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Calling: It's Individual, It's Universal July 6, 2009 By Jill Fierge I am not sure
everyone receives their calling the same. For some, it is a process.
God slowly reveals the calling as the individual matures and accepts
it. For others, there may be a “lightning bolt” moment. Both may,
at some point, experience doubt of the calling, “Did I invent this?
Did God really call me?” For those who can recall a specific
place, date, and time of their calling (the lightning bolt), it
may be easier to dispel the doubt. It may be a bit more challenging
to erase doubt for those who received a gradual calling, but neither
calling is more valid. A call often
is given in areas where the individual has natural giftings.
If you can't carry a tune, you won't have a calling as a music director.
However, I do think sometimes God calls people into ministries in
which they are unaware they have gifts, simply because they never
developed them. My ministry
is teaching. I have always loved learning and everything to do with
school. I am the person who, when driving from my house to the church
(2 miles), will have a book with me in case I get stopped at a stoplight.
I cannot stand to waste one minute when there is so much to learn.
With a passion like that, it made sense that God called me to teach.
Yet, I know of men who were so shy they could not testify, and God
called them to preach. It wasn't that they had no gifts in the area
of public speaking; they just had not developed it. I counsel high
school students to take all the math, all the science, all the English
and all the history they can possibly squeeze into their four years.
Why? If you do not feel a direct calling into a particular
ministry from God yet, the field is wide open. Since the individual
does not know God's plan for his/her life, he should prepare for
everything. I think God is pleased with this. It shows God a person
is prepared and willing for whatever God wants. Is it possible
God calls us to a particular ministry for a certain time, and then
He moves us into another area of ministry? Yes, I think this happens.
The wise individual will be well-prepared. If my passion for teaching
appears to lessen, yet I don't feel a different direction--I keep
teaching. Sometimes the passion lessens, due more because of our
humanness than to the possibility of God changing His mind. Sometimes
my passion for serving God lessens, yet I still serve Him.
Even if God
changes direction or ministries in our life, I don't believe the
initial calling will ever leave. A man called to pastor may not
always pastor, but he still has the calling of a pastor. Perhaps
instead of pastoring 200 people in a church (in the senior pastorate
role) he is now the bishop. He may only pastor one man (the senior
pastor) now. Yet, he is no less a pastor and his calling is in no
way diminished. Jill Fierge is a pastor's wife and teacher. She sincerely hopes the staff of ninety and nine will edit her comments since they are embarrassingly unorganized. She blames this on the fact that she is finishing up her Masters in Teaching degree in June and is delirious from study.
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