Hopefully when I am done you will understand this subject better. Then you can come to a place of being effective in your ministry.

The word I want to discuss is 'calling'. I want to show you that there is a difference between a ministry and a calling.

We tend to look at people who have accomplished great things in life and we consider what they did as their 'calling'. They were destined to do that, and we often see a calling as a kind of destiny.

A calling is that unique thing you were destined to do in this world and in your life. And ministry is not necessarily a calling.

Your ministry could be based on your personal desires. You have deep desires in you of things that you want to accomplish.

Many of these desires are based on your own past experiences. You may desire to help poor people or those who have suffered rejection, simply because you had similar experiences in life.

You have these deep desires in you to do things, but you want to do them in the name of the Lord, using His Word and the abilities that He has given you. You want to be a servant to others and help them by ministering to them.

But it does not take a specific calling for you to carry out such a ministry. Everyone can do things like this.

Everybody can do a ministry, but it does not mean that ministry is your calling. It is not your unique destiny in life; the one thing that you have been set apart to accomplish in this world.

A calling is always different. You can be born with influences that came from your parents. And as you go through life, your experiences begin to build desires into you.

You could have many orientations like this that you are now using in ministry. You may even have had them before you became a Christian.

But a calling is something that is specifically given to you by the Lord. It can never come before you are born again.

Only after you are placed into the Body of Christ and are officially a member of God's family, does He have a specific plan and purpose for your life. It is only now that you have a calling.

Certainly the Lord knew what you were going to do long before you were born. He knew what your calling would be. But you do not actually receive that calling until you are born again.

Now that you are a believer, you know that you are called because the Bible tells us that all believers are called.

What are you called to? Firstly, you are called to salvation, then you are called to become like Jesus. We all share these callings, but you also have something unique.

However, your calling does not always stay in one place. It does not remain static but may be progressively increased over time.

You could start out with a specific calling from God based on the only things you are capable of right now. But as you grow by increasing in knowledge, wisdom and experience, God can trust you with bigger things. So your calling could grow much bigger and increase over time.

Paying the Price

How does this take place? Well the bad news is that there is always a price to pay.

Here is where it becomes very similar to your career. You cannot decide one day to be a doctor and set up your practice. You cannot become a professional of any kind without qualifying by proving yourself and passing the tests.

You must come to a place where you have been approved to carry out that activity. So in the same way, a calling requires you to pay a price before you can rise up from the lower levels.

But it is not based on your natural abilities. That is why it cannot appear until you are born again. No matter what natural abilities you have or how good you are, these have nothing to do with God's call on your life.

What does God require from someone that He calls? The Scripture is a bit confusing on this, because it says that God has chosen the weak and foolish things of this world to confound the wise.

You may think that you are too weak for God to have big plans for you and a big calling on your life. Yet it may surprise you to know that your weakness is probably what qualifies you for a calling more than anything else.

You may not be very intelligent. You may rather be foolish and naïve, and feel insecure next to more intelligent people doing great things. You might think that the Lord could use them more easily than you.

But the Lord says to you,

"You are the one I am looking for. I don't need you to have any abilities at all, because I have the abilities that you need and I will give the ability to do your calling."

There are only two qualities that you need to qualify for the call of God. They are humility and love, but especially humility.

You should not want to lift yourself up, but you should have a tender heart of love to reach out to others and be used by the Lord. That is all you need.

You may have been thinking,

"I would really love to do great things for God, but I can't be a great preacher. I can't stand up to preach and teach or write great things.

"I don't have any musical talent or anything. How can God use me, because I have nothing to give Him?"

But you will be amazed what God can do with nothing, if you just give it to Him in submission and humility. God can take that and add His part to it to produce that calling in your life.

So learn to understand the difference between ministry and calling. This is important because you may have had a desire burning in you for some time. But is that a ministry or a calling?

You don't really know do you? So how do you go about finding out what your calling is? It is easy to see a desire for ministry, but often that desire is not based on God's call but rather on what you desire to do.

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