How to find and fulfill your calling today

"Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name's sake." Romans 1:5 NIV

I learned something from the Spirit today.  Here it is:  Before I can fulfill my specific calling as a believer, I must fulfill the general calling of all believers.  That means you and I both have the same calling, and if we obey it, we will find our specific, individual calling.  We have the same calling as Jesus' first followers.  His Spirit gives us this call.  Here it is--the Spirit's call to you and me:

"Follow me."

Another way to put it would be this:

"Obey me."

Paul said that we, the "Gentiles," the believers who are not Jewish, are called to obey God as evidence of our faith in Christ.  Paul also said that "to whom we present ourselves slaves to obey, we are that one's slaves whom we obey, whether sin leading to death, or righteousness leading to life."  Paul then says that we are "slaves of God."  This means God owns us, defines us, and determines all of our actions.  He alone controls us.  This is our first and foremost calling, the call of all of who believe in Jesus:  Obedience to God.

If we don't obey the Spirit, or follow the Spirit, in the same way the first followers followed Jesus did, we have no right to ask God for our specific calling.  In fact, for now, we should assume that our specific calling is nothing else but this:  Follow the Spirit. Or obey the Spirit.

Some of you may wonder how to practically do this.  Think of it this way.  If you want God's specific commands in your life, you must obey His general commands in the specific areas of your life.  Here are His two commands that we can all obey today and right now:

Love God with all of your heart and soul and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus said these two commands are the summation of all of God's commandments.  Now if we obey these two commandments to the best of our ability in our specific situations and relations, we will be led by the Spirit in the specific areas of our lives.  In other words, we will find and fulfill our calling today.

This is what God showed me in the scriptures, and what I pass on to you who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The one thing Christians must do

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am my servant also will be.  My father will honor the one who serves me.  John 12:26 NIV

Jesus gave one command to his disciples when he began his ministry:  Follow me.  That was it.  They were to go where he led them to go.  They were to go wherever he went.  He led.  They followed.  That made them his disciples.  They didn't vote on where they would go or what they would do.  They didn't determine their destination.  Sometimes they just went with him and listened to him preach and teach.  Sometimes they just went with him and watched him heal and cast out demons.  Later in Jesus' ministry he gave them authority to preach, heal, and cast out demons.  But first, he called them to simply be with him.  You and I who believe in him have the same calling:

Follow the Spirit of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul said, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God."  He also said, "Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh...If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."  The Spirit of Christ gives us the same command he gave the first disciples, "Follow me."  That's it.  We are his servants.  And as it is written, "Whoever serves me must follow me."  Paul said, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slave, whom you obey?"

Are you a servant and slave of Jesus?  If you want to be, it's simple.  Present yourself to him as his servant and slave. Then know that to be his servant and slave, you must follow him.  Wherever he goes, you must go, no matter the consequence.  And God the Father will honor you as a servant of Christ, as a true disciple.  True disciples and servants of Christ follow his Spirit wherever his Spirit leads.  Wherever the Spirit is, they also will be.  The Father honors those who serve Jesus by following His Spirit.

Enemies

"While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.  Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.'  He replied to him, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?'  Pointing to his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and brothers.  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'"  Matthew 12: 46-50 NIV

There are few that I can let my guard down with.  Only a few that I'm certain are always in the Spirit.  Always trustworthy.  Never in league with the enemy.  At least around me. (And I hope the few can say the same about me.)

Like in the movie "The Matrix," I have to remember who is plugged in and whose unplugged.  Satan is the architect of the matrix of this world.  The unsaved are plugged into his system.  The demons are his agents.  Everyone plugged into the matrix can be used by the agents at will, at every opportunity the agents need.  Satan and demons just need an opportunity. Though I don't wrestle against flesh and blood, flesh and blood are the opportunities of my enemy.  Like Morpheus said to Neo about those plugged into the Matrix:

"The Matrix is a system, Neo.  That system is our enemy.  But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see?  Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters.  The very minds of the people we are trying to save.  But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy.  You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged.  And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

Enemies.  Obstacles.  Distractions.  Oppositions.  People who are not following the Spirit, whether unbelievers or carnal believers, are a part of a system that is the enemy. True.  Paul said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood."  Yet it's also true that Jesus said, "Love your enemies."  Jesus wasn't talking about Satan and the demons, or the principalities and powers Paul said are our truest enemies.  So people are also our enemies in the literal sense of the word:  they oppose us.  How?  Paul said, "The flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. They oppose each other."  This must also apply to what Paul said when he wrote, "Those who live in accordance of the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.  But those who live in accordance with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit."  Paul also said, "The carnal mind is hostile towards God."  That must mean that those who live in the flesh are hostile towards and opposed to those who live in accordance with the Spirit.  That those who are in the flesh are enemies of those who are in the Spirit. 

