Opens in a new tab

What is My Calling?

What is My Calling?

What is My Calling?

Three quotes from the teaching on

The devil really, really wants to destroy what God has placed in each of us, so we cannot exalt Him or serve Him.

Your identity in Him is the crucial foundation for you to walk in the calling He has for you.

A calling is never a call to selfishness, but a tool to glorify God and reach people for salvation.

Short description of the teaching

Andreas Slot-Henriksen teaches on how the devil’s main goal is to destroy the calling God has placed over a person’s life, and how the journey to discover and walk in one’s calling begins with understanding one’s identity in Jesus. He encourages embracing the idea that calling involves both a general belonging to God’s work and personal, specific tasks. It is highlighted that the calling grows out of the relationship with God, spiritual identity, and willingness to be shaped, and that the calling can change throughout life, depending on where and how God wants to use you. He encourages not to be frustrated by the lack of ‘visible’ calling but to trust that God is shaping and guiding you through passion and fire in the heart. Finally, it is pointed out that fruitful work in the calling requires roots and a willingness to let God prune the character, and that true calling is always about serving God and people.

Watch the teaching here...

Watch the teaching directly on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/8Gn66v1nA4g

We depend on you!!

You can support “Stenslyngen” (the stone sling) and LytTilJesus.dk through “Rescue Team”, which has a fundraising permit:

Click here and support our work

This teaching is categorized within the following topics:
– click on them to see more relevant teaching

Discipleship,God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit,Identity and Forgiveness,Udfrielser og åndelig krigsførelse

Did you know you can listen to the newest teaching as a podcast on e.g. Spotify and Apple Music?

Click here to listen: https://li.sten.to/lyttiljesus

  • Scriptures from the teaching on 'What is My Calling?'

1 Peter 2:4-5
Ephesians 2:8-10
Ephesians 5:1-2
1 Peter 1:15-16
John 15:16
Psalms 92:13-15
Proverbs 3:1-12

NB! The summary below is an automatically AI-generated text from the teaching itself. Errors may occur to a greater or lesser degree!!
Watch the whole teaching on YouTube instead!!

  • Summary of the teaching on 'What is My Calling?'

Andreas Slot-Henriksen talks about how the devil wants to destroy what God has placed in each person, and that the destruction of the calling God has given is the devil’s greatest mission. Time and again, it is felt in the work of praying for people, both new and experienced believers, that the enemy consistently attacks the calling. The Bible’s words show that every believer is chosen to be a living stone in the spiritual temple: “Come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—and you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)

Many can spend a lifetime in faith without experiencing God saying something ‘specific’ about their own calling—and it can feel lonely and frustrating. The experience of not receiving God’s guidance can lead to feelings of inadequacy, but in reality, calling is not about big, spectacular experiences, but about being willing to let God use you. Embracing your calling is about understanding your place and entering into service for God; realizing that the calling is primarily a voluntary adjustment to be led, shaped, and guided by God in everything.

According to Ephesians, God has prepared specific good works for every believer: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) Thus, it is not possible for any believer to completely lack a calling—God has set something for everyone. But to grow into the calling, it is crucial to know your identity in Jesus and to let Him shape your character deeply and wholeheartedly. Identity in Jesus is not just a concept, but a slow formation where you allow yourself to be influenced and transformed—and only through this will you be equipped for the tasks God has prepared.

It is emphasized that identity in Jesus cannot be skipped. It is only as a new creation, forgiven, clothed in Jesus, and filled with the Holy Spirit, that you can wholeheartedly walk in your calling and not be toppled by the enemy’s lies, the shame of sin, or guilt. The list of everything God has said about believers is long—forgiveness, salvation, equipping by the Holy Spirit, righteousness, love, co-heir in Christ, citizen of Heaven, chosen for a royal priesthood, God’s handiwork, freedom from the slavery of sin, right to eternal life, no condemnation, inseparability from God’s love, equipping for good works, and calling to holiness and righteousness. The enemy is purposefully against all this and tries to remove it from believers’ inner being, so the relationship with God is destroyed.

