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1.3 Who Was Called in Scripture?
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God has met me and continues to meet me throughout my life's pilgrimage of faith. I can identify with Abraham—my life has been a journey of receiving God's promises (mostly meeting God through personal prayer and times in the word), and then waiting (i.e. the years/experiences that He shapes and develops character), and then being amazed at how God later connects the dots and puts the pieces together (connecting threads that did not seem so related, but then later seeing how it all comes together to create a beautiful tapestry].
He has confirmed His word to me in various ways (e.g. healings I received at Bible Camps; prophetic words given to me at conferences/Bible camps; His miraculous provision, the lessons He has taught me about who He is; favour He has given me; special experiences He has given me. These experiences include witnessing/experiencing miracles and miraculous signs of His presence; serving in many different kinds of ministries [e.g. Alpha course; Young Adults Ministry; Youth Ministry; women's ministry; prayer counselling; music ministry], serving in multi-cultural contexts (Israel; Persian church; Italy), sending me to seminary, and also placing wonderful mentors/teachers He has placed in my life).
I am still discerning my ministry calling—for many years, I focused on ministry to Jewish people. This is still very much my heart, but in 2006, the LORD sent me to a Persian church where I served for seven years. It was like being on a pioneering frontier and I loved it. At first I wondered what God was doing, but then I embraced ministry to Muslims/former Muslims as an expansion of my calling. My task was simply to come alongside these Iranian/Afghani sisters and brothers in Christ and encourage, teach, and equip them in various ways. It wasn't easy, but it was a great, great joy. I would say the “pioneering spirit” is very much part of my DNA. Now, I am in Italy doing the same kind of thing. I would say that I have a deep awareness that I am inherently a pastoral teacher—a teacher with a pastor's heart. This, in essence, is how God has shaped me and one way that I have seen God consistently use me. The music He has given me is also a means of how I have ministered. I minister music first to God—for His pleasure, enjoyment, delight, His smile. In the past, God has given me new songs—songs of joy, prophetic-like songs, and songs of deliverance. I have not really exercised this gift in past years that much—not because He wouldn't give me new songs, but because ministering in non-Pentecostal settings often made it much more difficult to minister these gifts and so I haven't opened myself up much to this in recent years. I really should now.
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God has met me wherever I am, whether in my sleep, at a stoplight or doing ordinary things around my home. It is a voice in my head sometimes in my own voice and sometimes another voice. His communication about my call has been on a large scale in my dreams. My dreams are incredibly vivid. In my dreams I am preaching and many times wake up speaking out loud. Sometimes I wake up crying because so many people have come to the front of the stage for prayer that I feel overwhelmed and ask the Lord, "what do I do?" I find that when I try to do something outside of serving in ministry, it doesn't work out and that very discernable voice lets me know I am working outside of His will.
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I’m not sure why, but the link to your blog didn’t work, so I have added it here: https://www.hopeisdefiant.com/. But the title, Hope is Defiant, is an excellent summary of what you just wrote. You have summarized your life by recognizing how difficult it has been, while simultaneously seeing God’s sovereignty in it.
I was unfamiliar with the quote your blog is based on: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Are you also familiar with this quote? “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet." — Frederick Buechner.
Finally, I wanted to say that it is okay to feel a call to ministry and to the pastorate even though you have a bad taste in your mouth for the politics that can go with it. If God wants you in that space, he will give you grace for it. Otherwise, there are many ways we can fulfill his calling without a formal ministry title.
Thanks for sharing.
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How has God met you? How has he communicated, connected, confirmed, or given observable evidence of your call?
A pretty straightforward question, yet perhaps not as simple as may have been thought at first glance. Firstly, this is not a single question but a series of questions. God, according to the breath He has breathed in me has met me in many ways, primarily He has woven my story with the threads found in Romans 8:28. As may have been inferred via my profile page as well as some answers already given to past questions, my life has not been exactly an easy one. I will not get into specifics right now as it has no bearing on the topic at hand. As I was saying, God has taken the painful experiences in my life and continues to use them to form me I believe more into His image, as He too was a man acquainted with sorrow. In these years of process, God has met me every step of the way, bringing healing to my brokenness, therefore making it possible to meet others in their own brokenness. (Blessed are the poor or beggars in spirit ) To say that in all of this God has communicated to me, would be the understatement of the century, as young as this century may be. His communication to me has been via the different aspects of His character. As the one Who holds all things together, the One Who makes sense of this mess called life, and the One Who gives our very existence purpose and meaning; He is my King. As the one Who has taken my life from the miry pit and set my feet upon a rock, as the One Who has led me through the valley of the shadow of death, as the One who is closer than a brother and the one Who as promised has never left or forsaken me, but instead has made himself very present and tangible, He is my shepherd. As the One Who has and continues to out of His deep passionate love, that although He loves me as I am, refuses to leave me that way, through His convictions, He is my judge. As the One Who calls me out of my darkness tells me that I am lovely even though I call myself dark, as the One Who stands at my door and knocks, awaiting my response to His marriage proposal, He is my bridegroom.
In all this, He has met me where I am, not as I should be, because I’ll never be as I should be, in all this He has called me by name. Recently I came across this verse in Psalm 82:3 TPT "Defend the defenceless, the fatherless and the forgotten,
the disenfranchised and the destitute.” In the previous two verses to this, we see that God has shown up as the ultimate judge. He then directly addresses those appointed as judges and lays bare for all to see their wickedness and corruption. In verse three, I believe we are given a glimpse into the heart of God as He explains in no uncertain terms how He sees the role of judge to be, In this, I believe I have been called, not as a judge but as a shepherd. Currently, I would say I don’t want to be a pastor because there can be far too much politics in that and my tolerance for politics is rather low. Instead, as Martin Luther King Jr once said “hate is too great a burden to carry, I choose love.” In my life, He has patiently led me in His ways, He has bound up my wounds and put oil on my brokenness. He has led me through the valley of the shadow of death, revealing to me that He was there all along. For in Him the only appropriate response I have is I shall not want as He shepherds my life. So with this life He has graciously given me, He has imparted to me a deep desire to help others especially those mentioned in vs 3 to see their true identity, first as those created in His image, to be able to see our Fathers eyes in ourselves and others, and secondly for others to recapture their lives from the lies and trauma and to finally see themselves as God sees us, therefore giving new vision to all those around us. Recently in our church, I’ve volunteered with the youth department, as well as welcoming immigrants and refugees to our city and providing care for those in immediate need. I’ve also started and continue to create a blog called Hope Is Defiant. In this blog, I share prophetic stories I believe He has given me. Ultimately I don’t see this as the culmination of my calling, but the apprenticeship as I learn from others who have gone before me.
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