Finding my calling (and finding yours)

How can I know I'm called to write you this blog?  If you need to hear what I'm writing, then your need is my calling.  I have something to say, and you need to hear it.  Maybe it's not that mysterious.  Or maybe it is.  Because your need and my ability, meeting at just the right time, is miraculous.  You're reading right now.  Not long after I'm writing. Out of all the blogs or things you could be reading, I'm it.  How did that happen?  God alone is the explanation.  I'm called by God, and perhaps by you, to write to you.  Now what about you?  What are you called to do?


Today, somebody needed you.  Somebody.  Maybe your boss, or your parents, or your siblings.  Let's start from the beginning of your life...


You were born.  Out of all the sperm and eggs that could've connected, yours did.  And now you're here.  I know as a parent that once each of my children were born, it was as if they could never not exist for me.  My life and theirs became inextricably connected.  And God forbid I should ever lose one of them, I would never be the same me.  The same is true for you...to someone...even if you think your parents wished you were never born.  Let's talk about what we know...let's talk about the real evidence of the significance of your existence...


I'm the evidence.


Your significance is why I'm writing.


Without you, I'd have no one to write to.


You.


The one reading.


Right now.


Are significant...to me.


That is your calling.

How to have an epiphany today (Discover the meaning of your life)

To change your life, change your mind.  See in such a new way that it changes how you think, speak, and act from that moment on.  Have a sudden answer to your two most crucial life questions:

1. What is the real purpose of your life in this world? 
2. What real difference do you make by simply being alive?

These two questions can't go unanswered for you.  If they do, why should you bother doing anything at all?  If your absence makes no difference, if your presence possesses no significance, if no one notices when you are not around, then how can you really and truly be happy?

 

Experience an epiphany. Do these three things.

 

1. Ask.
2. Seek.
3. Knock.

 

Jesus, the light of the world, the light and life of every man and woman, gives these three keys to experiencing a revelation, an epiphany. This is the promise of Jesus, the son of God:

 

Ask, and it will be given to you.  Seek, and you will find.  Knock, and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives.  Everyone who seeks finds.  Everyone who knocks, the door is opened.

 

What is your most crucial life question?

• Ask it. 
• Now seek with everything in you to find the answer.  The question has to be a matter of life and death for you, something you really want to know, an answer you feel you can't live without.  If it is answered, your life matters.  If it goes unanswered, you might as well have never been born.
• Try to open every door to every possible answer to this question.  Try to answer the question yourself to the very best of your ability at every given opportunity. 

In this process of asking, seeking, and knocking, you will experience a sudden answer to the question.  A revelation.  An epiphany.  Give God the glory.  You know the answer didn't come from you, because when you tried your best to answer the question, you couldn't.

 

Tell me about your epiphany.
I look forward to hearing from you.
(click HERE for part 2)

What Does YOUR NAME Mean?

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.  I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”  Ruth 1:20-21

Your name, what you are literally called, is in fact your calling.  The meaning of your name is who you are supposed to be, and what you are supposed to do.  It is the atmosphere your life is supposed to create.  A woman named Naomi understood this.

Naomi's husband and two sons died.  At the time of her life as an Israelite woman, this left her destitute and desperate, considering her life bitter by the hands of the Almighty.  So she no longer wanted to be called "Naomi," which means "pleasant."  Instead she felt her name should be "Mara," which means "bitter."  She believed her name should match who she really was and what her life was really like.  Naomi understood the significance of what you called her.  So does God, who gives names according His callings.  Look at how He does this:

• God said, "No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations."
• God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah."
• God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
• God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel.

God called Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Israel.  Literally.  He called them by their names, by these new names, because of their new identities and destinies.  Their names, what they were literally called, was their calling.  The same is true for you.

What does your name mean?

If you don't already know the meaning of your name, you can look it up as soon as you finish reading my words.  The meaning of your name is who you are, or at least it should be.  Look up the meaning of your name and see if who you are fits what your name means.  If it doesn't, it should.  Or at least you should strive to be what you are literally called.

But what if your name has a "bad meaning," or no real meaning at all that you can find?  A man named Jabez was in your situation.  Listen to him:

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”  Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

The name "Jabez" sounds like the Hebrew word for pain.  But Jabez didn't want that to be his identity or destiny.  So Jabez prayed that it wouldn't be. And God granted his request.  The same is true for you if you feel the name your parents gave you doesn't express your God given identity and destiny. 