The calling is not dependent on external experiences—it is a promise and truth from God. God calls first on all before faith (an invitation to repentance), then on all believers to live as disciples, and finally to a personal, unique service. The calling as a believer includes obligations: “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2) and “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

The general callings to believers include: believing in Jesus, repenting, loving God and neighbor, following Jesus, striving for perfection, walking in love, humility, and service, letting the light shine, bearing worthy fruit, being patient, confessing sin, praying without ceasing, worshiping in spirit and truth, giving thanks, loving your enemies, and doing to others as you would have them do to you. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (John 15:16)

To live a fruitful life in your calling requires that the roots are deep and strong, which again requires an investment of time and willingness for God’s spirit to shape the character. “Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’” (Psalm 92:13-15) Being rooted is necessary to bear lasting fruit, and you must always let God prune what is not pleasing to Him.

The compass in the service of calling is the Holy Spirit. “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:6) The way is broad, but the path is where God precisely wants to lead and guide in the personal calling out to specific people. The calling is never for one’s own sake, but for God to be glorified and for people to be reached. The calling can change over life, as God shapes, prepares, and gives access to new tasks—and it is not always a matter of great experiences, but often a quiet fire, a persistent joy, or urge in the heart that grows over time. God uses both the will and circumstances to create desires, passions, and courage, and often the fulfillment of the calling will not look like what was first thought, but far exceed one’s own expectations.

Even in situations where it feels like the calling is not clear, or one can be in doubt, God’s guidance is faithful. God will lead into prepared works, open doors that no one could have created, and even where the enemy tries to sow doubt, disqualify, or paralyze with guilt, shame, or unworthiness, one must stand firm in God’s truths. The devil’s lies always try to make believers doubt their calling, identity, and authority, but it is a calling and responsibility to recognize and expose the lie and instead step actively and boldly forward in God’s authority.

The calling is not always that one should be a preacher, missionary, or leader—it can just as well be being a teacher, director, or any function where God has placed you, as long as you serve God, follow His guidance, and are faithful in the small things. God calls into new seasons in life, and when you are faithful in the small things, He will set you over greater tasks. All God desires is heart, willingness, and wholehearted surrender, more than many hours of activity. God does not reward exhaustion, but passionate, wholehearted devotion: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Therefore, the calling is about willingly and unreservedly offering your life to God and allowing yourself to be led, used, and shaped. God does not want anything half-hearted, but that you seek Him enthusiastically, passionately, and decisively. When you live out of who God has made you to be and do not let yourself be hindered by the past, sin, guilt, or your own limitations, God will both shape the character, open new opportunities, and let fruit grow that glorifies Him and leads people to salvation.

Quote from the teaching: “When you are willing to take God’s identity over you, when you are willing to listen, He will also lead you.”

ReadTranscription

Click here to read the full transcription of ‘What is My Calling?’.

Search for teaching here...

Related teaching

Read the full content of the teaching 'What is My Calling?'

Please note that there may be deviations and errors, as the text below has been transcribed and adjusted automatically.

If there’s one thing the devil really, really, really wants with all his heart, it’s to smash our calling. It’s to destroy what God has placed in each of us to exalt and serve Him. What God has called each of us to is so important to the devil that he tries to smash it over and over and over again.

Whether we’re praying for people who have been believers their whole lives or those who have just come to faith, or wherever they are on their faith journey, no matter where they are. I want to say that what we consistently experience is that when we deliver people, the devil comes and says, the reason I’m in them is to destroy them so they can’t do what God has planned for them. We hear it again and again and again.

