Are You Being Called Into The Ministry?
What is a call to the ministry?
A call to the ministry.
Let's see what the scriptures show us that the above link doesn't go into...A. God hath set some in the church.
There is indeed a divine call.
1 Corinthians 12:27
King James Version (KJV)
27Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
28And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
1. Ephesians 4:11 says "Jesus gave."
This passage says "God set."
2. Notice this Corinthian passage calls the Body of Christ the Church.
The Church is the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is the Church.
Not a congregational brand name church or a brand name fellowship or a geographical place or building.
Not organizations.
People have always become loyal to their brands and organizations.
B. God sets ministry gifts in the Church- not man.
1. There is a vast difference between God's setting some in the Church- and man's setting some in the Church.
2. A study of Church history reveals how down through the centuries various groups have endeavored to get back to what they call New Testament practices.
They've set up organizations which often were something man manufactured- something in the flesh, something carnal.
They "called" and "set" people who had no divine calling into certain offices.
This is unscriptural.
God does the setting.
God does the calling.
C. You do not enter the ministry- any phase of it- just because "you" feel it is a holy calling and you'd like to respond.
1. You cannot make yourself a ministry gift.
2. It is dangerous to do something just because "you" want to do it.
D. You do not enter the ministry because "someone else" tells you that you are suited for it.
1. Don't go because somebody else called you.
2. Don't go because your mother called you.
3. Don't go because your father called you.
There is a divine call. Recognize whether it is on your life and don't go out without it.
E. How can you tell a divine call?
1. You will have the conviction in your own spirit.
You will have the witness in your own heart.
"You will know that you know."
2. God deals with man's spirit.
3. Learn to listen to your spirit.
A. Learn to listen down on the inside of you and you will know many things you don't otherwise know.
B. But if you are just messing along in the world, about half~dedicated, half~in~half~out, because you are living too much in the carnal area, carnality will dominate you and you won't be conscious of your spirit.
C. If you are fully dedicated and consecrated to God to do anything He wants you to do, you will become conscious of that something inside you.
d. There will be a divine compulsion on the inside of you.
F. The methods by which men are called are unimportant.
But obedience to the call is important.
1. If methods were important, the Bible would emphasize them; it does not.
2. The Bible has much to say about obedience.
3. Sometimes God does move in extraordinary ways.
But this is not always the rule.
God can move supernaturally naturally in plain old ordinary ways.
A. Sometimes people will have visions.
Paul did.
B. Prophecy. Ministry gifts are not set in the Church by prophecy.
There may come a confirmation by prophecy through others.
Acts 13
1Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.2As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Barnabas and Saul were not called by prophecy. They were not set in by prophecy or by man. God just confirmed something by prophecy.
1. If a so~called prophecy does not confirm what you have in your own spirit, forget it.
G. Seeing a need is not a call to ministry.
1. If we are not careful, we slip into the attitude of the Church in general that seeing a need is a call.
This is not scriptural.
THIS IS NOT A DIVINE CALL.
2. Naturally, as Christians we see a need, we are concerned about that need and will endeavor with all the ability we have to minister to that need.
That is scripturally correct.
But it is not to be confused with the divine call to the ministry.
H. An anointing evidences a divine call.
Some who are not currently in ministry are very anointed beyond your average Christian and others recognize it.
I. If God didn't call you to full time ministry, don't try to get into it; you will be a misfit.
J. Knowing that you are divinely called settles the matter once and for all.
There should be no confusion on the subject.
I am not moved by what I see.
I am not moved by what I feel.
I am moved by what I believe.
Learn what spiritural things are, they are more real than natural things.
Learn to look to your spirit.
Your spirit will tell you.
Your spirit will tell you things your head doesn't know....
My friends and i have discussed the question "How does one get into the ministry?"
We have over the years seen some get into the ministry in very simple ways.
Greg Laurie, who I had the honor of witnessing coming to Jesus Christ out on the lawn of our high school during a Friday lunch, is a good example.
He had the call from the beginning of his walk with God.
He was eager and ready to share Christ with anyone.
He went to a baptismal service at the beach one summer night.
He did not know that he had arrived early and thought that he had missed the event.
He saw a lot of people hanging out so he stepped out in faith and addressed them collectively with great boldness.
The Spirit of God moved.
Then he began to share in home bible studies.
Eventually God opened the door for him to take over a fledgling ministry which grew into what it is today, "Harvest ministries."
I was once asked by my son to participate in one of his friends home bible studies.
The friend was having trouble with cocaine and sexual purity in his Christian walk.
He had repented and figured that if he had a weekly bible study in his home he would walk the straight and narrow.
