I Really Enjoy My Volatile Vocation
View all responsesYes! I thoroughly enjoy my vocation, my job. My calling is to listen to and obey the inner promptings of God in my heart. Although doing so is often frightening, every time I do what God prompts, He shows up in a powerful way.
There are many reasons to ignore and disobey the presence and the promptings of the Lord. Gideon, in the Bible, had his reasons to do that. He asked: “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our ancestors told us about?” But the Lord prompted Gideon to do what was impossible for him to do–to go and save Israel by sending all of his 32,000 men army home except for 300. Then God prompted Gideon to have the 300 men light lanterns in the dark and to crack pots. Because Gideon went and obeyed God’s humanly crazy crackpot directions in what looked like a hopeless situation, a miracle of deliverance happened. When God prompts you to do something that makes no sense to you, will you do it? (Remember, God will never prompt you to do evil.)
God has often prompted me to do crazy things. After I had been a full-time motivational speaker for twelve years, God prompted me to burn and destroy all of my client and prospect contact information. It was very hard to obey that inner nudging, but I did. Shortly after that my wife, Ernie, sent her resume to a blind P.O. box to apply for a part-time counselor job. In return she received a call from The Salvation Army looking for a counselor for their 86-bed men’s recovery rehabilitation center in Nashville. She felt the Lord prompt her to put me on the phone and I was hired within a couple of days. That revolutionized our lives!
Two years later The Salvation Army hired Ernie to run a large inner-city resource center full of various services and organizations to help those in need. Then after three more years they asked us to start “a non-traditional church” in one of their church buildings and encouraged us to replace the Sunday sermon with open sharing and testimonies. We got to see people openly obey the Lord’s inner promptings for almost ten years and the results were spectacular. I even wrote a book about the experience called: “Beyond Church–An Invitation to Experience the Lost Word of the Bible–Ekklesia.”
I frequently sense God prompting me to write and post things that make people feel uncomfortable. Although I want people to like me, I feel compelled to obey what I believe God’s Spirit is saying. I get a good bit of negative feedback, but I also have people tell me that what I post gives them hope and changes their life.
Here are some of my most recent promptings:
Church attendance is not the only way to be a Christian. Following and obeying Jesus throughout each day is a very effective strategy for being a powerful Christ-follower.
When Christianity is seen as going to church, people who are put off by church feel like they are rejecting Christ. The risen Jesus, however, is not bound to or defined by any institution. He can directly reveal Himself to whoever ask Him to.
The reception
Of deception
Is dangerous.
Made up stories
About Jesus,
Though entertaining,
Will twist and distort
Your perception.
Stay focused on
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!
Avoid all deflection
From the Spirit’s connection.
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