| When God Called Me |
|
| |
WHEN GOD CALLED ME
Many of us have our own plans and ambitions and things that we want to do with our lives. I remember when I was kid I used to watch this famous meteorologist on t.v. and I thought that was a cool thing to do. I wanted to be a weatherman. But then I started to watch Perry Mason and Ben Matlock and then I wanted to be a lawyer. I used to watch “Saved By the Bell” (Zack Morris). Somehow I managed to enter into the interest of wanting to be High School teacher, despite my dad’s pleadings not to do that.
About the time I entered into my Sophomore year in high school I was attending a Baptist Church at the time and I was hearing all about my friends in Sunday School responding to the call of God on their life. I was not sure what that was. I was told many times that I should look into seeing what God wanted me to do with my life. That threw a wrench into my plans. If you are at the point that you are so settled in doing with your life, wait til someone asks you are you doing what God wants you to do with your life.
When I first responded to the call of God on my life I was just following the crowd. I was going to church, hanging around Christian friends. I was just doing what I thought was a normal thing to do. I don’t exactly remember what I was thinking when I decided to pursue God’s plan for my life, but I do remember a scripture in Matthew 7:21 that said,
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Somehow I interpreted that as being my call into the ministry. I started telling everyone I knew that God has called me into the ministry. I told my Pastor I wanted to surrender my life to preach the Gospel. I literally thought I would not go to heaven if I did not preach the Gospel. Little did I know that God truly was calling me into the ministry.
God will use any means necessary to get you attention about doing what He wants you to do. I learned early in life that you will never truly be satisfied with your life until you are doing what God has called you to do. This is very very true. I pursued after meaningful career choices and none of them today is what I am doing. I have a job and I have a career, but my ultimate satisfaction in life is doing what God has called me to do.
God’s plans for your life are not evil, they are good. Many people have this warped idea that if God is calling you into the ministry, you are have to live poor, you cannot have any fun, and you have to marry someone ugly. The opposite is true. If you do what God has called you to do it will be the best thing you have ever done with your life. I am serving God today and guess what? I am not broke or poor, I am not bored with my life. I enjoy doing what I do. The best thing about this I am married to a very beautiful woman.
I made the comment to her one time just before we got married. We were attending a church in Del City and the pastor’s wife was a very pretty woman. He was nice looking man and he was married to this very pretty woman. I was thinking back to my days I spent in Alexandria. I attended a church there and the pastor’s wife was beautiful. The youth pastor’s wife was beautiful.
I looked at my wife to be and I said “What is it about us preachers that we always end up with and getting married to the most gorgeous women?” I am serious. I have compared being married to worldly woman vs. a godly woman. Godly women are better looking, no joke. The truth is that when you do what God has called you to do then He wants you to have the best in life. Let me tell you I am married God’s best.
God’s call on our lives is meant to give us hope (Jeremiah 29:11). It is meant to give us something to look forward to. It is meant to give us something that makes us want to get out of bed every morning. When you know and understand that God has a plan for your life it should drive you to find out what it is (Philippians 1:6, 3:14)
God wants you to pursue Him the same way He pursued you into salvation. God wants us to be a part of His plans and purposes, but we have to be on the same team as God. God is not going to allow someone to get in on his plans and purposes if we’re living and serving the devil.
When I found out that God was calling me into ministry, it scared me at first. I was going to a Baptist Church when I made that discovery and I started thinking I am going to go to some far reaching jungle in South America to be a missionary and preach to a tribe of unknown villagers who had no idea what a toothpick was.
Most people who are called into the ministry are usually mission oriented people. Everybody wants to be missionary. NOT ME!!!! Well, at least not at the time. Today, I am willing to go to the mission field if that is what God wanted me to do. That could still be in my future.
When I was growing up I did not get a lot of support from my dad. He was not into this ministry stuff like I was. Sometimes I got the idea that he was ashamed of me when I told him I was called to preach. He even told several people that I eventually would give up on this whole “preaching kick”. In some way there was division from that moment. Because of my choice to follow after the call of God for my life, the relationship with my dad slowly grew distant. But here I am today in the year 2009 with the same desire to preach the gospel that I had when I first discovered the call of God on my life.
Why am I telling you this story? I am telling you this story because I want everyone who reads this to know that it does not matter who you are, where you come from and what you have done with your life in the past. God will use you today, at this very hour if you will let him. God called His people then and He still calls them today. God will be calling His people into the work of the ministry until we enter into the millennial reign of Christ.
