Acts20.com

I'm sure you have had those moments too, when a thought comes roaring through your mind that you have never had exactly like it before. You kind of shake your head in amazement and wonder Why didn't I think of that before? Such is the thought shared in the heading of this post.Like many of you, I first had a sense of Calling, at a young age. I was 12. It wasn't something at the time that I could put into words, but there was a deep feeling that God had His hand on my life. Some of that feeling came after hearing a sermon about Sanctification (back when we preached that in the COG). The words of the sermon that stuck with me were, Sanctification is not as much about being separated FROM the world, even though that is a part of it, as it is being separated UNTO the Lord.The Calling into ministry for me was different than when God spoke to the young man Samuel. For him, it was the moment when he heard it with his own ears. For me, it happened gradually as I served the Lord faithfully through the years. At about 16, the Calling became more clear and at 17, requests from neighboring churches began to come in for me to preach youth revivals. I suppose, if there was an actual moment I accepted the Calling into ministry, it was when, with knees nearly knocking with uncertainty, I accepted the invitation to preach a youth revival in Visalia, California. Dad was pastoring a church about 10 miles away in Farmersville, CA.Over the years, like most of us in ministry, I have thought about my Calling. As time has passed, I have referred to it less and less as My Calling and more as The Calling on my life. After all these years of faithful ministry, I have now come to referring to it as God's Calling on my life.To my knowledge, there was no intentional change in terminology - no thinking that I should upgrade the phrase, but rather a growing in understanding that the Calling was not as much about me as it is about the One who has blessed me with that burden. It is who I am; what my life is about.And then, there comes a phrase roaring through that for me, is a reminder that without a Caller, there is no Calling.Thank You dear Lord, for being the Caller. Your Call has changed my life for the good. Your Call has given purpose to the life You breathed into me. I come before You with praise and thanksgiving. Thank You precious Caller, precious Lord, for Your Calling.Doyl