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Isaiah 30:21

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.

Simply put, a calling is something that God wants a person to do to accomplish His will. He wants to use humans to accomplish His purposes. It is joyous and humbling to be called by God. All Christians have a calling. Sometimes, it is difficult to know what that is. Some examples in Scripture of people being called by God include:

  • Genesis 12:1-9 - Abram
  • Exodus 3:1-22 - Moses
  • Judges 4:4-10 - Deborah
  • 1 Samuel 3:1-10 - Samuel
  • Jeremiah 1:4-19 - Jeremiah
  • Isaiah 6:1-13 - Isaiah
  • Luke 5:1-11 - Disciples
  • Acts 9:1-19 - Saul
  • Acts 9:10-18 - Ananias

If you’re actively following Jesus, there are a few things to consider when contemplating your calling. Remember, prayer and God’s word should be included in every step of the way as you come to understand God’s calling on your life:

  1. What do you desire to do for God?
  2. What doors has God opened or closed for you?
  3. What do other people see in you?
  4. Do you have God’s peace about a specific activity?
  5. Where have you seen fruit or success in doing God’s work?
  6. Has God been bringing the same recurring idea or activity to your attention through sermons, songs, friends, etc?
  7. Where are your spiritual gifts pointing?
  8. What has God told you internally?

All of the above can help you along your way, but none are really concrete except for the last two, 7 and 8. Very strong evidence. At some point, you need to know internally, deep down that God has positioned you for something or that He has spoken to you… His still, small voice. That is the most difficult thing to articulate to other people. If Scripture matches up with what you believe you have heard on the inside and what you believe your spiritual gifts to be and you have thoroughly prayed about it, that is incredibly powerful.

In Genesis 12, we don’t know exactly how God spoke to Abram. We just know that He did. We don’t know exactly how Abram knew. He just knew. At some point, we have to step out in faith, believing that God told us something internally, deep down. As Paul taught, our spiritual gifts relate to our calling, but that has to be dealt with in faith (Romans 12:3).

1 Kings 19:11-12

11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.