Make Disciples That Make Disciplesნიმუში

The Four Calls

We sometimes have a tendency to confuse “stations” (the roles that we fill in our lives) with “calling” (Jesus' commission to love God, love people, and make disciples). While these two work beautifully together, it can be tempting to mix up the order in which these are prioritized. So, instead of asking “How can I use my station to accomplish my calling?”, we’ll ask “How does my station dictate my calling?”

This means that instead of starting with the framework of every believer’s calling to love God, love people, and make disciples, we can convince ourselves that the mandate for every believer might only apply to a select few with a specific “calling on their life.”

Scripture paints a clear picture that every believer shares the same “calling”, though not just a specific class or pedigree of professional Christians.

We are called to “Go!” in four very distinct ways:

The call from above:

Jesus’ parting words to his disciples told them to go into all the earth, proclaiming the Gospel to all creation. This is a divine calling from above, handed down by Jesus himself. His disciples are commissioned to go!

The call from below:

In Luke 16, we also see a very clear call to go, but not from Jesus. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus tells of the rich man, who dies and is eternally separated from God. In the story, the rich man begs that his father and his brothers may be warned. That way, they will not spend eternity in the place of eternal torment. The parable paints a sobering picture: even the residents of hell itself are begging for the Gospel to prevail so that those who do not know Jesus will not spend eternity separated from their Creator.

The call from inside:

Paul tells the Corinthians that he has no grounds for boasting that he is preaching the Gospel. He has an intrinsic need to share the news of Jesus Christ! He says that a necessity is laid upon him that motivates and pushes him to be an ambassador of the Kingdom. Paul communicated that we have an internal calling that we also must Go! It is our identity as followers of Jesus to bring the message of the Gospel with us wherever we go!

The call from outside:

In Paul’s vision, the man calls Paul to come to Macedonia. When Paul had seen the vision, he concluded that he was being called to bring the Gospel to Macedonia. Not only is he called from within himself, but Paul was also externally called by the Macedonian to bring them the Gospel. The call from outside told Paul to go!

Each of these callings confirms the same thing: every follower of Jesus shares the same calling—to go! This isn’t a specific calling for specific people at a specific time, but a shared way of life that we are called to live if we are in Christ.

Questions to consider:

• Which of these calls is the most compelling to me?
• What are the places or people that I could “go!” to?
• Are there any in my own neighborhood or city?