I want to start by reading from 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 4 to 5. And I’m reading it from the Bible in everyday Danish because it’s a bit, it’s a bit cooler here. It says: “Come to Jesus, the precious living stone chosen by God as the cornerstone for the new spiritual temple, even though He was rejected by the human builders, the Jewish priesthood. Let Him use you as living stones when He builds His temple.” You are to be a new holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices that God can gladly accept through Jesus Christ.

So, having your calling starts with saying, God, use me. There are many people, when they’re searching for their calling, who can go their whole lives as believers and think, oh, everyone else just has a calling. I just don’t have one. What is my calling? And I feel like God never says anything to me, and it’s really frustrating. And everyone else can say they’ve been called to this or that, and what have I been told? Nothing. Nada, there’s no calling for me. And that can be so frustrating.

And I’ve been there myself. I’ve had exactly the same feeling, the same frustration over why everyone else gets a calling. Why not me? But first and foremost, we need to understand calling. A calling, first of all, is about being willing to let God use you. That means you need to understand your place. You need to understand that if you want to step into your calling, you need to know that you are His servant. You voluntarily choose to say: “Yes, please. I want to be your servant, Lord. I want to go where you… I want to, I want to be led by you. I want to go all the way.”

I think there are a lot of interruptions here. I’ll just take the other one. So one day, if we become millionaires in 25 years, no, in just a moment, we need to buy some new microphones without all that noise. Anyway, God really wants to lead each of us, and He has some amazing things in store for you.

And if you’re sitting here thinking, well, I’m not entirely sure that God has a direct calling for me because I’ve never really heard that, then I just have to say to you: wrong. Because God has a calling for you. God has a plan for your life. God wants to use you in a very specific way. The question is whether you will allow Him. And the question is whether you are satisfied with the calling He has for your life.

In Ephesians 2, 8 to 10, it says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast.”

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So if we are created for good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to walk in, wow, this is written for all of us believers, so it applies to you too. God has prepared some works on your path for you to walk in.

To step into the calling God has for us, there are some fundamental stones that need to be in place. And I would say the most fundamental stone of all is, of course, Jesus, but it’s also you. It’s your identity in Him. There are many who can be believers their whole lives but don’t understand who they are in Him.

And we can talk so much about identity. Yes, it’s important to have your identity in Him, and you need to remember, and so on. But what is it to have your identity in Him? What does it mean? How do we get our identity in Him? Because if we don’t have our identity in Him, you can never walk in the calling He has for you. You’re simply not shaped for it.

You need to let Him shape you and form your character in every way. You might be a guy who’s a bit rough, and God wants to use you with tough people. Great. Fantastic. Then that’s what you go for. And you have some character traits that, even though you’re that way, still need to please God.

It could also be that you’re a quiet, timid mouse who never does anything wrong or says anything wrong. Hallelujah. But you’re afraid to stand up to the devil and say, you know what, Pomfrit, now you’re leaving. My God is bigger than you. You can just get lost.

And there, each of us has areas where we need to find out who we really are. And if you’ve accepted Jesus, if you’ve been baptized to belong to Him, if you’ve buried your old life, then suddenly there are a number of points that apply to you.

And I tried to write down some things about identity. And I want you to remember all these things in your spirit, in your heart, in your mind. Every time you take a step, you should be reminded of who you are in Him. Because it should be so deep in you that when you take a step, it leaves a footprint that smells of Jesus. That’s who we need to be.

Your identity in Him is that you are forgiven. It was His blood. So accept it. You are saved. That means you will come home to Him the day you die. That means He has prepared the testament for you. You are clothed in Christ. You are a new creation. If you are a new creation in Him, then you are not who you were before. Period.

You are God’s child. You are equipped with the Holy Spirit. He is part of you. It’s the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that lives in you. You are justified. You are loved by God. You are a friend of Jesus. Wow. You are a co-heir with Christ. You are protected by God. You are a citizen of heaven. You are part of God’s family. Wow. It’s big, by the way.

