What is Calling

calling · 23 Feb 2019

Calling

I thought it fitting that my first series of posts cover my story of being called into a sonship identity, and a missions lifestyle.

In this series I will share several encounters I have had with the Lord and His word that marked my life and directed my path. With each encounter I will provide some of my own thoughts and reflections for the reader to consider.

Due to the unique way that God calls each of us into the life He has prepared for us, I do not have a dramatic “Damascus Road” (Acts 9:1-19) moment to share. Rather, the Lord calling me has been more like Abraham’s story: Abraham encountered the Lord in many ways and many times, yielding each time to a new way that the Lord wished to work in his life.

What is “Calling?”

Before I share my own experience, I think we should take this post to explore the concept of a calling from a biblical perspective. This will be the most theological and complex post in the series.

To be, or to do?

A prevalent belief in the western church is that the calling of God on our lives is all about what He wants us to do. This is not what His word tells us; what we do is actually a very small part of God’s calling on our lives. We were not born to do what He made us to do, but to be who He made us to be. Whereas the world teaches us that our actions define who we are, God calls us to be who He says we are, and for who we are to decide what we do. Here are some examples:

The world says I am a fisherman because I catch fish, but God says I catch fish because I am a fisherman.
The world says I am an apple tree because I grow apples, but God says I grow apples because I am an apple tree.
The world says I am good because I do good things, but God says I do good things because I am good.
The world says I am righteous because I do rightly, but God says I do rightly because I am righteous.

Do you see the pattern here? The world teaches us that we are who we are because of what we do, but God says that we do what we do because of who we are.

Let’s see what His word says:

There are many verses and stories that approach this topic, I chose the single best verse I believe there is on the subject. If you would like to discuss others, feel free to contact me personally.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10) Here we see that we are all his workmanship. The word “workmanship” is translated from the greek “poiēma,” meaning “that which has been made.” This has been interpreted as “masterpiece,” indicating the skill with which we are made and the value of each individual, and is the word from which we get “poem.” We may as well say we are each original pieces of art, expressions of the creative beauty of God!

Because we are each unique works of God, there are unique and creative things that each of us are solely capable of doing. These are the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The works God has prepared for each of us to do are expressions of the unique creativity He has put into each of his masterpieces. It is our privilege to do the things that we alone can do, and greater yet to know that the works we do are, like us, unique expressions of the beauty and creativity of God. We are each unique works of God, created to do good works – or as I like to call them, God works.

“… Created in Christ Jesus…” is perhaps the most important part of this verse. We cannot forget who it is that created us, indeed we must be told directly by Him who we are, otherwise we will walk through life aimlessly believing we are who other people say we are, and doing only what other people say we can do. We are created by God to do the works of God, yet we cannot do the works of God without knowing God himself! Relationship with God is through Christ alone, and we are “created in Christ Jesus” when we receive the gift of God. That gift includes: freedom and forgiveness from the sinful passions that controlled us, a holy and blamelss life, relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit, power, authority, inheritance, and indeed “every spiritual blessing.” (Eph 1:1-14) (Eph 2:1-9)

What am I called to do?

We are first called to Christ and eternal life in Him, that is, to know the Father. (John 17:3) To know what we were created to do, we must begin by asking God who we are created to be. Practically, this means making time in our lives to be with Him. Reading from the bible is one of the most accessible ways for us to come to know His heart and character. When we know His heart it becomes easier to trust Him, and it is always easier to believe the words of somebody we trust than somebody we don’t know anything about. Worship and prayer are great places for us to then, knowing we can trust Him, seek to hear His voice over our lives, and ask Him to reveal to us personally, not just through the bible but through the reality of our lives, how much He loves us. From this place of knowing who He is, who He says we are, and how He loves us as we are, we begin to live in the identity of who we are. Then, first knowing who we are, He begins to show us what to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I pray you will be blessed by this reminder of what our calling is, and of the importance of knowing God personally. In my next post I will begin to share personal experiences of how I have come to know who I am called to be, and received direction in what to do. God bless you all!