Say Yes When God Calls: Living Your Calling

Jul 05, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Cloak That Changes Everything

When God calls, He often uses tangible reminders of His presence. Elijah’s cloak wasn’t just fabric—it symbolized divine commissioning. To accept it meant surrendering comfort for purpose. Elisha’s decision to chase Elijah mirrors our choice to pursue God’s call over familiarity. The cloak reminds us that God’s invitation requires no explanation, only obedience. His call isn’t about our readiness but His faithfulness. [48:30]

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. (1 Kings 19:19, NLT)

Reflection: What “cloak” has God placed in your life—a person, opportunity, or conviction—that invites you to follow Him more fully? How might hesitation keep you from chasing His purpose?

Day 2: Staring at Oxen Butts in the Twelfth Field

God often calls from the mundane. Elisha wasn’t in a temple but a field, plowing with stubborn oxen. The twelfth field meant obscurity, yet God saw him. Our “fields”—daily routines, thankless tasks—are where purpose ignites. Feeling stuck doesn’t mean forgotten. God specializes in choosing the overlooked to showcase His glory. [56:06]

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” (1 Kings 19:20, NLT)

Reflection: Where do you feel like you’re “plowing the twelfth field” unnoticed? How might God be preparing you for a call hidden in today’s ordinary moments?

Day 3: Burning the Plow to Roast the Oxen

Total surrender leaves no exit strategy. Elisha didn’t just leave his oxen—he burned the plow, eliminating retreat. Following God requires burning bridges to our “what ifs.” Like missionaries selling homes or Dariela’s dad risking trust, we trade safety for sacred obedience. What we lose pales next to the joy of walking with Him. [01:07:16]

Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me go kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will go with you!” Elijah replied, “Go on back, but think about what I have done to you.” (1 Kings 19:20, NLT)

Reflection: What “plow” do you cling to as a safety net? What would it look like to burn it today and step fully into God’s call?

Day 4: Discipling Through Mud and Miracles

Discipleship isn’t glamorous. Elijah mentored Elisha while walking dusty roads. The missionary’s persistence with Dariela’s dad—despite setbacks—shows that love outlasts doubt. Like Eric investing in struggling believers, discipleship means showing up in others’ messiness. Our faithfulness in mud prepares others for miracles. [50:16]

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, ESV)

Reflection: Who is watching your daily walk with God? How can your ordinary actions this week point someone to Christ’s extraordinary love?

Day 5: The Joy Basket of Relentless Obedience

Dariela’s unshakable joy in collecting offerings—even awkwardly—mirrors God’s delight in bold obedience. Her persistence wasn’t about money but worship. Like missionaries celebrating hard-won breakthroughs, joy fuels endurance. Every “yes” to God, whether plowing or preaching, becomes an offering He treasures. [53:46]

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7, ESV)

Reflection: Where has obedience felt like a duty rather than joy? How might embracing God’s call as worship transform your perspective today?

Sermon Summary

Elijah hands off a mantle, not a platform. The text shows Elijah obeying God by finding Elisha, dropping the cloak on his shoulders, and walking away. That cloak functions like a prayer shawl, a tangible sign that God goes before, with, and behind. Elijah does not recruit, sell, or explain. He simply trusts that God calls, and that discipleship is the point. Spiritual maturity looks like laying a cloak on others so the work does not stop when one life or one assignment winds down.

Elisha meets the call knee-deep in dirt. The narrative does not find him in a pulpit or on a mission trip. It finds him in the twelfth field behind oxen, staring at mud and everything that comes with oxen. The last field gets chosen. The ordinary place gets interrupted. The comfort of the family inheritance gets touched by a greater purpose. The enemy can offer a thousand reasons to keep looking at oxen butts. The call offers one better reason to say yes.

Elisha runs. He asks to kiss his parents goodbye, then he burns the plows and slaughters the oxen. The town gets a barbecue and the past gets no safety net. The obedience is quick and costly. That pace becomes a mark of maturity. When God says go, the time it takes to move reveals trust. The story presses the question many avoid: what needs to be burned so the yes is not hedged by a fallback plan?

The cloak keeps coming back into view. It is a reminder to pick up the call again on hard days, not just on the exciting ones. God’s call does not always land in ease. It can include pushback, fatigue, even injury. Still, the joy on the other side outweighs the cost. Children read who could not read. Daughters walk who were left outside the doors. A father trusts Christ because love showed up for his family. The field was not wasted. The mantle kept moving.

The call to discipleship pushes the church into two honest checks. First, who is receiving a cloak from their shoulders right now. Second, which plows still sit in the barn, just in case. God created people on purpose with a purpose, and the invitation stands close enough that a light jog can catch it. The mantle waits for hands that will say yes.