You are part of the body of Christ. Whether you’re a hand or a foot or a knee, it has something to do with your calling. But you are part of the body of Christ. You are chosen for a royal priesthood. You are God’s workmanship. You are not the work of humans. You are God’s workmanship. You have the right to call God Abba Father, like Dad.

You are free from the slavery of sin. You are complete in Christ. You have the right to eternal life. You are hidden with Christ in God. You are God’s temple. You are healed. You are redeemed from death. You are God’s possession.

You are blessed with spiritual blessings. You are one with Christ. You are created in God’s image. There is no condemnation over you. You are inseparable from God’s love. You are equipped for good works. You are called to holiness and righteousness. You have been given all strength through Christ. You have been given true joy through Him. And you are an heir to God’s promises.

These are just points that should form part of the identity you have received from Him. And the devil desperately wants, with everything he is, with everything he has, with everything he does, to remove all these points from your identity one by one, to destroy your relationship with God. To destroy the courage you have to stand up and say, I am a child of God. To have the courage to stand up and say, I have power over the entire enemy’s army because my heavenly Father has given me authority. I have the right to trample on snakes and scorpions.

How many Christians have struggled with the thought: Well, you’re probably not going to heaven. You can’t be entirely sure. It says that when I have accepted Him, I am promised a place. Anything else is, excuse me, bullshit. Those are lies from the devil trying to pull you away, so you suddenly see yourself with guilt and shame and unworthiness. And if you start seeing yourself with guilt and shame and unworthiness, then the devil has won 1-0 over you. Maybe even 10-0, because then you have to tear down everything he has put into you to be built up again by God’s spirit.

But it also requires character. It really requires us to be willing to say, my rotten character from the past, I don’t want to own it anymore. I don’t want it anymore. No matter what it is. I don’t want it. It should not be there. We must dare to say to people, you know what, if you see something in my character that stinks, then come and tell me, because we learn from it, and we need to.

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, chapter 1, verses 7 to 10, it says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear. The Holy Spirit, He is just wild. But a spirit of power and love and self-discipline. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” He saved us and called us to a holy calling. Wow.

So you know that there is a holy calling over your life. It’s not something I’m making up. It’s something that is written in the Bible. There are three callings. The first calling is where Jesus calls you before you come to faith. And it says: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” He calls you, and He can call you again and again and again. He can call you over a period of years. He can also meet you in a dream. He can, whatever. He can meet you in so many ways, but He calls you.

When you answer His call, saying yes to Jesus, then what happens is that He says, wow, my child. And then you are chosen. Then He chooses you. And then what happens is that you receive the general calling that many, or all believers have. There are some general callings over believers, and then there is the personal calling. So three callings. The first calling before you come to faith.

Then the calling as a disciple of Jesus, as a believer. And then the calling that is completely unique and specific to you. For example, in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, it says: You should be like God. You should be like God as His dear children and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. This is in Ephesians 5, 1 to. This is a calling that goes to you as a believer. It’s something you should do.

For example, it also says in First Peter chapter 1, verses 15 to 16: But just as He who called you, again called, is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy. So again, a calling to the believers: Be holy, for God is holy. And no, it’s not something you just become from day one. It’s something where the Holy Spirit works in you, and we grow and grow and grow and get closer and closer. And He is a fantastic Father who teaches us and tells us what is right and wrong.

If we have managed to quash that old character that doesn’t please Him or anyone else, then we can listen when He corrects us. But if He starts correcting us, and we don’t think it’s very cool because we haven’t buried some of the old nature, then you can get, just like when you’re corrected by people, you can forget it, and then you just get really angry, and then you walk away or slam the door or can’t stand it. But if you’ve laid it down, then you sit down and say: Okay, Father, what is it you want to say to me? I know it can hurt. I know there can be some edges I need to have smoothed. What is it, I want to learn? And why? Because He knows what is best for us. Because He is God.

