Monday, April 13, 2015

"Called of God" vs. "Inspried of God" or "Leading of God" or "Acting for God" or "Being Godly"

I think whether or not a particular leader (or anyone serving in any calling) is "called of God" depends largely on whether the person doing the calling is "inspired of God" and/or "acting for God" - and, frankly, whether there's a need for God to be involved to some degree, for some reason, in the calling. Those are two very subjective, difficult to determine criteria - so I don't spend a lot of emotional capital on trying to figure it out in most cases. I also think it doesn't matter much if someone is called of God if they wind up not "leading of God" or "being godly".

However, I have experienced situations where I absolutely believe the calling was "of God" (meaning directed by God) - and, interestingly, one of those cases was when the person turned down the calling.  He said he wasn't ready for such a calling but needed the assurance that God knew his heart and was willing to answer a private prayer asking to know if he could serve God in a formal calling if he changed his life in the way he knew he should. I had struggled mightily with trying to figure out who should be asked, and I questioned the answer I got even more when I learned about the man's situation. I didn't know him as anything but a name on a page, and what I heard about him before our meeting didn't ease my concerns. When I left, however, I was humbled that his name had jumped out at me so forcefully. 

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