Have you started following God and now you want to know what your calling is? Then, this article is for you! Some people get a prophesy directly from God and know exactly what their calling is, but for others it’s not so clear. I was in the latter group; having no idea what God was calling me for and it took me some time to figure it out. So, I wanted to share what I’ve learned about determining my calling because I believe it will help you as well.

First, I just want to establish that God does have a specific purpose for each and every one of us that are called to Him.

Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

1 Peter 1:2: “You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood.”

Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

These Scriptures establish that God has created us for a purpose. We each have a purpose and a calling.

1 Corinthians 12:27-28 elaborates upon this and establishes that we have been given gifts in order to equip us for that calling and purpose. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.”  

Also, Romans 12: 4-8: Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let him use it in proportion to his faith; if it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

So, we know that we have a purpose in serving Christ and we have gifts in order to fulfill that purpose. But how do we know what that gift and purpose are exactly?

First, every Christian’s purpose is to serve Christ, by serving others. It may be obvious, but I feel it’s worth stating. Your purpose is not to live in a silo and only serve yourself. The great commission are a few tasks that apply to every Christian. Healing the sick, casting out demons, resurrecting the dead, and sharing the Gospel. You can do none of these things alone. You were not called to sit at home by yourself and simply enjoy the benefits of being saved. Yes, you will (or should) rest and have quiet time with God, but generally that is not your purpose.

1 Peter 4:10-11: “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever”.

Secondly, your purpose and calling will be a culmination of your entire life. Your experiences, talents, and passions, have all molded you into the person you are today. You have sensitivities toward certain people. Your testimony allows you to help people who have suffered from the same afflictions. Many times, the hobby or talent that you are most passionate about or most proud of, is your calling, and you are supposed to be using it to serve God and build His kingdom. Before you know God, you may have used it to serve yourself, to make a living. Or you may have stopped doing it for awhile. Sometimes, the world will corrupt your talent and make you use it in the wrong way. The devil may confuse, misuse, and pervert your calling so that it serves him instead of God. I believe that many who are necromancer or fortune tellers, actually have a God-given gift of spiritual discernment or prophecy, but the devil makes them use those gifts for evil – they may not even know it. He may also create pain or embarrassment around it, so that you give it up. Either way, it is usually something that is a pattern or theme over your life. It’s something that everyone says you’re great at, and you are. Others recognize this talent in you. It comes naturally. You enjoy doing it.

In some rare cases, I have heard that a person’s calling was something they never expected because they actually struggled with it or it was something they didn’t want to do. But when they came to know the Spirit of God, the difficulty or fear around it vanished and they were able to do it well. I think this scenario is a lot less often though.

More commonly, it is something you have wanted to do, enjoyed doing, or even have done, your entire life. You just haven’t recognized it yet, it’s been moved to the back burner, or you haven’t made space for it. This was the case for me. When I was in elementary school, I was already writing short stories and everyone said I was great at it. I even wrote a children’s book in 3^rd grade that was ‘published’ at my school. The first thing I can remember wanting to be when I ‘grew up’ was an author. Everyone said I would be one. I saw myself writing novels when I got older. This talent followed me all through high school where I continued to take creative writing classes and wrote many more short stories and poetry that was published within the school. I even wrote to a local newspaper once in college, and it was published in the paper. At some point however, my writing took a dark turn and I used it a few times to write scathing letters to the people that had hurt me, and I began writing horror stories and darker poetry. Then, one time, I wrote a very heart felt letter to a girl I felt was my best friend. She was the only real friend I’d ever had and I just enjoyed spending time with you so much, and I decided to tell her so in this letter. Unfortunately, she didn’t quite feel the same sentiment toward me and much to my despair, she decided to read it to my entire class. It basically ruined my entire reputation and I never had any real friends in school again. The devil was trying to derail me.

Then I took a hiatus from it for a while, I started getting into drinking and drugs and just didn’t feel that creative flow anymore. People would ask me if I’d been writing lately, and I would say no, I didn’t really have time anymore. I considered it something of the past that I kind of grew out of. I couldn’t really imagine myself doing that again, or doing it professionally. Later, I was busy trying to build a career and raise a young child on my own. Ironically though, the writing seemed to follow me. I didn’t even realize what I was doing at the time, but I reflect on it now and realize how I incorporated it into everything I was doing.

