How Do I Know God’s Calling for My Life?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - We get so many questions from listeners

00:00:07.320 | who are wondering about God's calling for their lives.

00:00:10.640 | Who should I marry?

00:00:11.640 | What field should I pursue in school?

00:00:13.920 | What job should I take?

00:00:15.380 | Where should I live in a course?

00:00:17.440 | Where should I be serving in ministry?

00:00:20.040 | Glenn, one such listener, asks,

00:00:22.000 | "Pastor John, how do I know if the Holy Spirit

00:00:25.080 | "is calling me to international missions?"

00:00:28.360 | What would you say?

00:00:29.640 | - Let me start by saying that's the right question.

00:00:32.880 | And the reason I say that is because

00:00:34.680 | a student just asked me two days ago

00:00:37.600 | whether I agreed with Hudson Taylor's comment

00:00:41.100 | that no one needs a call to go into missions,

00:00:46.100 | but only a call to stay.

00:00:49.120 | Everyone should be planning to go to the unreached peoples

00:00:55.680 | and then God may stop you and call you to stay.

00:01:00.680 | And I said to the student, "I don't agree with that.

00:01:05.700 | "I don't think that's the biblical pattern.

00:01:08.580 | "It may have some things to commend it

00:01:10.720 | "in terms of compassion and proportion,

00:01:14.180 | "and we should listen to those things,

00:01:15.400 | "but biblically, I can't support it."

00:01:17.960 | Regularly, God called his prophets,

00:01:22.960 | not the other way around.

00:01:24.600 | And God does not say that men should all plan to be pastors

00:01:29.600 | unless they're called not to be pastors or elders.

00:01:33.920 | Rather, he sets up patterns of assessment

00:01:37.660 | and assumes that relatively few, just the needed number,

00:01:42.660 | will be led into the office of pastor,

00:01:46.840 | teacher, elder, shepherd.

00:01:49.240 | And Paul writes to the Romans to solicit their support

00:01:53.740 | in his mission to Spain, and he doesn't say a word

00:01:57.060 | about anyone in Rome going with him.

00:01:59.600 | And all the epistles of the New Testament

00:02:01.840 | are written with the explicit or implicit assumption

00:02:05.000 | people stay right where they are,

00:02:06.800 | salt and light in their present vocations,

00:02:09.280 | like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7.20,

00:02:11.880 | each one should remain in the condition

00:02:13.840 | in which he was called.

00:02:15.920 | So that's the right question.

00:02:18.680 | That was my point.

00:02:19.600 | Glenn is asking the right question.

00:02:22.420 | So let's start with Romans 12.2.

00:02:24.360 | Do not be conformed to this world,

00:02:26.880 | but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

00:02:28.740 | that you may prove what is the will of God,

00:02:32.720 | what is good and acceptable and perfect.

00:02:35.240 | So discerning the will of God assumes a renewed mind.

00:02:40.240 | I am assuming that the will of God here

00:02:44.080 | refers not to commandments of Scripture,

00:02:50.260 | which you don't need a renewed mind to read and know.

00:02:54.840 | Like, "Thou shalt not kill."

00:02:55.880 | You don't need a renewed mind to know

00:02:57.120 | that's against the will of God.

00:02:58.140 | I'm assuming that what Paul is talking about

00:03:01.840 | in Romans 12.2 is how do biblical teachings

00:03:06.840 | and all the other relevant factors

00:03:11.160 | conspire to produce a direction for my life

00:03:16.160 | that God approves and will bless.

00:03:20.240 | Which leads now to a second thing.

00:03:22.680 | That renewal comes mainly through

00:03:27.120 | the Word of God and prayer.

00:03:30.340 | So when it says be renewed in your mind,

00:03:33.060 | I think he means soak your mind, marinate your mind,

00:03:36.360 | saturate your mind with the Word of God.

00:03:40.840 | The Christian mind is shaped by the Word of God,

00:03:43.440 | all the while praying, praying, praying.

