Yesterday while reading the classic devotional “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, I was greatly encouraged by his teaching on being called by God. The devotional used God’s call of Isaiah the prophet, in the book bearing the prophet’s name, as his passage of emphasis. Below is a portion of that passage and his explanation of the call of God.

(Isaiah 6:1-8)​¹ … saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. ² Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” ⁴ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” ⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Below is Chambers description of being called by God, please read it prayerfully.

“The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my desires and personal temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I am in the same condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah’s soul was so attuned to God, because of the tremendous crisis he had just endured (seeing the Lord in all His holy splendor), that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. But to be brought to the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.”