I pursued a career in Information Technology and found that I had a passion for ‘documentation’ which is almost unheard of in this profession. I found through my career that Technology professionals aren’t typically prone to documenting what they do. Yet, I wanted to write down support models, issue resolution logs, and computer configurations. Technology can be very complicated. Change one small thing and the whole system breaks. Or sometimes you need to change a lot of things to get it to work right, and then it can be a challenge to duplicate. So, that documentation was incredibly helpful to be able to refer back to when things went wrong or we needed to figure out how to do something again.

Later, I got into legal writing. I was still working in Technology, but now I was working in a highly regulated industry in the sub-division of Compliance, where I had to research laws and regulations, and there was a lot of computer testing involved. All of it had to be documented meticulously. I would have to write reports on that testing, create design diagrams, and document all the hardware, software, and other devices that went into a particular system.

I also had a knack for writing business letters and persuasive pieces. My husband was running a small business and I started doing all his accounting. At one point, a local tax agency decided that we owed them $80,000. My husband didn’t even make that much in a year. It was clearly an error on their part, and I wrote them 2-3 letters, increasing in intensity each time they refused to drop it, pointing out their error and trying to clear his name. Miraculously, without any formal education in this field, I was able to get them to change the amount owed to 3 cents. I was always comfortable writing. I often wrote letters to family and friends, especially when dealing with a difficult subject.

Yet, at this point in time, I didn’t consider writing really a talent. It was just a part of life, and I didn’t give it a second thought for a long time. When I began my journey with God, I was completely clueless as to what my purpose and calling were. I prayed about it. I fasted about it. I was really on fire for God, but I didn’t know how to serve Him. I didn’t know what to do next and it was really disheartening. But I kept on reading and praying and going to church and all of those things. I read a lot of Christian books, and one day I read about someone who was a blogger and it just kind of popped off the page at me. So, I thought, ok blogging. I considered that for awhile but didn’t do anything with it. Later, I came across an instructional article about how to start a blog. But even before this, I was getting divine inspiration for different writings. I would kind of get a ‘download’ on a particular topic, or it was something I was painfully affected by, and I wanted to share my experience with others. But I wasn’t sure how to make that happen yet, so I just started putting my ideas in a notebook and typing things up on my computer.

Then, I thought maybe I was supposed to do Youtube. There was a clear financial model here, and maybe I could make a living doing it, if God blessed it. I happened to be having trouble finding a stable job at the time, so I wondered if this was going to provide the financial resources I needed. So, I started to go down that road, but met nothing but difficulty. First, it was a challenge even getting a quite time and place where I could make a recording. My son was home schooled, and it seemed every time I tried to record a video, chaos would erupt around me. Phones would ring incessantly, my son would need something, people would come over unannounced, and I just couldn’t get anything done.

 Also, I was kind of terrible at it. For some reason, when I turned the camera on, I forget everything I wanted to talk about and I’d stumble and stammer through it, forgetting half of what I wanted to say. I’d realize my hair was a mess or my clothes didn’t look right. And then I would have these weird fidgety habits, where I look off to the side of the camera constantly. Then, I’d have to edit it all out or take the video part out completely and just make it an audio recording, because I just looked ridiculous. You’ll see if you check out my channel, Millennial Ministry. I think I left one embarrassing one up there.😊 Although I will say my newer videos are getting better!

Even doing sound recordings without the video was a challenge. I found that I would have to write the whole transcript down first just to speak intelligently, and I had to do it in multiple parts because of whatever was going on in the background. Then I’d have to edit it for hours. Also, my Internet connection was really bad, so it would literally take me 2 days to upload one video, and while I was uploading no one else in the house could use the Internet. I think it took me around 3 months to finish my first video.

Because I had to start writing the transcripts, I found myself writing more and more. And writing  was like night and day compared to making videos. My writing just flows. It brings me joy. I feel the Spirit upon me when I do it. I can study the Word while I’m doing it. It makes me feel closer to God… It will be the same for you. When you are operating in your calling, you are going to feel the Spirit upon you. There’s nothing you’d rather be doing. It will feel fulfilling and meaningful for you, and God will bless you in it. You will get encouragement and praise from others. It will just feel right. You’ll be good at it.

