"The Second Call"

by Frederick Drummond

The principle of the second call is found throughout the Holy Scriptures.

Everyone who is called to do something for God experiences it to one degree or another. What is it? It is that time when you are released by God from the years of preparation to the time of prophetic fulfillment of your calling. It brings about a ministry change that it is radical. There is nothing smooth about this transition. It is abrupt and it is final and it causes the barren tree to bear fruit in abundance.

For example – Moses spent the first eighty years of his life getting ready for the last forty. During the early years he was a "nobody," trying to become a "somebody," and getting nowhere fast. No matter how hard he tried, it is obvious that God had drawn lines in his life that he could not cross. He was in a spiritual jail and he wasn’t going to have an early parole no matter what he did until he had served his time faithfully. Though pregnant with a dream, he could not birth it until the day that God appeared to him and released him to his second call. The first call proved him. The second call prospered him. The first call made him a failure. The second call made him a winner. If you were to evaluate his life in the light of those first eighty years, Moses would not have been considered a great prophet. In fact, he would have been called a loser. Nevertheless it was the limits that God placed on him during the first call that made him into the great man of whom God said, in the Hebrew epistle, that he was “faithful over his house in all things” as the lawgiver of the Old Testament covenant; as much as Christ was, being the harbinger of grace under the New Covenant. Today we all stand back and marvel at the endurance of men such as Moses, David, Joseph and others who battled through their first calling with egg on their faces until the day they were released to their second callings. Only then did Moses the murderer become Moses the prophet of God and the lawgiver; and David the mad man become the sweet psalmist and King over Israel; and Joseph the mad dreamer and felon become the number two man in Egypt under Pharaoh and the savior of Israel.

Life is a matter of perspective, isn’t it? It all depends on where you are coming from, what you are doing with where you are at, and where you are headed tomorrow in the call of God on your life. This question can only be properly settled by God, and sometimes not even you yourself.

Everyone is a spectator to a divine odyssey called your life, and none but God can pinpoint your whereabouts on His holy schedule. Unfortunately too many are willing to believe the devil’s bad report and not God’s good report. It seems that these feel compelled to have a negative opinion rather than a positive opinion believing God for the best in life. Before you judge your life or the life of a brother or sister in Christ you had better make sure that you wait long enough to find out what God is really doing.

Perhaps the second call is knocking at your door ready to exonerate you above the rough road you have had to travel down to get ready for it, and everyone including yourself were wrong about you. How many people give up just before all the good that God has promised them comes to pass. I have seen far too many quit prematurely, and as a result, radical decisions were made with catastrophic consequences.  I have seen marriages broken up, friends separated, church members leave, businesses fail, open doors shut and too much loss in the kingdom of God because of short-sightedness, petty-mindedness and a lack of trust in the goodness of God to “make all things work together for good to those who love Him.”

The Key.

The key to surviving the first call victoriously is faith in the grace of God and a positive attitude. Never forget that whether you are referring to Old Testament or New Testament saints, it has always been the same. God calls whomever He wants to and takes whatever time He needs to get them ready for the second call, and then, to the amazement of everyone, He releases them to a time of unparalleled blessing and prosperity commensurate with the calling.  Happy is the man or woman whom allows God to exercise them during their preparation. There is no other way to develop the likeness of Christ in you that will be necessary for the second call.

Christian, beware! The prophetic call on your life isn’t carved in stone. Yes, God is committed to qualifying you for it. Yes, His forbearance is great. Yes, He is willing to take years to work with you; but if you continually resist the Spirit of grace at work in you to qualify you for it, to say the least there will be great loss and to say the worst you could become a castaway, allowing someone else to enjoy the victory of your second call. I have seen too many people lose faith and choose mediocrity. I have seen great people with a unique calling become nominal Christians and stay that way. I have even seen a few walk away from their faith. The kingdom is crying out for men and women to get back in their churches and pay the price necessary for the second call. I know this from my own experience of walking with God for forty years; the first call can be pretty rough. I don’t suppose that there is anything more unnerving and messy than to watch your life get nowhere fast as God takes you down before He can lift you up. Thank God for faithful companions in your church who believe in you even when you don’t have the strength to believe in yourself. Thank God for the prayers and counsel of those who massage you back to health when your spiritual muscles are fatigued and stiff. Thank God for the Holy Spirit our Comforter Who helps us to “abide” in all of the things that He has taught us down through the years. I thank God for the more sure Word of Prophecy, the Holy Bible, which is an absolute that we can stand on by faith when everything else becomes unstable.

Your Destiny.

The second call is why you were born. It is your destiny. It is who you really are. It is what you are all about. It is why God keeps lifting you up and giving you another chance, and it is where you need to set your joy. The first call is no fun at all unless you keep your eyes on the second call. Let it and not the former shape your personality, give you back your self-respect, and define who you really are.

The second call is why I am an optimist. It is why I believe in the impossible. It is why I am a dreamer. It is why I keep knocking on doors. It is why I can’t give up. It is why I change every day. It is why I am not the same man today that I was yesterday. It is why I won’t be the same man tomorrow. It is why I believe in you and refuse to judge you by where you are today.