Your Holy Calling

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by Frederick Drummond, Sr.

Christian, what is the call of God on your life? Do you know that there is one and that it is uniquely tailored to you? Perhaps you don’t talk about it much, because it has become too iffy and you don’t want to upset yourself with questions you can’t answer. One thing is for sure: it is not only supposed to be for ministers and their full-time staff. I can say for certain that everyone has a holy calling, and you need to know what it is and pursue it, because it is the only reason you are here on planet Earth. And by the way, nothing else will be able to satisfy you fully.

What then is the calling of God all about? It is important, or the word “call” or its derivatives would not have been referred to 62 times in this regard in the New Testament. It is also reasonable to assume that because God talks so much about it, He would also make known to us in practical terms how to satisfy it.

Simply stated, your holy calling is not unlike that which is on Christ. It says of Him in the Corinthian epistle that it is God’s plan to become “all in all” through Him (1 Corinthians 15:28), and we are called by faith to allow Him to do so in and through us also. This is how the Apostle Paul explained Christ’s calling and ours to the Ephesian church members:

having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works [in] all things according to the counsel of His will, …

which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:9-11,23

God intends becoming “all in all,” and that includes in you and me also. Doctrinally this process in our lives is called sanctification. Practically speaking it involves making it our goal to be conformed to His image every day. Therefore, referring to this, the Scriptures say, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is through our conformity to the image of Christ spiritually, that we are sanctified to our holy calling in life practically. The one flows out of the other. Therefore, they are inseparably linked. They work together. Becoming Christ-like is a faith walk that overflows into all the other parts of our lives. Thus, the more you are conformed to Him, the more the burdens of God are born in you, and they open doors to serve Him. Both aspects constitute the holy calling of God on your life. It gets no better than this.

God has every intention of filling everything in the universe. To this end He sent Christ to defeat the number one stumbling block—satan and his sinful effects on us and creation. God and His holiness will one day fill everything. This is why He came up with the plan of salvation and sent His only begotten Son Jesus to the cross on our behalf to die for all sin. Your holy calling goes part and parcel with this. Allow me to further explain this.

Your holy calling is first of all to allow Christ to become all in all in you, to fill every part of your life until you look and act like Him in all things. It is only as this happens that the second part of your holy calling will emerge, daily living as Christ lived. They are equally important. Therefore, it is safe to say that your holy calling is the overflow of the process of allowing Christ to become all in all in you and through you. This is it in a nutshell. Allow me to go deeper; how we apply Christ to our every response produces our holy calling. Christian, your living is supposed to be a by-product of the fullness of Christ in you. This is the only way to be sure that you are in the will of God daily. In other words, the second half of your calling is birthed out of Christ in you, which the Bible says is your “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). As He becomes all in all in you, what you become personally will birth your burdens, gifting and calling. They work hand in hand.

Your personal gifts, which we like to point to when we are talking about our calling, aren’t between God and you; they are between God in you and your relationship to others. They show up as you try to be Christ to others. The truth be told, it is only to the extent that Christ fills our lives that we can begin to know how to use them properly, and it is in the outworking of this that your holy calling is born. It does not come first; your conformity to Christ does! The plan of God for your life unfolds daily as you walk in His steps.

Understanding who you are in Christ and allowing Him to become all in all in you, is important enough to God that the phrase “in Him” or “in Christ” is used 129 times. This is the key. Your ministry will come forth as the practical outworking of your relationship to Him emerges, releasing you to powerful, purposeful living. Don’t make the mistake of getting the cart before the horse. No wonder the Ephesian epistle tells us to “walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:2); and why the Ephesian church members were told “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love” was the only way to “be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19). It is in this context that he also says to them, “Walk worthy of the calling with which you are called” (Ephesians 4:1). The Apostle Paul put it this way in writing to the Colossian church members: “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God” (Colossians 1:24,25).

If your relationship to Him is intact, your holy calling will be obvious to you and everyone else. If there isn’t enough Jesus in you to be seen, you will be an ineffective ambassador, and the outworking of your calling will be shallow and uncertain. Show me a Christian who does not know what the holy calling of God on their life is, and I will show you someone who does not look and act like Jesus. Christ yet needs to become all in all in them, and their secondary calling to live and act like Him will be lost to other things. After all, it is only as you become a substantial giver of yourself, like Christ, that you will ever discover what your gifting is, because your gifting isn’t about you, it’s about what you can do for others. The holy calling of God on your life is born out of unselfish living—Calvary love.

There is too much talk these days about doing, and not enough about being. It is not what you do for God alone that counts. What is just as important is being like Christ as you do it. Perhaps this is even more important, because until you look like Christ, who knows what you may be replicating? What is the holy calling of God? Live a Christ-filled life. It gets no deeper than this!