CALLED AND CHOSEN
From The HeartPublish date: 03/06/2011
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. John 15:16 NKJV
Father God loved us first and Jesus chose us first. Jesus chose to love us, die for us and then He invited us to live with Him forever. The next choice is ours. We can choose to accept Him or reject Him. We could not have chosen Him if He had not first chosen us, but, thank God, He did! He chose and appointed us to bear fruit – eternal fruit – and to get our prayers answered. When we choose Him, all His wonderful plans for us are activated in our lives.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6 NKJV
God’s blessings are not just temporal, they are eternal. We were chosen by God – before the foundation of the world – to be holy and blameless before Him in love forever, even into eternity. It was – and is now – His will that we belong only and completely to Him. His intent was to make us righteous and acceptable and to adopt us into His own family – according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace! By this grace we become accepted into His beloved!
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20 AMP
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up to become [in your own estimation] slaves to men [but consider yourselves slaves to Christ]. 1 Corinthians 7:23 AMP
Jesus bought us and paid for us with His own precious blood and life. It didn’t come cheap – the price He paid for us was very, very high – but He felt we were worth it! We now belong to Him. We are not slaves to men, and no longer even slaves to our own bodies and ungodly desires, but we are His and His alone. He washed us in His blood, cleansed us, saved us and forgave us. We are free from sin, guilt, shame and death. Eternity lives in our heart! How blessed we are! And it’s all because He loves us with an undying love.
Jude, A servant of Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and brother of James, [writes this letter] to those who are called (chosen), dearly loved by God the Father and separated (set apart) and kept for Jesus Christ. Jude 1:1 AMP
We are loved, called, appointed, preserved, kept, and set apart, by and for Jesus Christ. We belong to Christ, we no longer belong to the world, and we need to detach from our old identity. We must begin to see ourselves through God’s eyes – we must look in the mirror of His word to see who we are and who He has made us and then we must adapt our behavior to match our new position and calling.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, but now you are pitied and have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 AMP
We are specially chosen by God. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy – dedicated – nation. We are peculiar – not strange – but set apart by God for His plans and purposes. Our value and worth is not in who we are or what we have accomplished, but it is in who God is and what He has done. Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is far more important than any job, or successes, or wealth, or knowledge that we may have or accomplish. God chose us to represent Him to the world. What a high honor!
We have been chosen, called, set apart, prepared and equipped for a high calling. Just as a king is a king by birth, so we have been made kings and priests by the new birth! A king has rights, authority and privileges, but at the same time he has many responsibilities and he walks a predetermined path. He does not have the right to “do his own thing” – unless he is willing to forfeit his position. He owes it to his father, his family and the people he serves to commit to his calling and to do it to the best of his ability. Just so, we have been given the great and high honor to be called sons and daughters of the Most High. We have been given the right and privilege to represent the Father and His Kingdom to the world and we have responsibilities that go with those rights. We cannot do our own thing, but we must do what He commands; we must be led and directed by His Holy Spirit. We are royalty and we must live and act like royalty. Not pridefully, with our nose in the air, but with confidence and boldness and respect for the office. We must carry ourselves in such a way as to bring honor
to our Heavenly Father.