God Is In Control of My Life
There is a calling for everyone and many steps are made to get there. If you do not choose the steps that God has for you, you will find yourself following a bumpy, painful path and if you listen to the steps that He has for you, you will find yourself blessed, happy, and at peace with your relationship with God. Some steps that I had to take in my personal calling involved the flesh and the Spirit. I had to learn to hear from God and trust what He had in store for me instead of doing things out of my own strength and trying to find my calling on my own. Fear and doubt try to destroy our callings in life. Fear and doubt tries to wear us down and the enemy is real and wants to destroy us before we ever get to our callings. God is the only one who knows your calling. He also uses others to help you into your calling to guide and direct you. All of this has been evident in my personal calling from God.
Flesh and Spirit of God
We go throughout life battling our fleshly decisions, and emotions. This article states, “you can tell who are the spiritual, as against the fleshly, you can tell by the quality of a person’s life, demeanor, conduct, attitudes, both private and public. There is a change of heart, a conversion of the will, a regeneration of the springs of the personality, a basic inner reorientation of our character.” (Peck, 1976) Throughout my life, it is relative that there was a change in personality, direction, and obedience when I came to know God more and more. There were times when I wanted to obey my flesh rather than walk by the Spirit, yet I still had a relationship with God.
I remember two incidents where God intervened big in my life. When I was ten years old, I found out that my dad had passed away. My parents had been divorced about three years, and my mom remarried the same year she got divorced. Luckily, I still had another dad in my life, but he was a step dad. It was not the same. It left me crushed that I did not have my real dad anymore. No one to teach me guitar, to sing with me, to teach me things, and it just did not seem the same having a step dad. I mourned for my real dad for eight years. There were times where I would let it go and I was completely fine. Other days it just hurt so badly. The Holy Spirit swooped in during these eight years and taught me a whole bunch, and healed my heart. He became my teacher, my comforter and my helper. It was life changing for me. It was not very bad, just that it took eight years to let go of it completely.
My first year of high school was a turning point in my life where I remember repenting a whole lot, and just asking God for forgiveness for the way that I was living. I had a relationship with Jesus, but I made some decisions that I needed to correct. It was a painful time for me, but God healed and restored our relationship. I will never forget my first year of high school. It seemed to be the worst year ever. God convicted me and then I started to pursue him more and more after that.
I would not be where I am today without the Spirit of God in my life.
Hearing from God
In this sermon it explains how God speaks to us, which I think is very evident in how we should construct our lives. We need to be actively listening to God in where He wants us to go, what people He wants us to reach out to, what decisions we should be making, and etc. Charles Stanley talks about how, “God’s voice will always align with what His Word says.” (Stanley, 2015) Sometimes God’s message to us seems impossible, but that is how God works. It always clashes with fleshly ideas. God will call us to face our fears, so challenges happen, that is something we need to be aware that God is speaking to us. His voice can be quiet, and speaks to our hearts throughout the day. We need to know that God is specific. He will speak specifically to show us exactly what He is saying.
God is calling us to listen to Him in our everyday lives. I feel that this is very real in my personal calling from God. Ever since middle school I had this tugging feeling to join the military. I did not know why the tugging was so strong, it just was. My junior year in high school I applied to the Air Force, and as a junior in high school you have to score high enough to get into the delayed entrance program. If you do not score high enough, you try again. Instead, I just gave up and assumed that it just was not for me. Even though my Spirit inside of me was telling me otherwise. In addition, I scored high enough to where if I was a senior in high school, I would have been fine, but since I was a junior, it was different. I was hurt, and thought I lost my way. Except, God kept showing up. I would be working at Family Farm and Home, and someone would come in with an Air Force hat or I would see vehicles with Air Force stickers. I would even run into people who had been in the Air Force. God had set all these things in my way to show me that this is the way walk in it. Ever since He showed up, I have not given up since. If God had not shown me all those things, I would not be pursuing what He has called me to do.
One part of my calling is to be a Chaplain in the United States Air Force, and I believe that calling I will fulfill only from the help of God, and because God has confirmed it in multiple ways for me. Hearing from God is vital in our walk with Him. This sermon from Charles Stanley helps confirm that we need to learn to hear from God. “Be sure you are implementing a regular strategy to purposefully listen to God. With practice, you will be able to discern God’s voice more clearly and develop a closer intimacy with Him.” (Stanley, 2015)
Fear
You all have heard the word “fear” defined as false evidence appearing real. Well, this was very evident in my life when it came to singing. Which, I feel God has gifted me in this area especially music in general. Our callings are not always just one thing. I feel that people are gifted with different talents, and God groups them together in ways to serve Him.
