“… I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you… (I send you to the Gentiles), to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” Acts 26:16-18

Paul’s Call
Part 1

Walk His Way Revisited

As a young Christian, I spent considerable time asking the Lord to tell me what my call in life was. I had no specific career, ministry, or dreams at that time, and my pastor kept preaching that God had prepared a good work for me to do. Well, then, what is it? Tell me, Lord, so I can get busy with it!

If you find yourself wondering the same thing, you will probably hear it, as Paul did, while you are on your way to do something else. And you will probably hear the same thing Paul heard: you’re to be a minister and a witness of what you’ve seen and what He’ll yet reveal to you.

No, I don’t mean you’ll necessarily get the call to go to native tribes (although you might). But Jesus specifically told Paul that he was being sent to the Gentiles (“heathens” and unbelievers) so that their eyes could be opened, so they would be turned from darkness to light, and turned from the power of Satan to God. Why would Paul be told to do a thing like that, so anti-everything he believed? It was so the heathens and unbelievers, too, could receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among the rest of us who are sanctified by faith.

All Paul was being asked to do was give witness to what he’d seen, and what Jesus would yet show him. A parallel verse is Colossians 1:28-29: “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”

Whether you work in the church nursery, your own home, out on the streets, in a school, or in a hospital… whether you are adopting kids or having babies or doing neither… whether you witness by talking or preaching, teaching or writing, sharing your heart in whispers, crying with a friend, sharing a meal, or writing cards to the housebound… during your walks or drives or nighttime prayers with the little ones… we all have the same call: to share with them so that they, too, may be forgiven of their sins and receive an inheritance along with us, who are already sanctified by faith in Christ.

Father, it’s hard to grasp the concept of the call to being a missionary. Help us to walk in the fullness of that calling, in whatever course of life it will be fulfilled. Amen.