David Diga Hernandez - Holy Spirit, Protector of the Call

I want to talk to you if you feel like you’ve delayed or missed the call of God for your life. I want to discuss the Holy Spirit, the protector of the call. Every believer is called by God to do something. Some believers respond to God’s call in obedience and faithfully serve Him; we all, of course, make mistakes. Then there are other believers who, when God calls them, go in the opposite direction. They delay, which is disobedience; they look for excuses that they think will exempt them from the call of God. Maybe it’s insecurity, maybe it’s sin, or maybe it’s something else. For whatever reason, some believers just don’t pursue the call of God for their lives. Perhaps you’re in that place, and something within you says, «I want to do something for God; I want to be used for His glory,» but you feel like God has passed you by. You feel as if you’ve made too many mistakes. Maybe you fixate on a specific sin you’ve committed and think that one sin completely disqualifies you for good, identifying yourself by that mistake. Or perhaps you’re filled with insecurity and wonder, «Why doesn’t God use somebody else? Why would He use someone like me? I’m this, this, this, and this,» listing all the negative things you imagine disqualifying you from God’s call. Or maybe you just don’t want to give up comfort, but now you’re realizing time is short, and you need to do something. Perhaps you feel like you’ve ruined the call of God for your life, never to be rediscovered, or maybe you believe you’ve delayed for so long that you’ve missed it.

There’s a prophet in the Bible who, when God called him, ran in a completely different direction. Here’s what the scripture says in Jonah chapter one; I’m going to read verses one through three to start: «The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amitai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh; announce my judgment against it, because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.» Now, God called Jonah to Nineveh; he was called to go to this wicked city and pronounce God’s judgment, declaring that if they didn’t turn from their sins, God would judge them. Yet Jonah, when he heard this instruction from the Lord, didn’t go where God told him to go; in fact, he turned and went in the opposite direction. Not only did he run from the call, but he also tried to run from the Lord. He didn’t walk away from God’s call; he ran away from it. He didn’t hesitate with God’s call; he resisted it. He purposefully, intentionally, maliciously went in the opposite direction and said, «I don’t want to do what God has called me to do.» He fought the Lord. But Jonah chapter 1, verse 4 says this: «But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.» Everyone talks about Jonah and the whale; I want to talk to you about Jonah and the wind. Before the whale came along, God sent the wind. This was a wind from the presence of God; it is symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Not only did the wind come and completely ruin Jonah’s plans, but the wind also threatened to break the ship apart. So God starts to disrupt Jonah in his disobedience, and not only is He disrupting Jonah, but He’s threatening to break the ship apart by the wind. God will even destroy the means of our rebellion to reach us; He’s trying to help the prophet. When we walk in disobedience, God will do whatever it takes to shake things up; He will do whatever it takes to get our attention. It’s when He leaves you in your disobedience that you should be concerned. No, God sent a powerful wind to get His attention, to stop him in his tracks, to keep him from going the opposite way. The Holy Spirit, this powerful wind in our lives, keeps us from veering off. You know, ministers can go astray too. We often say «everyday believers, ” but really, we’re all everyday believers, and a minister is an office that God gives to those who are faithful in certain areas. It doesn’t matter; all of us can go astray. When we go astray, God brings correction, but correction is not rejection; correction is repositioning. Things may be falling apart because God is trying to get your attention. Man of God, woman of God, have you gone in the opposite direction? Is God now sending a powerful wind? Is the Holy Spirit now destroying your means of rebellion? He will shake the systems in which you find security; He will remove the comforts of life; He may even sever certain relationships if that’s what it takes to get your attention. Why? Because He loves you too much to leave you in your disobedience. Now we continue to read, right around verse 15: „Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered Him a…“