"When God calls you to go he knows the end before you know the beginning."
Who is called?
Many people think that if God still "calls," this calling is for pastors and professional ministers. They are the ones that are supposed to do the religious stuff, right? Now that would certainly make life easier for the rest of us! So is this view correct?
I don't think so. In fact, all people are called by God at one level. What does "God calling" mean? It's his invitation to each of us for a personal connection. According to Ruth Haley Barton in Strengthening the Soul of Your Spiritual Leadership, it is all about God and you!
She explains that God called each one of us into being. He desires to save us from who we are not and calls us to be who we are. The call, first and foremost, is to belong to him. Secondly, it is to answer "yes" to his summons to serve him in a particular way.
It's about saying "yes" to God.
What does saying "Yes" to God mean? Ephesians chapter 2 tells us that we are God's workmanship (or poem) created in Jesus to do good works that God designed especially for each one of us in advance (Eph. 2:10). He knows exactly who we are and the best uses of our talents, personality, skills and passions. If you think about it, the call from God has us - we don't have the call. It does not originate from us. We didn't decide to issue the call. We can only choose to respond.
When Isaiah the prophet overheard God say, "Who shall we send?" He responded, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8). He had already responded to the call to connect personally with God and now he responded to God's call to go.
How do we respond?
At Semper Vita, we believe that all of us are designed to answer both calls. Once we answer the call to a personal connection with God, he longs to have us join him in the work he's doing around us. That's the second call. Our particular call will align with our personality, talents and gifts. Semper Vita provides personal development tools to help you understand your personality, talents and gifts. Contact us if you want to discover how you can better say "Yes" to God.