I thought that I was awful at singing because I grew up singing karaoke in the house and my brothers always told me to be quiet and that I could not sing. They even shut my bedroom door because they did not want to hear me sing. This is what planted a seed of fear in my life when it came to singing. A lie that I believed. Siblings are siblings and they probably were just joking around with me, but I believed what they said.
My grandpa taught me how to play the mandolin in fifth grade and I started writing my own music. Except I would keep myself locked up in my room and write songs. When sixth grade came around, it was time to pick a music class and I chose orchestra, not choir. My grandpa had told me that it was a great thing to learn how to play an instrument. I am thankful that I took his advice.
A few years went by and I started to teach myself guitar my freshman year of high school. During this time my friend Tyler in orchestra started an after school music group called Harmonic Gumbo, and that is when I started to realize that I could sing. People would tell me that I was good. I did not know how to take it and it was very hard for me to understand. Then the choir teacher told me that I could sing, and asked me if I wanted to join choir. Therefore, I joined choir my sophomore year of high school and progressed a lot after that. My sophomore year I sang with a friend at the school talent show. Later that year I joined his band.
I remember writing songs and teaching myself the guitar. Sometimes I would stay up late at night because that is when the Holy Spirit would speak to me, and then it would turn into musical lyrics. I sang what He put on my heart. Song after song came. Junior year came and I was in select choir, and got to perform a song that I wrote at the Choir showcase called Past Mistakes. I even took a choral explorations class so I could teach myself more guitar and perform with other people. Then came my senior year and I was in Honors Choir. I also did choral explorations senior year and got to help another kid who thought he was not good at singing, but was extremely talented at guitar and singing. He helped me and I helped him. We performed at the choir showcase together. My senior year I took an independent study class to help myself get over my fear of singing. Then there was an opportunity to perform music at the senior Baccalaureate.
God gave me so many opportunities to perform and get over my fear of singing. Many of which have not been listed. However, I am so thankful because He cares so much about helping us. God wants what is best for us. I can say that now my fear has almost ended. There are times when I get nervous, but when you are singing for Him, it seems to calm the nerves a bit.
He pushed me, challenged me and encouraged me to do something that I did not think I was good at. God knows what we are capable of if we allow Him to intervene and help us especially with our fears. I know God will do something with my music some day because I have an album name and more than enough songs for it and I will not fear, because fear is false evidence appearing real.
Doubt
I want to write books, but I do not always feel like the greatest writer even though He has gifted me in this area. God has instilled this passion inside of me because He wants to use this gift to glorify His kingdom. It does not matter how I feel about it, I need to trust God, push past the doubt and just go for it. When I think of being a Chaplain in the military at times, I doubt if I will have the courage to stand up for what is right because it is huge in my heart to do so. God has told me in my quiet time that I will have favor with man. Doubt will eat you up until you cannot go on any further. Doubt is a huge wall for people in their personal callings from God. God called so many others who did not believe that they could do something so courageous, brave, or even significant. He is calling us to do the miraculous, and go against all that this world has to offer, to show His perfect love and mercy. Listen to His still small voice and go for what He tells you to do whether you think you are qualified or not. What God has for you is far greater than you could ever think or imagine. Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (NIV)
Many times in my life, I doubted. I doubted that I could sing, that I could write, and that I will pastor people in the military. What I have chosen to do with this doubt is push forward and believe anyways. I go for it, and you should go for it too! God would not download something inside of your spirit, if He was not going to turn it into something good.
In conclusion, there is a calling for everyone and many steps are made to get there. If you do not choose the steps that God has for you, you will find yourself following a bumpy, painful path and if you listen to the steps that He has for you, you will find yourself blessed, happy, and at peace with your relationship with God. Some steps that I had to take in my personal calling involved the flesh and the Spirit. I had to learn to hear from God and trust what He had in store for me instead of doing things out of my own strength and trying to find my calling on my own. Fear and doubt try to destroy our callings in life. Fear and doubt tries to wear us down and the enemy is real and wants to destroy us before we ever get to our callings. God is the only one who knows your calling. He also uses others to help you into your calling to guide and direct you. All of this has been evident in my personal calling from God.