Again, Paul said this to the Corinthians, that the relationship between believers and unbelievers is like the relationship between light and darkness, the temple of God and the temple of idols, Christ and Belial.  That these have absolutely nothing in common, no agreement, no common ground.  None.  True, Paul was speaking about unbelievers, and the separation between believer and unbeliever; that believers should "come out from among them and be separate."  But he also said to separate from believers who are living in unrepentant sin.  Jesus himself said to treat believers who are unrepentant "like tax collectors and sinners."  Like those with whom we have nothing in common, but whom we still love, because Christ commanded his followers to love their enemies, those who oppose them--unbelievers and carnal believers, those who live in accordance with the flesh.

I'm seeing this more and more as I strive to follow the Spirit.  Like Jesus said, my only "mother, brothers, and sisters" are those who follow the Spirit.  This is painful and lonely.  But it's reality.  And it's hard for me to remember.  I find myself letting my guard down and being attacked by Satan when I'm with an unbeliever or carnal believer.  Lord, please help me to remember.

Spiritual letters

To Matthew, my spiritual son,

From the time you were 5, you believed in the Lord.  Your faith was real.  I've seen it grow as you are becoming a man.  You've always wanted to know how to follow the Lord perfectly, which is rare.  I only know one other believer, my spiritual brother, who wants what you and I want:  to be perfectly pleasing in the sight of God for the day of judgment, and to know that this is so in the present.  Because we want the same thing, though I'm your spiritual father, I'm encouraged and strengthened by you.  I want to encourage and strengthen you with what God showed me today in the scriptures.

I've been reading about the kings of Israel.  It's sometimes discouraging because they seem inconsistent at best in their relationships with God.  Most of them were evil and did evil.  With each king, more evil is done.  From father to son, more evil is done against the Lord.  But every now and then in the scriptural accounts of Hebrew Kings, a good king comes to the throne.  But he either leaves God at some point, or his son undoes every good thing he did.  I've only found one king so far in my readings who was faithful to God from beginning to end.  This king reminds me of you because he started following God as a boy.  You were 5 when you began with Christ.  He was eight.  His name was Josiah.  This is what the Spirit said about him:

"Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 31 years.  He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed in the ways of his father David, not turning to the right or to the left."

Like you, Josiah was single-mindedly focused on the Lord from the time he was a boy, following the example of his father David, as you are following in my example.  Keep doing what you're doing Matthew.  Don't turn to the right or the left.  Stay focused on God, like Josiah did.

"In the 8th year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David."

The 8th year of Josiah's reign would've made him 16 years old.  You're about to be 16 Matthew.  You've already begin to seek my God.  To seek Him means to pursue an intimate relationship with Him.  You're studying the scriptures and meditating on God's words.  You do this to learn not only what God thinks, but how He thinks. You are seeking to understand and know God.   Keep doing this Matthew, and you will be like Josiah.

"Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did--with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, in accordance with all the law of Moses."

At first I thought Josiah had an advantage over us--that he had the law of Moses, which gave the Israelites exactly what they were supposed to do in every area of their lives.  You seem like you want these kinds of divine instructions Matthew.  I understand if you do; I used to want the same thing.  But I now see that the Spirit is our law;  His will and mind are written on our intuition and conscience.  So all you have to do to be like Josiah is turn to the Spirit as Josiah did--with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength, in accordance with the leading of the Spirit.  In other words, completely focus on following the Spirit.  Obey the Spirit with all of your heart, soul, and strength, not doing anything He doesn't lead you to do.

I hope my words strengthen and encourage you.  Let me know what you think as you pray about my words.

I love you my son in the Spirit,
Your spiritual father.

How to Experience The Spirit's Power in Your Life (Part 1)

"You shall receive power when the Spirit comes upon you..."  
~The Lord Jesus, to His followers, before He ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God

As a follower of Christ, you have a superpower, The Super Power, The Spirit of the Almighty.  Jesus promised you this power, This Person, who would empower you and be your power.  By "power" Jesus meant "supernatural, miraculous, divine power."  I want to share with you what this power is and how you experience it.

GOD'S POWER IS THE SPIRIT IN YOU.
It is written, "God's eternal power and divine nature, though invisible, have been clearly seen through the things God made, so that we are without excuse."  God's power is eternal, unborn, undying, infinite.  This is the power of God, and this is the power Jesus promised His followers.  What this power is can be seen in the life of Jesus, our role model, who was supernaturally born, and who supernaturally lived.  The same is true for you, if you believe in Jesus.  You were supernaturally reborn, and you supernaturally live as Jesus did, as it is written, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God."  It is written again, that "...as many as received Him, as many as believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."  As Jesus was Spirit born, you are Spirit reborn.  And as Jesus was filled with and led by the Spirit, your birthright as a child of God is to be Spirit filled and led.  That's what this power is:  the Spirit of God in you, as your life, leading you and empowering you, as it is written, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God."  If you believe in Jesus, the Spirit of God lives in you.  This is God's power in you.  This is how you experience it.

GOD'S POWER IS EXPERIENCED BY ASKING FOR IT.
It is written, "If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?"  God gives His children His Presence and Power when they simply ask for it.  It's that simple.  In the same way that you asked God to forgive you for your sins, and received forgiveness just for asking, so you receive the Spirit's leading and power just by asking.