But there are actually many, I will try to read some of the general calls that are over our lives. For example, it is a general call to believe in Jesus. And I’m not mentioning the scriptures right now. I will put them on the website when I upload the teaching at some point. But we must believe in Jesus. We must repent. We must love God and our neighbor. We must follow Jesus. We must be perfect, as God is perfect. We must walk in love. We must be humble and serve others. We must let our light shine before people. We must bear fruit that is in keeping with repentance. We must be patient and endure suffering.

It says we must hate idolatry. We must avoid all kinds of evil. And it says something as terrible as, we must confess our sins. It’s not something that’s done very much actually. It was done a lot in the really old early church. They had confession. You had to come to the priest, and you had to sit and confess your sins, and then he could decide if you could be forgiven or not. That’s not how it is today. And it would also be completely wrong to do.

But sometimes it’s actually a blessing to be able to go to someone and say, “You know what, I’ve fallen into this sin. I’m really devastated about it. I need to turn away from it, but I also need to testify about this to the devil in the spiritual realm.” It’s tough, but man, it’s so cool when you can do it. Wow, it’s awesome.

Anyway, that was just a little detour. It says we should pray without ceasing. Now, that doesn’t mean we have to sit and pray all day every day, but we should worship God in spirit and truth.

It says we should always give thanks to God. It says we should love our enemies. It says we should do unto others as they would have us do unto them. And I could go on and on and on. For example: remain in Christ and in His word. Wow. Fight the good fight of faith. It’s a calling you have. It’s an imperative. It’s not something you can choose. If you believe in Him, then that’s what you do. You fight the good fight of faith.

You see, at one point we thought we should go for a walk. That was when we lived in Børkop. We started our car. The whole family, along with one of Benjamin’s friends, headed out to Munkebjerg Forest. It was super cozy. We drove in, parked the car, and then went for a little walk. And then we thought, we should just go that way, so the car is over there. And we went that way, and the car wasn’t over there. And then we walked a bit further and thought, it must be over there. And we walked maybe another half hour, and there was no car. And we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and there was no signal for the GPS on the phone. And we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked. Man, oh man.

And when we finally found the car, our son and his friend were also gone. Oh man. That’s how it goes sometimes if you walk completely without a compass and a map. The map is our faith. The compass is the calling you have over your life. It’s the Holy Spirit guiding you and telling you where to go. Otherwise, we end up walking blindly. And trust me, we’ve done that more than once.

We’ve also done it in Poland. It was really funny. Absolutely hilariously funny. We walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we had no phone signal, and we couldn’t speak the language. We had no idea where the car was. We didn’t know how big the forest was. At least we knew that in Denmark with Munkebjerg Forest. And we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked, and we walked. It was just a small forest we were supposed to go into. And eventually, we ended up in a potato field. We thought, wow. So we had to walk all the way back along the tracks in that potato field.

And it was actually quite funny because when you have really small kids with you, they can sense that “uh-oh, we’re lost.” But the whole thing is not a problem; we just need to get around it and keep the spirit up and always this. Yes. Come on. Do we know where we’re going? Yes, we’re going to the car. We will get there. We shouldn’t be afraid.

It’s the same way. Our Heavenly Father is cheering us on. And it might be that we think we’re not that good at using our compass to find the place where He wants us to go. But He will teach you to use the compass if you truly, truly desire it.

It actually says in the Book of Proverbs, I love this, Proverbs 3:1-12: My son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commands. For they will bring you long life and many years of life and great happiness. Do not let loyalty and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor and wisdom in the eyes of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing for your body, a strengthening drink for your body. You shall honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first of your produce. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will overflow with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline.

Do not disdain His correction. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, as a father the son he delights in. See, that’s interesting. I’ll just highlight verse six. Acknowledge Him in all your ways. Then He will make your paths straight.