00:03:46.620 | Oh God, shape me.

00:03:47.840 | Oh God, make me.

00:03:49.000 | Oh God, bring me into conformity to this Word

00:03:52.320 | at the depths of my being.

00:03:54.200 | Now, out of that renewed mind and that prayerful experience,

00:03:59.200 | what the mind does to discern a call to missions

00:04:05.700 | is to take seriously about seven things.

00:04:09.360 | Number one, the renewed mind takes seriously

00:04:13.520 | your spiritual gifts.

00:04:14.920 | What are they?

00:04:15.900 | God is not calling you to do something

00:04:18.240 | he has not gifted you to do.

00:04:19.760 | What's the gifting?

00:04:21.240 | And I think gifting that Paul and Peter have in mind

00:04:26.240 | is summed up in 1 Peter 4.10.

00:04:30.680 | As each has received a gift,

00:04:33.240 | use it to serve one another as good stewards

00:04:37.840 | of God's varied grace.

00:04:40.360 | That's what gifts are.

00:04:41.560 | Varied grace incarnate in human personalities,

00:04:47.360 | which we steward for the good of others.

00:04:50.560 | Do you know how God is gifting you in this way?

00:04:55.560 | Number two, the renewed mind takes seriously

00:04:59.880 | the needs that you see in the world

00:05:02.680 | and the ones that move you most deeply.

00:05:06.680 | I wonder if we have thought enough

00:05:11.680 | about the implications of what Paul says

00:05:15.760 | in Romans 12, six to eight, when he's talking about gifts.

00:05:19.040 | He says, "The one who exhorts, let him do it with exhortation.

00:05:24.040 | The one who contributes in generosity,

00:05:27.960 | the one who leads with zeal,

00:05:30.560 | the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness."

00:05:35.360 | Now, every Christian is supposed to exhort.

00:05:39.400 | Every Christian is supposed to be generous.

00:05:42.900 | Every Christian is supposed to show mercy.

00:05:46.040 | And yet, Paul treats those three things as gifts.

00:05:51.040 | And it seems to me that this would imply

00:05:56.480 | that some people would study a cluster of needs

00:06:01.480 | in the world, a people group, a crisis situation,

00:06:06.260 | and a very special God-given compassion

00:06:12.200 | or mercy or generosity or bent to give

00:06:16.720 | would be imparted to that person.

00:06:21.680 | And it would constitute a very significant component

00:06:26.600 | of a person's calling.

00:06:29.600 | So take seriously not just the objective real needs

00:06:34.600 | that you are looking at in the world,

00:06:37.240 | in the lostness and the hurt of people,

00:06:39.800 | but how does that affect you?

00:06:42.480 | How does it affect you?

00:06:44.760 | And then study that in relation to Romans 12, 8,

00:06:48.400 | where one who does acts of mercy

00:06:51.660 | is to do it with cheerfulness,

00:06:53.320 | as though there is some special mercifulness

00:06:57.600 | that God gives to some people

00:06:59.280 | and some special compassion

00:07:01.160 | that he gives to some people for missions.

00:07:03.880 | Number three, the renewed mind takes seriously its skills.

00:07:08.560 | And by this, I'm not thinking mainly of spiritual gifts,

00:07:11.480 | and they may overlap,

00:07:12.880 | but practical skills that God may put to use

00:07:17.020 | in a special way in some context,

00:07:19.700 | like with finances or carpentry or organization

00:07:24.700 | or dozens of possible abilities that may flourish,

00:07:28.840 | especially helpful way on the mission field.

00:07:32.680 | Number four, the renewed mind takes seriously

00:07:36.340 | recurrent and growing interest and awareness

00:07:40.840 | of a place or a people.

00:07:42.880 | When God is moving someone into missions,

00:07:45.400 | he is ordinarily giving them a recurring,

00:07:49.180 | not just a flash in the pan,

00:07:50.720 | but a recurring and growing interest

00:07:55.080 | and awareness of a need he's leading them to.