"Is it really that easy?"  Yes, it really is that easy, if you believe what Jesus said.
"Then why is it that when I ask, I feel the same, and nothing seems any different?"

We'll get to that in the next blog. (Click HERE  for part 2.)

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.

Are you spiritually desperate? (Part 2)

This is what the Spirit is saying to the spiritually desperate:

"If life is knowing Me, then death is My silence.  I am life, says the Spirit.  Live.  Trust me.  And I'll show you who I am.  Jesus is Lord.  Amen."

***

Without the Spirit, two things are desperately lacking in our lives:

1. The truest most trustworthy friendship.
2. The truest most trustworthy guidance.

THE SPIRIT IS OUR ONLY TRUE FRIEND
Think about genuine connections in your life.  How many are there?  Even with your very best friend on earth, there are times of separation or disconnection.  These are even necessary.  But with the Spirit, you are indwelled by the very best friend you will ever have.  God is love.  The Spirit is God, therefore, the Spirit is love.  You are indwelled by Love, and as it is written, Love never fails.  The Spirit alone is our truest and most trustworthy friend.  And being the most trustworthy, He is our only true guide.

THE SPIRIT IS OUR ONLY  TRUE GUIDE
Who amongst your wisest friends is never wrong and always knows what to do with your life?  Who knows why you were created, or where you should be in your life's journey and destiny?  Wise people give good and wise principles, or even good advice, but never perfect advice for you or me.  We need our Creator.  The Spirit is our Creator, as it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord has made me, the Breath of the Almighty gives me life."

The Spirit is our truest most trustworthy friend and guide...unless we think we're ok without him.

Are you spiritually desperate?

"On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.'  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."  

John 7:37-39

About 20 years ago, I came to a point of desperation in my life, a point where I desperately needed to hear from God.  I used to listen without question to my pastor, but during this time something happened that changed everything.

I began to hear the voice of God for myself, 

and what my pastor was telling me didn't match what God was saying.

I felt devastated.

Though it seems obvious, at that time I never considered that my pastor may not being hearing from God on a given occasion, especially an occasion that directly involveed my life and not his. 

During this time in my life, hearing from God was a matter of life and death for me, a matter of my identity and destiny as I knew it at that time, because everything I'd hoped and dreamed and lived for had failed me.  

I had nothing but the voice of God.  

I had no one by the Spirit of God.

That's how I became a Spirit listener.

Through many hardships, mistakes, trials and errors, I learned that I needed to know God's voice for myself, so that I would know when my pastor (or any other believer for that matter) was speaking from God or was simply speaking from their own opinion.  This is true for me, you, and every believer.

Every believer in Christ can now hear the voice of God.  This is the privilege and birthright of every one who believes in the Lord Jesus:  young and old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, full time minister or home-school teacher.

But in order to Spirit listen, we must feel our desperate need to listen.  

As the Lord Jesus said, we have to be spiritually thirsty to receive His Spirit.

Are you spiritually desperate?

A Call To Spirit Listeners (Part 3)

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?"  The Apostle Paul

What is more important than God in us?  Who is more important?  Is there anything else more worthy of our thoughts, focus, and purpose?

If you believe in Jesus--

The Holy Spirit is in you.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore, God is in you.

If we really believed that, how could our lives ever be the same?

We often think of how awesome it would be to have Jesus Himself with us like the apostles did.  I'm sure you've heard this before or read it before.  But it's worth repeating, hearing again, and reading again.  Jesus Himself said it was better for Him to leave so He could send us the Holy Spirit.  How could that be better to men who had been with Jesus Himself, in the flesh, for 3 whole years?  The only way it could be better is if the Spirit of Jesus Himself, the same Jesus they were with for 3 years, was not only with them, but in each and every one of the 12 apostles.  They would have their own "personal Jesus" in them, if I can say that reverently.

So it would be like having Jesus with each and every one of us all the time, instead of Jesus being limited in time and space, only in Israel, where people have to crowd him and press him to get near Him.  The real Jesus, in each of us, all the time.

To make this real to me, I often imagine if Jesus were sitting right next to me...say, on my job.  How would that affect how I work? 

If Jesus were with me, in the flesh, I'd just want to do whatever He said.  Whatever.  He.  Said.  How could I come up with better ideas or plans than Him?  My job (and my life) definitely wouldn't be a democracy if Jesus, the Lord, is with me.  I'd just do what He said. And there could be nothing at all better than that.

After I imagine this, I realize that I am actually in this situation.  Jesus is actually with me all the time by the Spirit.  All I have to do is follow Him, just like He said to the 12 when He called them.  He still says this today by His Spirit to all who want to be His disciples:

Follow me.

If you long to follow the Spirit no matter the consequences, like the 12 apostles followed Jesus, then you are a Spirit listener.

Let's begin our journey. 
Let's follow the Spirit of Jesus together. 
Let's be Spirit listeners.

Tell me your passion for this in the comments.