The second thing I wanted to be was a counselor. When I sort of moved on from being an author, I thought counselor was the next option. It started when I was young, before college. I came from a broken home and I wanted to understand what made people tick and why they did the things they did. It was another thing I had a natural talent for. I was a middle child and I was often the peacemaker of the family. I was a great mediator and problem solver also. I could look at every problem objectively without letting emotions get in the way. The word “psychologist” never crossed my mind, it was always “counselor”. I thought about being a school counselor and helping needy children. I changed my mind on this when I realized it was like 10 years of schooling, and I didn’t think about this either for a long time.

Then, as I was praying about my calling and reading my Bible, I felt He revealed to me that knowledge and teaching were part of my calling. Then I started seeing counseling over and over again in my Bible studies. So, I started counseling even before I started writing. Actually, at first, I was the one getting counsel from a Spiritual friend. But then she would share things with me, that I could help her with. Then, people began to randomly come to me with questions and problems, and I would know exactly how to counsel them. Other times, it would take some time, but later I would get the answer to their question. So, I started counseling without really thinking about it. It just came naturally. I was often in the Spirit when I would get these inspirations. So, it’s vitally important to stay in the Spirit, get in the word, and spend time around the presence of God and his people – as much as possible. This positions you in a way that you can hear from God. Another point here is not to worry too much about how good you are at it. We never give ourselves enough credit. If God has put something on your heart, you don’t have to wait to start doing it. He will train and equip you as you go, and He may be waiting for you to take that first step in faith, so that He can lead you to the next thing.

So, in closing, your calling will be something you are passionate about. I will flow freely from you. You don’t have to strive. It can be a combination of your experiences, background, and talents. You may have passion for a particular group of people, often because of your own experiences. If you’ve dealt with a lot of sickness, you may want to be a healer. Survived abuse or addiction? You’ll want to help others with the same afflictions. If you’ve been the victim of demonic oppression, you’ll likely enjoy deliverance ministry. If you’re a good speaker, you may be called to preaching. Some have passion and talent for evangelizing and reaching the lost. Others are called to minister to the saints (or believers). Some are blessed with financial resources and are meant to give. If you love to travel, missionary work may be your calling.

Reflect on what you wanted to be when you were an innocent child. That is often the time when we are the most Spiritually aware. Think about your background. Who do you want to help? How would you be able to help those people most effectively? Another clue is that, it is usually dropped upon you. It is not something you have to go look for. Opportunities will arise out of nowhere. Someone will just ask you to do it one day. You may not be sure at first, but after you try it out, you’ll find it was your calling. You’ll just look back, like I did and think “oh yeah, that was it!” If you don’t get asked to do it, you may just feel divine compulsion to do it. This is often the case if you’re called to be an entrepreneur or open your own business. You may run into other business leaders who can coach you, or you come across the right education and resources at the right time, so that you can get started.

If you are still unsure, I think the best thing you can do is reflect on all of these things. Then pray about it. And get involved in different Godly activities and different ministries until you find the thing that fits. Serving is what helps you grow Spiritually. This is how you learn about yourself, God’s principles, and it can even help you better discern the voice of God. Often when I’m researching in order to counsel someone, I find the answer to my own problem. By helping others, you help yourself. God often creates divine appointments where He will bring different people together for one purpose, and this will solve completely different problems for everyone involved. So, find different ways to serve the kingdom. You will definitely enjoy the journey.

At the same time, try not to worry too much about it. You don’t have to ruin the surprise. God will lead you to it one way or another. You won’t be able to miss it or resist it. You may just realize one day that you are already walking in it. Maybe you just need to trust the Lord and give something a chance that’s already been on your heart. It’s worth the risk.

For a more in-depth study, I would also recommend the book The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren.

Please share in the comments, your journey to discovering your calling. Or, if you’re still struggling, what have you tried?

Suggested prayers: Father God, please reveal to me what my calling is. Help me to understand your purpose and plans for my life, and help me to be better aligned with your will. I want to help others, and I want to serve you, and help build your kingdom. Please open doors for me to step into this calling, activate my ministry, and walk according to your will. Teach me and equip me to fulfill the calling you have put on my life when you created me. Bring people to me that I can help.