Have you ever stopped and wondered what God has called you to do?

[simplejeff]

What was Yahweh's people told to do ? 

What was s and g punished for not doing ? 

(the same thing)

What did the Apostle's and the disciples IN THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES do that was "comfortable" ?

What were the ekklesia in every town told to be sure to do ?

What do most of the organized groups fail to do today ? (the same thing again)

[kwikphilly]

Blessings Brother

    Yep,I sure do......for me,I have gotten more than just comfortable,complacent     Yea,because I'm doing "something" that serves the Lord He Does certainly use that BUT is it WHERE He would have me to be ? The opportunities to serve Him can be found everywhere,at every turn but then there is what you are talking about "Our Calling".......As the Lord Says"I Know the Plans I have for you".....He Said this to the exiles as they expected their end and evil from the Babylonians ,and what about the  exiles from Egypt ,they wanted to go back even to slavery rather than step out into the unknown ,Trusting God      They wandered around in the wilderness 40 yrs ,why? They were not "listening".........even in Egypt as slaves they had a comfort zone,they knew what they had there.......Sometimes I feel like I'm enslaving myself to the confines of what I am presently doing rather than stepping out into the unknown as Paul so often did,he never stood still just praying "Where do you want me Lord?"He stepped out simply trusting God and the Lord Showed Him the Way as he proceeded

    I am fast to tell others that all through the Bible we see God directing each step "as you go",He Doesn't give us a map with a big X on it to show us our destination ,I'm sure He Does that so we stay near Him,relying & depending on Him for Instruction each & every moment .....If we knew where we should end up we wouldn't need His Guidance,right? God Said to Abraham"Go to the mountain and I will show you,"He Said to Moses,"Go ,leave Egypt & I Will show you".........

    I think it becomes quite clear when we are being Called elsewhere only we make it much harder than it has to be......there comes a time to go and not look back

Thanks for bringing this up,personally I'm presently in this situation .......                              With love-in Christ,Kwik

     

[secretopossumcabal]

I think fortunately I knew my calling very early, but it's a very bold and tricky one that requires an unusual kind of discipline. It requires a lot of horizontal knowledge rather than vertical knowledge, as it is not a specialization. I think God arranged my life in a manner (i don't have to worry about bills) so that I can freely pursue all the things that I need to pursue, with all my heart and without many distractions, as I do plan to infuse his spirit into it my work. 

But at 30, I still have a very, very long way to go. As the butter is spread very thin when you decide to pursue horizontal knowledge and guys my age would have already reached the point where they're garnering the fruits of their labor, which is usually very specialized, but I have to remain faithful that one day it will all come to life.     

Edited October 30, 2017 by secretopossumcabal

[GandalfTheWise]

This is a nice thread!  A lot of good experiences and insights shared here.  

I spent the first 30 some years of my life as a Christian focused on trying to find my calling, using my gifts and talents, looking for opportunities to minister, and in general focused of determining what God wanted me to do.    Over a period of a couple years, God basically benched me out in a figurative desert until my heart and soul were cleared of the urgency and zealousness and drive that had characterized my first three decades as a Christian.  He was then able to get my attention focused on something that was much more important to Him than my spiritual to-do list and trophy case.  He focused my attention on the fact that His main concern in my life was that I become the person He created me to be.  I was dragged unwillingly into that desert as a high-energy person whose main focus in life was on doing as much for God as I could in my life.  I emerged as a much calmer and focused person and much more focused on walking with God and being the person He created me to be.   I've spent the past 7 or so years focused on being who God created me to be.   I've found that the past few years have been the most enjoyable, satisfying, and fruitful of my life.  I've dropped off a heavy burden (that I had no clue I was carrying) and took up His much lighter one.   I used to labor intensely whenever I was involved in ministry; now it just seems to naturally flow, and it often feels like I'm just sitting back watching God do stuff.

