This post is part of a series. Part 1 is here.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.
Jonah 3:1
After Jonah repents of his decision to run away and turns back to God, the same specific call comes to Jonah for the second time: to go to Nineveh and preach.
God’s call on your life is unchanging as well.
If God has called you to serve Him, He will not stop calling you. He will not remove the call. He will not change His mind. He made you for a purpose. He will not be satisfied until you are fulfilling it. And by the way, neither will you! I absolutely knew when God was calling me into the ministry, that I would not be fulfilled doing anything else. Jonah thought that he could run away from God’s call and the call would stop. But that’s not how God works.
When I was around fourteen years old, during our church youth camp, I committed my life to serving God however He chose to use me. But (I hate to admit this), honestly I forgot about that commitment. If you had mentioned it to me in the ensuing high school years, I would have definitely remembered my commitment. But no one mentioned it, and I had put it far from my thoughts. However, God did not forget. I’m amazed at how patient He was with me for many years! And God in His grace continued to call me.
Some of you reading this (yes, you) know that God has called to serve Him. If you know that, but you’ve never acted on it, step out in faith and begin to pursue God’s calling in your life. If you are already serving God in ministry, are you confident in what He is calling you to do? Do you hear the specific call of God?
What ministry is He leading you to develop in your church? What desire has He placed in your heart?
Our God does not change, and His purposes do not change, and His call does not change. If God has called you, He has plans to use you! Don’t run from God’s call; embrace it!
Now, a caveat. God’s call is unchanging, it’s true. I believe you can see through the volume of Scripture that if God calls a person into vocational service as a priest, prophet, preacher, missionary, etc that His call is permanent, unchanging, and for a lifetime. There’s no example of God’s servants retiring and moving to the beach. Once you are in, you are in for life. If God calls you into full time ministry, He wants you in full time ministry. God’s separation of a person to full time ministry is an enduring separation.
But (and this is worth noting) God may adjust the mode of the separation over a person’s life. For example, a missionary may leave the field to plant a church in his home country. Then he may later return to the field (or not). A pastor may know that it is time to move on from his current pastorate, not in search of money or ease, but as a response to God’s (new) specific calling.
This reasoning also applies to lay leadership in the church. God may move you from nursery worker to high school Sunday school teacher, back to children’s ministry volunteer, etc. God has called every believer to be a servant – vocational or not – and when you finish one area of service – you aren’t finished!
If God has moved you around in your ministry life, don’t be dismayed. In fact, you’ve receive a double (or triple, or quadruple) blessing of God’s specific calling. God’s separation of you to His ministry has not changed, but like a general moving troops around in battle, God positions His enlisted servants in specific places at specific times.
Be willing to listen to God’s continuing specific, unchanging call in your life!
Part 3 of this blog post series is here.
This post is an edited excerpt from the book Big Things.