What is Gods calling for me?

What am I here to do?

This is something I have struggled with for years.   Well, I want to share with you a book that I recently found that has helped me to start to figure all this out in my own life.

A guy named Gary Barkalow has written a book called, “It’s Your Call” and it has been a tremendous blessing in my life. Through this book God has been helping me to discover and interpret His design and destiny for my life.

Mr. Barkalow explains that what God created us to do is revealed in our desires.

“It is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him.” Phil 2:13

God will show you and probably already has why you are here. You simply have to stop fighting it.

God’s calling on your life is already in you.

“It is what your heart almost always sees, knows, notices, wants to do, or is burdened by. Your glory is written on your heart, and you must go there to discover and understand.” Page 85, Its Your Call by Gary Barkalow

It is God himself who said, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8

God knows why you’re here. He has written your purpose in life on your heart and in your desires. He will help you interpret those desires and figure out what it is he wants you to do or be.

Listen to this from Mr. Barkalow’s book.

“There is a reason you’re interested in certain things and not others. Your curiosity is linked to your truest desires.” Page 160.

There are things about you and your desires and what you love that have been true since you were a child. These things are the real you. These things have been put there by God.

A great way to gain some insight into your innermost desires and who you are and want to be is through the stories and movies you have always loved and the characters that you have longed to be.

As I am starting to figure out what God’s calling on my life might be and what my purpose in life might be I’m starting to recognize ,as Mr. Barkalow puts it, “God’s intentional training” in my life’s journey.

You can tell I’m excited about the possibilities in my own life and I am so anxious to share this information with others. I hope that you will pick up this book by Gary Barkalow or visit his website at http://thenobleheart.com. Gary has made it his life ministry to help people find their calling in life. It’s truly amazing and a blessing.

How could a loving God allow such a thing to happen? God forbid he make it happen on purpose. I am guessing that it is very likely that when he was a youth and struggling to learn how to live without arms and legs that many people thought to themselves. “Oh how sad. He is such an intelligent and handsome young man. How could God allow such a thing to happen? He could have had such potential.”

I have read about the impact Nick’s ministry has had on the lives of young people who struggle with their own disabilities and I will tell you what, if Nick had been born with arms and legs the world would have been shortchanged.

If Nick would have been born with arms and legs and had become just another regular guy it would have deprived thousands of disabled young people of the inspiration and encouragement to overcome life’s challenges and look to Christ as their hope.

The testimonies of young people with disabilities who have been inspired that they can do all things through Christ because of Nick probably number in the hundreds of thousands. Lives have literally been transformed because of Nick and his life and message.

We like to think we know what is best and what is right but I tell you if Nick had been born with arms and legs the world would’ve been deprived of something beautiful,

I saw a post online the other day that said, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” The response was familiar, ‘God doesn’t cause bad things to happen but he allows bad things to happen and can use them for good.”

I’m not surprised if people find little comfort in this answer.

First of all I want to say that I know where this idea comes from. It most likely comes from the story of Job.  I’ll talk more about that shortly. So God allows bad things to happen but then can pick up the pieces and use them for good?

How could this provide any comfort to the couple who has just lost their 2 year old baby girl in a terrible accident?

So God could have prevented it from happening but he didn’t and now he will play catch-up and turn things around for a good result. In other words, when life gives you lemons God will help you make lemonade.

What kind of God is that? Sounds to me like a God who is not in control and is doing his best at damage control.

For some reason we want to think that is better than a God who intentionally causes bad things to happen.

How hopeless would life be without a God who is in control of all things?

How despairing to think that a child could die and that God had no purpose in it initially but could make the best of it.

I believe that true hope and true purpose can only be found in a God who is sovereign and because he loves me and wants the best for me is in complete control of every single thing that happens in my life without exception.

Back to the Job issue.

In the story of Job, the Lord said to Satan , “By the way, have you seen my servant  Job? There is not another man on earth like him. He is upright and blameless. He fears God and turns away from evil.”

The devil then says, “Of course, he loves you God. You’ve made him rich and blessed him with every good thing. “

¹¹ But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” ¹² And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand…” (Job 1:11-12)

God responds and gives him the okay to bring disaster upon Job and his family. God even designates the limit of Satan’s authority and says that he may not take Job’s life.

All Scripture must be interpreted in light of the whole of Scripture. All theologians throughout history from Luther to Calvin to Wesley and even to modern-day theologians will agree with this point.  In deciding who God is we have to look at the entire story. The book of Job has the only illustration in all of the Bible where we see the devil seeking God’s approval before causing problems and this seems to point to a God who “allows” bad things to happen as opposed to causing them to happen for a greater purpose that he has determined.

But even in this story, it is God who gives the command. Satan himself says “but if YOU stretch out your hand and touch all that he has he will curse you to your face.”  Satan himself was attributing the bad that would happen to God. That God was doing it because he was giving the order.

Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament we have many examples of God taking full credit for causing bad things to happen.

Throughout the Scriptures God teaches us with absolute clarity that he is sovereign in all things. There are many examples of God intentionally causing bad things to happen.

Psalm 105, “He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food … He turned their waters into blood, causing their fish to die…Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land”

Jesus clearly taught that God is sovereign and not even a bird dies apart from his will.

Matthew 10:29-31

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? ^Will And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

When Pilate said to Jesus , “Don’t you want to defend yourself? Don’t you know that I have the power to release you or crucify you?

Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” John 19:11

Isn’t there much more comfort in knowing that our God is sovereign?

I can understand why we don’t want to attribute such horrific events to God.  But we have to realize as the Scripture says, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

If we are truly created by God and God is God and how could we even expect to have the capacity to understand God’s ways.

How arrogant for us to think otherwise. How arrogant for us to judge what God does by our own understanding or beliefs about morality and what is right and what is wrong.

My dear son had just started walking he picked up the metal utensil and went to insert it in an electrical socket.  I quickly smacked his hand and said “No!” in a firm and probably  very frightening tone of voice to this sweet little boy.  Based on his understanding of the world he had no idea what had just happened except that it hurt and was scary. He probably even thought his daddy was being mean for no apparent reason. Only I knew that I had just protected him from immense pain and may even have saved his life. At that time when he was maybe barely 1 years old he had no capacity to understand and I had no way to explain it to him. All I could do was hold him in my arms and reassure him that I loved him.

There is a poem Martin Nicholson that is a theological masterpiece. It says more in a paragraph than I could ever say about the sovereignty and love and the grace of God in the face of hardship, brokenness and pain.

The Thorn

I stood a mendicant (means beggar) of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

If God is our father. If this Earth is not our home. If we will live forever with Christ and all of those that we have loved on this Earth. If it takes pain and brokenness and hardship to truly know his love and grace and become all that he wants us to be in him then those things which we call tragedy are truly mercies.

We have to trust God and know that everything he does is because of his perfect love for us and his desire that we live for all eternity with him.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

This is a Bible verse that is grossly misinterpreted and used out of context more times than I can count and incorrect understanding of it is doing damage to people’s faith and their understanding of who God is.

There are actually many Bible verses like this but one in particular came to my attention recently. I have wanted to write about this for a while and finally decided to after reading a story of someone who was heartbroken about recent events in their lives and they were having trouble trusting God in light of the verse like Romans 8:28

It seems that many people take this verse and use it to receive consolation when bad things happen. That is great. This particular verse in Scripture provides much comfort when bad things happen in our lives. The problem is I think that sometimes people are looking at it only from a worldly or temporal perspective. They lose their job and they think that this Scripture means that they lost their job for the reason that God has something better in store. They trust that God has a better job waiting down the road.  They say all things happen for a reason and this Scripture is proof. When God closes one door he opens another is a common expression.

I do believe that God cares about our physical lives and our happiness on this earth. I do believe that God is intimately aware of everything that is happening in our lives but I also believe that nothing is more important to God that our spiritual growth which is our sanctification. Without that nothing else matters.

It is dangerous to misinterpret Scripture because an incorrect understanding of the Bible can lead to an incorrect understanding of who God is. In the case of the story I was reading it had disastrous consequences as a woman was questioning the sovereignty and love of God the Father because she could not understand how certain events in her life could be working together for good.

When you considering the terrible atrocities that take place in this world there are things that cannot be reconciled if we believe that everything happens for a reason that can be realized in his life or apart from God.

The Bible must always be interpreted within context. Every Bible verse must be interpreted in the context of the paragraph, chapter in the entire book. All doctrine, which are our beliefs about who God is, and all Scripture must be interpreted in light of all of Scripture.

The book of Romans is about salvation and how our righteousness comes from God and that without the God-given gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ we could not be saved.

Chapters 6 -8 are primarily about sanctification which is the state of growing in divine grace and becoming more like Jesus. This is followed by chapter 9 which is about God’s sovereign election which is to say that those whom God has chosen from the beginning he will keep in His Grace until the end.

Look at the verses sentence right after Romans 8:28. In verse 29-30, Paul writes, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

What God is saying in Romans 8:28-30 is that those whom God has chosen to be saved and to become like Jesus can rest assured that whatever happens in life is working to that purpose. Everything that happens is working toward the Christian’s salvation and growth in becoming more like Jesus.

In Deuteronomy chapter 8 we see some of this in action. Verse 15-67

“who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.”

God used the test in the wilderness so that Israel would learn to trust and obey him.  It was so that they might not trust in themselves but would know that it is God who delivers and sustains.

I do believe that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and that this includes both temporal benefits and eternal.  It is important to note that this Scripture and all the promises of God are for the Christian. This promise does not extend to those who do not know the Lord.

