I wonder how many of us have hardened our hearts to God’s call? The author of Hebrews warned us of the danger.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Hebrews 3:12-14

The power of Christ in us should alter the course of our lives. In essence we have declared we are no longer the masters of our destiny. Instead we have surrendered our lives to the Lordship of Christ and our destiny is to be determined by another.

This hardening isn’t always a sudden decision we make. It’s often a slow process that happens over time. We likely don’t realize it’s happening until we start asking the question, “what happened to the days when I used to hear His voice?” Hebrews gives us insight into the root issue, sin.

Sin’s goal is to slowly draw us away from the life giving intimacy with the Spirit leading us into a life consuming pursuit of the flesh. We stop making decisions that require faith in God and we start making decisions that satisfy our intellect apart from Him. One of the keys to knowing if you have hardened your heart is found in measuring the level of faith you have to live by. The life of faith is the mark of Spiritual greatness. These are the ones scripture celebrates. These are the ones that refused to harden their hearts. These are the ones that recognized their rebellion and returned to God’s call for them.

The life of faith is the mark of Spiritual greatness. These are the ones scripture celebrates. These are the ones that refused to harden their hearts. These are the ones that recognized their rebellion and returned to God’s call for them.

Maybe if we can look at the patterns of following God’s call we can recognize the critical moments in our lives. When these crisis of faith come, we can call to memory how God has worked in the past and allow Him to strengthen us to keep following Him.

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, 1 Corinthians 10:11

Moses (passion, pursuit, problem, purification, power)

When Moses started off, his circumstances allowed him to be in a position to see clearly that his Hebrew brothers were being abused by the Egyptians. In his passion he took matters into his own hands. He killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Later on when he tried to admonish his Hebrew brothers, he discovered His passion to pursue His call apart from God led to problems. His attempts to accomplish what only God could accomplish made him less in eyes of the ones he wanted to save. This, of course led him to a long season on the run, into the wilderness where God purified Him, emptying Moses of himself so he could be used. When Moses was ready he was old and powerless but He had at his disposal the only power capable of freeing His brothers.

Abraham (call, commitment, compromise, correction, continuation)

When God calls Abraham, he was immediately obedient. God had plans for Abraham and Abraham was committed. However, the Bible tells us that things got rough and circumstances caused Abraham to set aside his commitment to God’s call and compromise by going to Egypt. It was in Egypt we started seeing Abraham make decisions to preserve His own life. He had stopped trusting the Lord and started making decision after decision to save himself. The summary is this. He told his wife to say she was his sister so the Egyptians wouldn’t kill him and take her. Fortunately for Abraham God was gracious to intervene. It took Pharo’s questioning Abraham about his commitment to God to correct Abraham. Nevertheless once Abraham was thoroughly corrected God graciously allowed Him to continue in the plans God had for Him.

Joseph (encounter, expression, exile, endurance, experience)

Joseph had a powerful encounter with God. It allowed Joseph insight into what God was going to do with his life. Joseph expresses what God had revealed and his brothers did not receive it well. Like you would expect from any brother, they thee Joseph in a ditch, sold him as a Slave, and lied to their father about what happened. This began a long season of exile for Joseph. The next 14 years Joseph is forced to endure injustice while remaining faithful to the Lord. Scripture does not say if Joseph ever doubted the Lord or the encounter he had at the beginning, but it’s probably safe to say Joseph had some doubts in His season of endurance. Nevertheless Joseph remained faithful! He found Himself experiencing the very vision God gave him many years before. The very circumstances that seemed to be antagonistic to the vision were actually carving the necessary path for Joseph’s encounter to be fulfilled.

Noah (opportunity, obedience, outcome)

Noah seems to have the smoothest path, but the road wasn’t easy. God presents an opportunity to Noah, “Noah to build a boat.”Noah was obedient. The outcome was Noah and His family were rescued from God’s wrath. Although the pattern seems to be ideal, it’s important to understand what obedience cost Noah. Keep in mind two things. First, the earth had never seen rain. What Noah was told, and likely what he explained to people probably cost him a great deal. His reputation and relationships were likely strained if not damaged. Second, Home Depot had not yet opened up. Building a boat of that size and scale no doubt cost Noah all the resources he had available. Imagine stopping your life and picking up to do something that doesn’t make sense to you or anyone else. Then imagine it costing you 100% of your time, energy, and resources. Nevertheless Noah was obedient and in the end the outcome was amazing.

Jonah (revelation, rebellion, reckoning, rescue, reset)

The story of Jonah is the craziest one of all. How many prophets hear from the Lord and flat out say “no!” That’s the story of Jonah. God reveals what He wants Jonah to do. Jonah’s response was immediate rebellion. This of course led to a moment where Jonah experienced a reckoning. Thrown into the sea, swallowed by a fish, Jonah was left with one option. Cry out to the Lord and be rescued. God rescues Jonah because Jonah acknowledges his rebellion and is ready to be reset. Ultimately Jonah obeys God’s call. Ironically Jonah saw the best outcome a prophet could want and he was disappointed the people were not destroyed! It would seem Jonah had some deep seeded personality traits that led him into costly lessons!

There are some variations in the patterns when it comes to God’s call. It would however seem everyone has at least three components. The first component is God’s revealing or initiating the call. The second component is some sort of crisis. It’s either a result of our rebellion or in the midst of our obedience, the crisis is testing and shaping our faith and ultimately establishing our commitment. It’s critical to understand God ALWAYS accomplishes His purpose. Why is this important?

I am convinced it’s the hardest seasons when God is at work and out temptation is to harden our hearts is at its peak. The wilderness is both the result of our sin and the place of our purification. As our hearts are hardened we start to believe God is done with us. Nothing could be further from the truth. I sometimes wonder if our seasons of crisis can be excelerated by our willingness to listen to Him. In other words if we would refuse to harden our hearts we may see Him get us to where He wants us sooner.

That’s probably not the most important point. The real point is the patterns of God’s call in the life of His people are designed to get us to a place where we can and will listen to Him. Maybe you have found yourself in the belly of the whale or alone on the wilderness. Maybe your obedience has led you to incredibly difficult circumstances. Maybe these circumstances have allowed you to build a pattern of doing things your way instead of trusting God. Maybe what you need to hear more than anything is that God ALWAYS accomplishes His purposes by fulfilling His plans for your life.

So don’t harden your heart to Him. Remember what He has called you to do. If you have rebelled acknowledge it and let Him bring you back. If you have been obedient and the wilderness is getting the best of you, allow endurance to create the character necessary to accomplish God’s purpose for you.

Study the patterns of God’s call in the lives of His people. When your call leads to a crisis soften your heart so He can continue to work.