Before there were Kings: Calling

“Eli knew the right things to say, he just missed it personally…

So what can we learn from Samuel’s calling?

– Callings don’t have to come from ‘ideal’ situations…

Too often we can allow the “ideal” to be the enemy of the “open door” in ministry… we miss the “open door” because it doesn’t meet the expectations of “the idea”…

We want to have a map, when God only gives us the next step and expects us to walk in faith…

Many times it’s exactly those hard situations that He uses to define our callings…

– The importance of proximity in our calling…

Living lives in nearness to God gives us a sharper ear to His voice and leading, proximity matters in our calling…

The greater our proximity to God, the greater our ability to discern His voice…

– We don’t need to wait for a prophetic call to plug into ministry…

We always seem to find Samuel “ministering” before the Lord, in contrast to Eli sitting…

We don’t need to have Damascus road experiences to pray over and find places of ministry both within the church and outside of the church…

We all have a general calling (to reach the lost, and minister to believers)…

If all we’re doing is receiving we’re unhealthy at best…

– Samuel’s response to the call…

First we see Samuel’s reflexive, uneducated response… You can see his eagerness & willingness to serve…

Second we see his instructed response from Eli… “Speak, for your servant hears”…

If we are not careful we can spend our conversations with God talking too much and listening too little…

Though God does listen to us and desires to hear us, God has infinitely more interesting things to tell us if we will listen…

– We can see God’s patience in the call…

Patient in our ignorance and even our running…

If you’ve missed it in the past know God’s not done with you…

– The effect of the call…

God would change the world through Samuel’s ministry… He was the righteous bridge between the times of the Judges to the times of the Kings…

– What is God calling you to…

What can you do here and now (whether He calls you specifically or not)…

Our calling is not about ourselves… It’s about what God can do through you… It’s about His glory… because the chief end of man is God’s glory… our callings need to be approached with humility…

If you are alive today, you have a ministry…”

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