Calling & Power

Friends, I’m going to share a moment from my childhood that will give you great insight into my personality. When I was 5, Wonder Woman was my hero. I was obsessed. So much so that when I would get in trouble, my mom would take away watching it on TV as my punishment. To date myself, back then we had what were called underoos. They were superhero costumes/pajamas. Now, in my mind I was convinced I was in fact Wonder Woman. I will never forget standing in my bedroom, underoos on, my boots on, and getting ready to spin to be transformed into the actual Wonder Woman. There was not a doubt in my mind that when I stopped spinning in my circle, I would in fact be her. I would have my lasso of truth, get on my invisible jet and handle whatever business came my way. I spun and I spun, so filled with anticipation of what would happen when I stopped. When I finally did, I looked down and friends, the disappointment. I saw my plain old boots, my lame underoos, no lasso of truth, and was horrified. Then I was angry. How could I not be Wonder Woman?? 

The conviction that there was an assignment on my life and a power deep within me I hadn’t yet tapped into, friends what I was feeling was true. At age 5, I could feel it, I believed it, I just didn’t know what it was. I can imagine God watching me as I stood in my room, smiling at the spunky child he created, and thinking “Just wait little one. You’ll understand soon enough.” There is a purpose God has for your life. It is unique to you. There are gifts placed inside of you that God has given, to equip you for the plans He has for your life. What’s amazing is the calling God has on your life, there’s no one else who can do it. It is truly unique to you, how He made you, where He has placed you. God wants to use you. The question is, do you want to be used by God? And if so, I imagine the next question is, where do I begin?

Whether or not you know Jesus, to learn the assignment God has for your life, it begins with a relationship with God. That relationship comes from reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and learning to hear God’s voice. I realize that may sound like work and might even sound terribly boring to some. Friends, I used to think it was boring. Prayer was me telling God what I wanted. Reading the Bible felt like homework where I read a certain number of chapters and moved on with my day. It wasn’t until I realized God speaks – through his word and in prayer, that things started to get very exciting. Prayer became a conversation with God. With God!! It still blows my mind that God speaks to us but friends, with all that I am I promise it’s true. He will speak to you. Reading the Bible became a conversation starter with God. He would draw my eye to a word or phrase, I would ask Him about it, and He would reveal what was on His heart and what He wanted me to know.

I remember the first time God revealed an assignment He had for my life. I was on a run and God was bringing my attention to the fact I was physically running all over my city, multiple times a week. Each week, hours were being spent physically covering my city. What would happen if I used that time in prayer to pray over the city? How many people could be prayed over? How many people were hurting or struggling and could be blessed with his peace, comfort, presence? As I continued to think about it, I found myself getting more excited. I knew God was behind it. As I asked him about it, He confirmed, “Yes, I am calling you to pray over the cities I place you in.”. As I stepped into the assignment, God revealed gifting He placed in me to help me be more effective as I prayed and ran over my city. He has been steadily teaching me more and more each year and I’ve seen evidence of God answering those prayers. I don’t have words for how humbling, inspiring and fulfilling it is to partner with God for something He is calling you to do. He doesn’t need us, but he chooses to use us if we let him. When you see Him answer prayers he puts on your heart to pray, it’s always exciting, rewarding, powerful. Faith becomes so much more than believing. It’s a relationship. It’s active. It’s purposeful. It makes a lasso of truth and an invisible jet pale in comparison. 

If you find yourself wanting to hear God’s voice and learn the assignment He has for your life, I encourage you to set aside 15 minutes each day and gradually work towards more. The time could look like:

-       5 minutes reading the Bible

-       5 minutes praying

-       5 minutes reading/learning to hear God’s voice

If you’re new to reading the Bible, I encourage you to start with the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. If you don’t have a Bible and would like one, we’d love to give one to you. Simply email blog@calvarylg.com. As you read, underline the words or phrases that stand out to you as you read them. Take notes in the margin or get a journal to write in. We have a post on hearing God’s voice here that gives an example of how you can read and pray through a verse in the Bible. The time in prayer could be spent reflecting and asking God what He wants to reveal to you from that verse. I encourage you to write down the thoughts that come to mind, what you sense He’s speaking to you. From there, the last 5 minutes can be spent learning to hear how God speaks. A resource I found incredibly helpful is Brad Jersak’s book “Can you hear me?: Tuning in to the God who speaks”. 

Stay tuned next week as we get to part 2 where we unpack the power part of the conversation. In the meantime, I bless you with hearing from our Father and joy and adventure as you discover and live out the purpose He has for your life.