Your Calling

Well, tomorrow took a little longer to get here than expected 😊. Life happens!

When it comes to your “calling” where Jesus is concerned it is very different from your ministry. Every one of us have a ministry and we have a calling. Ministry is all about your service to others whereas your calling is about your fellowship with the Lord.

The word “calling” in the Strong’s Concordance means invitation. God’s calling is His invitation to you to come and fellowship, or have companionship, with Him. In short, He is inviting you to come and visit Him. He is inviting you to dinner where the two of you talk together and get to know one another.

1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and ever true to His promise, and He can be depended upon); by him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Your calling is to have companionship with Jesus where there is a deep exchange of thoughts and feelings between you. This is what the Lord’s heart longs and yearns for. He is so willing to always do things for you, but His deepest desire is your companionship. He has so much to show you, so much He desires to do with you, and so much He wants to teach you, but it requires your willing participation.

Your calling then is your prayer life. And prayer is versatile. It comes in many different forms and formats. Just as a husband and wife have different activities and things they are involved in, so is prayer. Prayer involves your WHOLE relationship with God.

Prayer is not just bringing your requests and needs to Him, it also involves the two of you spending time just talking. Imagine if the only time a husband spoke to his wife was when he asks her to cook a meal or make his bed; or a wife that only talks to her husband when she wants money to go shopping! That’s not a marriage! However, both are functions within a marriage, and a true marriage has each party taking care of the other.

The Lord is often referred to as our husband and we are called His bride. This example is only a metaphor (there is no marriage in heaven) that God uses in order to help us understand the kind of intimacy and relationship He desires.

He wants “alone” time with you.

He wants to be intimate with you and this intimacy comes from His voice and His tender embrace which touches your feelings.

This intimate life with the Lord takes place within you. He lives in you and you are called to live in Him. It’s a real relationship, and it plays out in your imagination – a combination of your thoughts and feelings. It’s in this place where you release powerful thoughts and emotions of gratitude and love towards Him and where He releases His overwhelming thoughts and emotions of love into your whole being. It becomes a union of thoughts and emotions exchanged between two heavenly beings.

This is the relationship that Jesus calls “first love” and it is this relationship that He warns His church not to lose. (Rev 2:4) He knows those He has a “first love” relationship with and He will never cast them away or call them unknown. They are His treasure, His delight, His great reward. I pray that you are one of those who have responded to His invitation to come and be His companion.

When you live in your “calling” your “ministry” will flow out of you naturally. You won’t find yourself in a position of wondering what you should be doing to serve the Lord. You will not be pressurized by men or women to match a certain appearance or attain a certain standard of success. The only things that will matter to you is the Lord’s opinion and whether or not He is happy. If He is happy, and you are happy in Him, who cares about anything else!

Out of this intimate relationship comes His calling, or invitation to you, to participate with Him in the things that He does. This is true ministry. When you go with Him to share the gospel, people get saved, when you go teach with Him, people get understanding, when you go feed the poor with Him, bread and fish are multiplied, when you lay hands on the sick with Him, people are healed. Your ministry is simply the activities you do within your relationship with Jesus.

Be blessed in Him! 😊