person who can fulfill the assignment, the calling.
Calling is specific to creation. The blueprint clearly and intentionally defines destiny, and the redemptive experiences of your life are aimed at restoring the person God created you to be so you can do what God called you to do. Without discovering the assignment of your calling, you will not become the person who can fulfill the calling; the pathway to destiny fulfillment involves enduring and fulfilling obedience through passionate and pathos. The process is as necessary as the product it produces. Calling accomplishes something of eternal purpose while perfecting something of personal destiny: being and doing always flow toward the same eternal ends!
Your appointments will help you with assignment; your assignments will help you with alignments.
That is, obedience walks you through accomplishment: “I have finished the work You gave Me to do,” Jesus says. And, assignments help you with alignments: “I pray for these apostles You have given Me.” There is always a direct connection between assignment and alignment, an inalterable connection between leadership and purpose. Just as creation and calling are consistent and cooperative, calling assumes that you will be positioned by leadership. Your calling aligns you within the kingdom of God with leaders who can fit God’s blueprint for you into God’s blueprints for His kingdom. Appointment, assignment, alignment.
Anointing, Authority, Assets
When assets flow into your life, calling properly values and prioritizes their use and exercise. Just as a forestry company doesn’t invest its assets in ballet shoes, you cannot invest your assets to produce destiny contrary to your calling. No matter how noble or valuable the investment of assets, investments must be consistent with assignment to produce purpose! Saul had the same anointing as David. Saul had the same authority as David. Saul had the same assets as David. Saul failed miserably because he failed to invest assets, anointing, and authority in fulfilling God’s purposes! David, on the other hand, “executed justice and righteousness in his generation.”
You have the anointing of your calling. In spiritual and practical terms, this fits the prophetic sense of “The Spirit of The Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach.” That is, the anointing targets calling. In this way, we could understand the work of Holy Spirit empowering us to do something, but we must also understand the work of Holy Spirit transforming us to be someone. Anointing is Holy Spirit in the sense that He is the Anointing, a way of talking about how God inhabits His Temple and the ways in which He works in your life.
Holy Spirit is God. Holy Spirit manifests differently than Father or Jesus who manifest through Holy Spirit and His work in your life. I’m not building a doctrine here as much as I’m describing the reality that anointing operates with a perfect picture of your calling in mind. Holy Spirit is intentional in empowering you, not just being gas for the engine or power for the outlets of your physical house. Avoid the picture of plugging into power to run the appliances of your spirit. Consider Holy Spirit and His work in terms of your calling and creation: He is a constant and continual overshadowing of your destiny. Anointing is always targeting the fulfillment of purpose and destiny.
I am sitting right now in a kitchen filled with appliances. Toaster on the table. Microwave, coffee brewer, breadmaker, rice cooker, television with DVD player, blender, telephone, refrigerator, water
filter, and exhaust fan are all in view in this person’s kitchen. Obviously there is power available. I do not see this as a picture of Holy Spirit, that power is available through spiritual circuitry and wiring that I can plug into to accomplish what I please, when I please, the ultimate kingdom conveniences.
That is not SpiritFirst living. Anointing is set in place to accomplish, for certain, to empower and energize. Anointing works, operates, functions, and demonstrates, for sure, but Anointing is also personal – a Person indwelling a person, Spirit indwelling spirit. So, my point is that Holy Spirit is as intentional about calling and creation as Jesus in creating and calling: Jesus created what Father wanted and called what Father wanted accomplished, so Holy Spirit works perfectly consistent to and with the eternal purposes of the Father. He knows the thoughts of God and my thoughts as well to coordinate them toward destiny fulfillment.
Calling authorizes my life with spiritual authority. I have the authority of my calling because within that calling is assignment, alignment, and assets.