I found those things that I thought were my individual calling and spiritual goals in life were not things I had to focus on and strive for.  They were God's promises about what was going to happen as I walked with Him.  Instead of striving to be worthy enough, holy enough, and dedicated enough, and to bring about fruit through my own spiritual labors, I found that God was calling me to walk with Him as the unique person He created me to be and that He would bring about the fruit.  Instead of worrying each and every day about falling short and missing opportunities and impoverishing myself from heavenly treasure I wasn't earning, I'm now getting up with much more of a "what's up for today?" type of attitude.  My gifts and talents are now tools, like a carpenter's tools, or an artist's tools, that I pick up each day to do something unique that only I can do as I walk where God wants.  Instead of worrying about what open doors to take and what to do, I find that I just enjoy seeing what He brings up each day.

A few decades ago, my main concern coming onto a site like this would have been truth, holiness, zeal for God, and I would have been doing it with all of the intensity I could bring.  I would have been insecure and any negative feedback would have caused me distress.   Now, I more or less hop on (this and a few other sites), speed read the threads, and see if someone is in pain, lost, struggling, frustratedly striving, being ganged up on, or doing some of the stuff I used to do years ago that ultimately was discouraging and hurting people and causing me to take my focus off of walking with God.  I then try to bring what insights I can to help them move forward with walking with God.   When I find threads (like this one) where people are sharing encouraging, enlightening, and helpful insights and experience about how to move forward, I try to determine if I have something unique I can bring to it to help everyone else. 

So, in a nutshell, I now focus much more on being who God made me to be and walking with Him rather than worrying about what to do.  I find that much of what I now do is much more a reflection of who He made me to be instead of me striving to accomplish spiritual things.  There were some things that God put on my heart as my call in life when I was a teen and in my early 20s.  I had long ago given up on those things since I had long since fallen short of them so I was just trying to make the best of my life.  A few years ago, after I was emerging from the desert, God reminded me of those things.  They all came flooding back to me with an intensity I hadn't known before.  I suddenly realized that these things were promises, not goals to strive for.  These weren't things that would come about because I honed my gifts and talents and worked hard.  These were things that would come about as I started living life fully as the person God made me to be.  These were things that would flow naturally from me as the person He made me to be, not things that I had to discipline and force myself to do.  These weren't things I would *do* by working hard and using gifts and talents; these were things that would require 100% of me to be fully engaged in as the person God made me to be.

It's kind of difficult to summarize about 2 to 3 years of a life-changing spiritual paradigm shift in a single post without becoming too tedious.  But, this is why I would say I've more or less stopped worrying about the question of what God wants me to *do* and spent more time worrying about who God wants me to *be*.

 

 

 

 

[simplejeff]

"in a nutshell" from Acts 3, 4 excerpts:

"16 “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.

17 “Friends,[c] I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. 18 But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. 19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. 21 For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’[d] 23 Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’[e]

24 “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. 25 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants[f] all the families on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.”"

 

‘The stone that you builders rejected
    has now become the cornerstone.’

12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

 

^"32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. ³³ The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. ³⁴ There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them ³⁵ and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.

³⁶ For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. ³⁷ He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles."

[warrior12]

Do you think and believe God still chooses men to go to war as in the person of David.   We may not necessarily fight physical battles , but nevertheless, battles are being fought and warfare rages, hence my name.  Warrior12.  The rest is for your imagination. 

[stronggrace55]

I have been a Christian since 1982.  It has been a long and very tough road, and at times I have turned my back on God. especially the church, and suffered the consequences. I grew up going to church and did not truly receive salvation until I was 18 years old. Now I am 53, and not very rooted in the church as I was in my early years, I'm slowly getting there... I have always had a heart to know what I am supposed to be doing but every door has been shut. I don't what I missed and why? God knows my heart and knows that I would dedicate my life to His gifts and calling. I wrote this in response to a blog post here where the pastor was talking about mantles and I did not like the response I got.  I am extremely quiet in person always have been. Have I missed the mark somewhere?  The internet has become my source for a writing ministry.  Here is what I wrote in response to the blog post about mantles:

 

