Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surly I am with your always, to the very end of the age."
I think the biggest lie I have ever believed in my life is that in order for any of my endeavors to succeed I must have a clear and precise calling from God. You know the one where the heavens open up and an assembly of angles are singing as a holy beam of light shines in the direction you are supposed to go and then all of a sudden your bank account has the exact amount of money you need (and then some) and as if that weren't confirmation enough 7 people come to confirm that direction in your life! Now obviously that doesn't happen to everyone....... or anyone that I have ever heard of, but for some reason our society has fallen into the trap that in order to go anywhere or do anything there HAS to be a call from God to go do it! The 4 years I spent out of Ywam were 4 years of me asking "God where do you want me to go what do you want me to do?" and then just staying where I was because God never said any specific place. My posture was one of leaning back heals dug into the ground hoping God would just push me forward into what ever I was "supposed" to be doing.
As This season has been racing forward like a fright train something has become apparent. God has not created us to be stagnant in any situation. Like most christians my age I find myself uttering the phrase "I just didn't feel like God was calling me to that" Which in all honesty most situations I truly didn't. But this phrase is easily used as an excuse to not go out of my comfort zone to even try to further Gods kingdom in everyday life. Its like sitting in a room with multiple doors out. The room is comfy and furnished with couches and chairs and pillows and while you know there is something greater on the out side of any of those doors the fear of picking the wrong one begins to creep in. so you end up just sitting in the same spot wondering which door to go through as the hours slip quietly past. The fear of being wrong or being less comfortable or just the simple fear of the un known keeps you feet firmly rooted in the same spot, in front of the same door asking God "is this the one Im supposed to go though?"
Now don't get me wrong, I believe God has specific callings for specific people but I also believe the most specific calling He has for us is Go and make disciples of all nations and this was given to us the day we accepted Jesus into our hearts and declared Him Lord of our lives, yet we treat this truly great commission as a suggestion to throw into our day to day lives when it is most convenient.
When dose personal calling have more weight then the great commission? I think that the last couple months have truly shown me how I value my personal calling over what God has called the masses to do, therefore I do not lower myself to the standard that we are all held by which is to simply GO, and I wait for the assembly of God to come forth and tell me to move. This is not right.
This season with the music DTS has been one of leaning forward and moving, refusing to be stagnant and if I am leaning in the wrong direction I an gently pushed back but if I am leaning in the correct one then I fall forward into what ever God has for me. This has resulted in bruised knees and cut up hands at times but I have always been where Gods love and word is needed the most (which by the way is everywhere!). The complication with missions is that the individualistic society has praised the calling rather then praise the one who is calling. In a time where emotion is truth and truth is relative it is easy to plant your feet in the ground and clutch the frame of every open door way saying "I will go through it if its really you who is calling me through that door God" while still looking back into the comfort of the room you have been sitting in, but I don't think we were created to do that. If anything Matthew 28:18-20 tells us to do the exact opposite. rather than staring at the closed door wondering if God will open it, or clutching the door frame of the open door waiting on the voice of God to tell me to move forward, I want to be off the couch and lean against the door until it opens and I fall forward, into what ever is on the other side.
As This season has been racing forward like a fright train something has become apparent. God has not created us to be stagnant in any situation. Like most christians my age I find myself uttering the phrase "I just didn't feel like God was calling me to that" Which in all honesty most situations I truly didn't. But this phrase is easily used as an excuse to not go out of my comfort zone to even try to further Gods kingdom in everyday life. Its like sitting in a room with multiple doors out. The room is comfy and furnished with couches and chairs and pillows and while you know there is something greater on the out side of any of those doors the fear of picking the wrong one begins to creep in. so you end up just sitting in the same spot wondering which door to go through as the hours slip quietly past. The fear of being wrong or being less comfortable or just the simple fear of the un known keeps you feet firmly rooted in the same spot, in front of the same door asking God "is this the one Im supposed to go though?"
Now don't get me wrong, I believe God has specific callings for specific people but I also believe the most specific calling He has for us is Go and make disciples of all nations and this was given to us the day we accepted Jesus into our hearts and declared Him Lord of our lives, yet we treat this truly great commission as a suggestion to throw into our day to day lives when it is most convenient.
When dose personal calling have more weight then the great commission? I think that the last couple months have truly shown me how I value my personal calling over what God has called the masses to do, therefore I do not lower myself to the standard that we are all held by which is to simply GO, and I wait for the assembly of God to come forth and tell me to move. This is not right.
This season with the music DTS has been one of leaning forward and moving, refusing to be stagnant and if I am leaning in the wrong direction I an gently pushed back but if I am leaning in the correct one then I fall forward into what ever God has for me. This has resulted in bruised knees and cut up hands at times but I have always been where Gods love and word is needed the most (which by the way is everywhere!). The complication with missions is that the individualistic society has praised the calling rather then praise the one who is calling. In a time where emotion is truth and truth is relative it is easy to plant your feet in the ground and clutch the frame of every open door way saying "I will go through it if its really you who is calling me through that door God" while still looking back into the comfort of the room you have been sitting in, but I don't think we were created to do that. If anything Matthew 28:18-20 tells us to do the exact opposite. rather than staring at the closed door wondering if God will open it, or clutching the door frame of the open door waiting on the voice of God to tell me to move forward, I want to be off the couch and lean against the door until it opens and I fall forward, into what ever is on the other side.
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