Whatever happens in your life I assure you that God cares and desires that you turn to Him.  Trust Him and his grace and know that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ.  When bad things happen that we do not understand this can be difficult. We have to remember that God is God and his ways are so above ours.  We just have to trust that he knows what he is doing in his perfect love that even when we lack faith the result will still be the same just like it was with my young son.

The Bible contains everything we need to know about God, salvation, living and life.

The inerrancy of Holy Scripture is included in the statement of belief of almost every mainstream Christian denomination and is supported throughout the Hebrew scriptures and New Testament.

Then why is it that so few really act like they believe it?

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard from so-called Christians, “Well, I don’t really agree with this or that part… I just don’t think God is like that.”   Or “ I can’t accept the doctrine of election. I just can’t see how a loving God would choose who gets saved or who doesn’t.” or “well, that part probably really didn’t happen that way.”

The Bible is the book of Christianity and if you don’t believe it and believe all of it then why are you wasting your time pretending to be a Christian.

Go and do some other religion but don’t call yourself a Christian and then refuse to believe the Bible. That is to mock God.

You see, if we can’t believe the Bible is truly the inspired Word of God then we have nothing.

And if we can’t believe every single Word of the Bible as being without error and truly God breathed then we can’t believe any of it.

The truth is …

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,2 Timothy 3:16

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Delight in God’s Word. Immerse yourself in it and watch your faith and joy grow.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

Here’s the thing.  God’s will for you is already clearly revealed in Scripture.

In fact we are told not to be foolish but to know the will of the Lord.

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” Ephesians 5:17

The Holy Scriptures could not provide us with God’s will with any more clarity than they already do.

Here are some examples.

It is the will of God that you be sanctified and abstain from sexual immorality.  1 Thessalonians 4:3

It is God’s will that you offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. See Romans 12.

It is God’s will that we give to the poor. In fact, we are told to give to everyone who asks for something from us without exception.  Luke 6:30.

It is God’s will that we love Him above everything else in our lives.

No one has any reason to question what God’s will is and if we  are being obedient to the revealed will of God the rest of it doesn’t really matter.

The rest will fall into place naturally because our desires will be His desires. We will make our decisions about whether to do this or that based on what we believe will allow us to more fully love God and give him glory. Nothing else matters. Nothing.

When we do that and we are living in obedience to Christ we will be able to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” See Colossians 3:2 .

The hard truth is that this is no different than when Jesus says to the goats “Depart from me for I never knew you.”

Do you want to know whether you are a lukewarm Christian?

In Revelation 3:17 Jesus tells us that being lukewarm is to be content without our spiritual condition. “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
You can take your own spiritual temperature by whether you feel an unquenchable thirst for God.

Do you experience a great need in your heart to seek God in His Holy Word, prayer and with fasting?

I encourage you to examine yourself according to 2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5

When considering whether you are truly in the faith do not think with your head asking yourself whether you feel needy before God.

It doesn’t matter what you think with your head.

The true test as to your spiritual condition is how earnestly you seek God in prayer and His Word. Do you long for God as the deer pants for flowing streams? (Psalm 42:1)

What can you do if you find yourself to be lukewarm toward God in your heart?
Jesus tells you what to do in Revelation 3:20. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Everyone always uses this verse to apply to non-Christians but that is wrong interpretation. This chapter is addressed directly to the church and those who already think they are Christians.

Pray and trust in his promise that he will come in and commune with you. He will give you the Grace to conquer your own selfish desires that care more about worldly affairs than the kingdom of God and he will give you the power to live and delight in Him and His Word.

Someone may say to me, are you are only referring to converting the unsaved? I am not. I enjoy music as much as anyone else but some churches use music to create an emotionally charged worship experience that fools people into believing they are “feeling” God’s presence. People don’t need to “feel” God’s presence they need to delight in and consume his Word. That is true worship. That is where we worship. That is where we hear God speak.

I truly believe the reason most so-called Christians do not live any differently that non Christians is because they are trying to grow in their faith with emotional worship experiences that are nothing more than entertainment instead taking their nourishment from the Word of God.

http://dustincannon.org/i-do-not-like-emotional-appeals-to-follow-christ/

All of this “accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior” and “invite Jesus into your life” is a lie that is not found anywhere in the Bible and I fear it has many thinking they are saved when they are not.

Maybe that is why Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ MATTHEW 7:21-23

Jesus also said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. MATTHEW 7:13-14

The teachings of Christ were discouraging to many . In fact, many turned away after he said these things.

“On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” JOHN 6:66. People who care more about their family or money were turned away all the time.

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

If we cannot trust that God is in control of all things and that He will give Grace as needed to meet the troubles of this life then we cannot trust God for anything at all.

Thank God that He is in control and “able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” and that he promises “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”