God has a history of calling the most unworthy people into the ministry. The Apostle Paul was one of them. You may be feeling like you are one of those people. You may be thinking “I have messed up so bad that God will never be able to use a worm such as I.” Let me tell you this. That is a lie from the devil deep down from the pit of hell. Satan knows that once you get a hold of this you become a threat to all that he is doing. Just because you may feel like you are the scum of the earth, you are a prime candidate for doing the work of the ministry.
I was schooled by some of the best men in the ministry. I was primarily schooled by Pastor Mark Hankins in Alexandria Louisiana. Most of my training came from him and the things that he and all the instructors taught me in those classes that I diligently went to. Some of the others that I learned from were Kenneth Hagin, Mac Hammond, Walter Hallam and. I did not study directly under these men, but I read their books. I studied their material.
I spent the next 12 years after graduation preparing for the ministry. I never truly knew what God had called me into. I just knew he called me into it. When I first started working in the ministry, I wanted to be a pastor. Sometime ago in 1996 I was prophesied over to be a missionary. I had a dream about starting a bible training center like Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa. I wanted to be in the spotlight. I wanted to be the next Kenneth Hagin, or the next T.D Jakes. But was that what God was wanting me to be? Don’t spend all your preparation time trying to be some you see on TBN.
To this very day, it has been my desire to enter into the ministry field of training and education. My pastor today told me that the school of ministry that is in my heart to do will be a lifelong pursuit.This will be one of those things that I will never accomplish, God will constantly be building and adding more and more things to this ministry.
I love to teach the word. I love to study the word and write bible studies and sermons. I love to share with other people the revelation I get straight from heaven. I have devoted hours multiplied upon hours spending time reading and writing down things that I learn from the word of God.
Now I know that God has been telling me to write a book. As I am writing this I do not have any ministerial credentials.
I am going to tell you now, so that you don’t have to face disappointment in ministry and wonder why no one ever told you. Ministry is the hardest thing you will ever do. No one has what it takes to go into the ministry, but Jesus does. There will be times you will take your bible and want to throw it across the room. There will be times you will entertain thoughts of quitting.
Get ready for the ridicule, get ready for persecution, get ready for times of affliction. The day you said “Yes” to God and to ministry was the day strapped on a bulls-eye that says, “Shoot here”.
The devil does not want the average, run of the mill Christian or person who claims to be a Christian. He wants that person who has found out they have a purpose in life. He wants to destroy that person whose mouth is full of the word of God. He wants to afflict that person who wakes up in the wee hours of the morning and spends that time on his face in prayer finding out what God wants him to do. He wants to tear down that believer who has heart to make a difference. Are you that kind of person? If you are just another believer who goes to church on Sunday, but is not doing anything, you are one of the devil’s best buddies. You don’t mean a thing to him.
When you surrender to the call of God on your life, when you make the commitment to serve God with all your heart, might, soul and strength, you will hear more from the devil than you did before you got saved. That is the truth.
You will not get to live a normal life. You will be scrutinized. You placed under a microscope and they very tiniest of details will be open and exposed. You will attract people with all kinds of problems. People will look to you for spiritual guidance. Are you that kind of person?
I remember Mark Hankins told us on the first day of Bible School “I would rather see you do something other than this.” Don’t misunderstand, he was not trying to tell us that we don’t have what it takes. He was simply wanting us to understand that there is more to ministry than wearing a good suit on Sunday morning and standing in front of large congregation and preaching the word.
One of my Bible School instructors asked the class he was teaching “How do you spell ministry?” I think someone actually got up and spelled the word “ministry”. He said ministry is spelled “W-O-R-K”. Are you ready to “work”?Why do you think it is called the “work of the ministry.” Why do you think so many men and women who are called into the ministry end up quitting within two years. The ministry is “WORK”.
My question for you today is Has God called you into the ministry? Before you answer that question. Let me ask you, Do you know what the call of God is? Do you know what it takes to be in the ministry? Are you willing to separate yourself from everything in order to pursue the call of God? If you do not know the answer to these questions. by the time you finish this course, if not before you will know the answer. In this Bible study course we are going to look at ten topics that will teach and explain what the call of God is and how we can respond to that call and prepare to do what we have been called to do.
Each week I will post a new lesson on this Forum. There are 10 Lessons in this series. Each lesson will have a about 5-10 paragraphs to read and then some study questions at the end of each lesson.
I encourage you to do each lesson. Simply reply back to me when you are finished.
Minister Ryan
|
|
Follow this blog
