Life isn’t worth living until you have found something worth dying for. – Martin Luther King Jr.
Did you know that you have a calling? I know what you may be thinking, “That’s not for me, that is for pastors and missionaries.” I feel you! That is what I thought. I thought that there were this rare breed of people that existed that possessed some type of mutant-supernatural x-men like powers who could see though walls and read your mind.
I grew up in a church where we would have people called “Prophets” come through every year or so to preach. If you have never seen something like this you haven’t lived. Trust me, the religious TV doesn’t do it justice. Let me give you the rundown. These people would come to the church and the entire congregation would be a buzz for weeks. Some people were excited and others planned to skip that Sunday as if we were having a foot washing service. If you don’t know about foot washing services, I’ll have to explain them to you at another time. So back to the “Prophets,” while they were preaching would stop dead in their tracks, mid-sentence, and as if God had totally called and interrupted their message. They would proceed to ask people to ask random people to stand up and say something to the effect of “Thus sayith the Lord.” Why God always speaks in the King’s english I will never know. They would then proceed to tell them some type of encrypted message about their past, present, or future that usually ended up in the person crying signifying that their mail had just officially been read. Now I am not trying to make lite of these experiences, or to say that what happened was not valid. But sufficeth to say, as a kid, I was terrified. I didn’t want these “Prophets” to be there. Much less to look at me in the eyes, and see the dark secrets that lied in my teenage mind.
I thought “Callings” were reserved for people like this. I don’t think I am the only one. If you grew up in church like I did, you too may think “Ministers” are those special breed of people who have a direct line to Jesus and the rest of us have “no signal.” Ministers are people who go to Bible college and speak in front of people on Sunday mornings.
The Clergy and the Laity
We have even have words to differentiate between the “Man of God” and the common people. The “Clergy” and “Laity.” Neither of these words are found in the Bible. The word “Cleargy” comes from the word “Cleric” which means “One who can read.” So what would happen years ago when the common man was illiterate, they gave the ministry jobs to the literate people (the clearly) and then the rest of the people (the laymen) would just “lay” around and listen to the preacher “READ” once a week and then go about their everyday life. Void of the responsibility to themselves carry out ministry. Their job as laymen was to simply show up each week to the church building and be ministered to.
There is only one problem with this paradigm. Namely, the fact that Jesus did not teach this. He actually taught the opposite, and he got crucified much because the religious leaders of the day did not like his teaching.
In the Old Testament there was a process of priests that would mediate between the common person and the Lord. Priests were a special people who had their job because of the family that they were born into. One tribe, the tribe of Levi, was the priestly tribe and handled all of the “Spiritual things” for the people. They were born into the ministry and were separated from the common man. If people needed God, they would come to them, and they represented God to the people and the people to God.
Then here comes Jesus preaching and teaching the common people things like this:
(Matthew 4:11) YOU are the light of the world, YOU are the salt of the earth.
Everyone was amazed. Well, not everyone. The religious elite was not happy because they were thinking, “No way. That is our job. We are the light of the world, not them.” If they get ahold of this, they will not need us. See, the religious had developed a pretty sweet system that benefited themselves. They had even invented more rule that God even gave to make themselves even more necessary. Two words, JOB. SECURITY.
But Jesus looked at the common man and said, YOU have a part to play in the kingdom. It is the same today. You have an unbelievably important role to play in the kingdom of God and without you fulfilling that role the body of Christ will suffer!
I want to give you a statement that you can rehearse in your mind daily to help remind you about who you are.
I am a minister, with a specific purpose, at an opportune time, do make an eternal difference.
I Am a Minister
Did you know that you are a minister? Maybe you thought that ministers were people who went to Bible College. This is not true. You are a minister!
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (2 Peter 2:9)
Welcome to the ministry! The next time someone asks you what you do for a living, simply tell them, “I’m in the ministry.” I know what you’re thinking. No way, that’s not me. That is for someone else. I am an accountant. I am a stay-at-home Mom. I am not a minister.
I want to fire you up about the reality that you have a calling to fulfill with your life. I believe one of the biggest tools in the Devil’s arsenal is insignificance. If he can cause us to see ourselves as insignificant then he can rob us of our impact. There is one thing both God and the devil agree on about you, and that is the potential value that you have in their kingdom.
Satan really works hard to make us thing that what we do is not important. He makes us think that it is not spiritual or impacting to the kingdom of God. We think, I am not doing anything really spiritual, I am JUST a barista. I am JUST an engineer, what can I do of spiritual value?
I want to challenge you with this statement: Your vocation is your ministry location. Take whatever you are doing and realize that you are in your workplace by divine design.
The “spiritual stuff” does not happen at church and the “worldly stuff” happen everywhere else. God wants you to realize you are ding what you are doing because he knew YOU would be the one who could make a difference where no one else could.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. (Romans 12:1)
Whatever you do, do it with all you have! Realize that God has you where you are for a specific plan and purpose and the best is yet to come. There is impact to be made regardless of the job that you have.
Take this Job and Love It
The real question is, “What do you call that thing you do after you leave the house in the morning? Is is a career? A job? A paycheck? Or is it part of your mission? Your calling?” It is all in how you view it. I have never seen someone who can’t wait to wake up in the morning full of energy, vision, and excitement for something they say is “A paycheck.”
I have seen this for myself in the life of my Grandparents. I have watched them my entire life turn their everyday life into ministry. The same year I started kindergarten my grandfather started a new job at that same elementary school as a custodian. Then, my grandmother was a lunch lady at the same school. These kind of connections have their benefits when you are in elementary school. I had a pretty good chance of getting into the kitchen at the school whenever I wanted and it is probably one of the contributing reasons that I wore “Husky” pants throughout my adolescence. Can I get an “Amen” from my brothers who knew what it was like to wear some husky pants!
My grandparents worked there for the next 20 years and made such an impact. First of all, they did their jobs with excellence and pride. They were thankful for their job and took pride in a job well done. Sometime we think that we need to have our dream job before we can give our best. If you don’t give your best today, then you will never have the opportunity to fulfill your dream tomorrow.
I can remember them prayer-walking that little elementary school so many times! They were praying for the students and faculty at that school. They were praying that God will do a powerful work in the people who walk the halls each week. That is ministry! They realized that they were a minister, right where they were. Their vocation truly was their ministry location.
When we started City Hills Church we first met in a school. One day my grandparents called me and told me that they felt the Lord said to them that he reminded them about all of the prayers that they prayed for the school that they worked at. They said that the Lord was going to use those prayers to bless the church that was meeting in a school all the way in Knoxville, Tennessee. Those prayers worked and God blessed our church there in that school.
With a Specific Purpose
You are not just a minister. You are a minister with a specific purpose. There was a specific idea that God had in mind when he created you! You are not an accident, but you are divinely created to do a specific work for God!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
Think about this, before you were born God had a something for you to do! Before there was a YOU, God had a DO in mind for your life! That means that you are not one in a million, you are one of a kind. God has a specific purpose for you!
The real question is, “Do you know what it is?” Do you know Why you are here?
We will explore the other final two aspects of our calling next week.
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Questions for Reflection:
Who is someone who you feel lives their life from a sense of “Calling?” How have they inspired you?
What do you think of when you hear the word, “Minister?” Is it strange to see yourself as one? Why or why not?
Do you feel like you have a specific purpose? If so, what is that purpose?
