#91: The King's Business Needs Haste

...Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "LORD, let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." And another also said, "LORD I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand on the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke 9: 59-62

As believers, the one thing we share in common is a call. My call may be different from yours in the manner it came and in the details of the assignment, but there is not a believer out there that was saved to just roam the streets and eat and drink. In the appointed time God reveals to His children their purpose and that is the demand of heaven from your hand. In the grand scheme of God to execute His kingdom on earth (The Kings Business), that is the part you have to play. Today's passage teaches us a crucial lesson in response to the King's Business.

The first thing the LORD will love to point to us is that the call will never come when we are less busy or when we have nothing on our to-do list or when we have achieved all we wanted to do in life. On the contrary the calls of God usually comes as a Divine Interruption. Going through scriptures, you can see this is true for everybody that God called: Abraham-he was well to do in his father's house, Moses-he was feeding his father-in-law's flock, The Disciples-some were fishing, some were collecting tax, David-he was at the pastures with his father's sheep, Elisha-he was ploughing a farmland, the list goes on. All these heroes of faith had a decision to make: whether to answer the call or to continue in what they were doing. If you are waiting for God to call you when you are so relaxed and have nothing to do, there will never be such a time and you will be living a purpose-less life.

The second issue that God's Spirit is bringing to us today is that since the call of God will never come at our leisure hours, we need to understand that the King's Business needs haste. Thus God is actually expecting us to immediately abandon what ever we are doing and heed the call. No matter the excuse we give, they may be legitimate, but none should come between you and your prompt response to the call of God upon your life.

Consider the response that Jesus gave to their excuse: let the dead bury their dead, but you... The first thing that comes to mind is that it appears that being adamant to continue in what you were doing before answering the call is doing the work of another person. But you; meaning you have something peculiar to do that is not what you are presently doing. Stop doing the work of the dead! No one, having put his hand on the plow, and looking  back, is fit... this refers to those who have accepted the call but still want to be relevant to their previous ways of life. Jesus is saying today that no one can serve two masters. It is either you continue ploughing or you stay back.

There is an example I would love to share from Matthew 9:9: And as Jesus passes forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, "follow me." And he arose and followed him. The bible did not say that he went to submit the daily report of the tax he collect for the day before following Jesus. He left his seat not minding the consequences and followed [not knowing wither]. May God help our hearts to understand the urgency of His call upon our lives. We see another example in Luke 5:8-11.

Thought: The King's Business needs haste. When the call comes to you, abandon all and follow Him promptly.