Getting Your Calling Right (1)

Getting Your Calling Right: Lessons from Apostle Paul and Kenneth Hagin

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. – Galatians 1:15-18

Sadly, there are too many fake prophets both in the church and around the world these days. This is not a new development. It has always been like that for as long as humans have been communing with and worshipping the higher being.

However, with the vast popularity of Christianity across the world, and the attendant need for Christians to fellowship in a church where they can both serve and draw spiritual ministration, the phenomenon of fake prophets has further ballooned.

There are many who have called themselves into ministry because of financial exigency and lack of a better thing to do due to their peculiar circumstances. There are also many people who are erroneously ordained by spiritual mentors or fathers who misinterpret the gifting or calling of God upon their lives. There are also many who are in ministry and are filling in the wrong shoes by answering someone else’s calling. God calls this set of people, alright, but they were not patient enough to get the full details of their specific calling before they launched out and started mounting the ladder of calling, albeit on the wrong wall.

This is a major cause of confusion in Christendom today, where you find evangelists playing the role of a pastor, a teacher answering the call of an apostle, an evangelist donning the toga of a prophet, and a pastor answering the calling of a prophet. This confusion is caused either by a lack of clarity or impatience to get the full divine brief before venturing, “Yes, Lord.”

A classic case of this phenomenon in our contemporary times was the account of the late Kenneth Hagin, a revered man of God, who had to make a dramatic change of course when God plainly told him that he did not call him to be a pastor but a teacher. By the time he got this correction, Hagin had already been pastoring for about 10 years! And it was only after he retraced his steps and started fulfilling the actual calling of God upon his life that his ministry took off to another level [please read Finding Your Place].

A biblical model of getting one’s calling right was the Apostle Paul. When he received his call, he first embarked on a personal retreat, observing a three-day fast and prayer.

Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. – Acts 9:8-9

That, as seen in our reference passage today, he went on another round of retreat in Arabia before he finally started his ministry. This kind of diligence ensured that he had a phenomenal ministry that remains a model for all ministers of God today.

To be continued…

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• The Much-Awaited Person
• The Origin of Jesus: Foretells With Remarkable Precision
• Women in the Bible: Eve and the Cost of Indiscretion
• Magic Mirror: Reflecting God’s Love in a Broken World
• The Unemployment Statistics
• Liver Miraculously Heals After Leaning on God

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