Response Time!

Some days ago, I put a call through to a friend and it rang and rang untill it went off and he didn't pick up the call. But my attention was drawn to a statement on my phone as the call went off and it read....

"No response, timed out!"

It's a statement that is indicative of the fact that a call wasn't completed. By definition, a completed call is "an interactive conversation between two or more parties who for whatever reason cannot converse directly with each other at that moment". So we can deduce the fact that a call cannot be said to be completed if there was no conversation between intended parties. And when this happens, usually the call is timed out by the network in charge (ie.operator). Hence we can say that the time between which a call is initiated by an operator and the time within which the party responds is called "the response time". But in this case the call timed out, meaning there was no response.

Just as it pertains in the natural, it can be even more related to the Spirit realm. Most natural occurrences are pictorial resemblance of the spiritual (though not completely accruate). Whenever heaven desires to make contact with a man either by voice or by message, it initiates a call. The first call of such nature we saw in scriptures is found in the book of Genesis 3:8-10 (KJV)....

[8] And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. [9] And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
[10] And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Adam said they heard the "voice" (vs8) and verse 9 said God "called". Heaven in it's bid to converse with a man initiates a call. In this case Adam heard it, but refused to pick the call. Rather he hid! So we can assume that this call can be referred to as an ignored or rejected call. But someone will argue that he answered God,  I believe the answer was more reactive to God's question "where art thou"? And not a direct answer to the "voice walking in the garden". Meaning God must have called severally and man's first response was to hide and only answer when his location was discovered querried on why the call didn't get the required response (but this is a discussion for another day).

Some calls can be
✓Rejected
✓Busied
✓Delayed
✓Ignored
✓Diverted

God's call in scriptures!

We shall take a look at 2 men God called in the Bible and how they responded and more especially we take an indepth focus on one of them. We shall seek not to be deviated from the essence of this message, "Response time".

Timely Response!

"And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I". Exodus 3:4 KJV

Moses did not have an experience of God until now and God never revealed himself to him untill he decided to see something mysterious...a bush that burned without the leaves being consumed!

Let's briefly understand the background of Moses the person before God encountered him. He grew up in Egypt as a prince. This means that he was educated as Egypt was one of the worlds first civilisations. They were also masters in dark arts, magic and wizardry. Moses must have been familiar with all these as a teenage growing up in the palace. So God in his infinite wisdom knew that the only way to reach him was to attract him with something that interested him, something very close to his background formation. A mysterious burning bush!. In that scenario, his Voice and call came. To some, God might use what you're familiar with to get your attention to his voice. God is meticulous with it's approach in getting the commensurate results intended.

The main aspect of this story was that Moses was called and he responded immediately. His response time was Swift and effective. So we can comfortably say that this call was completed. Heaven conversed with humanity and a process was initiated which came to fruition for him and God's people.

Delayed Response!

"Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. [10] And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth". (1Samuel 3:9-10 KJV)

The above story is a typical case of delayed response. Samuel was brought to the temple by his parents as a child. And similar to Moses did not know the Lord. The only God he could see in the temple were priests who were wayward and disobedient. Never had he heard another voice other than visitors bringing sacrifices to the house of God. But still God called him. This is because God has intended to end with the Eli lineage and wanted a new breed to take his counsel forward.

God called him but he repeatedly responded to the wrong person...Eli. It's typical of us today (and Moses as well), just like young Samuel we run to what we are familiar with. We run to our local pastors to verify Divine calls. We run to previous knowledge to cross check revelations. Not relegating the place of fathers and mentors, I must say that Samuel's response to Eli in this case helped him. Thank God for Eli's. But imagine the converse of this story....

What if Eli was obsessed with his position as a priest and didn't want a Samuel succession?

What if Eli wanted his lineage to continue as priests and not this upstart of a boy?

Could he have arranged to derail the process of the conversation so that God won't complete the ultimate Call??

Fathers are great, but in the prophetic dispensation of the Spirit to we are moving into, we must grow up to discern his voice and attend to heaven responsibly.

Secondly, we should note that God repeated this call 4times. 3 times samuel went to Eli, the 4th time he answered correctly. We should understand that most times, repeated calls are engaged depending on the urgency of the information and the need to get response. It's not every time that Heaven repeats it's calls. Most times the frequency of it's repetition might span weeks, months or even years. And this time might not be a luxury we can afford. May God cause us to have a speedy response to heavens attention in our lives in Jesus name, Amen.

Let us pause a bit on vs 10.

[10] And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth".

First emphasis!
And the LORD came, and stood, and called".....

This is the first and only time we heard the Bible mention a posture in this call process. Heaven changed its communication posture. Could it be that God was saying Incase Eli failed to decode who actually was calling (because it took Eli 3 times of repeated appearance of Samuel to know it could be God calling the boy. Age was playing a role on his acuteness in the spiritual). This made God to change an approach to reach the boy. Maybe God has changed his posture trying to reach you and strike a communication pattern with you and still you haven't decoded it was him. Are we not grateful that the great monarch of Zion can shift grounds to reach us?

Second Emphasis!
"and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel".....

Mark the repitition in God calling the name of Samuel. He called as at other times but repeated the boy's name twice. Anytime heaven repeats a statement in a particular verse or chapter in same reference please do well to take note of it and underline. He doesn't only change posture to reach us, he goes as far as repeating a statement for emphasis sake. Pls note that he only repeated his name and not the message.

Even though he delayed the calls and had 3 missed calls, he responded to the 4th one and the call was completed.

Unfortunately for us, God does not divert messages to voicemails, he doesn't transfer calls to other lines, he may not convert audible messages to SMS, and we cannot by own volition put his calls to automatic redial.

Why are calls not completed?

There are several possible factors which can prevent a call from connecting successfully:

Called party does not answer

Called party is busy in another call

Called party is off-line or unavailable

Called party actively disconnects the call before answering

Which of the above defines our response to Divine calls? May we not be offline or busy when he calls.

In the part two of this message, we shall look indepth at the benefits of receiving Divine messages to our lives and our generation.

Shalom!