Ol' Jerry and I

“ Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.’” (Jeremiah 1:9-10)

This verse has had a profound effect on me since the moment I received it. I cannot escape the small voice in my mind, and tug at my heart that tell me this verse coincides with a direct call on my life as well. I understand that the context of this verse is God directly speaking to Jeremiah, not a promise to every believer. But every time I read this verse it is as if God saying, “ Manuel, Here is my provision and direction to a man whose call mirrors your own.”

It wasn’t until recently that I understood what this verse actually means and why it has had such an intense effect on me spiritually. I have mostly characterized this verse with a conqueror-like approach; physically eliminating corrupt governments and false teachers, crushing idols and removing temples, building churches and proclaiming the gospel, bringing many to salvation and turning lost souls around….kind of extreme right? But in one swift revelation my thoughts were turned inside out and I began to understand why this verse, of all scripture screamed… That’s you!

One evening I was praying for the new program men that had just arrived earlier that week. We were about a few days into our bible study and I was taking almost every minute of my prep time in solid prayer. I think I should coin the term “Rambo prayer” because I was shooting down every fear, blowing up every kind of doubt, and killing the roots of deceptiveness on behalf of these men. And it was when the adrenaline died down that I picked up my bible and found myself at this verse.

I wept, tears fell in their familiar places along the page, and for the first time I understood why this verse was so special to me: Like Jeremiah God has appointed me to a specific place, for now it is in India. Like Jeremiah I am called to remove and restore. But then I thought, when was the last time I heard of Jeremiah being a mighty warrior like David, Saul or Joshua? The truth is, he never was! Jeremiah’s tearing down, uprooting, and building was in turning a people back to Christ. Jeremiah spoke words of repentance and recommitment to God, that their unbelief would be done away with, their faith encouraged and built up.

It made sense, and I was overwhelmed by the power and grace of God. For the past six months I have been living this verse unknowingly. My main purpose at BTC has been in the areas of teaching and discipleship. Like a flood I realized that “with his words in my mouth” I have been uprooting disbelief, tearing down strongholds, and building a new, everlasting kingdom in the lives of all those God has “appointed” me to. It‘s not the work of a mighty conqueror, but that of a servant. And although I have been unaware, God has been using me to work in the lives of these men doing the same thing that he called Jeremiah to do…to bring a people back to Himself.