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Home Resources Missions Articles Is God Calling Me?
Is God Calling Me? PDF Print E-mail
Where Do You Think You’re Going?        

                                                       by David Parker   

 

Recently, I overheard a teenager expressing her uneasiness over her present inability to know the location of God’s will for the missionary call on her life.  My first thought was that it is certainly a wonderful thing for a young person to speak with careful attention to the will of God for his/her life.  My next thought was, “Why in world is this young lady fretting about where in the world she’s going at her age!”  Sometimes, I think young people feel that when they surrender to God’s call on their life in a church service, there’s an airplane waiting for them in the church parking lot to take them to the mission field.  The Bible record reveals that there’s whole lot more to it than that.


I personally believe that a “Call” from God is a passionate desire to surrender your life to Him without any preconditions (1 Timothy 3:1).  God calls many people, but most aren’t listening.  They’re listening to the world or something else.  God’s call is only realized when we respond.  This is what happened to young Samuel after his mother had dropped him off at the temple to serve the Lord.  For Samuel, the call was evident when he acknowledged God calling his name.  And when he did, God spoke to him (1 Samuel 3:1-11).  When God calls us, all we know is that He is God and we want to surrender to Him completely.  We cast ourselves completely upon Him in unquestioning submission.  This is what the Apostle Paul did.  He said, “Lord, what do you want me to do” (Acts 9:6)?


We really have no idea what God is going to ask of us because He doesn’t ask each of us to do the same things.  By looking at the lives of the apostles alone, it is evident that God’s path for each of their lives was different.  He even said this directly to Peter (John 21:22).  Most young people today (and even older ones) seem to surrender and immediately announce with surety what they feel the Lord wants them to do.  This makes me uncomfortable.  I realize that this can happen; but somehow, I don’t believe that it’s actually happening as often as people say it is.  When the Apostle Paul asked this very question, “Lord, what do you want me to do.”  What a perfect time for God to get specific and say:  “I want you in Syria, Cilicia, Asia, Macedonia, Achaia, Italy, and Spain.”  But all God said at that moment was, “Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (I have someone else who is going to give you your next step).  When Paul surrendered, God’s guidance was a calm and simple, “I’ll let you know.”  And then, someone else said, “Paul (Saul), you need to get baptized.”  By the way, maybe you need to quit looking for God to give you the name of a country where He wants you later on, and take your next small step.  Maybe it’s baptism or getting involved faithfully in your church.


Too many people take control of their training and assume they are qualified to know what they need to prepare for a place and task which is, in fact, unknown to them.  Let me remind you that Paul wasn’t a teenager when he gave his life to Jesus Christ.  He was approximately thirty years of age.  He had also graduated from the Jewish equivalent of Harvard or Yale in his day and had accumulated years of experience traveling and working within the Jewish religious system.  His brag sheet is found in Philippians chapter three.  If anybody was ready to get “plugged” right into a ministry position (from a human perspective), it was the Apostle Paul.  But the Lord thought he needed some additional training.  Right away, the Lord sent Paul to Arabia for a three-year course on Old Testament Survey (something he already had on his transcript) and a personal walk and talk with the Author of the Book (Galatians 1:17).  After this, the Lord sent him to Jerusalem for two weeks (Galatians 1:18; Acts 9:26-29; 22:17-18).  Paul then spent ten, relatively silent years in Tarsus of Cilicia where he was born.  Barnabas came looking for him after these ten years and brought Paul to Antioch of Syria where they both spent a year working in a new church (Acts 11:25-26).  And it was from this church that God spoke to the church as well as Barnabas and Paul (Saul) concerning what would be for Paul, three to five different missionary journeys covering a fifteen-year time period.  By the way, this means that the Apostle Paul was approximately forty-five years of age when he began what we would consider his primary ministry.  I think the Lord was uniquely equipping Paul with the things he was going to need to execute the mission he would be assigned.  The Lord knows what we need; He knows when we are ready; and He knows when the timing is right for us to begin.  Our main job is to follow Him step by step and learn to do what we are told.


I think there are some practical things which would enable a person to cultivate his surrender to God.  Knowing one’s Bible goes a long way toward knowing God, His heart, and how He works in the lives of people (Psalm 1:1-3).  Knowing one’s self and spiritual gifts enables one to consider the kinds of ways that God may choose to use him (1 Peter 4:10-11).  Familiarization with a world map and corresponding world need is an act of obedience to “Look on the fields” (John 4:35) as well as a way to enable God to direct you because you’ve seen what needs yet to be done.  Missionary biographies provide an excellent way to see how others prepared for God’s work while revealing the human frailty of the ordinary people whom God uses (Hebrews 12:1).  Recognizing any particularly burden which God has given to you may be an indicator of God’s leading in your life (Nehemiah 2:3-5).  Faithfulness to church attendance, spiritual disciplines and Christian service are the proven biblical environments in which God speaks (Acts 13:2 and Matthew 9:38).  Humbly consulting the spiritual leaders in your life allows other experienced servants of God to add some things to your path which you may be missing, much like Ananias and Barnabas did for the Apostle Paul (Acts 9:17; 11:25-26; 2 Timothy 1:5-7).  Finally, observe the clear commands of Christ concerning true discipleship and consider the claim He makes on your life (Romans 12:1; Luke 14:26-27, 33).


Being content to accept God’s training agenda and the timing of our sending lays an appropriate foundation for us to embrace His will for how we finish the race.  Before Paul was martyred at the age of sixty-eight or sixty-nine, he spent the last eight or ten years of his life in prison writing most of the New Testament and instructing churches.  Even this part of his life was designed by God to serve the church and God’s purposes.  The Bible’s account of the Apostle Paul’s surrender and preparation demonstrates that God was not in a hurry to get Paul to the field.  It was more important that Paul be ready to face what was waiting for him than it was for him to see how fast he could get there.


God not only works through us when we obey His voice and follow His plan, but He also works in us.  Our Creator and Savior has the divine wisdom and ability to make the path He has for us to be the very instrument which forms us into His image.

 

David Parker
 

FLAMMABLE BYTES FROM THE FRONTLINES

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.

– John C. Maxwell