Moved By The Spirit

Moved By the Spirit

Ezra 1:5-6

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While reading the book of Ezra, the Lord wouldn’t allow me to go beyond the first chapter, verse six, and to specifically meditate on verses five and six.

Ezra begins by taking us back to Jeremiah’s prophecy that after 70 years of captivity to the Babylonians; God would bring the Jews back to their homeland, the land of Israel. (Jeremiah 29:10)

And then Ezra talked about who was going to go, and what those who remained did for those who went.

“Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. And all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.” (Ezra 1:5-6 NKJV)

I hope this message is both practical and inspirational, and my hope is that it will encourage us to find God’s calling and purpose for wherever we may be at this present time.

What we see here are the types of people that make ministry happen.

Called by God

It says this in the very first part of verse 5, “Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.” (Ezra 1:5 NKJV)

God had specifically called the tribe of Levi to minister before Him and to minster to the people on His behalf (Numbers 18:26). And from each tribe of Judah and Benjamin, or the southern two tribes of the house of Israel, wherein the city of Jerusalem was located, which were those tribes taken by Babylon. And those who God had called were the heads of each of those two families.

These were the ones that God called to go and start the rebuilding of the new temple (Ezra 3:8). These are the ones God called to ministry.

But what about today? How will we know if we are called by God?

Let me just say that God will raise up those that He calls, and everyone will know it. But if we say that God has called us, if we have to promote ourselves, then there is a good chance that it’s self-promotion, not God.

I’ve had people come into my office in Las Vegas and tell me that God has called them as a prophet and ask if they can get in front of the congregation and give their message. My answer had been no, because after some questioning, they couldn’t even define the prophetic office.

I also had people tell me that God has given them this or that giftedness, and when I dig deeper, they start using the “God Card” on me, saying, “God has called me, and God knows my heart.” At this juncture I usually thank them, but inside I just want to say, “Well God does know your heart, and he says in Jeremiah 17:9, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and beyond cure, and no one knows just how truly bad it is.’ (paraphrase)

What I have found is that those who revert to the “God Card” to validate their ministry or message by using, “God told me,” usually haven’t been called and are dealing with some pretty serious problems, deep seated issues that they haven’t worked out and they are using God as a buffer.

I mean, how do you answer or refute someone who says, “God said.” I rarely if ever use this or “Thus saith the Lord.” Those are some scary words to start bantering around.

There is a truism that we will never develop and will hamper spiritual maturity if there are issues we’re dealing with that we haven’t given to the Lord and asked Him to help us with.

I’ve seen this when someone says they have a message from God for the church, and the elders or pastor say, “Not at this time,” or “Now isn’t the right time for that,” and they get all bent out of shape and say how the church isn’t spirit filled because they won’t let them use their gift. This is nothing less than immaturity with rebellion on the side.

But I have digressed. When you are called by God, others will know it. They knew who the Levites were and their calling.

But what about today, how will we know? Well, we’ll know because they will already be operating within that gift. If God has called you to be a teacher, then you’re already teaching in some way. Teaching, you might say, is in your blood.