March 14, 2025 • 43 mins
Is your calling hiding in your pursuit of God? Discover how seeking Him first can reveal your divine purpose and transform your life.
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If you get him, you really don't need anything else because he encompasses all of it
Many of us spend our lives chasing a calling, a specific purpose we feel we must uncover to reach fulfillment. But what if the secret to unlocking this purpose isn't in the chase itself, but in our pursuit of God? What if by seeking God wholeheartedly, we inadvertently unearth the calling He has woven into our very being? It’s not about finding what you’re meant to do, it’s about discovering Him!
When we prioritize our relationship with God, the steps we need to take become clearer, the path more certain. The call is not for us to chase titles or roles, but to deepen our love and connection with our Creator. In this discovery lies a peace and purpose that transcends earthly understanding. Listen to find the courage and clarity to embrace the path God has designed for you.
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- Tears for the lost.
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Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Bless you, Lord. I don't want anything
else. I don't need anything else.
He is our one thing. Amen? Amen. The beauty of that
is when he tells us, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all of these things will be added unto
you. It's all within him. It's, you know, if you get
(00:29):
him, you really don't need anything else because he
encompasses all of it. What a good and faithful God
we serve. Amen? Amen. I'm so excited about what God
is doing in this place. I was walking
through earlier and there is a testimony wall out there
right now that you can just stop by and jot, you know, two or
(00:51):
three sentences, four paragraphs, whatever. You know, whatever's on your heart.
I might erase the bottom two, but it'll be fine. But I walked past
it and it said when somebody had written down, I am so
thankful that God said no.
And I went, wow, I wanna meet that person. Because
we are so, I love the wisdom behind that to
(01:14):
go, whatever God speaks, whatever he says, whatever he tells
me, that's what I want. That's where I wanna go. And,
tonight we are going to talk about one
thing. It's
so easy to just go there. But tonight, we are gonna talk about
the one thing that he has called us to.
(01:37):
The one thing that he has called us to. And I love that it's
not entitled, The One Thing He Has Called Us to Do.
It is, What He Has Called Us to. And that's
exciting to me. So we are going to jump into the word
tonight. You know what, guys? There
are so many beautiful servant hearts in this
(01:59):
house tonight. There there are people, you know, climbing
through Styrofoam ball pits. There are people who
are, you know, blowing up balloons. There are people who are chasing your
babies right now with one ponytail over here and one
eye that has mascara on it, but they're happy. And,
you know, they're just serving so beautifully and I'm so grateful for that.
(02:21):
So let's get into the word tonight and see if we can grow a
little bit and look a bit a little bit more like that as we step
into what God has for us, this morning or this
evening. What what time is it? First Samuel,
with me and let's read this together. And I just need you to shake your
(02:44):
arms for just a second. That was a very worshipful song. And
I saw a couple nod off right over here. And,
so either that or we're gonna serve some coffee. Ready? Let's say it as
pastor Kevin says with gusto. The boy,
Samuel New
(03:50):
Is this reminding anybody of your toddlers at home? I'm just asking
for a friend, go lay down, go lay down, go lay down. I actually
love this next verse because he finally gets
it.
(04:36):
Now this first line should remind all of us that even
leaders are not perfect, and it takes us a while to get there. Then Eli
and Eli, said the Lord. Call you.
(04:58):
Servant is listening. So Samuel went And lay
down in his place. So that we're praying to
their calling as to where all he has to live from us.
Samuel. Samuel. And Samuel says,
Can you even imagine? The Lord went and stood there.
(05:19):
The Lord went and stood there. He was issuing a calling
to Samuel, and it was taking a moment for it to get
across. And I want you to understand that as the Lord begins to call us,
sometimes it takes a little while for it to get across. But
father, I am so grateful that you are persistent.
I am so grateful for your faithfulness and the way that you
(05:41):
pursue your people, Lord. I thank you, Father, that you
never give up. I thank you that your gift and your call are irrevocable,
and I thank you, Lord, for the way you love us enough to just wait
and to clarify things with us over time. Lord, I ask
that our hearts be teachable tonight. I pray, Father God, that anything that
is of mine would just be forgotten, and yours would stand in Jesus' name.
(06:04):
Amen. Amen. There was just something about
that that I got tickled at when it said, and
then then Eli realized.
It's interesting to me that there are so many
so many conferences on calling.
(06:26):
There are so many books on calling. There are so many things.
If you Google it, I don't advise it, but if you do,
especially those of you who are supposed to be fasting social media, don't do it.
Because it was like, you know, five steps to find your calling,
three steps to know your calling, stop chasing your
(06:49):
calling, and live your life. You know, it's just like this constant thing,
book after book after book on purpose and and
and leading and all of this and, you know, how to find that place in
your life. And and I think the one that probably
struck me most was the one that said, stop chasing your
calling. Stop chasing your calling.
(07:14):
Calling. It is a divine
interdrawing. You know, I've heard this all of my life. You know, you
gotta find your calling. You gotta find what God has called you to do because
once you know what God has called you to do, then everything is just
everything is gonna just fall into place and it's gonna fall into a lie. And
it's gonna fall into a lie. And anybody who ever found their calling. Is that
(07:36):
true? Was your life easier before?