It was on Mondays that he started to have the Bible study in his home.
There was the friend, my son and his wife and myself initially.
Just the four of us.
We all faithfully attended every Monday.
Eventually a few people trickled in.
We didn't advertise or promote.
Next thing I know the living room is getting full of people who started attending.
The friend converted his garage into a meeting room.
He put in a professional drop ceiling with lights, carpeting with thick padding, well painted dry wall.
And he made a platform area with amplifying equipment.
I figured the young men should get used to mics since they may get called into ministry and would be used to them early on.
The meeting after a year was starting to over flow with people.
Word about the home Bible study was getting out in ways that only God knows of.
We had visitations of the Holy Spirit and supernatural things during those meetings.
One young visitor to the Bible Study got saved and ended up leading a Bible study on his college campus with over 3000 students in attendance weekly.
Then Satan stepped in and my son's friend back slid and chose to go back to his old ways.
We disbanded the fellowship because it was his and in his home, he led the Bible study.
And the fact that when confronted the friend outright said he was choosing the sin over walking with God.
So it was over.
But the main principle here was if you want to be in the ministry then get in ministry.
Start a home bible study.
To give you a idea of how we do it:
Our format was first to sit around fellowshiping while people were still arriving.
Then worship.
Then teaching of the Word of God.
More worship afterward.
Then we would put a seat in the middle of the room, asking anyone who needed prayer or a Word from God to sit in it.
Everyone would gather around the seated person and lightly lay their hands on them after the person had expressed their needs or reason for sitting in the "Hot seat/Love seat".
We would pray over them in turns while being open to what ever we felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to share with them.
Since this event took place after the above steps, most Christians were tuned into the Holy Spirit and were quite sensitive to His leading.
Words of wisdom and knowledge with prophecy were common during this time.
Every single time, with out fail, the one prayed over would be comforted and edified.
They always would remark upon the deep sense of peace that permeated their soul after being prayed over.
We totally attribute this to God, none of us has the ability to do this for anyone.
This is how one can easily enter ministry with out any life changing upheaval.
I have seen brothers enter the ministry at this level and go on to establishing churches.
It baffles me how otherwise intelligent brothers who believe they have been called to the ministry can't grasp the simplicity of this at all.
They agonize over how they have been called but nothing ever happens for them, no open doors as it were.
Year after year they believe that they are called but God never does anything with them.
God can't really open any doors for them yet because they are unprepared for the ministry they were ultimately called for.
Greg Laurie used to quote Bob Mumford from his sixties book "Fifteen Steps Out."
( Another great book of his is Take Another Look at Guidance: A Study of Divine Guidance as always we here have no financial interest in recommending books. )
The quote Greg used is, "You can't steer a parked car."
If these stuck, "called" brothers would step out in faith and start a home Bible study then God could begin to steer them in the right direction with open doors of opportunity.
We tell them this, but quite frankly they just don't get it so they live a miserable life knowing that they have been called but nothing is happening.
What did Jesus own brother James tell all of us?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:17
Why expect anything to happen if we don't even have works?
Oh man James was tough, he goes on to say,
" 18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.…
Every one in ministry at this exact single moment has a testimony of how they got started out in ministry.
Bob Mumford's books share his journey into ministry.
They didn't just step out on a stage and kazam they were instantly in the ministry.
Unless they took over daddy's church and were given the opportunity by default.
It takes time and effort to start out in the ministry.
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin,..
Zechariah 4:10
To sit around expecting some miraculous open door to suddenly appear one day for you to be in the ministry is not how it happens at all.
You have to bloom where your planted, it begins right where you are standing.
That's right.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you...
Joshua 1:3
Believe in your calling first.
That is where ministry starts.
Then believe that God has given you the right to have a Bible study where you are standing.
Either in your home or the home available to you for a Bible study.
God is giving that Bible study to you and will bless it!
Be faithful to it.
One Monday night no one showed up at my son's friend's Bible Study but myself.
That didn't stop me from attending.
I was there every Monday for an entire year and watched God grow it.
I honestly believe that friend of my son would have been able to start his own church, the crowd had grown so big before Satan tempted him and successfully took him out.
All of this is so simple.
Start a home Bible study.
Be faithful to it.
Don't despise the small beginning.
And watch God miraculously add people to it until the day comes when you will have to rent space in a nearby church or store front.
This is how Pastor Brant Baker of Shekinah Fellowship started out in ministry.
This is how you also will start out in ministry.
Your faith doesn't amount to a hill of beans if you have no works!
No wonder why your confused and bewildered about your own calling that was so very real when it came but now seems only a distant memory.
You have to begin small, you have to start a home Bible study.
