How to Know Your Calling from God: What's God Purpose for My Life?

hey everybody I'm Marc from apply God's Word calm a place where we apply the Bible to real life in this episode we're gonna talk about how to know what your calling is from God so when we talk about a calling I think often times it can be a little bit confusing because people use this word in different ways so the way I'm going to use this word is in two ways we have an ultimate calling from God that never changes but then we also have specific callings from God that may just be seasonal they might last for the rest of our lives or this calling can actually change so the first thing we want to talk about is our ultimate calling our ultimate calling as a Christian is to glorify God above all else when you read the Bible it's not ultimately a book praising man it's ultimately a book about exalting God through his saving work of people God glorifies himself in everything he does he created us to glorify him the glory of God is a huge topic so I'm not gonna dive into it too much but I actually wrote a book called intertwined our happiness is tied to God's glory within this book I talk about how to glorify God in every season of your life in every situation of your life the main you know guiding theme throughout this book is that your internal happiness cannot be governed by your external circumstances God wants you to glorify Him in whatever season of life you're in whatever circumstance you're in our external world is impossible to control but what we can control is our willingness and ability to glorify God in the situations that were currently in so our ultimate calling is to glorify God the second type of calling I believe that God puts on people is giving us specific tasks to do so maybe God is calling you to be a pastor maybe God's calling you to be a mother or to get married to the certain person or to go to school to be a doctor or an accountant or there's so many different things that God could be calling you to do but the real question is how do you know what your calling is from God I think that question kind of opens up a bunch of other questions like how do you hear the voice of God things are like that I have other videos on that topic so in this video I'm just gonna give you two questions to ask yourself if you want to know what your calling is there's other things we could talk about on how to hear the voice of God and how to confirm truth in God's Word which are extremely important but I believe if you ask yourself these two questions this is really gonna help you identify what your specific calling is in this season of life number one is what do you enjoy doing God reveals his design for us through our desires God puts a desire on your heart to fulfill the calling that he has called you to for example in 1st Corinthians 9 verse 16 Paul says woe is me if I do not preach Paul loved to preach he loved to teach and that was clearly his calling but here's the thing if you just enjoy it and it doesn't benefit other people it's not a calling it's a hobby so the next question you have to ask yourself is what do people need that you can offer if you only enjoy it that's not enough you're calling needs to benefit other people so you have to ask yourself where is there a need in the world or in my community that I have the ability to help out that I have the ability to fulfill so it can't just be that though you can't just fill a need you also have to enjoy it so if you only enjoy it but it's not benefiting other people I think that's called a hobby but if you're benefiting other people and you don't enjoy it that's not really your niche you're maybe you're really good at it but it just doesn't really spark you it doesn't fire you up it's not something you get up in the morning to really think about I would call that a job that's a diff is different than a Halling now hobbies and jobs are not bad things I'm not saying you can't have a hobby or you can't have a job sometimes you need to do some good soul care and go on a hike or paint a picture or you know sing a song whatever it is that you really enjoy you should do that that's good for your heart as well and it's good to have a job if you're helping people and fulfilling a need in the world or you're able to make money for yourself and your family those are good things those should not be rejected but a calling is when these two things collide in the world where your passion and meets the world need that is your calling Paul not only love to preach his preaching was bearing fruit people were benefiting from it we're still reading the words of Paul in the Bible today so clearly God's calling on Paul was to preach he loved to do it and it was extremely beneficial for other people so if you want to know your calling ask yourself those two questions what is your passion and what is profitable to the world around you the second point I want to make about a god-given calling is that it is always spiritually fruitful but it's not always financially successful there's a difference between spiritual fruitfulness and financial success it's important to know because you may never get paid to do the calling that God has for you this season maybe God's calling you to lead the children's ministry at your church maybe God's calling you to lead a small group maybe God's calling you to start a blog maybe God's calling you to go to seminary you graduate but you never actually get a job to be a pastor that doesn't mean you've missed your calling but God's calling is always going to be fruitful when God gives you a gift it's going to be helpful to other people and on the flip side just because you are getting paid for something is it verification that that is God's calling on your life right now again that might be a job which is extremely helpful might be a career which there's nothing wrong that's good to have a career I have a career I got to provide for my family but that that career just because you're getting paid for it doesn't mean that that's you know your spear calling right now so if you want to know what your real calling is don't look at where the money's flowing in look at where the spiritual fruitfulness is happening lastly you will know your spiritual calling when it is confirmed by other people now this is the way God's designed people to live within community within a church in 1st Timothy 4 verses 14 through 16 Paul reminds Timothy of when the elders confirmed his calling and his spiritual gifting it's important to be in a local church so that other Christians can confirm or negate your calling if you think you're a great teacher if you think you're just awesome at serving people or counseling but other people around you are saying you know what when you do it kind of is offensive or you're just really not that good at it you don't look that happy when you when you do these things that might be God speaking through those people to give you some clarity on maybe going a different direction in your calling and vice versa when you are walking and you're calling people are going to notice it they're gonna see that you are being spiritually fruitful they're going to ask you to help them in those areas that you have a gifting when people ask you for counsel or they want you to sit down with them and help them plan these are good indicators that you have a gifting in those areas well I've talked a lot more about this on my blog and apply God's Word calm I'll leave some links in the description of this video if you want even more information on how to know what your calling is and I would definitely encourage you to check out this book intertwined our happiness is tied to God's glory it's all about your calling it's all about the ultimate calling and fulfilling your specific calling in your life as well I'll leave a link in the description of this video if you want more information on that as well well don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already thanks for watching and God bless

Channel: ApplyGodsWord.com/Mark Ballenger

Views: 469,314

Rating: 4.9332619 out of 5

Keywords: how to know your calling from god, how to know your calling in ministry, how to know your calling in life, what is my calling god, calling from god, calling from god sermon, how to know your calling, what's god's purpose for my life, how to know when you've found your purpose in life, how to know god's purpose for your life, how to know god's will for your life, how to find god's plan for your life

Id: v5bqmW8AR8I

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2018