And I find this a bit interesting because two different words are mentioned. First, the word “ways” is mentioned – acknowledge Him in all your ways. And when we look up and see what the words mean, the Hebrew word for ways means this broad path. It’s all your ways. It’s the big perspective, the big picture. So no matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, no matter which direction you’re going, you should acknowledge Him.

Then it says, He will make your paths straight. Why a path when we’re just talking about a way? Because He wants to lead you on a narrow path. He wants Your word, Lord, to be a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. He wants us to walk on the narrow path. He wants to direct us precisely on the path we should be on.

Why? Because when we talk about calling, each of us walks on our own path that God has. And on that path, there are lots of people you will meet. A calling is never a calling to you as a selfish calling. But a calling over your life is to glorify God, and it’s to reach people for salvation. The whole point of the calling is that He wants to bring people home to Him.

He wants you to be a tool. He wants you to be exactly where you can reach the people who are on your path. I can’t reach the people you’re with. You can’t reach the people I’m with. And that’s why it’s on this path where He will make the way straight, or He will make the path straight for us, because He wants to lead you.

Sometimes you can experience getting a prophetic calling over your life. Sometimes you can also get a prophetic calling where you think, this doesn’t make sense. So you put it on the shelf. I still can’t forget, I know I’ve mentioned it hundreds of times, but I still can’t forget 28 years ago or however many years ago it was, when we were sitting and listening to an African prophet in the church we attended, who pulled us up front and began to prophesy over us.

And I thought, come on, man, have you lost your mind or what? I thought it was so crazy. And today we stand exactly in what he prophesied. Some of what he said, which applies to all callings, is: continue with what you’re doing. Finish your education. Complete the things God has for you. What God has placed on your heart, you should continue with, and suddenly something will happen.

Birte was training to be a teacher, and I was a computer guy, taking a ton of courses and all sorts of other things. And when I look back at how God has used everything we’ve been through in our lives—education, courses, you name it—and things He’s placed on His heart or our hearts. For example, Birte suddenly felt, “I don’t know why, but I just have this urge to get certified in marriage counseling at the Center for Family Counseling.”

And wow, have we used that many times. Seriously, man? We’ve seen how things have been set up for the tasks God has for us. And I think what’s important is that each of us needs to take root. We need to grow in Him.

But the way many people experience their calling is by God placing a fire in our hearts for something specific. And it can be anything. Many mistakenly think a calling is to stand up here and talk about God’s word. That can be a calling, but it’s just one of many. I don’t know how many callings there can be.

It can also be a calling to sit as a director in one of the country’s largest companies and earn, I don’t know how many millions. If that person loves Jesus and knows to give the first fruits to support God’s kingdom, and if that person dares to open their mouth and say, “I love Jesus,” then someone sitting way up there can reach so many who also need Jesus. So having a calling doesn’t necessarily mean we all have to teach, or we all have to go out and heal the sick, or we all have to sit in a prayer group and pray eight hours every day.

Each of us is given a calling. And a calling isn’t seeing writing on the wall. It’s not suddenly experiencing—well, it can be—but very few experience God waking them up at night saying, “You need to go to Africa tomorrow.” That’s really, really, really rare. The funny thing is, in this prophecy, Birte really wanted to go to Africa. She really wanted to, and I just couldn’t stand the heat. I didn’t want to go to Africa. No, I just couldn’t.

So I told her, if you want to go to Africa, that’s fine, but it will be without me. No, I’m not going to Africa. She chose me. That was actually pretty good. And I just thought, I’m not going there. And then, what happens five years ago? God places this fire in my heart. Go to Africa. And I had forgotten all about that prophecy. Everything. But what He said was, the fire comes from you. It would be you taking your wife with you. I had completely forgotten it.

And wow, God places a fire and a desire in our hearts that we don’t know where it comes from. And when we follow that desire and that fire, sometimes it’s definitely not a fleshly desire, like when we bought this place. You know, we didn’t want to. We absolutely didn’t want to buy an old bakery we had to work on every five years or so. We didn’t want to. I’m a computer guy. Period. Yes, we’ve worked three years, but I think it’ll be a couple more years before we’re done.

