Commissioned to Go
The pastor declared, “You are officially commissioned to go.” He even took pictures of the crowd for proof. Not many were excited, but my husband and I were.
Just a few days before, my h husband and I were having a discussion about the very topic. It all centered around the idea that we have to have a “real job” no matter what our God calling. “You can’t make a living doing that.
I pointed out that missionaries aren’t expected to get “real jobs.” While many do take time off throughout the year to visit churches and organizations that fund the work, they aren’t clocking in to get a regular paycheck.
“In truth, the reason we say you have to get a real job is because we trust the job more than we trust our God.”
My husband added that if we were thinking like it that way, then we were all missionaries – only some of us are stuck riding the fence while others are plowing into our God calling.
Don’t make decisions
just to accommodate
someone else’s fears.
– Kathryn Lang
Choose the Calling
- Permission to go
- Plan to go
- Reason to go
- Way to go
Commission or Concession
I grew up being an encouragement and support for everyone I came in contact with – so much so that my parents had a second phone installed so they wouldn’t have to answer the ringing in the middle of the night.
My gift for encouragement was confirmed when a visiting evangelist stopped praying over my husband to point to me. “You are a tornado. You are called to lift up, cheer up, grow up, and stir up the children of God.”
I rushed right out of church that night and began to lean into my confirmed gift with bold persistence . . . not.
Instead, I started looking for permission to do what ignited my very being and what was spoken over me without any prompting.
As I worked through the process of writing Place in Purpose, I asked some close friends to feel out some worksheets. When answering the question, “What word or phrase comes to mind when you think of me,” Steve wrote: YOU ARE GOD’S CHEERLEADER.
Confirmation after confirmation after confirmation, and still, I questioned my right to do what I felt led to do. Or worse, I questioned whether or not God would actually provide for me in the path where I had a conviction of calling.
I gave in to the rules of the world. The restrictions and limitations of what others considered the “right way” tangled up around me. Before long, I was lost to the truth that had seemed so clear so many times. I embraced the fears of others:
- you can’t survive doing that;
- you have to do things the world’s way because
- you live in the world; what it if wasn’t God.
So many doubts, and I took them up as my own.
And then someone dared me to be more me. Someone challenged me to lean into my encouragement. Someone commissioned me to go.
Do you feel lost to your calling? When you feel a fire burning in your heart for a purpose or towards a purpose, lean into the calling instead of waiting for the world to tell you it’s okay.
Commissioned to Go
Permission to go
When God puts a calling on your heart, or when you see God at work around you, that is your permission to join Him in His work. It’s that simple. Stop making it so complicated.
Plan to go
Listen to the heart and make a plan to follow it – always with a focus on God first and loving others second.
Reason to go
You will only find your success, your peace, and your joy when you fully lean into your God calling. Everything else will come up short.
Way to go
The path you need to take is unique to you. Nobody else will be able to plan it out or point it out. Know God. Listen to His design. And go.
Faith Building
John 20:21
Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you.”
Dare to Go
You have a calling. You have the commission. The only thing holding you back from walking boldly into your unique design is you. Stop asking permission. Stop waiting for someone else to point out the way. Lean into your way.
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Crafted by Curiosity
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