Am I Called?

We have been looking at the idea of Spiritual Leadership within the church.

We have looked at the offices of Leadership.

We have looked at how each and every Christian is called to be a spiritual leader.

We have looked at spiritual authority within the church, and how Christ is the head of the church.

Tonight, I want us to look at this idea of “Am I Called?”

We spoke this morning how that we tend to gravitate from one extreme to the other. This particular area of understanding within spiritual leadership is no different. Within the church today, we see both of the extremes to this position exercised regularly.

There are some churches who feel that every single position of leadership within the church should be filled with those who have had some kind of divine calling from God. Maybe it is a vision, a special moment or situation that revealed unto them God’s will for them being in leadership, or some other means. But they must have wrestled with and prayed through that calling on some level and be able to articulate that to the church before being considered for a position within leadership.

There are other churches who hand out titles of leadership like candy. They have multiple people within their church who carry the title of Pastor/Elder. They are constantly giving out new titles of leadership to people who have not proven themselves or quiet frankly who are not qualified to be in positions of leadership. They have completely abandoned this idea of divine calling and have taken the responsibility of deciding who should be in what place of leadership on themselves.

So we have two extremes. One says that everyone must receive some kind of divine moment with God, while the other says that this rarely, if ever happens anymore and almost everyone should be moved into some kind of position of leadership.

This is a big problem in the church today, because it has caused a lot of confusion concerning the raising up of leaders.

So tonight, our goal is to unpack this idea of, “Am I Called?” What does the Word of God have to say about divine calling vs. appointed leadership? And what should our mentality towards raising up leaders within the church be today?

Calling

Is there such a thing as divine calling? YES!!! There are over 50, maybe many more than that upon close examination, of these “divine experiences” throughout the Scriptures.

Name a few of those in Scripture who were called by God in such a way:

Moses was called through a burning bush experience (Exodus 3)

Isaiah had a throne room vision (Isaiah 6)

Samuel was called by God through an audible voice (1 Samuel 3)

Apostle Paul had a Damascus road experience (Acts 9)

And there are many more:

Noah was told to a boat in the middle of the desert.

Joseph received dreams and visions of how God would raise him up and deliver his family

Aaron was called to be the spokesman of Moses

Gideon was sent an angel to call him into service

David was anointed by Samuel as the future king

Jeremiah was appointed even before birth to be a prophet to the nations

Ezekiel had dreams and visions while in exile

Daniel received dreams and visions

Mary and Joseph were both visited by angels and had dreams

John the Baptist was set apart before birth to be the forerunner of Christ

And we could go on.

What we find throughout the Scriptures is that God would raise up certain individuals to either proclaim His word to His people, or lead His people through a difficult time. We see examples of this over and over. We see this in the OT and the NT.

Just quickly in the NT, we see Jesus directly calling all 12 of the disciples who would later become apostles of the church. We see that God distributes the gifts of the Holy Spirit to each one as He sees fit:

1 Corinthians 12:1–11 NKJV

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

Ephesians 4:11 NKJV

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

So even still in the NT, in the commissioning of the church and the establishing of its leadership, we see that God is the one who calls and commissions these people into those places of leadership.

Now, with that being said, does that mean that each of these people had some kind of divine experience? No, it does not. That does happen… even still today, but that is the exception, not the norm.

Even in the midst of these divine experiences scattered throughout the Scriptures, we see that many others were called into leadership through what we would call normal means: through discipleship, through mentoring, through experience and service.

If we go back to Eph 4, we see this very thing.

Ephesians 4:11–16 NKJV

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Now I know that we have looked at these verses a lot here lately, but notice that within these verses we see both the divine appointment by God to those who are in leadership as well as the natural process and even command to raise up spiritual leaders through the means of spiritual discipleship and mentoring.

In the Old Testament, we see that Moses has a divine experience, or calling, from God, but then alter on, he raises up many others into a place of leadership to help him judge the daily affairs of the people.

Elijah had a divine encounter with God, at the beginning and the end of his ministry, but one day as he is strolling through the countryside, he sees Elisha plowing the field with a team of oxen. He walks over, lays his mantle on Elisha and calls him to follow him as a disciple. We are not told that God somehow divinely chose Elisha, though I have no doubt He certainly did in some way. But Elijah mentored Elisha, and when Elijah was called up by God in a chariot of fire, God blessed Elisha with a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

In the New Testament, both Timothy and Titus were chosen by Paul to be spiritual leaders within the church and both of them were commissioned by Paul to help establish churches in different areas. And notice the command that Paul gives to each of them:

Titus 1:5 NKJV

5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—

1 Timothy 1:3 NKJV

3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

2 Timothy 2:2 NKJV

2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 4:1–5 NKJV

1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

So we see in the Scriptures that it is the Holy Spirit that distributes the spiritual gifts of God as He sees fit, and sometimes this comes by way of some kind of divine encounter. We also see within the Scriptures a command, which is given to the church by God, to teach and train and raise up new leaders from within the church. So how do we reconcile these two things together?

I want to give you what I believe to be the Scriptural process for raising up new leaders within the church:

Desire to lead others

Person pursues the work

The church examines their qualifications

The church recognizes and appoints the person

The Person serves under God’s authority