Often, we feel overwhelmed when we don’t know what to study as a career, especially in 12th grade. We want to pursue the right career because every college class we take must count toward our career goals. Nothing is scarier than taking a bunch of irrelevant courses in college, not knowing what you want to do as a career. However, do you know what’s even scarier? It’s when you’ve completed all your college courses for your career and graduated, only to have an encounter with God where He calls you to something totally different. I mean, let’s face it, this kind of revelation will have you shaking in your boots. And it is because God doesn’t call the qualified, but He qualifies the called.
The thing is, no matter how much you think you know yourself, it is God and God alone who can introduce you to the real you that you never thought existed. God will purposely hide the new you even from yourself until it is the right time to present the new you to yourself. That version of you is not for friends ‘ and family’s satisfaction, but that version of you is reserved for God. Another way of looking at it is that God is like any other father who wants to see the fruit of his labor for all the years invested in his children. He wants to see if the work he’s put into them has paid off. Case in point, when the right time comes, God will strip you of yourself first, then your friends, and your family members. Nothing about the old version of you will remain the same, even though you are still being saved in Christ. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.” Which means the old you will be washed away in Christ’s blood, and you will have a new lifestyle.
God can reveal to you what He wants you to do in the most unthinkable and unexpected season in your life. Let’s take me, for example, I went to nursing school, and did the whole nine yards, but the Lord called me to ministry, so you can only imagine how scary it was for me when God unexpectedly gave me that breaking news. Also, what I find fascinating is that the thing God will call you to will be something that you do either occasionally or regularly without even noticing it. Sometimes, you might focus on doing something completely different, but it leads you to the right path without you realizing it. And unless God opens your eyes to it, you tend to ignore it because it may seem insignificant to you. And if you can sense what your calling is based on your spiritual gifts, it will still frighten you because God will always call you to a higher level of it than you ever thought possible. God always surprises and frightens us with what He calls us to do. And this is where the devil uses the mind game the most; by telling you all the reasons why you are not the one, and why you can’t do what God has called you to do. Then he will reinforce it by placing his specific agent (through people) to tell you also why they think you can’t or shouldn’t do it, as if it is yours to decide what you get assigned to in the first place.
One of the devil’s favorite tactics is destructive criticism. Negative criticisms are sent your way not only to make you feel bad, have low self-worth, feel depressed, or discouraged, but also to get you to back down from your godly assignment and disobey God. That’s why our calling is not about how talented we are, but it is about invading territories for the Kingdom of God. And God is intentional about the reasons He gave us specific spiritual gifts. The devil knows this; that’s why he is not after your talent, but he is after you because you are determined to destroy his kingdom by doing what God has called and qualified you to do. For example, when you are not doing what God calls you to do, you don’t experience much confusion because, at that point, you don’t even realize that you are not operating in your spiritual gift(s). But as soon as God reveals your assignment to you, then all hell breaks loose. You get confused, frustrated, tormented, persecuted, and even the cat hates you. This often makes us think that we must be the problem because we feel out of place, out of shape, and out of our minds. Also, we need to remember what God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Therefore, we can expect things to be different when it comes to God. It’s like saying two people living in two different countries, one in the USA and the other in Japan. There is no doubt that their lifestyles will be different. So, it’s the same with God. His Kingdom is different from what we are used to. If God were to call you to that which you already know, then He wouldn’t need to qualify you in anything. And we would be the ones telling God what to do, instead of Him telling us what to do. Even in training, God doesn’t give us every detail because staying connected to Him is necessary for the journey. And to every level God calls us to, He must train us, put us to the test, and we must pass the test to graduate to the next level. So, we become qualified according to His standards, not the world’s. Have you ever worked at a job, been assigned a trainer, and become so good at what you do that you feel like you can now train the trainer? And God is probably saying, “This might have worked on your trainer, but it will not work on Me.” Therefore, God is teaching us how to depend on His guidance as our loving Father, which is a good thing. This helps us to stay on track and keeps us from being overwhelmed because we are not alone. And we also know that there is Somebody in charge, who is God Almighty, and He doesn’t call those who know what they are doing, but He calls those who don’t know what they are doing, so that He can tell them what to do. I wonder why that is. Maybe because when we don’t know what we’re doing and where we are going, we are much more attentive and receptive to instructions, which is exactly what God is looking for. So, if you still don’t know what you’re doing and where you are going when God calls you, then keep trusting and following Him because you are on the right track. Welcome to the club!
Always remember, you are never alone!
SCRIPTURES
“Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
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