No answer to that. It's probably a whole lot less
peaceful though because there's something on the inside of each of us that
needs to know that God is calling us. But here's the
interesting thing to me.
This is what I get asked more than anything. What has God called me to
(07:59):
do? I got stopped in the lobby one day and
if I had if I had been, you know, having one of my mean streaks
that day, it probably would have worked out a little bit better because somebody said,
I know that God has told you what I'm supposed to do.
And I should have said, I hear maintenance in your
(08:21):
But I'm like, Lord, please speak to them. You know,
God does use, spiritual authorities to speak into
your life. But when he does, nine times out of 10, it's
because they're just gonna confirm what God's already told you Because
you hear from God, you hear from him. And so this is
what I hear so much. What am I called to do? Well, there
(08:45):
are a thousand verses in the word that give us direction and they
give us insight and that give us a little bit of leading, but
here's the thing. We're not instructed to seek our
calling. I can't find that anywhere. We're instructed to
seek him with all of our hearts. Now scripture does tell us
that we are to make our calling secure and that
(09:07):
we are to, be worthy of the high
calling of Jesus Christ, that we are supposed to, you
know, be solid in that foundation.
But when he's addressing that, he is literally
saying, make sure that you're saved. Make sure that
your relationship with Christ Jesus' whole. Make sure that you're
(09:29):
pursuing the right things. And so it's interesting to
me, kind of weird to teach on calling
and then throw up, don't do that. Anyway, but we're
not called to pursue it. We are called to pursue him because
everything about that ties into what we just say. If we will
pursue him, if we will pursue him with our
(09:52):
whole hearts, what happens is that that he just begins to
unfold these things in our life that we hadn't seen
before or that we hadn't paid attention to before.
A lot of what I feel like I'm supposed to share with you today has
to do with personal testimony, because listen, I
can give you the five steps to find your calling or the four
(10:15):
steps to find your calling or the don't chase your calling,
but all I can tell you is how God did it in my life.
And then I can tell you some of the steps and some of the things
that he used in my life. And yours may look very different, but
my hope would be that the Holy Spirit would minister to you just as
he ministered to me in trying to bring me to the
(10:37):
place in my life where I would actually submit to what
he had designed me to do.
And, you know, that fancy definition
earlier, really all it boils down to is what my mama would say. This is
what God created you to do. This is what God created you for,
and ultimately, it's to worship him, and ultimately, it's to follow him.
(10:59):
But we gotta busy ourselves on the planet too and do the
things that he has designed, those works that he foreordained
for us to do in the earth. So as I
was praying about it, I thought, Lord, when was the first
time you began to direct me? When was the first time that I could
honestly say you were tugging me in a specific
(11:22):
direction? And I was about 11 years
old. And for those that don't know, my parents are pastors,
which that in and of itself makes you never want to be a pastor ever
in your life. And, because when you're a child and you're
immature, understanding that
shepherding a flock costs your parents something,
(11:43):
that their resources do have to be spread out about more than
you. But so that I I I really wanted
nothing to do with that, but I I was about 11 years old and we
were at a church and we had a traveling youth evangelist.
Those those three things scare you in and of itself. A
traveling youth evangelist can mess up our youth group and then leave
(12:05):
the mess to us. But, he came,
his name was Hank Davis. Hope he's not watching. Anyway,
he gathered us all together, and it was a weekend and we had had a
lock in. And, he gathered us
all together and he said, okay, guys, I believe you can hear
from the Lord. I believe you can hear from the Lord. I know you
(12:27):
trust your parents to hear from the Lord for you, but I believe you can
hear from the Lord. So this is what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm
gonna ask you to take an hour by yourself and go
that's like seven years in a teen life to
have to go off by yourself with nobody to talk to, nothing
for an hour. You know? But we did, and we went
(12:49):
and we gathered. You know, some went downstairs, some went over here, and people
found corners or or whatever, and we prayed as best
we knew to pray. And he had specifically
said, ask the Lord to show you what he has planned
for your life. Ask the Lord to show you what your calling might be, what
you might be destined to do. And, and so
(13:11):
we all did. And in about an hour, we all he called us back together,
and he started around the circle. And he said, you know, what are you called
to do, Steven? And, of course, Steven, who played the piano
like Mozart, said I'm called to be a worship minister. That made
total sense. You know? Isn't it funny how when you are in a
religious setting that somebody asked you about your calling and it
(13:33):
always has to do with the church? Does that mean everybody
out there is missing their calling? Because I am really
glad there are plumbers and electricians and that there
are craftsmen and people who can fix my car and,
you know, people who walk in their
callings just as we walk in hours. And so we're going
(13:56):
around the circle and one's gonna be a missionary. And I'm thinking, girl,
you don't even like to be outside. If you see a bug, you are out
of here. You are not gonna be a missionary. I
was a little cynical as an 11 year old. Anyway and so
he gets to me and he says, Barbie, what did you see? And I said,
I saw a platform and a pulpit.