No getting around this small formality.
God has to grow you, get you used to people in a ministry/ministering capacity.
Cause you to know how to deal with the issues of ministry.
You have to learn to feed His sheep on a weekly basis and be disciplined.
You have to be able to dig into the Living Word of God and set forth spiritual nourishment for others as well as yourself.
All of this just doesn't happen without you stepping out and starting that home Bible study.
America sends no one out into the field of battle without bootcamp training.
This is where your transformation from civilian life to the Army world begins—from bidding farewell to your civilian clothes, getting your Army haircut and getting ready to become physical fit for service.
Rarely will you find someone in the ministry who did not start with a home Bible study.
I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.
Indeed, you are still not ready.
1 Corinthians 3:2
Personal growth comes with the experience of having a home Bible study.
You grow up into the ministry there.
If your called and have not even started a home Bible Study, you are missing out on the all important gateway to full time ministry.
Just ask anyone in ministry.
The bulk of them will confirm these words to be correct.
Get off that high and mighty attitude that hinders growth and quit despising small beginnings.
We all have to take baby steps before we can walk.
Everything starts with a small seed.
If that seed never touches good soil it will never bear much fruit.
Seeds wrapped in a napkin are of no use to anyone.
Bloom where your planted and start a home Bible study now!
Grow up in the Lord Jesus Christ.
…10but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.
12Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.…
1 Corinthians 13:10-12
There will be uncertainty, it will be uncharted territory for you at first as you stumble your way around.
Sometimes you need to step into the Jordan River, like the priests of Israel, before God will part the waters.
And sometimes you need to wade into the Jordan seven times, like Naaman.
Only God could miraculously heal Naaman's leprosy, but he would have forfeited the miracle if he hadn't positioned himself for it by repeated obedience.
So while some miracles take only a single step of faith, others require multiple attempts.
But whether it's ankle deep or waist deep, you've got to wade into the Jordan River.
Sometimes you've got to do the natural before God will do the supernatural.
But in due season you will grow into the ministry and you will be ready when God opens up the door of opportunities for you.
Because your faith will be associated with your works.
And one day you will realize that you are of a certainty in the ministry.
You will then be a blessing to many for you will have gone through the boot camp of God!
So don't hesitate, get that home Bible study started in obedience, you have stalled for way to many years O called servant of God.
I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have been chosen of God and called of God.
I set forth before you the path that you will need to take in order to be the man or the woman of God that God would have you to be.
This is the time for growth this is the time to set aside those things that so easily beset you.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses to the life of faith, let us throw off everything that hinders and let us strip off every weight that slows us down, the sin that so easily entangles.
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
Hebrews 12:1
Time for you to grow up, time for you to go to God's boot camp training program.
What are you waiting for?
You have the calling and you know it.
Now get out there and put forth the effort to get in spiritual shape for the ministry.
There is no better place to obtain spiritual fitness for the ministry than in a home Bible study led by you!
You are being called forth O man of God and woman of God to grow up this day.
You now have your orders from on high.
If this day you hear the voice of God, Be obedient, respond to His calling over your life.
You have been recruited into God's ministry, ordained not of man but of God.
In this case, moreover, it is required in the stewards, that one shall be found faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:2
Remember God doesn't call capable men and woman to the ministry.
He makes capable men and women whom He calls to the ministry.
You will always need to go through God's boot camp training ground before you will truly be released into the ministry for which you have been called.
I know where of I speak.
This has always been the way of God and there can be no getting around it.
This is the process by which you will one day find yourself in the ministry for which God intends for you to function in.
Make the decision to enlist in the home Bible study boot camp of God and be faithful to it.
Or you can continue in your fairy tale existence believing that one day God will wave his hand over you and you will be instantly on the spiritual battle field without any training what so ever.
Can you imagine the men and women of our armed forces having no training and being put in charge of others with no training?
Confidence and skill development in ministry does just not happen with out proper training.
Those who do endeavor to complete the course of God's training camp will one day see that moment of graduation and the doors of opportunity will indeed be opened by God Himself.
Get motivated.
And I run toward the goal to take the victory of the calling of God from on high in Yeshua The Messiah.
Philippians 3:14
If this message has resonated with you, would you please pass it on to others whom you believe are called to ministry.
It could very well be the nudge that gets them moving forward, that gets them unstuck.
The Church is in need of those ones that God sets in the Body of Christ.
But there is also the need for understanding of how God supernaturally uses home Bible studies to develop the growth of those whom God has called.
All recruits must go through boot camp which is extremely challenging.
Home Bible studies are God's Recruit Training Depot.
There is only one boot camp to turn men and women into able ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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