Does Everyone Have a Calling?

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This episode discusses how to have confidence that you are doing what God has called you to do.

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Episode Transcript

Opening

On this episode, we’re talking about God’s divine calling on your life.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Well, we all want to have confidence that we are doing the work that God wants us to be doing. That we we are working on and doing the activities and what God wants us to be working on. And I want to talk a little bit about that today and just out of the gate, ultimately that’s between you and the Lord. That’s something for you to work out.

But I want to talk about a few things that can help you grow in your confidence that you are doing what God has called you to do. Now, what comes to mind when you hear that? The idea of a calling, maybe a pastor or a missionary? Are those the only types of callings there are? Well, when we look at the Bible, we see there is many other kinds of callings.

What is a Calling?

So let’s first just what’s the definition of a calling?

Well, it’s God’s summoning of a person to Himself so that they will belong to Him and serve Him in this world. That’s pretty simple. Well, we all can serve God.

This calling of a believer can involve a specific place, a task, or a specific vocation in life. Now, 1 Corinthians 7:17 says, “only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.”

Did you hear that? Each person. The Lord has assigned. God has called. That’s everybody. That includes you. And what does that mean? It means it’s a divine call. So you have a divine call on your life.

Types of Callings

Now we are all called as primary calling is to relationship with Jesus Christ. And when we’re indwelled with the Holy Spirit, we have these secondary callings. Could be, like I said, an activity, task or a place that we need to go that God has appointed for us to pursue.

We have extreme ones like Noah building the Ark or Moses leading the Israelites, or Esther being called to be a queen and risk her life to save her people.

But we also have more simple ones like in 2 Kings 5 where the young Israel girl gives advice that leads to the healing of Naaman’s leprosy. Or 1 Kings 17 the widow of Zarephath that cooked a simple meal for the prophet Elijah, and it ended up leading to a miracle that saved her and her family.

Occupation as a Calling

Well, we all can have a vocation. It’s a primary occupation. So, something you’re doing now, you have been called to do that now. It may not be your only calling. It may not be where you’re going to stay.

You know, Joseph had many different callings in his life. He was a household steward. He ran a prison while he was in the prison, and then he became second over the land of Egypt in governing the land.

Well, God called him to these things and he served God right where he was, and he did his best work and he worked and partnered together with God.

Your Calling Today

So have you thought about what you’re involved in today as a calling? Well, God has certainly summoned you to work together with Him and to be in service to Him in this world and we can do that every day.

But we want to make sure we’re seeing ourselves as being called by God and then we can take it seriously and we know that our work and whatever we’re doing is not about us. It’s about God and what He wants to accomplish. And He certainly wants to be together with us in that.

So if we can stay close to the Lord in fellowship and follow His direction, we can have confidence that we are doing what He wants us to be doing.

God Has Called You

So whether you love what you’re doing or you’re on your way to something that you love doing, take some time this week to think about how God has called you, how God has summoned you to serve Him wherever you are.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

How to Live Out Your Faith in the Workplace (Interview)

The below interview with Dr. Ryan Howard was hosted by Mike Henry, Sr. from Follower Of One. The interview and below post were originally published at FollowerOfOne.org.

Follower Of One is a ministry that seeks to help people follow Jesus in their place of work. Christ-followers with full-time jobs join Follower of One to connect with like-minded believers who encourage, equip and mobilize one another.

Live Out Your Faith

Listen to Dr. Ryan Howard talk about faith in the workplace and how you can learn to live out your faith through it. He’s explored how work has a central role in the life of Christ-followers. Find out how it is a theme all throughout the Bible and how God uses it to accomplish His will.
How can His will help you go to work with a different perspective? Find out in this episode. He has called you to be a light in whatever job He’s placed you in. Choose to be His ambassador today.

Outline of This Episode

  • [1:30]   What does it mean to integrate faith in the workplace?
  • [6:22]   Learn the importance of partnering with God in your daily work
  • [10:30] What has God called you to do?
  • [20:11] Learn what’s up and coming at YourFaithAtWork.org
  • [24:47] How to hear from God

Find out how to partner with God in your daily work

To be an ambassador for God day-to-day means that you live out your faith in the workplace. There are so many different callings. You don’t have to be a pastor or missionary to be able to do God’s work. Ryan talks about the importance of partnering with God. It’s not a matter of trying to apply things you’ve simply memorized. It’s an interactive relationship with God where He helps you in everyday things. Listen now to hear examples from the Bible – people who not only prayed and received God’s help but had constant interaction with Him. Find out how God wants to be engaged with you in everything – including your work.

Learn how to join God in the work He’s doing around you

No matter what kind of work you’re involved in, God’s there. He has a specific plan for the relationships you will make and people you’ll influence. Your job is to represent Him and do what He has for you there so that He can be glorified. Ryan’s free downloadable eBook called “21 Days to a New Workplace You” is a jumpstart guide to faith at work. It takes the everyday things we should be doing as Christ-followers and teaches how to infuse those into our work. Listen to how it can change your perspective. You’ll find out how God is at work in every detail of your workday. You simply need to be aware of it.