00:07:58.920 | So my question for people is, what are you reading about?

00:08:02.000 | What are you investigating?

00:08:03.440 | What do you return to again and again?

00:08:05.680 | What are you finding compelling

00:08:07.560 | as you ponder the needs of the world?

00:08:10.640 | Number five, the renewed mind takes seriously

00:08:14.840 | the growing desire of the heart for the work of missions.

00:08:19.840 | So desire.

00:08:22.480 | 1 Timothy 3, one says that elders are to aspire to

00:08:25.600 | and desire the work of the ministry.

00:08:28.160 | And I take that as a principle

00:08:30.800 | that God uses to draw us into his work.

00:08:35.800 | Do you find this work desirable?

00:08:43.280 | Is your desire growing?

00:08:45.600 | Is it reaching the point of irresistibility?

00:08:49.240 | That's what happened for me on October 14, 1979,

00:08:53.280 | when I was struggling with whether to stay a professor

00:08:56.920 | at a college or whether to be a pastor.

00:09:00.000 | And all I knew to say was that at about midnight that night,

00:09:04.320 | it became irresistible after years of brewing.

00:09:09.320 | Number six, the renewed mind takes seriously

00:09:15.100 | the affirmation and confirmation of the local church.

00:09:20.040 | It's essential that you be part of a local church.

00:09:22.560 | This is the normal way of being a Christian.

00:09:26.520 | And it's the only way I know anybody

00:09:28.120 | who could go to the mission field

00:09:29.120 | and know what to do once he got there

00:09:30.840 | if he weren't experienced in a local church,

00:09:33.360 | 'cause it's churches that we want to come into being

00:09:36.600 | so that believers have a way to be discipled there.

00:09:39.520 | And part of the experience of the local church

00:09:42.600 | is to confirm our gifts and confirm our desires

00:09:46.240 | and confirm our skills and confirm our compassion.

00:09:50.440 | And without that confirmation,

00:09:52.280 | we will tend to be loners

00:09:54.320 | who can very easily mistake God's leading.

00:09:56.840 | And the last thing I would say is the renewed mind

00:10:00.680 | wants to glorify God above everything.

00:10:04.000 | We want to see the glory of God celebrated in the world.

00:10:08.760 | And so in all of these things,

00:10:12.400 | are we pursuing the glory of God?

00:10:15.920 | Do we see what I'm being led to

00:10:19.240 | as what will glorify God most?

00:10:23.600 | So immerse yourself in the word,

00:10:25.560 | pray without ceasing,

00:10:27.080 | take these seven factors seriously,

00:10:29.320 | and the effect I think will be that you'll know eventually.

00:10:34.320 | Amen, thank you, Pastor John.

00:10:37.000 | And if you are called to missions, where should you start?

00:10:41.800 | This was the focus of episode number 236 in the podcast.

00:10:45.480 | It's titled, "I May Be Called to Missions,

00:10:47.960 | "Where Do I Start?"

00:10:49.600 | Find that episode and keep up

00:10:51.040 | with the daily Ask Pastor John podcast online

00:10:53.600 | or through our apps for more.

00:10:55.560 | Go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:00.560 | Well, as Christians, we all long for the day

00:11:03.120 | when we enter into God's city,

00:11:04.880 | where we will dwell with him forever.

00:11:07.480 | Of course, it will have no temple,

00:11:08.880 | for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb

00:11:11.160 | will shine like the noonday sun.

00:11:13.640 | So what does it mean to live in God's presence right now?

00:11:17.360 | And how do I know if I'm living in God's presence right now?

00:11:21.040 | It's a good question, and we will address it.

00:11:23.040 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:11:24.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:11:26.640 | (silence)

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00:11:30.960 | (silence)

00:11:33.120 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do I Know God’s Calling for My Life?

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