Discerning God's Call to Ministry

Are you thinking about going into the ministry, friend? Do you have a burden to witness to the lost and a hunger to preach the word of God? Perhaps you feel frustrated in your path to ministry. You've heard that it is God who calls a man to represent Him. But you haven't heard that call and you are perplexed as to why you carry this burden to be used of God in some capacity to Him.

But He has not yet called you and you wonder if He ever will. I spent years wondering the very same thing. I had a deep hunger to be useful to God and to reach the lost with the gospel of the Son of God.

I felt I was equipped and ready to preach the word. But why wasn't God ready for me? Why had some of my preacher friends heard the call from God to preach, but I had yet had no call? I fear it is here, friends, where many men make the mistake of entering the preaching ministry in the flesh and desire of their will. They become pastors and evangelists for a multitude of reasons that they feel are valid.

And they spend their lives doing all they can to serve God the best way they know how. But the problem is they jump the gun. God never called them.

We see this from the book of Jeremiah where God declares in chapter 23, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. The best way to hear God's voice, friend, is to stand His word and in a spirit of prayer, seeking His purpose to unfold in your life.

I'll always remember the day when God finally spoke to me by His voice, through His word and by His spirit in a call to be a preacher. It was May 22nd of a certain year and I was in Luke's gospel in chapter 14 and verse 23, which states, And the Lord said unto his servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. And as I read that verse, it became electrified on the words.

And the Lord said unto his servant, Go out. And I heard God call me to be his preacher. It was as plain as day.

I spent the rest of the afternoon calling all my preacher friends to share the good news of what God had just done in my life. And soon after that, I received the call from God's doors, because those doors began to open and invitations to preach began to appear. And when I did preach, it was clear that God's smile was upon my preaching ministry as lives were impacted for eternity.

Now, I want to take some time, friends, to lay out some road signs to the aspiring preachers so you can be better on the lookout for when God calls you to recognize the call. Almighty God has specific ways in which he deals with his servants. Study your Bible, friends, and see how he revealed himself to Abraham and to Jacob, how he tried them and grew their faith and reliance upon him.

If God calls you into ministry for him, he will both prepare you and equip you to carry out his purpose in your generation. I want us to turn in our Bibles to the book of Exodus to see how God revealed himself to Moses and called Moses into a specific ministry purpose for God to receive glory. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to Exodus chapter 2. I want us to examine several principles in how God calls a man to serve him.

Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. This is in verse 23 of chapter 2. And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. We see here, friends, the first principle of the call of God.

Number one. The call from God comes at the right time to thrust a man into a deep work. Look at the time of the God in England before Wesley and Whitefield.

It was said of London that the people were mainly drunkards, as every sixth house was a gin house. Things were so bad, members of Parliament came to work drunk, and houses of prostitution and gambling flourished as well as crime and vice. This was the dark background that God invaded with two bright stars to be the human instruments of a powerful religious awakening, John Wesley and George Whitefield.

Our text reads, And it came to pass in process of time. This is the reason, friend, why you may not have received God's call as of yet. It isn't time.

He will thrust his laborer into a harvest at the choicest time to gather fruit. My main struggle for years was, Why? Why was God training me and equipping me to preach, but he had not yet issued the call to preach in my life? Well, the answer was partly due to it wasn't yet his time, and I wasn't properly emptied enough. Moses had to spend forty years in the backside of the desert for God to have sufficient time to empty Moses of himself and of Egypt.

So the first principle is the call from God comes at the right time, at God's time. Principle number two, God's call comes as a unmistakable call. Look at chapter three of Exodus, friends, in verse four.

And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. It was a unmistakable call. Moses turns to see the wonder of the burning bush.

His attention is taken away from his shepherding, his employment to things of eternity, and his whole being is ready to hear what God has to say. And Almighty God speaks with both clarity and authority as he speaks personally. Moses, Moses.

It is an unmistakable call. God called unto him. Our text reads why the next principle is seen in verses seven through eight.

And that's this principle, friends. God will thrust you into the right part of his harvest field. If he wants you to be a missionary, he will make it not only clear, he will tell you where to bring the gospel to the lost.

He will burden you with a love for the Chinese. If he desires to place you in China, he will place the desire in your heart before he puts it in your head. C.T. Studd referred to this very thing when he said, God doesn't tell a person first by his head.

He tells them first by the heart. God put it in my heart and made me long to go to China. And this is seen in how God reveals his purpose to Moses.

Here in verses seven and eight. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters. For I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians.

God fitted Moses to be the deliverer and leader of the people of God. And God will equip you, friend, and undergird you for the right ministry to which you were called. Next, we see the fourth principle of God initiating the invitation to join him in his work.

We see this clearly in verse 10. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. God invites us to join him in his work.

It is never our work, but his. A pastor is an under shepherd of the good shepherd. The sheep are Christ's.

They are under our care. And lastly, the fifth principle of God calling a servant is seen in the principle of God's abiding presence. Look at verse 12 where God tells Moses, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee.

In other words, friends, when God calls a man, he will support him, equip him, undergird him, and anoint him with his favor and his presence. A God-called preacher is a blessing to the church. Well, I hope this little study has been of some help to you as you see God's face in ministry.

Let us pray.