But we knew in our spirit that it was right. We knew it was what God had called us to. We knew so deeply that when we go with what God has set up, we’ll come to love it. So said, so done. Wow. And I think it’s so important not to get frustrated over not hearing this direct calling over your life, to rest in the fact that when you’re willing to follow God’s lead, when you’re willing to take God’s identity upon you, when you’re willing to listen, He will guide you, and He will place this passion in you, He will place this fire in you.

And it’s also important to know that a calling is not necessarily static. It’s not necessarily, now you do this, which you’re called to for your whole life. But God can put you in seasons, and He can do that to equip you, to prepare you for the next calling and the next calling and the next calling.

And you will experience, if you are faithful in the little things, He will entrust you with so much more. And you will influence so many people’s lives to come to believe in Jesus. If you dare and are willing, when you walk in His pre-prepared works, it’s Him speaking through you. You’re just the tool. You don’t need to be afraid. You don’t need to be afraid of being laughed at, ridiculed, or pushed around. You will be. Jesus was too. So you don’t need to be afraid of that. It will come naturally.

But it doesn’t matter when you know your identity, when you know how deeply loved you are. So what? If God is for you, who can be against you? There are really, really many who can. But it means absolutely nothing. It’s so irrelevant. Hebrews 11:6: But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who seek Him.

And it’s a bit interesting because if you take this, precisely this word or scripture, it actually says, if you look at the King James Version, it says those who diligently seek Him. And if you look into what this word means and take the Greek word, because many, when they hear this, those who diligently seek Him, they think, wow man, okay, I have to sit and pray constantly for five hours every single day, and if I don’t do that, I won’t get the reward mentioned here, and I won’t get closer to God. That’s actually not what it means.

What it means is that you seek Him deeply passionately and determinedly. That means you choose to say, I want to talk to you now, Jesus. You do it with zeal. You do it wholeheartedly. When you have wholehearted time with your Father in heaven, wow. That’s when He rewards you. That’s when you get closeness with Him. That’s when you get to know Him.

And there’s nothing here saying it can’t be five minutes or 10 minutes or a quarter of an hour. I seriously believe, I believe 100 times over, that God would rather have you be with Him for 10 minutes where it’s a wholehearted prayer, where you seek Him with zeal, where you seek Him with passion, than three hours where you’re about to fall asleep, but you’ve decided you want this. If you can do it with zeal and passion and do it for three or four hours? Go for it. Fantastic. Let’s raise up more prayer warriors. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I can only say go for it, but that’s just not what’s written here.

It says you should seek Him wholeheartedly, with zeal, with persistence. Wow. He doesn’t want anything half-hearted. He wants you to come wholeheartedly. Because when you come wholeheartedly and seek Him wholeheartedly, then He can also wholeheartedly guide you the other way. And when you come to Him wholeheartedly, it just so happens that your trust in Him grows and grows and grows, the more you come.

God wants you to be faithful to Him. God doesn’t just want you to be faithful to Him on Wednesdays. But God wants you to be faithful to Him at your job, in your free time, in your family, among your friends, at your school. No matter where you are, God wants you to be faithful to Him. And if you are, He will open doors along your path that you didn’t think were possible. He will bless you.

I remember hearing a testimony once, I think it was in Moldova, about some people who had gotten a truck down there for a lot of relief work, and they needed to drive around and do things. The problem was, a law had been passed that trucks were not allowed to drive on Sundays.

And that’s a bit of a bummer if you’re a church and really, really, really need to drive on Sundays. And they simply didn’t know what to do because the truck they had bought was practically unusable since it couldn’t be used where it was supposed to be used. So they really prayed about it. God, you have to open some doors because this truck is for your glory, not ours. It’s to honor your kingdom.

