I was in a delightful dinner conversation with a young and gifted worship leader from Nashville last week when I decided to steer the topic towards her dating history.
As she was recounting her reasons for breaking up with the last guy, she casually quoted something her pastor had mentioned in church – and I was immediately arrested.
This is what he said, “Your calling is a Person, and He will give you your assignments.”
The profundity of this simple statement captivated me because it was so starkly uncomplicated. Jesus’ clarion call to His disciples then, as well as now, has always been, “Follow me.”
Instead, we’re often so prone to indiscriminately lapping up and swallowing every word that emanates from the mouths of every floating preacher/teacher/prophet, without discerning or testing it against the truth of Scripture – either because we’re too ignorant or lazy. Both reasons are displeasing to God and dangerous for us.
Your calling really IS a Person!
It’s not found in analysing your spiritual gifts checklists, or what your personality tests reveal, or in running after prophetic words trying to figure out what label to slap upon yourself.
It’s to FIRST run to the One who has called you, because only He knows what you need to become – before you rush off helter skelter to declare and do.
There’s nothing about you that Jesus doesn’t already know. All your warts, fears and longings are unhidden before Him – which is why it’s imperative that He cleanses, heals, refines and empowers you for the assignments He has prepared for you.
Only then can you become ‘His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’ Ephesians 2:10
Let’s backtrack to the genesis of it all. God blessed Adam and called him to fruitful multiplication and dominion over all He had created on earth.
Both Adam and Eve (who was inside Adam), were given the same mandate by God. However, Eve was specifically created to help Adam in his assignment.
Their call was the same, but their assignments were different. Yet, they needed each other for the successful outworking of both.
God revealed the order of how this was to be played out in a simple formula – the head (source) of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God (1 Corinthians 11:3)
At its core then and simply stated, we cannot fulfill our assignments in isolation, or out of sync with God’s created order. We need Him and one another to live fruitful, satisfied and victorious lives in the Kingdom of God.
This world continues to careen chaotically into a state of complete disorder while Christians are busy running around trying to fulfill their individual callings, without first submitting to God’s order.
The best form of evangelism really is in showing the world what a submitted life in the domain of a benevolent King looks like. That will definitely attract people more than our actionless words.
Your calling is a Person. Let Him give you your assignments!
