It’s Christianese for “I want to.”
Maybe that’s harsh, but I suspect most readers have thought that too. I’ve had many conversations where someone is suggesting doing something which is somewhere on the spectrum between ‘surprising’ and ‘deeply unwise,’ where they tell me that God has called them to do it.
I suspect for some of them, especially those at the more surprising end, there was some truth to this. But it’s not really how calling works. For many it’s their way of making their desire to do this sound innately spiritual.
It’s definitely true that God calls us to do things. Every major character in the Bible has their story start with God calling them out of their old life into the mission that he gives them. It’s the way it works. It is true that this is the shape of our own spiritual lives too because God calls us out of death into a new life with him. But we shouldn’t spiritualise it away: there is a pattern where earthly mission starts with the call of God. We should expect this for many.
I fear that we’ve made it so everyone has to have a unique and wonderful calling that’s very specific to them. I’ve certainly met young people struggling with the anxiety of not knowing what their ultra specific calling from God is. The answer of course is “be a Christian” most of the time, but for a variety of cultural reasons we’ve ended up making people think they need something way more than that.
God does call all of us to specific things all the time, it’s just that they aren’t always life-shaping things that you give all of yourself too. God is calling you right now as you read this to repent of that sin, and forgive those who sin against you, and reconcile with that repentant brother or sister who wronged you, and to tell your friend about Jesus. He is calling you to make the world you live in look like the kingdom, which could involve actions as diverse as talking to a guy who’s sleeping rough or starting a business or planting a garden or praying. He may call you to specific other things too.
How does calling work? Do we just get an inner sense of something and hop, skip and jump our way across the world to do whatever it is? Well, no, because there’s always the risk that you’re confusing the voice of God with trapped wind. God does speak to us directly, we can learn to discern his voice better, and we only ever know this in part.
Even if you have a strong inner sense that you should be doing something, that isn’t enough to say “God has called me.” What do you need to do that? Here are three other things you should look for:
The Bible
Is the thing you think you’re called to do something the Bible teaches on? It is, because the Bible teaches on everything. What does it say you should do? We read the Word of God expecting our own lives to be illuminated. How is the Bible, read privately, read with others, read on a Sunday, and preached, mastering us?
The Community
We test the things we think we should be doing with older and wiser mentors as well as with our friends. We listen carefully when they aren’t sure. If we’re called we would expect the community to confirm it. There can be reasons this doesn’t happen, but if no one who knows you well and none of your older mentors are confirming it, then you may not be called to do it.
The Church
This sounds like the same thing as the previous category, but my point is that the way you know you’re called enough so that you can say “God called me,” is that the church sent you to do. This can take a variety of forms and again there are genuinely called people who don’t receive this, but it should be sought.
The confidence that you are supposed to be going and doing a difficult thing needs to come from your own prayer life, from the scriptures, from those who are ahead of you in the faith, and from the church ‘institutionally.’ This will have different emotional weights at different times, but it’s the combination which leads us to say “yes, God is calling me to do this.”
Humility goes a long way here. If you go up to a young lady and say “God has called me to marry you” then there’s something wrong with you. There’s no way she can reply to this. My uncle did something similar as a young man, and the young lady quipped “he hasn’t told me!” Unfortunately, this is a terrible example of my point because they were married within the year.
Imagine you turned up a church that is seeking a new Pastor and said “God has called me to be the Pastor here!” That’s possible and you may have several of the other factors too, but that church has to call you too. If they don’t then God didn’t. Perhaps some humility in your initial declaration might be wise.
This is the bit where people get sticky, because they can be sure that God spoke to them but the thing he spoke about didn’t happen. So did he? Were they called to do such and such a thing? Honestly, it’s hard to give a hard and fast rule. It is possible that others are wrong. If you obstinately insist that everyone else is wrong than that arrogance is probably a sign you aren’t hearing clearly from the Lord. If we’re talking specifically about the call to Pastor then I think a vital element of it is the call of a particular local church for you to Pastor them, however that looks in your ecclesiology.
Mostly though, if you’re tempted to sit with an older mentor and lay out your left-field plans and say “God told me.” Try not to. I’ve done it too and a good mentor will nudge you to see that maybe that’s at best an arrogant thing to say. Instead say you’re wondering if, whatever it is, and ask their opinion. Submit your life and your dreams to others. This is terrifying, and they can really hurt you, but it’s where the Lord will bring life from death.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
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