How Do You Know If God Is Calling You to Missions?
Do you love to travel and new adventures? Eating new food and seeing new places? Do you find people who are from different cultures fascinating? If you answered yes to any of these things, missions might sound like a dream job to you!
Your heart burns for the nations. Even watching the international news makes you feel stirred to pray. Traveling is adventurous and exciting. How do you discern if you are called by God to missions, or going because it sounds fun? If you are interested in missions, I would suggest that God has already planted the missionary seed in your heart. We can often make “getting God’s call” more complicated than it should be.
Waiting For God to Send Me
I remember talking to a friend who answered yes to all the above questions. She had done mission training, had the financial backing of her family, and many invitations from teams on the field to join them. When I asked her where she was going to go, she said “Nowhere. I am waiting for God to send me.”
Many people say they would like to be missionaries, but don’t know where to go, or if God is calling them. They are waiting for some mysterious urge to make them go.
In my experience, this “call” does not usually come until we are already demonstrating our commitment to God by moving forward. As we take the first steps of obedience, then God confirms the direction.
Delight in Going
We are co-workers with Christ. He does not strong arm us into obedience. He is looking for our delight in going.
In Isaiah 6, God asks the question “Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us?” We see that Isaiah’s response was “Here I am send me.” God is looking for people who will go so He can then direct them.
Think about steering a car, it is impossible to direct when it is stationary. It is only once it starts to move that you can turn the wheel, and direct it to the destination you desire.
The same with us.
Let’s get going! We are already obeying the general will of God because Jesus commands all His disciples to go (Mt 28:18).
How Can We “Go”?
- Pray: Start to pray for nations of the world. Sign up for missionary prayer letters. Contact missionaries you know and offer to pray for them. Start to invest yourself in prayer.
- Explore: Reach out to people around you, and look for opportunities to get trained, and to gain experience. If you hear of an opportunity that catches your heart – that you would like to go to, then go on a 1-3 month exploration trip. This gives you an opportunity to see what it is like, for the local team to meet you and see if it would be a good fit.
- Serve: Work wholeheartedly wherever you are. Be willing to put effort into getting equipped. You don’t have to go to seminary but learn from God in his school of life every day. Don’t wait to serve God one day. Start today in your own home.
- Commit: Once you do sense God’s call on you to a place, people, or ministry, commit yourself to see a work completed rather than to a period of time. Persevere until you see God’s word fulfilled, even if it is tough.
Missionary work has great challenges.
“There are three stages to every great work of God; first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”
Hudson Taylor
Commit yourself to get it done. Don’t quit!
After you have been following God’s path for a while, you will turn around, look back, and recognize that He has been leading you faithfully step by step.
Move Forward
Don’t hold back in fear or doubt. Step forward! Jesus is the good shepherd and He will find you if you wander!
Just keep following His voice.
What questions do you have about the “call of God”?
Share in the comments below or ask us on the Missionary Life Facebook page.
Do you need a community to process these questions with as you discover your calling? Check out the YWAM Frontier Missions short online course called Next Steps in Missions.
*this was a guest post by R.M.