Other Videos on Calling
Part 1 - Do We All Need a Call?
Part 2 - Why It's Important to Know Your Call
Part 5 - What If I don't Have a Calling?
In this penultimate video, we’re going to summarise the questions of calling by asking four simple, but vitally important questions.
1. Your life is a story – who is going to write that story – you or God?
In our previous video we’ve talked about the topic of surrender, placing our life in God’s hands and echoing the words of Isaiah ‘Here I am Lord, send me.’ I love this quote from Selwyn Hughes who, although I have never met him has been like a mentor to me!
“If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as saviour then your life is not a series of haphazard events, but a narrative, a story. God has the ability to take everything that happens to us and make out of it a story. A story that has coherence, purpose and fits into God’s bigger story. A story that has a beginning, a middle and an ending. This is your life – everything in it has a point. Nothing need be irrelevant.”
God wants to write His story through my life and your life. So, naturally, the questions to ask yourself are
- ‘Who is writing my story?’
- ‘Have I sought the Lord to get a call from Him to find out what it is He wants me to do?’
2. What greater purpose will direct your life?
“A job you can quit, a dream you can give up on, but a calling will chase you forever”
We’ve talked about God’s calling on our own life in previous videos. In my (Ross’) case, around fifty-three years ago God threw a nurse in a hospital who spoke a word which God then confirmed so I knew that was God’s call on my life. Fifty-three years later I am still living in the Far East, walking in that calling.
You see, when God calls you, your attitude towards everything in life becomes ‘I don’t want to do anything that would conflict with the calling.’ Here is a quote from Phillips Brooks, an American Clergyman who lived between 1835 and 1893:
“Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with the thoughts he is thinking and the deeds he is doing - when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger; which he knows he was meant and made to do, because he is a child of God.”
That is what a call does, it gives our life a direction and a purpose that we are meant to pursue because we are a child of God.
3. Do you know that others are impacted by your obedience to your call?
The lives of others will be or won’t be changed depending on whether or not you step into your call. Paul talks about this in his letter to the Ephesians:
“from whom [Jesus] the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Ephesians 4:16 (NKJV)
A friend, John Stanko, says that “the mystery here is that the church will never be what it should be until every part does it’s share.” So, the issue of God’s call on our lives does not just affect us personally, it affects our church and therefore the world around us, because the church is God’s instrument for reaching the world.
God spoke to me over fifty years ago and told me he was calling me to serve the people and church of China. It has been my massive privilege to see all sorts of wonderful people raised up to serve in that calling – not to serve me but to serve Jesus.
I think of a very precious Chinese sister who, when asked if she wanted to join with the China ministry said, ‘no way!’ But God met her and she and her husband have done amazing things in China ministry for the Lord Jesus. Would that have happened if I hadn’t walked in my call over fifty years ago? Maybe not, there are a lot of other people like that.
Often, when I speak to people who say ‘I am searching for God’s call on my life,’ what I long to say is ‘Please realise this; it’s not just about you, it’s about other people who will rise up if you do what God tells you to do.’
4. Have you taken steps to find out your call? Do you know how to do this?
Although we’ve just been talking about this exact topic, I’d like to finish on this point. What we are trying to make clear is that all of us need a call, and God is so willing to give us that call, that is our experience. Let me share this:
“When God called Joshua to lead the nation, he did not ask him to be another Moses.”
Unknown
I love this quote, it demonstrates how leading Israel out of Egypt was a task for Moses, whereas leading Israel in to the promised land was a task for Joshua. Joshua could not be a Moses, nor Moses be a Joshua. You too have a part in God’s eternal plans. It thrills us that God uses ordinary people like you and me. He sees us and knows us. He knows what will really fulfil our lives; writing His story.
So our cry and our call to you is to find out what God’s call for your life is – because honestly, fifty-three years later, I can tell you this; only that will satisfy you!
Can you think of anything worse (and I know people who have experienced this) than to look back at the end of your life and say ‘I’ve wasted it. I’ve wasted it because I didn’t find what God wanted for me.’?
Feel free to join me in praying this prayer:
Thank you, Lord, for your kindness ,
Lord, you are a father to us so you want your kids to walk in the best possible way,
Which is your calling on their lives,
Whether it’s Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria or the ends of the earth,
Whether it’s in three days or in ten years,
You still want us to find our call,
Holy Spirit, don’t let us go until we do that I pray,
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Questions to Reflect On
- What has written the story of my life so far?
- Who will write the rest of it?
- Do I feel an overriding sense of direction and purpose from any calling?
- How could lives could be changed by my obedience to God?
- Have a taken steps to discern my calling?
Part 5 - What If I don't Have a Calling? >>
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