God's Will For Your Life is Objectionable

This past Sunday Ben did a great job of giving us a way to think biblically about "calling."  If you haven't listened to it, you should.  Especially if you are in a stage of transition or preparation to consider making some changes in life.

As I think about Ben's message, and I work through the E100 Bible reading plan that Connections is doing, and in reflection upon my own life, I realize how objectionable God's calling can be.  All these occur in just the first few chapters of the book of Acts...

• God tells Stephen to preach the gospel, and it gets him killed.
• The man who had Stephen killed, Saul, is walking down a path when God blinds him, speaks to him, and calls him to completely change direction in his life.
• God calls a man named Ananias to go to Saul, pray for him, and welcome him into the church.
• Phillip is told to go and witness to a man utterly unlike him, who in any other circumstance, would have been his enemy.
• Peter is told to go to a home of people unlike him and completely change his entire religious and culture world view in obedience to what God was doing.

Perhaps one of the litmus tests for God's "Specific" calling upon on lives (the third call to consider in Ben's paradigm) is the "objectionable" factor.  Here's why:

If it was easy, or obvious, or NOT objectionable, it would be part of our "General" or "Immediate" calling.  By definition, if God has something very specific for us to do, He will have to get our attention.  He will have to tell us something surprising.  He will have to move us to do something that we might not normally think to do, or want to do.

If you feel that God might be leading you to do something that you might even normally object to, that might be sign that God is really speaking.

• Give more than what you think you can afford...
• Share with that person that you would not normally associate with...
• Go on that trip to that place that scares you...
• Go and talk to that person when you feel the Spirit's prompting...

If you "object" to something at first, but upon prayerful consideration think it may be God's will, chances are good that it is!  God's specific calling, by definition, is often something we would never dream of doing without Him.