Your calling

"Follow me."  The Lord Jesus to His disciples

Following the Spirit is every believers calling, no matter what.  No matter where you are in life, you have one thing to do:  follow the Spirit. 

This is our very salvation, which is our calling, the essential meaning of being called. 
This is our full time ministry.  To be saved, to be a believer, is to be called by God.
Jesus' simple command to follow Him was the call and salvation of his first followers, and of His followers even today.

This means a lot to me because I always wanted to be called to do "full time ministry," meaning to get paid to follow the Spirit.  But I didn't realize that  by simply working as a believer I am getting paid to follow the Spirit, though I'm not part of an institutionalized ministry.  Whatever I do, I am to work with all of my heart as towards God and not man, as Paul said.  It's God whom I serve.  I've always been a full time minister, and if you believe in Christ, so have you, no matter where you are in your life.

Say you're feeling like your life is a mistake because you took a job you shouldn't have taken.  Or you moved to a location that you regret.  Maybe you're in a relationship that is no where near what you hoped it would be.  Now, living in regret, you're retracing your steps and wondering how you can start over, how you can fulfill your calling.  I have good news for you.

Wherever you are, stay there. 

God will lead you while you are in your situation,

or He will lead you out of your situation. 

It is written, 

"Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them."

1 Corinthians 7:20.

Say you were an unbeliever, married to an unbeliever, when you first believed in the Lord.  Like Paul says, you should remain married, which is the situation you were in when God called you, even though your spouse is an unbeliever.  This is a hard situation to be in.  But God will lead you in that situation, or out of that situation.  Until He leads, stay where you are.

Or say you were working a particular job before you believed in Jesus.  Now that you believe, you're wondering if you should change jobs.  Again, stay in that situation, and God will lead you while you're in it, or He will lead you out of it.

Of course, the exception to all of this is if you were doing something illegal as a job, or if you were committing adultery against someone else's marriage.  In those situations, your salvation means that you leave your sinful life. You never stay in a sinful situation.  God never calls you to sin, or to stay in sin.

But if you simply regret where you are, stay there, and follow the Spirit.  Pray for God to set you free, and even look for His liberation.  Don't try to liberate yourself, unless you are resisting or leaving a situation of sin.  Stay where you were when you were saved, when God called you.

This is your calling:  follow the Spirit wherever He leads.  This is all the apostles had to do when Jesus said, "Follow me."  Wherever He went, they went.  Whatever He commanded, they obeyed.

It's the same for you and me.
This is my calling.
This is your calling.
Follow the Spirit.

Our Imaginary God (Part 2)

Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.~The Lord Jesus

How can you find out God's will and know it?  First, you have to reject your Imaginary God, like we talked about last time.  This is the god who likes everything you like, loves everything you love, always agrees with your common sense.  The true God is more like this.

Say you're thinking about taking a new job.  You like it, it makes sense, it's everything you're looking for salary wise.  Yet something isn't "right."  You feel a faint uneasiness, something (or Someone?) suggesting that you wait and keep looking for jobs.  

"But why wait?" you reason.  "How could the God (of your imagination) have a problem with you taking this job?  It's a good job, meaning you actually would be doing good in the world.  Doesn't the Bible say that you should do good?"

Assuming you really care what the Bible says.
You know what I mean.

You know that for most of your life's decision, you aren't consulting the Bible.  You're consulting "common sense," or what makes sense, or more honestly, what you want to do...assuming that what you want to do is what God would want you to do...if it's not a crime at least...

How much of our lives is based on a genuine desire to do God's will, even if it wasn't what we were thinking?  Is it possible that God would want something we didn't think of?

Of course not.  God gave us common sense for a reason, right?

He did, if we redefine what "common sense" is in the first place.

Click here for Part 3.

Our Imaginary God (Part 3)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Lord gives wisdom, out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

~King Solomon

What is "common sense?"  It's the "sense" that humans have "in common!"  But what is it's origin? 

God.

God is the Creator of creation and the origin of the principles that govern our lives--the origin of common sense.  Wouldn't it be common for creation and creatures to follow the Creator?  What is more intelligent for a creature than to trust their all knowing Creator, the one who made them and defines the purpose of their lives?

So if by "common sense" we mean we trust in the principles God placed in life and the universe, then our definition of "common sense" is a good one.  It would mean we are ultimately trusting in God and not ourselves.  But if we think we can figure it out on our own, "it" meaning anything, we are actually not using common sense.  We're trusting in ourselves, and in our Imaginary God, the one who is our peer, our equal, and our servant.

We don't like that.

We don't like that we were created to serve and not to be served by God.  That, by the way, is the difference between the true God and our Imaginary God, the way we can truly know the will of the true God:

The True God is our King and Master, and we His subjects and servants.

The Imaginary God is our subject and servant, and we are His master; 

He exists for us and our happiness.

Again, if your happiness is the key to your decisions, then your God is imaginary.  But if God's purpose for your life is the key to your decisions, whether that purpose makes you happy or not (though it will, but that's not the focus), then your God is the true and real God, and you will find His will for your life...and know it.

Our Imaginary God

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.~The Apostle John

If God just so happens to agree with almost everything you want to do, you're worshipping an idol.  This is what God says,

"My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts." 

King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, second only to Jesus in wisdom, also said,

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.  Lean not to your own understanding.  In all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."  

Most of the time what we think is best won't match what God thinks is best.  Why would it be?  Do we see all ends or know every situation fully?

We think we do.

We think we're so logical, so full of common sense and experience, that we can handle almost anything and anyone in any situation.  We think we are as smart as God.  But C.S. Lewis shows us our foolishness.

"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself.  Unless you know God as that--and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison--you do not know God at all.  As long as you are proud you cannot know God.  A proud man is always looking down on things and people and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.  This raises a terrible question.  How is that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves as very religious?  I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God."

An imaginary God.

This is the God that agrees with almost everything you say, or almost everything you feel.  The God that feels as strongly about what you're considering as you do.  This is where we must be careful, hyper vigilant. 

How do we do it?  By denying ourselves completely.  It means we have to be honest about what we feel so strongly, then wait until our strong feelings subside.  Unless we do that, we will deceive ourselves.  We will think the God of the universe agrees with everything we plan.