Dwight asked: Here is one that I get people asking me occasionally. I suspect others in group would like your take on it. How do you recognize God's calling vs Satan's calling vs the world's calling for your life?

Why do I feel like bacherlorette #3? :)

My short answer would be that Satan's calling would be way too easy, way too compromising, way to reasonable. The world's calling would usually just be common sense and be bolstered by the latest news media polls. But God's calling would scare you to death - going that way will not be easy, will not make sense, and will most likely cost something, if not everything. For the first two, there's no change required, and the status quo, or at least a progression along a sensible timeline, is all that's expected. But if God's calling, all bets are off. you know that taking this road means that everything changes. And if you turn away from it, you know you've missed it. His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:9) - the first two will match-up too closely to our own personal desires, our own mindsets, make too much sense culturally, etc; while the last one will challenge your whole concept of reality.

And that follows from my own personal experiences. What has scared me most and has been the hardest to followthrough to completion have been those things that have reaped something wonderful and exciting and life-changing in Christ. And the things that have been natural and easy, these things serve to make me complacent and lazy and not want to move out in faith at all. My call to leave our home church was completely nuts, and I wrestled with it for awhile, but I knew that's where God would have us go. My call to ministry only made sense from God's perspective, I suppose - and since then everything has changed in some way. Even today, I'm challenged to press forward into something unknown, something I can't quite see yet, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Then again, if it's not scary, it's probably me, right?
- posted by Rick @ 09:01