How can you know your call to ministry is from the Lord? In the Bible, people such as Samuel (1 Sam 3:4-10) and Isaiah (Isa 6:8) experienced direct, audible calls from God. These instances left no doubt about the divine origin of call to ministry. However, these cases were unique and often accompanied significant shifts in God’s work in history. Today, God still calls people to ministry, but He does so through less overt means.

First, it should be noted that God gives every Christian a spiritual gift, which means every believer is called to some level of ministry. Paul wrote, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all…[and] a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Cor 12:4, 7). Peter wrote, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet 4:10). Whatever your spiritual gift, whether pastor, teacher, leadership, administration, serving, giving, helps, or mercy (just to name a few), it should be employed to help and bless others. Moreso, ministry relates to everyone, everywhere, all the time. And ministry is evangelistic toward the unsaved, and doctrinally encouraging to the saved. Those whom God calls, He equips to serve, and the blessing of service will edify others. Knowing your specific call to ministry is based largely on desire, ability, conviction, confirmation, and opportunity.

Concerning desire, Paul wrote, “if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do” (1 Tim 3:1). The word “desire” translates the Greek verb epithumeō (ἐπιθυμέω) which means “to have a strong desire to do or secure something, desire, long for” (BDAG, 371). The true desire to minister originates with God, and you will realize “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Furthermore, the desire will always seek God’s glory (1 Cor 10:31), align with His Word (2 Tim 3:16-17), and promote His interests in the lives of others, whether to lead the lost to eternal salvation (2 Cor 5:18-20), or Christians to spiritual growth (Heb 6:1), encouraging them to learn His Word (2 Tim 2:15; 1 Pet 2:2) and walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; Jam 1:22).

Concerning ability, God will equip those He calls to ministry by giving them a spiritual gift (Rom 12:6-8; Eph 4:11-12). The spiritual gift is the personal possession and responsibility of each believer. If God calls one to be a pastor or teacher, He will provide the means for that man to receive the appropriate education necessary to properly study His Word and communicate it to others, first through the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), and then through others (Acts 18:24-26; 19:9-10). If the spiritual gift is giving, God will bless that believer with the finances to be able to support others, much the way He used several women to financially support Jesus and His apostles (Luke 8:1-3), or the Christians at Philippi to support the apostle Paul (Phil 4:15-18).

Concerning conviction, each believer will have a desire to be guided by God’s Word. A psalmist wrote, “O how I love Your instruction! It is my meditation all the day” (Psa 119:97). God’s Word is what provides us the divine perspective on life and trains us in righteous living and good works. Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). The constant intake and application of God’s Word is necessary for spiritual growth and ministry to others. One can see this pattern in Ezra, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).

Concerning confirmation, others will often recognize and affirm your spiritual gift. Paul wrote about himself, saying, “seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised…James and Peter and John…gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship” (Gal 2:7, 9). Paul’s ministry was confirmed by others who gave their support. And the confirmation of Paul’s ministry serves as an example for today’s church, as it underscores the importance of spiritual leaders to recognize and affirm the gifts and callings of others, particularly those who demonstrate clear evidence of God’s work in their lives.

Concerning opportunity, Paul reported how God “had opened a door” for him to minister the gospel to Gentiles (Acts 14:27), and how “a wide door for effective service” had opened for him in Ephesus (1 Cor 16:9), and when he came to Traos, he said, “a door was opened for me in the Lord” (2 Cor 2:12). When God calls and equips His children for service, He also provides opportunity. But believers must also recognize there will be times when God, for reasons known only to Him, closes a door of opportunity. Luke recorded an event where Paul and his companions had “been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them” (Acts 16:6-7). But a closed door for ministry might indicate a calling elsewhere, for though Paul had been denied ministry in Asia, afterwards, he’d received a vision about Macedonia (Acts 16:9), and “When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10).

Whatever the Lord calls His people to do, He will provide for them, for “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” (1 Th 5:24), and “God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19), for “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor 9:8). Whether intellectual, relational, or financial, God provides the resources necessary for His servants to fulfill their calling. 

Dr. Steven R. Cook

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