If you agree, pray with me:

"God, my Father and Creator, You alone know who I am, and what my name should be.  If the name that I have expresses who you see me to be, then affirm me.  If not, give me a new name, a new identity, my true destiny, that I may be who you see me to be.  In the name of Jesus, amen."

• If you don't know the meaning of your name, look it up right now. 
• If you already know it, and it is how God sees you, be the meaning of your name. 
• If your name doesn't express how God sees you, ask Him what to do.

 

What It Means To Be CALLED (Part 2)

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."  Isaiah 43:1b

To be called is to be summoned, chosen, and empowered for a specific task that only you can do.  The key word to focus on is SPECIFIC.

Only you can be what you are called to be, and do what you are called to do. 

This is how you know your calling.

 

There was only one Noah, and only he could build the ark.

There was only one Abraham, and only he could have Isaac.

There was only one Sarah, and only she could mother Isaac.

 

One Moses.

One Joshua.

One you.

 

In fact, you can imagine your calling as the literal calling of your name, what you are literally "called." Your name is your calling, the meaning of your name and the reputation of your name.  We see this  consistently with God, who gave and changed names.  We see it from the beginning of his summoning or callings of created things.  He named all of creation.  He named the man. The man named woman, and the first woman.  Each name was a calling.

 

God changed Abram's name to Abraham, and Sarai's name to Sarah.

God gave the name Isaac to the child of promise, and the name Israel to Jacob.

Each name was a calling. 

 

The names of John the Baptist and the name of Jesus were their callings from God.

 

It's the same with you.

You are called by name, by your specific name. 

Only you are you, and only you can be you.

 

To know and experience your callings in life, all that is necessary is to see what you alone are, and what you alone can do.  If you agree, pray with me:

 

"God, my Creator, I honor You in the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior.  Thank you for making me.  Thank You for saving me.  Thank You for indwelling me by Your Spirit. You knit me together in my mother's womb and created my inmost being.  I am Yours.  You are mine.  We are one.  I dedicate my life to fulfilling my calling, to fulfill the purpose for which You made me.  Only I can be me.  Only I can do what You made me to do.  Thank you.  Amen."

 

Now look into your life and see the unique places you hold in relationships to others.  For example, I only am the husband of my wife and the father of my children.  These are my callings.  I alone, as Olatunde, son of God, am writing to you right now what the Spirit gives me, and is giving me alone.  There is no other Olatunde in all of creation writing this blog that you are reading. 

 

In the same way, there are things that only you are doing and can do.  These things are obvious.  These things are what you are called to do.  Do them for God's glory and fulfill your destiny.

 

What It Means to Be CALLED (Part 1)

To be called means you are summoned, chosen, and empowered to do a specific task assigned only to you. 

• God called Noah to build the ark.
• He called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be the nation that would bless all nations.
• He called Joseph to rule in Egypt.
• He called Moses to deliver Israel.
• An example of being called in our day would look like this.

John is a doctor, a surgeon.  One day the head of the surgeons yells, "John, come to my office."
--That yell, that call to the head surgeon's office, is John's summon.

John goes to the head surgeon's office.

"Have a seat John.  We have 10 capable surgeons in this hospital, but your focus and discipline stand out to me.  So I'm choosing to send you to a special medical operations camp in Washington by order of the President.  You will be assigned to troops who return from Afghanistan who are in need of special surgical attention. Do you accept this commission?"

"Very much sir.  Thank you," John replies.

John was summoned, chosen by the head surgeon, and empowered for a specific mission. He was called for a specific task.

This is what it is like to be called.

You are also called and experiencing being called even as you read. 
How do I know?

Your very existence is a call from God.
By creation you are summoned, chosen, and empowered to be you, an assignment only you can fulfill, as it is written,

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."  Psalms 139:13

Knitting is a very intimate and intricate act.  When God made you in your mother's womb, it took time and attention.  This is your summons.  You were chosen to be God's creation.  You were empowered by the God who knit you together in your mother's womb and created your inmost being, your unique personality and abilities.

Your very first and foremost call is to simply be what God mad you to be today. 

Here are two ways to experience your calling:
1. Commit right now to be completely and utterly honesty.  Don't let a word come out of your mouth that doesn't reflect the absolute truth as you know it.
2. Commit to doing only what you are very good at. Only use the talents you know you have.

If you do these two things, you will experience how God knit you together in your mother's womb and created your inmost being. 

You will experience what it means to be called.

But there is more.  Stay tuned for part 2.