In addition to the eBook, find out other resources available at YourFaithAtWork.org. Find his podcast on all apps. Ryan is also working on another book, a five-day video series, and webinars. In this episode, find out about these and more and how his ministry can help you grow in your walk with Jesus.

How do I figure out what my anointed calling is?

When you’re doing what you were created to do, it glorifies God. Even if you’re not necessarily talking about Jesus, God can use anything to draw others to Himself. Ryan points out that there’s a lot more to living for God than just talking about Him.

God used the book Anointed for Business to help bring clarity to what He wanted him to pursue. So many others from seminary were going into the pastorate, but he wasn’t drawn toward that. He always felt pulled toward business. Hear more about Ryan’s calling to help people live out their faith in their work. Listen to this episode to hear him talk about anointing for various positions – not only for those in ministry. Find out how your specific job can be used as kingdom work and how God cares about it.

Learn to recognize God and how to integrate your faith in the workplace

It’s easy to get caught up in habits and the way we do our jobs. That itself can become a barrier for us inviting God to be more part of our day. Ryan talks about our need for self-examination. As Christ-followers, evaluating ourselves is important so that we don’t get used to a certain mode of operation. Listen to how you can create new habits. Become sensitive to hearing from God and learn how to develop spiritual disciplines to help you integrate your faith at work. You’ll become more sensitive to what God is already doing.

Prioritize your relationship with Christ. Take the first step of making a small commitment – whether it’s to spend more time in prayer or read one chapter of your Bible daily. Find something you can do consistently and set your mind to stick with it. Learn to build that little habit and it will grow. Listen now to hear more about this. Then you’ll find that the more of God you have, the more you’ll want.

Connect with Dr. Ryan Howard

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect With Follower Of One

Join us over in our Online Community, get social with us; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Listen to our podcast on your way to work and subscribe using your favorite podcast app!

This post was originally published at FollowerOfOne.org.

Nothing in Your Work is Arbitrary – Ep. 20

On this episode:

This episode talks about how nothing in our work is arbitrary and that God uses everything for our good.

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Episode Transcript

Opening

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how nothing in your work is arbitrary.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Could it really be true that nothing in your work is arbitrary.? I mean, what about all the surprises that happen? All the difficulties that come up? All the disappointments? What about all of those things?

Everything Has Meaning

Well, if they’re not arbitrary, that means that there’s purpose in them and that means that it’s not a waste. And that means that there’s meaning there.

God knows everything. He knows the future. He knows your past, He knows everything you’ve been through. He knows everything that’s coming up in your future that you need, need to be prepared for. So, but we can trust Him. And if we know Christ, we know we have a promise in Romans 8:28, that God will use all things for the good of those who love Him. And that’s true in church on Sunday, that’s true in your Bible study, that’s true in your family. And that’s true in your work.

God’s Promises Are Always True

Now, like I said, it can be hard to believe, but when we really think about it, those promises are true no matter what’s going on. And we need to learn to walk by faith. What that means is to trust God. So that means those things that come up, we may not be able to see what God’s gonna do with them, but we can have confidence and trust that He will use them for our good.

Now what can God do with some of the things that come to our work? Well, He can develop us. He can prepare us for the future; things that are coming up. He can help get something going in our spirit, bring our attention to something. Or it could just be that we needed to learn how to trust Him more.

And He wants us to be able to do that. It’s great when we can see how God will use something and wants to use something, but we don’t always have the ability to see that and to know exactly what God might have planned or what good He’s going to bring out of a situation. So we learn to walk by faith.

Joseph’s Circumstances

You know, in Genesis 50:20, it’s Joseph talking to his brothers. His brothers sold him into slavery and then he ended up going to prison later after he was wrongly accused. And he had a chance later in life when he was actually second in command over the known world in the Egyptian world. His brothers were standing in front of him and he actually said, what they meant for evil against him, God meant for good.

That means that God was not surprised by what happened, what the enemy means for evil God can use for good.

All for God’s Glory

How incredible is that? That even the things that the enemy might want to set up and that God will use that even to bring Him glory. When we see that our work is not about us and it’s about God, it’s much easier to understand how all of this stuff can be for our good. It’s not just the good of His kingdom, which it is. It’s also for our individual good.

Testimony Builds Faith

So when we have these promises and so many amazing stories in the Bible, this history that’s recorded in the Bible. We can go and we can build our faith by reading those testimonies. We can see that God really does deserve our trust. No matter what happens, whether it’s a job we didn’t get or our relationship difficulty, God can use it for our good.

So we need to be able to reflect internally. We need to be able to go to the Lord and say, “all right, Lord, what’s this mean for you and me? What do You want coming out of this?” He may show us, He may not, but we need to walk by faith. And trusting Him, no matter what. We can’t just walk around like we’re victims of our circumstances as if God doesn’t know what’s going on with us, because that’s just not true.

Time to Reflect

So take some time to reflect. I’m sure you can think of some things that God has used in an unexpected way. Walk in confidence that God will use everything and your work for your good. Everything has purpose and meaning, and nothing is arbitrary. So it takes some time to think about that this week.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.