A couple of years ago, I had a experience in the presence of the Lord where it felt as if someone threw a mantle or cloak around my shoulders. All I could say was "the mantle." because of the story with Elijah and Elisha, I assumed it was a prophetic mantle. I am a very quiet natured person, and it was very frustrating in church because I am very shy in and could not operate in the prophetic gifting in a church service.  To say at the least it made me feel very defeated and purposeless. I had to give up on something that I assumed that I was called to do, Instead,I poured it out in my writings on the internet.I have a blog called The Sacred Place of God's Grace . com. I use it as a place where if I were a preacher that's what I would preach. What I do know is that God has given me a heart of a worshiper, and the gift of writing.  That's all I know I am unaware of what the mantle is or means, but after I sensed that mantle I felt hands on my shoulders.   I felt the Holy Spirit visited me in a very tangible way and it was His way of letting me know that the enemy could not take the mantle away.  That I was one of God's anointed ones.  Who knows what the future holds, I don't think the Lord wants me to worry about it, to just walk in that mantle.

 

Maybe this will be a  help to someone else.  Maybe someone can elaborate or care to give me encouragement on this. I am not getting any younger and desire to follow the Lord with my whole heart. I have been searching for answers for a long time.

 

Richard

[GandalfTheWise]

7 hours ago, Dennis1209 said:

I'm deeply ashamed to admit this, but I'll be held accountable before God in the near future, and all will be revealed. So why shouldn't I give my testimony and admit it now in public?

I resisted God's calling for the vast majority of my life, decades, and walked in my own lusts and desires. I never turned an ear toward God to listen to what he called me to be and do. I'm now deeply saddened and regret my decisions and wasted life and opportunities to serve the Lord. I'm sure I'm not the only one in that boat. 

I have since sincerely repented, rededicated my life to the Lord and want to do the Lord's will and have prayed for His guidance and His will. I'm still trying to listen. Repentance is a wonderful thing that returns lost 'joy' back into your life. No amount of money, toys or things can bring permanent joy to your life.

Don't underestimate what God can do in your life.

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:  (Joel 2:25-28)

The entire story of Israel seems to be one of wasted opportunities and restoration.  I think I might even toss in the parable from Matthew 20 about all the laborers being paid the same amount because the Lord of the harvest is good.  Some of those laborers spent almost the entire day doing nothing.

God can use the path you walked to make you into an effective minister to those on the same path.  You know it intimately well.  You are acquainted with what they are thinking and feeling.  You know what to pray for for them.  You might be a person who helps rescues multitudes from that path of life or helps many from starting down that path.

I'm always hesitant to consider parts of a life wasted and irredeemable.  Moses "wasted" 40 years in Midian (learning how to be a shepherd and in effect learning how not to be an Egyptian and how to be a Hebrew),   Jesus (God incarnate) spend 3 decades walking this earth before starting His ministry!  I mean, why in the world didn't He start a decade or more earlier, or have a ministry longer than 3 years?  How much more could He have done if He had spent 30 years ministering throughout the entire world before His death and resurrection than 3 years in one small geographic region?   God's plans and purposes and timetables don't always fit our expectations.

I say this all by way of encouragement.  Your path didn't lend itself to becoming a long beloved pastor who ministered for 50 years.  But, it is entirely possible the rest of your life will result in God doing so much stuff in some way unique to you that would be far beyond than if you have spent a life doing the "normal" Christian stuff that you are now mourning not having done.   I'm sure the apostle Paul wished he had listened to John the Baptist and the followers of Jesus before putting many of them in jail and applauding Stephen's death, but that didn't stop God from using him in a unique way.

 

[Willa]

6 hours ago, GandalfTheWise said:

This is a nice thread!  A lot of good experiences and insights shared here.  

I spent the first 30 some years of my life as a Christian focused on trying to find my calling, using my gifts and talents, looking for opportunities to minister, and in general focused of determining what God wanted me to do.    Over a period of a couple years, God basically benched me out in a figurative desert until my heart and soul were cleared of the urgency and zealousness and drive that had characterized my first three decades as a Christian.  He was then able to get my attention focused on something that was much more important to Him than my spiritual to-do list and trophy case.  He focused my attention on the fact that His main concern in my life was that I become the person He created me to be.  I was dragged unwillingly into that desert as a high-energy person whose main focus in life was on doing as much for God as I could in my life.  I emerged as a much calmer and focused person and much more focused on walking with God and being the person He created me to be.   I've spent the past 7 or so years focused on being who God created me to be.   I've found that the past few years have been the most enjoyable, satisfying, and fruitful of my life.  I've dropped off a heavy burden (that I had no clue I was carrying) and took up His much lighter one.   I used to labor intensely whenever I was involved in ministry; now it just seems to naturally flow, and it often feels like I'm just sitting back watching God do stuff.