Key Takeaways

1. God calls, people only confirm. The cloak lands without a speech because the call is God’s, not a leader’s marketing pitch. Wise mentors refuse to play God, even when they see what is coming. They lay the mantle and trust the Spirit to do the persuading. Calling begins vertical, then gets echoed horizontally. [48:30]
2. Mature disciples lay their cloak. Elijah’s biggest move is not another miracle but succession. Discipleship means planning for a future one may never see and empowering someone who might outshine the mentor. Spiritual legacy is measured by who is being trained, not who is impressed. [49:53]
3. Calling interrupts ordinary plowing. Elisha’s yes starts in mud, not on a stage. God loves to step into routine and name it holy, even in the twelfth field where nobody is looking. The view may be dull, but the invitation is alive, and that is enough to turn a job into a journey. [55:12]
4. Burn the plows and remove the fallback. Elisha kills the oxen and cooks with the plows, so going back is not an option. Half-measures keep the heart divided and make obedience negotiable. Whole offerings create whole lives, and sacrifice becomes a feast that feeds others too. [64:07]
5. Obey immediately without full details. The text ties trust to timing. God rarely hands out blueprints, only the next step and his presence. Quick obedience loosens fear’s grip and keeps the heart tender enough to hear the next assignment. [67:16]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[43:00] - Back in St. Louis and miles traveled
[44:11] - God answers with a short story
[45:11] - Created on purpose with a purpose
[45:49] - Elijah finds Elisha and drops the cloak
[47:20] - Mantle means God calls, not people
[49:53] - Who are you discipling today
[51:06] - Planting a church for special-needs families
[52:21] - A father drawn by love for his daughter
[53:46] - Joyful offering and holy mischief
[55:12] - Elisha in the twelfth field
[58:14] - Comfort vs calling at the fork
[63:06] - Quick obedience as spiritual maturity
[64:07] - Burning plows and killing oxen
[66:13] - One foot here, one foot there fails
[67:16] - Obey without understanding everything
[68:22] - God is calling someone here
[73:41] - A church that says yes
[74:54] - Prayer and sending out

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
1 Kings 19:19-21 (ESV)
19 So [Elijah] departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” 21 And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

Observation Questions

Where was Elisha when Elijah called him, and what was he doing? How does the text emphasize the "ordinariness" of his situation?
What immediate action did Elisha take after Elijah placed the cloak on him? What does his response reveal about his priorities?
The sermon mentions that Elisha was in the "twelfth field" ([55:12]). Why might this detail matter in understanding God’s calling?
How did Elisha’s actions with the oxen and plows (v. 21) eliminate the possibility of returning to his old life?

Interpretation Questions

Why do you think Elijah simply placed the cloak on Elisha and walked away without explanation? What does this teach about how God’s calling works?
The sermon says, "The enemy can offer a thousand reasons to keep looking at oxen butts" ([58:47]). What might these "reasons" look like in modern life, and why are they so compelling?
Elisha’s obedience was "quick and costly" ([03:06]). How does the speed of his response reflect his trust in God versus his circumstances?
What does burning the plows symbolize about total commitment to God’s call? How might holding onto a "fallback plan" weaken our faith?

Application Questions

The sermon asks, "Who is receiving a cloak from your shoulders right now?" ([49:53]). Who in your life are you intentionally mentoring or empowering spiritually? If no one, what steps could you take to start?
Elisha destroyed his old tools to remove the option of turning back. What "plows" (habits, relationships, comforts, or safety nets) do you need to "burn" to fully follow God’s call?
The "twelfth field" represents the unnoticed, mundane parts of life ([55:12]). Where do you feel stuck in routine or overlooked? How could you view that space as holy ground for God’s purpose?
When have you hesitated to obey God because you wanted more details or guarantees? What would it look like to act quickly, even without full clarity, this week?
The sermon says, "The mantle waits for hands that will say yes" ([01:13:41]). What specific invitation from God have you been avoiding, and what’s one practical way to say "yes" today?
How can you create "no going back" moments in areas where you’ve been half-hearted (e.g., relationships, generosity, serving)? What bold step would demonstrate total trust?

Sermon Clips

66s

#MentorTheNextGen

“I think this is a reminder for all of us, especially if you're someone that you're like, I I've been a Christian for my own time. I'm on fire. I I I call myself. I claim to be a Christian. Here's the question I have for you. Who are you mentoring? Who are you discipling today? Because the mark of a person's mark of a person who's in this walk and the mark of the spiritual maturity at that point is who we discipling? Who we laying our cloak down to? And it might be many people throughout because I know Eric laid his cloak down for me. He trained me. He got me up. I was ready to give up on church until I came here. I met Eric. I got in, and and we started meeting with people and doing stuff like that. He laid it down and he discipled me, and then he discipled other people I know. Kenny, my friend Kenny, who's in California, and other people. He he continues to find somebody new all the time. What about you? Who are we discipling today?”

