His Calling, My Response

Often we ask the question:  "Am I even eligible to have a mission or calling on my life?“  We might not even know what a calling looks or feels like.  Shawn and I explained it to our daughter Aubree this way: ”When God puts a dream in our heart or tells us to do something for Him, that’s a calling.“

Women automatically have a calling to teach and minister to our children. Check out this post called: ”Jesus Thinks in Families & Legacies“.  

How do we step up into other kinds of ministry as well?

“A calling is: a cause worth living for, a dream worth dying for.”

In 1 Timothy 2:11-12 it says:  “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;she must be quiet.” 

History tells us Paul was not prohibiting women from ministering in the church, he was saying women shouldn’t be drawing attention to the themselves by not being decent and through immodesty.  In 1st century Jewish culture, women weren’t able to study, while men learned God’s word from a very young age.  Paul was saying women WERE to START to learn so that they could go about teaching…but should be quiet and submissive in their attitude until they learned the Word of God.

Paul himself acknowledges that women were publicly praying and prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11:1.  However, the women in the Ephesian church were abusing their newfound knowledge.  They were so excited in what they were now being allowed to learn, that they were being disrespectful to men.  Paul did not forbid women from ever teaching, and frequently mentioned women who worked in the church.  

It matters WHO we are trying to teach and HOW.  I don’t want to be my husband, Shawn’s teacher or pastor, I don’t want to “lord it over him” or be disrespectful to him, or “tell him like it is”. I want him to be my pastor and the priest of my home…I want him to teach me, and I want to focus on where I’ve been CALLED to teach.  

I feel my calling in life is to help others find their calling so they can leave a Jesus legacy in the right order: God, self, spouse, kids, family….then others.

Women are important and we all have callings on our lives.  Look at the story of Rahab.  According to tradition, she was 1 of the 4 most beautiful women in history.  
When the children of Israel were finally going to go into the Promised Land, spies went out first, and Rahab (who was not an Israelite) let them stay with her while they ran reconnaissance.  Rahab said to the spies:

“Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.” - Joshua 2:12.

Did you know that Rahab was in the lineage of Jesus?  If she had not hid them, the Israelite spies would have died.  Had she not asked them to save her family, she would not have been in the lineage of Christ.  Tell me a woman is not instrumental to Jesus!

In fact, look at the many women who followed Jesus, listed in the scriptures when we read of His disciples.  

“Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means” - Luke 8:2-3.

These women PROVIDED.  They provided for the disciples out of their means and went out and learned with the disciples.  It’s very clear that women are completely capable and totally allowed to be doing ministry.  They weren’t all quiet and submissive!  But they weren’t condescending or disrespectful either.  We are told to come alongside of Jesus, not overtake Him or others.

Not too long ago, I sat down and read a great book called 7 Women by Eric Metaxas.  Out of the 7 women, there were 4 that really stood out to me as having clear callings.  They used their dreams and their gifts to make an impact in the world.  

Susanna Wesley:  

Her dream, her calling:  Was to plan for her children and their future.  
Her gift:  Was to teach them well.  

Susanna Wesley was the mother of John and Charles Wesley (part of Wesleyan revival that was focused on learning more about God and focusing on the Bible).  She was also called the mother of Methodism.  Through her calling, 2 church movements, the Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church began.  She was also called the “Inventor of Homeschooling”.

Her kids couldn’t understand the King James Bible, so she rewrote it so they could understand.  She wanted to train them in the Word of God even if it was at home.  

She felt children were to be taught to fear the rod because it would be selfish and cruel of her to raise them otherwise.  She often said, "Cruel parents let their children develop bad habits by not correcting them in the moment, so that they later have to correct themselves in life which is so much harder to do.”

Hannah Moore:  

Her dream, her calling: Was to abolish slavery in Europe by making “goodness fashionable”.  
Her gift: Was understanding culture and being in the creative arts. 

Hannah Moore worked in the theater industry, was a playwright, and wrote articles.  She believed, “The culture you live in is as much or more influenced by the arts of the day than legislature”.  She did not wish to retreat from culture into the religious sphere.  She said:  “I hope the poets and painters will at last bring the Bible into fashion.”

When it came to slavery, most of Hannah’s readers had never seen an African. They thought slavery was just an economic necessity.  But through Hannah’s writing, hundreds of thousands of people’s eyes were opened to the inhumanity behind slavery.  It caused them to push for their countries to have no part in slavery.

Hannah was able to open people’s eyes, while at the same time making Jesus famous, just like we are supposed to be making Jesus famous in the 920 and in our children’s eyes.  Not by being angry and political about everything going on in the world.  It’s not about saying what you stand against, it’s about standing FOR what is life changing; Jesus!

Too often we share and add our opinion about culture instead of creating culture. We need fewer commentators and more innovators.  We need to quit complaining about what’s wrong and do something that makes a difference.

Rosa Parks:  

Her dream, her calling:  Was pursuing quality.  
Her gift: Was seizing the moment.    

Rosa Parks was in the right place at the right time.  The day she refused to sit in the back of the bus was not the first time she ever rode the bus and the first time she just got off the bus when told to move to the back!  In fact, it was a long time before she decided to take the stand she is now known for.  It was a process of her getting more and more educated and more and more bold over a long period of time.  

We live in a world where we compare ourselves to people’s “best” on social media…where we see they “made it” and think they made it TODAY.  We think everything in our own life has to be perfect, we have to be perfect, and we have to be perfect now.  But that’s not really true, that’s not reality.  We don’t see their messy moments, so we feel alone.  Satan wants you to feel alone!  

Mother Theresa:  

Her dream, her calling:  Was to care for the least of these.  
Her gift:  Was to be a bold observer and then a humble doer.  

Sometimes we think of old, frail Mother Theresa, and we forget that she was once a child, that she had her own mother.  And here is the life altering part of her story many have never heard: Theresa, as a little girl watched her mother care for the poor and dying for years.  Her mother was her example.  Her mother brought people in off the streets into their childhood home.  It was Mother Theresa’s mother that started a legacy that has had a worldwide impact.  It took years and years to become the “Mother Theresa” we know today, it didn’t happen overnight.

She spoke later in life about the spiritual poverty of wealthy nations, where parents are too busy working to pay attention to their children.  Even in her meekness, she was bold.  She stood up for what she believed in.  She was bold but humble and loving.  

Your dreams are possible because of the dreams that were dreamed before you!

“Our dream predate us, they were born long before we were.  Our dreams also postdate us, they make a difference long after we are gone.” - Mark Batterson

The domino effect of your calling (your dreams + your gifts) will be felt for generations. 

God chose you.  He put good seed in you.  The devil is prowling around trying to pluck that very seed.  Satan may even be trying to overtake you by letting weeds of bitterness and envy grow, he wants anger and unforgiveness to overtake you like weeds.  

The minute my seed starts to die, is the minute I quit being the mom, daughter or leader I’m called to be.  It’s the minute I stop striving for a healthy marriage or purity prior to marriage. You are a spiritual mama to someone.  It’s to your biological kids, but you are also a spiritual or emotional surrogate to those admiring you from close or afar.  

I need to be walking out my calling by putting God first in my life and protecting the good seed that God desires to grow in me. How about you?

Pastor Sonny