2 Timothy 1:9: “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
You can see in this verse that being saved and being called are two different things but never to be separated. Worshiping and thanking God and fellowshipping with Him because Jesus saved us and reconciled us to God is the most important but not our sole purpose in this life. Yes Paul said that all things are but dung in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ, but He did not live as a hermit, shut off from the world just to spend time with Jesus. I’m talking about KNOWING CHRIST, not just a little but knowing Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering as Paul desired (Philippians 3:10). Have no doubt about it, some people know God better than others, and the ones that do are those that pursue the call of God on their life and everyone can SEE it. How do we know this? It is like two sides to the same coin.
Daniel 11:32: “[…] but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”
Exploits means great and noticeable things! It is impossible to know God and never do amazing things in His name. And please, this is not talking about giving free hugs and smile at a sad looking person to make their day. This is talking about things that draw attention and cause persecution. Things that happen when you answer the call of God.
So what is this “call”? It is one of those things I personally never heard of in church before I went to Bible school. But I found out it was something that I felt on the inside of me, I just had no clue what it was because I never heard it preached. I just knew it felt big. It was like a knowing, that my life was not supposed to be ordinary. Back then it was mere hope that maybe there is more to my life. I didn’t know that I was mistaking the call of God for hope. I didn’t know that hope accomplishes nothing. You cannot answer the call of God by hope. I was waiting, in hope, for something to happen that would make my life extraordinary. Like Moses and the burning bush, or Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. If something extraordinary like that would happen to me, surely I would do great things! But that’s way too crazy. Who am I?
Then you hear stories of modern day ministers that had some supernatural, “Bible style” experience and then went into the ministry and you think wow! But I had nothing like this happen in my life, so I may not be one of the “chosen ones” and the verse Matthew 22:14 comes to mind, which is one of those that gets misinterpreted a lot. If you’re waiting to hear the audible voice of God, or have some sort of dream or vision, you’re on the wrong track. Those things are biblical and pretty awesome, but the Bible does not tell us to seek those things. In fact Jesus said “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:29).
Just on a side note, and this is my own unimportant and irrelevant opinion, but I think some people would never go in the ministry or make it in the ministry if it wasn’t for some radical godly intervention. Like in Jonah’s case, some people need a legit kick in the butt. Or Moses’ calling, which was unprecedented and involved the destiny of millions of people and even when He had an entire conversation with a burning bush he said he is ineloquent because he is a stutterer. In both cases God revealed their call to them and it was too overwhelming, so one tried to run from it and the other one was given a helper to speak for him.
Things do not happen the same way for everyone. But the Word of God is the same for everyone.
Most people do not know the whole plan God has for them and it is revealed step by step. As we read in the book of Acts, how the Apostles were led from one task to the next. Unlike Paul, Jesus’ disciples did not get struck to the ground by the glorified Christ and turned blind for three days. Most of them got a simple “follow me” from a man they never met before. Of course you say “but it was THE JESUS!!”, yes, but until that point He had done no miracle. Don’t wait for a miracle before you follow Him. The glorified Jesus is calling YOU to follow Him, THEN signs and wonders shall follow you, the believer. There is no more time to wait. God is waiting on you.
What your individual call in life is you will only find out if you whole heartedly pursue what we are all called to do.
Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
You cannot be like Jesus without doing what He did, and the main thing he did and still does today is GOING AFTER SOULS!
When you are born again you are already made righteous as He is righteous and you can have the power of the Holy Spirit as promised to every believer in Acts 1:8! That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go into the full time ministry, but there is plenty of opportunities for anyone to reconcile people to God as Jesus did, lay hands on the sick as Jesus did, cast out demons as Jesus did and the list goes on. In fact Jesus commands all believers to do these things! Alone you can never step into this supernatural realm. This is why God gave gifts to the church: apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelist. Without them we cannot be perfected as believers and equipped for the work of the ministry. If a church and leadership is not important to you, you can forget about the call of God. If winning souls is not important to you, you are backslidden. The call of God is ALWAYS in one way or another about getting souls saved.
To have a greater revelation of the Word of God and fully step into the call of God on your life it is not enough for you to read some blogs or books or listen to some preachers, especially if you believe you are called into the ministry. Without studying the word of God under anointed leadership and accountability, anyone is bound to fail. Going to Bible school is NEVER a wrong decision, unless it is a dead religious school with no fruit to show for it. Make a decision to go to a spirit filled Bible school. I happen to know the best one.
Without Bible School and the impartation of my pastors and teachers I would have never been able to step into the ministry let alone have any success. Of course it is all thanks to God, but God uses people to impact our lives. If the power of the anointing of the Holy Ghost was imparted into me there, the same power can change your life forever like it did mine.
Check out the River Bible Institute and make a decision today to follow Jesus into your call.
https://www.riverbibleinstitute.com/
...unless you want to tell me something really flaky, please don't ;)