53s

#PassTheCloakOn

“Because I think sometimes we hear this story and we kind of more focus on Elijah, and we will be talking about him here in a minute. But I think we missed what was beautiful about what Elijah did. Right? Because I think so many times in ministry, if you serve in ministry or do anything in ministry, sometimes it's hard to know when to stop. Right? And sometimes it's hard for us. And what we have to realize sometimes that when we are in ministry, our number one job in ministry is to be discipling others so that when our ministry stops, it doesn't stop with us. It continues with us. It continues with the next person. And that's the thing that Elijah realizes before he does this is that God can start a great work in me. That doesn't mean it ends with me. He doesn't want it to end with us.”

83s

#DiscipleshipNow

“``So my question today is two part. One, who are you discipling today? Because whether you know it or not, you're showing somebody Christ's love. Whether it's on purpose or on accident, you're the way you react, the way you live your life, you're showing people your love for Christ. And second, for those of you that God's calling you and you're trying to make a decision, do I go? Do I not? What do you need to burn to say yes to go? What will it take? Because I can tell you this, whatever it is, God has it. Whatever it is. Finances, God can control that. Things in my life like this, God's in control of that. What we have to do is we have to trust and treasure God. Because when we get to that point where we trust and treasure him and understand how loved we are by him, we can all be like Elijah that when he calls, we say, yes. I will go. He doesn't even get that far away. We just have to do a light jog to catch up to him and say, yes. I'll go.”

65s

#ObeyWithoutUnderstanding

“They didn't sell out. They didn't say, yes. God's called me. That's who I am. They were still trying to be like that would be like if Elijah's like, yeah. Like, I'll go with you, but let let me go make sure that my oxen and my inheritance and the will is good, then I'll go with you. So that way, if this fails, I have this to fall back onto. He didn't have that. What he said is, I will go, and then he turns around and he burns his his the plows, and he kills the oxen because he's saying, I'm going this way a 100%. And what I love about that is what what Elijah shows us is this. We don't have to understand completely to obey immediately. When god calls you, he's gonna call you something, and he might say, I I I want you to do this. He's not gonna give you the details of what that looks like, but he's saying, I'm calling you. Will you say yes?”

64s

#SayYesNotExcuses

“What's crazy about this is God is still making that call and asking that question today, and there are still people choosing to stare at oxen butts. Because it's easy. It's comfortable. I know how to do that. I can do that. I I I could stand behind a plow and do I don't know if I could. I've never farmed before. But right? But it's like, I can do that. That's easy. And because I know that when God comes calling, your enemy is gonna give you a list of a thousand reasons why you should say no. Oh, when our children grow up, when we have more finances, when we have this and this, every excuse in the book is gonna be fed to you. But I can tell you this, there is one amazing and beautiful reason to say yes because you'll never know the glory and the joy that comes from saying yes when God calls you.”

55s

#ChurchSendMe

“And that is my prayer this morning. I'm gonna pray for you guys this morning. And I know that my prayer is that this is gonna be a church that when god calls, you say, yes. I'll go. That this church is gonna be, is gonna be a light on a hill, not just for this city, but for this state. The city, that's too that's too narrow for god. Let's make it bigger. That we're gonna see great things done. Like we just saw with the last outreach, heard the testimony. You guys you don't know how many people were impacted by you just giving them a card and saying you love them. You don't know whose life you changed, but God does. So continue to answer that call that he puts on your heart. And if this be a church that your number one answer is yes, Send me, God.”

54s

#ChosenFromLast

“And I think that that's right where Elijah was. He has this cloak thrown on his shoulder as he's sitting here walking through plowing that field. And I can tell you this is one thing I know as well. The two things I I've learned from this part is that I love that it says he was picked, that he was in the twelfth field. Why? Because sometimes God's gonna pick the last to be first. He wasn't in the first field. He wasn't which is usually the premier field. Right? He was in the last field, and he was still found and chosen. Right? And the other thing I love is this, and what I know about this is I know for truth that it can be really hard to find your motivation when all you're doing is staring at oxen butts.”

49s

#GodIsCallingYou

“So I wanna encourage you with that today, that each and every person that is in a seat today, God is calling to you. Maybe you've been a believer for a while. God's saying, take that next step. Who are you discipling? Who are you leading to me today? Maybe you're in here for the first time in a long time. Welcome back. God loves you. There's not a moment he didn't think about you, that he there's never a moment that he stopped loving you. Maybe you're even here and you don't believe in God. He believes in you. He loves you and he still died for you.”

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Say Yes When God Calls: Living Your Calling

Devotional

Day 1: The Cloak That Changes Everything

Day 2: Staring at Oxen Butts in the Twelfth Field

Day 3: Burning the Plow to Roast the Oxen

Day 4: Discipling Through Mud and Miracles

Day 5: The Joy Basket of Relentless Obedience

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Say Yes When God Calls: Living Your Calling

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