And what happens? God, in the most amazing way, arranges for one of the top politicians in the area to happen to have coffee with this missionary couple. What does that do? Well, it results in a law being passed that no trucks may drive on Sundays, except for the truck with the following registration number. Wow, that’s so wild, and it’s so fantastic, and that’s God.

And this isn’t just a single little story, but there are countless episodes where God just intervenes. You’ve all heard the whole story about our building permit for the halls. How God just, at the last moment, pushes everything through. I mean, God is just amazing.

And when we walk with Him and for Him and desire wholeheartedly to follow His calling, that’s when we get to see so many doors open. God has called us to bear fruit. He wants you to bear fruit. But before you bear fruit, He wants you to have the root system.

And it’s very interesting because if we read Psalm 92 verses 13 to 15 in the King James Version, it’s just poorly translated in our Danish Bibles. It’s really a shame. So I’ll read it in Danish, but translated directly from the King James Version. It says: Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

So, those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish. What does it mean to be planted? It means you’ve grown out of your little seed. You’re no longer a seed, but a plant with roots. Your roots need to go all the way down. They need to be rooted. And it actually says here, those who are planted in the house of the Lord.

To bring it a bit to everyday life, it actually means there are many, many believers who are what you call church shufflers, moving from church to church to church, because they need a lot. They’ve become rootless. What it says here very specifically is actually those who are planted in the house of the Lord. That means you have your roots where you get nourishment, then you start to flourish, and then you begin to bear fruit.

God wants you to have a time where you simply use this time to develop a huge deep root system. So there might be some flowers here and there, and occasionally there might be a little fruit or two, and that’s fantastic. But when the root system is really ready, then the flowers start to come, and then all the insects start to pollinate, and then flowers come on. That’s when you can go out and bear fruit.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, it’s not you who have chosen me, but I who have chosen you and appointed you to go and bear fruit and continue to bear fruit, so the Father can give you whatever you ask in my name. How do you keep bearing fruit? You do it by, when you start bearing fruit, letting Him prune you. Let Him cut off the branches that aren’t good. Constantly say: God, come and prune me. Come and remove what doesn’t please you.

Look at everything I do. See if there’s a wild shoot growing. Then cut it off. Prune me. And the more you are pruned, the more you will see that you will bear fruit without falling over.

So we are all called to go out in our calling. Both the calling we all have, but also the calling we individually have. When you experience that God sends you in where you think, wow, I can feel this God’s passion. I can feel this. Wow, my heart really beats for this. I can really feel it inside.

When you’re there, don’t let the devil ruin it for you. Don’t let your past destroy it. Don’t let sin in. Don’t have this rotten character where you don’t want to have the branches cut off. Don’t suddenly stand up and think, wow, look at all these people coming to faith now. It’s because of me. That’s really cool. Stop it.

You might not say it out loud, but if that’s how you feel inside, then stop it. Hold, take a step back, because then your motive is wrong. Your heart is wrong. And it ends up with the devil coming to ruin it. So don’t believe the devil’s lies, but believe God’s truth.

And the devil’s lies are so easy to recognize. The problem is, he’s pretty good at wrapping them up, but they almost always start with, can it really be true? Did God really say, don’t you think it’s just your own thoughts, shouldn’t you lay it down? See, there you got too proud. That task isn’t for you. You can’t handle it. Just lay it down because the devil can actually play on some of God’s principles.

We know we shouldn’t be proud, but if you are genuinely humble, the devil will come with this. Yeah, you’re probably a bit too proud. Just lay down what you have there because that’s not going to work, what you’re coming to. And if you have this humility of heart, you’ll get that, oh no, oh no, am I too proud? Better take a step back, but that’s not what God wants.

God wants you to rise up in your identity in Him and your authority. So it’s really important to be able to see through the devil’s lies in our lives, so we can say, “Ah, ah, that’s not mine.” And that’s when we can walk in God’s calling. Yes.

Close