Taken as You Follow

"Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: "I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. ¹⁵ Then the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.'"

Amos 7:14-15

Amos is a great example of a man God called to enter His ministry step by step.  God brought him out of a farming profession - breeding sheep and picking fruit - and called him to be a prophet for His people. He didn't have a pedigree which would have been valued in the Jewish community, but he was called a prophet nevertheless.  Like Moses, he was taken from following a flock of sheep and was called to prophesy to the nation of Israel.

Jesus called fisherman, tax collectors, doctors, and educated Pharisees to follow Him.  Jesus is our Good Shepherd who takes us from one pasture and moves us to another.  He takes people from all walks of life and employs them in His service.  Answering His call is a step by step process, as each step taken in faith in God.  Sometimes God gives us the big picture without the little details, but He often reveals the very first step of a series of steps we see only as we go.  Taking that first step in surrender to God's leading with a desire to see the process through enables us to see and pass through the open door.

Amos wrote of his career, and said "then the LORD took me as a I followed the flock."  This is such an important point.  Sometimes when we perceive the call of God there may be a fleshly impulse to stop what we are doing to pursue an ambiguous goal.  But the key is to keep doing what you are doing faithfully unto the LORD and in His time and way He will take you and turn you loose:  "Go, prophesy to My people Israel."  The word from the LORD didn't come until God had taken Amos from the sheepfold and said "Go!"  There is an order to the way God works, but it is unpredictable.  God's horizons and purposes reach far beyond our limited view.

God has you where He wants you.  And until He moves you, keep doing what He has called you to do as unto Him.  The day will come when He will take you and move you to a new arena for His glory.  He may change your profession, where you live, the ministry God has entrusted to you, or call you from your failing body into eternal glory.  The good work He has begun in you He will be faithful to complete.  Trust that He is in control and He has purposes and plans you will enter into as you follow Christ in faith.