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Weekly Blog - 15 December 2024 - Discerning Calling

How do we pray, listen, and discern God’s calling and direction in our lives?

 

Obedience, calling and direction

This week in Arise’s weekly blog we take a look at what the Bible has to say about obedience, and discerning calling and direction.  Throughout the Bible amazing things happen when God’s people are obedient to the things he asks them to do.  We see this – time after time – in God’s calling to Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Samuel, David, Jonah, Paul and many others, such as the disciples, who “left everything” (Luke 5: 11, 28) when Jesus said “Follow me” (Luke 5: 27).  This obedience to God is deeply prized, as an expression of our faith in him.  In one wonderful passage in Hebrews, the characters of the Old Testament are praised for their obedient faithfulness to God for “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for … who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword” (Hebs 11).  Essentially, the job of each of us as Christians is to ‘figure out what God wants you to do and go and do it’.  As Jesus himself put it, the focus and purpose of our lives is to simply “seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt 6: 33) and if we do that, we find that all the other things of life: money, family, career, will naturally follow. 

Arise suggests a simple, practical way to discern God’s guidance, both for our individual calling and in major life decisions, drawn from Biblical principles.  First (as we saw in last week's blog on prayer), we should find a quiet place and there listen to God for this.  We should then time limit our listening.  We live in the real world, where we have to get on and make decisions.  We should set aside an appropriate timeframe to listen to God (hours, weeks, a month or two etc.) for guidance, but then make a decision, to the best of our ability, once this time period is over.  In the Bible, God’s people set aside a night or a day or two for seeking his will and listening, rather than waiting forever.   For example, we read in the book of Judges, “all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD.  They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD.  And the Israelites inquired of the LORD” (Judges 20: 26 – 27).  When we have made a decision, we should check it against the Bible and share with Christian friends to elicit their prayers and advice.  As Paul tells us when we listen to God in church “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said” (1 Cor 14: 29).  We should also consider writing it down, and then reviewing our current life situation and daily routine to see if there is anything we need to change in order to do whatever God is asking of us.  It is not enough to have simply heard from him, we need to make sure we are actually putting it into practice in reality as well.  As Jesus said, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice” (Luke 8: 21).

Once we are outworking his calling, we will find – just like all the characters of the Bible – that alongside the great excitement of living life to the full, we will also face doubt, spiritual attack, criticism from others, setbacks and times when everything seems to have gone wrong.  We will need to learn to persevere, as James says “Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered.  You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about” (James 5: 10 – 11).  Finally, we need to periodically pause to listen to God to check we are still on track and to review the progress we have made.  And in all of this we need a healthy dose of common sense.  Often we won’t hear anything specific.  That’s fine.  We have given God the opportunity to speak which delights him, and he will speak if he wants to.  For many of us, for large parts of our lives there is not one specific thing God is asking us to do, other than just get on with the amazing task he has already set us to advance his kingdom and transform our world.  This alone is a glorious calling, and often all we are being asked by God is to just get on with it.  As the prophet Micah said “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6: 8) or Jesus commanded “go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.  Freely you have received; freely give” (Matt 10: 7 – 8).

 

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