I found those things that I thought were my individual calling and spiritual goals in life were not things I had to focus on and strive for.  They were God's promises about what was going to happen as I walked with Him.  Instead of striving to be worthy enough, holy enough, and dedicated enough, and to bring about fruit through my own spiritual labors, I found that God was calling me to walk with Him as the unique person He created me to be and that He would bring about the fruit.  Instead of worrying each and every day about falling short and missing opportunities and impoverishing myself from heavenly treasure I wasn't earning, I'm now getting up with much more of a "what's up for today?" type of attitude.  My gifts and talents are now tools, like a carpenter's tools, or an artist's tools, that I pick up each day to do something unique that only I can do as I walk where God wants.  Instead of worrying about what open doors to take and what to do, I find that I just enjoy seeing what He brings up each day.

A few decades ago, my main concern coming onto a site like this would have been truth, holiness, zeal for God, and I would have been doing it with all of the intensity I could bring.  I would have been insecure and any negative feedback would have caused me distress.   Now, I more or less hop on (this and a few other sites), speed read the threads, and see if someone is in pain, lost, struggling, frustratedly striving, being ganged up on, or doing some of the stuff I used to do years ago that ultimately was discouraging and hurting people and causing me to take my focus off of walking with God.  I then try to bring what insights I can to help them move forward with walking with God.   When I find threads (like this one) where people are sharing encouraging, enlightening, and helpful insights and experience about how to move forward, I try to determine if I have something unique I can bring to it to help everyone else. 

So, in a nutshell, I now focus much more on being who God made me to be and walking with Him rather than worrying about what to do.  I find that much of what I now do is much more a reflection of who He made me to be instead of me striving to accomplish spiritual things.  There were some things that God put on my heart as my call in life when I was a teen and in my early 20s.  I had long ago given up on those things since I had long since fallen short of them so I was just trying to make the best of my life.  A few years ago, after I was emerging from the desert, God reminded me of those things.  They all came flooding back to me with an intensity I hadn't known before.  I suddenly realized that these things were promises, not goals to strive for.  These weren't things that would come about because I honed my gifts and talents and worked hard.  These were things that would come about as I started living life fully as the person God made me to be.  These were things that would flow naturally from me as the person He made me to be, not things that I had to discipline and force myself to do.  These weren't things I would *do* by working hard and using gifts and talents; these were things that would require 100% of me to be fully engaged in as the person God made me to be.

It's kind of difficult to summarize about 2 to 3 years of a life-changing spiritual paradigm shift in a single post without becoming too tedious.  But, this is why I would say I've more or less stopped worrying about the question of what God wants me to *do* and spent more time worrying about who God wants me to *be*.

 

 

 

 

I identify with this a bit.  It is more like "bloom where you are planted" than find your ministry.   Whoever comes into my life today are my area of ministry, and usually it is when I am least aware of it.  Finding my "ministry" may end up being self effort and for my own glory.  

At one time my ministry was my family.  Now that is gone.  It is the now the lawyer I saw today, the person who checked out my groceries, and the waitress.  If I can share a smile or my hope and faith in any way, perhaps that is what God wants of me.  

[OneLight]

It's interesting to see everyone agreeing that we need to be ready to help where we are needed.  I agree with what is being said.  However, I can see a difference between being obedient to Him when it comes to every day affairs, yet, I also know that we each have been given a work to do within the body itself.  Notice how Paul spoke about the body parts that make up the whole body, supporting each other.   This is different than being an apostle, a prophet, a teacher, a miracle worker, someone who God uses to heal, a helper, part of the administrations, someone who uses a variety of tongues.  Those we what we become in order to bring the lost into the kingdom.