Calling from Within - Fair or False?

This post is adapted from Brett's thesis from episode 2.

In episode 1 of the podcast, we had a great discussion about feelings and their role in determining God’s “call” on our lives - both overall and about specific things and moments. We talked extensively about how our feelings and emotions are tools that God has given us in discerning a call, and we agreed that emotions and feelings have way too much sway in our culture. If something doesn’t feel good, we don’t want to do it, and if it does make us feel good, we want to do it.

There’s a lot that we can talk about with emotions - and maybe one day we will get to discussing even more - but as we think about our feelings and emotions in relation to a “call” from God, let’s focus in on our forward-thinking emotions. When we talk about trying to discern a call on our lives, we are thinking about the future - what I should or shouldn’t do. It’s a decision about what is coming up in our lives and which way we are about to go, as opposed to being a pure reaction to something that has already happened.

The Bible has something to say about our forward-thinking emotions. In 1 Timothy 3:1, the apostle Paul is writing about eldership and pastorship. Most people have heard or think that being a church elder or pastor should be a calling from God, so this is going to be a good place to see something about God’s calling and perhaps apply a principle for us, even if we aren’t as “varsity” as these folks he is talking about.

So Paul writes and confirms a saying going around the Church then - “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” That word - aspire - to have the feeling of aspiration - is confirmed by Paul to be a good thing. The desire to do noble work is a good feeling to have. So - yes - your feelings can indicate a call from God - and rightly so, as God has gifted us with them for a reason.

Secular Humanism would be satisfied with saying that we can achieve goodness, morality, and self-fulfillment without God - our feelings and intellect can take us where we need to go. But, let’s consider what a Christian worldview says about our nature - the human nature that we are born with and shapes all that we think and do - and feel.

If you are a Christian you explicitly recognize that we are messed up people with messed up hearts. Even if you aren’t a Christian, you witness and feel the effects of this messed-up nature. You see it in everyone around you. All of us get defensive and say that we aren’t like that - culture feeds us this lie - but deep down we know that is just a charade. We are just as messed up as everyone else.

The prophet Jeremiah writes about this - chapter 17, verse 9:

"The heart is more deceitful than anything else,

and incurable ​— ​who can understand it?" -- Jeremiah 17:9 (CSB)

Jeremiah is confirming what we’ve already thought, but he expounds and makes a stronger stand - our hearts are most deceitful. After this verse, he talks about God examining the mind and testing the heart to give each according to his way. The illustration he uses speaks of someone who has amassed a fortune - which is in-and-of-itself not a bad or good thing. But… in this story it’s that it is a bad thing - he loses all his wealth and becomes a laughing stock.

So how did something like having money - which isn’t good or bad - turn sour so quickly? The key comes in verse 12: “A glorious throne on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary" (CSB). Read the rest of the verses on your own, and you’ll see that the rest of the passage talks about abandoning God and not finding our sanctuary - our safety - in Him. So, for the rich man in this illustration, God wasn’t on the radar - his fortune was his false sanctuary.

So our aspirations - even inherently good things - can be tainted by our messed-up nature. What gives? How am I supposed to figure out if my emotions are on track and pointed toward God’s throne instead of something else or myself?

God has gifted us a part of Him - the Holy Spirit - to help us live the way He intended when He created us in the beginning. The Holy Spirit, being a gift to Christ-followers upon the acceptance of salvation, is the glue that begins to bind our hearts to God’s - and this is where we can start to really focus in on what God has called us to do.

You see, when we submit to the authority of the Holy Spirit, something happens - the Spirit begins working in our minds and hearts, the essence of our being, to start aligning our aspirations with that of God’s. Discerning God’s call, then, becomes easier and easier as the Holy Spirit continues to mold your heart into one accord with God’s.

It’s never going to be easy though - take it from Jesus. When faced with death, He still says to the Father, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus, although his own person with own emotions and feelings, yields all of that and defers to the Father’s will. He shows us what it looks like when a call doesn’t line up with our feelings and emotions and obeys through the power of the Holy Spirit while aligning his aspirations with that of the Father.

All of this just goes to show us that there is no formula for figuring out God’s call for you. Emotions and feelings are good tools given by God… but wait, they may be tainted by a fallen heart! And look at Jesus - nobody is going to claim that Jesus had a fallen heart, yet his feelings didn’t line up with the work of the Spirit at that moment.

Discerning God’s call for your life isn’t going to be easy, and you are going to need help - some referees, so to speak. Next week, we will wrap up by thinking through how God’s Word, the Church, and prayer help in discerning God’s call in our lives.