The Training of God’s Leader: The Call of God

Key Thought

It all starts with a call from God. It is a work of Sovereign grace.

Introduction:

God wants a church that is an expression of Himself on earth. He wants a fully equipped and very effective group
of people through whom He can express His power and love to the world. We need to know what God has called
us to do for Him, so that we can take our proper place in the Body of Christ.

The call of God is always from something into something else. It is an invitation or summons from God to be or
do something different. When we receive such a call, it is formative for the rest of our lives. In fact, a call is
something around which the rest of our lives should revolve.

1) God’s general call to all Christians

 All Christians have been called out of the kingdom of darkness into God’s kingdom (1 Pet. 2:9)
 Called by God to obey Him and carry out the work that they alone have been created by Him to achieve
(Jer. 1:4-10; Eph. 2:10)

2) A call to leadership: If called, you should have a special inward witness from the Holy Spirit. No other person
can invent a true call from God.
3) Discernment of the call
 The call of God on a person’s life may change with time.
 God does not always call the most likely or even the most humanly gifted people. There’s a mystery
about God’s call that can only be answered in the heart of God.
 We need to be totally dependent on God as leaders, never relying on our natural talents alone.
 There are four major factors to consider as far as a God-given call to the ministry of leadership is
concerned.
o A sense of call
o A heart for the work
o Exercise of the gift
o Fruitfulness
 Some other helps to enable us to discern the call of God upon our lives:
o God often calls us to things to which we have a natural leaning.
o Many people are striving and straining to be something God has never called them to be.
o When we are first saved, God often gives us an idea of the work that He will call us to do for
Him.
o Even from our mother’s womb God knows us and He has been preparing us throughout our lives
for that which He will later call us to do.
4) Full time or not? Even the Apostle Paul had a tent-making job at times.
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5) God does the choosing.

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4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 The Training of God’s Leader: The Call of God

 God chooses the people He will call into leadership and He chooses the way.
 God is a God of huge variety and creativity
o Burning bush experience
o Definite spiritual visitation from the Lord
o Dream, vision or prophetic word
o Deep inner desires which God planted in the heart
 All of these are valid ways of receiving God’s call and they are unique, but very real, to the person who
has received them.
6) God’s timing
 Wait on God for His time. Don’t step out without Him! (Psa. 37:23-24; Prov. 3:5-6)
 Don’t allow other people to push you forward before your time.
 Follow God’s leading alone – even though His timing may be contrary to man’s wisdom.
 When the timing is right, don’t resist God. Go! (Esther 4:14)

7) Some of us aren’t quite ready yet

 Consider God’s leaders and the time of preparation required: Jesus, 30 years; Moses, 40)
 Nobody can make up a call from God. It is just our responsibility to nurture it.
 Like a seed, a call to ministry has the shape, essence and color of the ministry within it.
 Let the call grow at God’s pace by simply being obedient to whatever God asks off you.
 He will open the doors when you are ready.

8) Doomed to fail
 Many leaders fail because they attempt to enter into leadership without a divine call from God.
 God must back up our claim to a call. Without His enablement, we have to operate and function in our
own strength (Ezek. 13:1-23; Jer. 23:9-40)
 A leader needs the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God in order to fulfill his role.
 God will not let His name be ridiculed and He will not let His word fail to accomplish that for which He
sent it. (Isa. 55:11)
 Self-sent, self-made, or self-empowered ministries, who are not commissioned by the Lord, are sure to
fail.
 The Holy Spirit only moves in power when the will of God is being done. In whose name are you going
forth?

9) Confirming a call
 When there is a particular call, there is usually a confirmation from outside of ourselves.
 You should know the call on your life before anyone else. Others should merely confirm what you
already know from God.
 God’s will and call to people who whole-heartedly follow him is like a fire burning in their belly which
will not go away, no matter what anyone says to them.
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4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 The Training of God’s Leader: The Call of God

10) Content with our call

 God has different streams of anointing to release into the world and all of them are needed.
 God has a special and unique plan for every one of his leaders.
 God knows us and He knows what will fulfill us. He knows what needs to change in us and what He
needs to take us through.
 We need to trust Him with our lives and obey whatever He asks us to do for him.

11) Enabling the call

 Our choices & commitments – the decisions we make in all the important areas of our lives have an
important bearing on whether or not we will ever come near to realizing God’s potential for our lives.
 Remaining teachable – be open to the power of God and ask Him to anoint your call with the strategy to
achieve it.
 Be true to your calling – the Lord should be first in everything we do. Don’t take on pressures that you
have no resources in God to resist.
 A call can be live in – in God you have all that you need to fully respond to the call of God on your life.
He chooses and He enables.
 A call must be lived in – we need to operate within our calling to sharpen it and make it more effective.
It is our responsibility to discipline ourselves and be good stewards of the gift.
 Spreading yourself too thin – God very rarely calls leaders to do everything themselves. You must do the
things God has given to you to do.
 You may not know the full picture.
o God does not often reveal His total plan for our ministry all at once.
o God will show you everything you need to know when you need to know it.
o He also has promised to give us everything we need to meet every situation we are likely to
face.

What are called people like?

 Know their God (Eph.4: 4-6).
 Know that God has put His hand upon their life and that He is committed to them (Rom. 8:28; 1 Thes.
5:23-24).
 Know they are owned by God (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
 Do not live as their own destiny, purpose, role or identity, but rather live to serve the will of God (Eph.
2:10)
 Know who they are in God; therefore, they have a strength within them that is beyond themselves (1
Pet. 2:9)
 Know that their call does not belong to them, rather they are stewards (Jn. 3:27-30; Mt. 25:14-30; Lk.
12:42-48; Lk. 19: 11-27)
 Have their source in God just like Jesus did (Jn. 4:34)
 Are submitted to God’s ways, methods and criteria for success, no matter what the pain or cost to
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themselves (Lk. 9:23-25)

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 Regard their success, like their lives, as being in the hands of Him who called them (1 Pet. 5:6-7)

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 The Training of God’s Leader: The Call of God

 Remember always to look upon your calling in God in the light of who you were and where you were
when He found you (1 Cor. 1:26-31).

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4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015