(14:18):
He said, really? I said, yeah. I'm gonna marry a pastor.
And so that set me on a journey to date
no one who would ever be a pastor in their whole
life, And then I
(14:42):
met Hal.
I met him, and God began to do what only God
can do.
See, eternity is written on the hearts of men. Eternity
(15:03):
is written on the hearts of men. That's what
scripture says. And all of these things that start taking place in
our life is just literally the eternity,
the thing that you are designed and called to do, the thing that
God etched on your soul that says there's more to this life
than the life that I am living now that that causes you to
(15:25):
go, God, I need you to show me. Well, when the
Lord is trying to reveal something to you, you know, it's funny to me because
I think, God was trying to show me something when I was 11 years old,
but I didn't have the wisdom or the understanding to understand that he might
be doing something different than what I expected him to do
or what I wanted him to do. But as time goes on and the
(15:47):
Lord increases our wisdom and increases our knowledge, we begin to
understand the things that the Lord had maybe shown us when we were young or
when we were whatever. But I'm telling you guys,
from that point forward, it's like I was so hesitant in
anything that had to do with teaching or calling or
pastors or anything like that because
(16:10):
I had a different plan. I had a different plan.
And, I'm so glad that I listened to his plan, but it
it took a while to get there. And I want you to know if God
has called you to something and has set things in motion, it
might not happen in the timing that you think it should happen,
but God doesn't change his mind. God doesn't
(16:32):
change his mind, and he always finishes what
he starts. He always finishes what he starts. We don't,
but he does, and I'm so grateful for that. So what he did is he
set this thing in motion in my life where everything,
man, everything started to touch that eternity. Everything.
(16:53):
I remember sitting and watching a video of a
pastor of a teacher, and I just remember crying and
thinking, why does that hurt? Why does that hurt? This
isn't even a sin message. But I found myself sitting there
going, how did how did he
come up with that? How did he get there?
(17:15):
God, what did you do? I've studied that same passage of
scripture before and that is not at all what I got. And I would
just be challenged and I would think,
God, that it was it was as if they were
running their fingernails down the the eternity that was
written in my soul, leaving gouge marks that
(17:37):
weren't gonna go away, fully awakening that thing. And let me tell
you something. When God has called you to something, that's gonna happen to
you over and over and over again to the point that it
will frustrate you. If you are called to be a teacher and you are listening
to somebody teach you, it will frustrate you because there's something in
you that knows that's what you're supposed to be doing.
(18:00):
And you're like, Lord Jesus. And so that eternity
on my heart begin to get, challenged. It
begin to do that. And to me, that's that is the equivalent
of deep calling to deep. You ever just get
around somebody and everything in you testifies?
It's like this wavelength that you get on together in the
(18:24):
spirit, and it's the the eternity in their hearts and the calling,
and it's touching yours, and everything in you is waking up
and and whether you want it to or not.
And I love that God uses things in that way.
I can't remember what I put up here.
(18:44):
God uses God
uses familiar voices to speak to the eternity
on your heart. Now, I found it
interesting that every time God called,
Samuel, he went to Eli because that was the voice of
authority. That was the spiritual covering that he had.
(19:06):
And let me tell you something, guys. I don't think it is a stretch
by any means to go. A lot of times, the voice of
authority in your life that God uses is the one that's very familiar,
very familiar. For me, there were two
that really changed my world, and that was Jeannie Gibson and
Ronnie Mink. And, they were
(19:29):
both just such strong voices in my
life. And and the first time I remember,
I was fine with serving in the church. I
was fine with organizing events. I
was fine with doing women's ministry or playing piano.
(19:52):
I was fine with all of those things. I just didn't wanna go
any deeper. I wanted to attend and I didn't wanna go
any deeper, but somehow I went somehow. Somehow,
I wound up with me and Jeannie Gibson and another woman that were and we
were leading women's ministries. And can I tell you something? When you are
being disobedient to the Lord, everything makes you mad. When
(20:15):
you are being disobedient to the Lord, everything steps on your
toes and you step on everybody's toes. You get
offended. You get angry. You think they should be doing that this way,
and really, you're the one that God is trying to deal with. At
least that's what I've heard. Anyway
and so we were the three of us were having a little bit
(20:37):
of a conflict because I wanted to run things my way. I
know that's a shock. I wanted to run things my way, and they were had
the other things. And pastor Ronnie called us into his office. Do you remember
this? Did you?
Confirmation. Anyway, he said
he he called us into his office. It's like getting called into the principal's
(20:59):
office, you know? And he scoots three chairs over in
front of himself, and he's sitting here, and he was like,
Okay, ladies. And I'm like, Oh.
He said, I wanna he said, You are not in competition with each
other. And he shared a little bit more, and then he looked at
Mary, and he said, Mary, your gift
(21:21):
is encouragement. Your gift is encouragement, so
you need to encourage. And then he looked at Jeannie, and he said,
Jeannie, your gift is hospitality, and
you need to use that gift to serve the ladies in this body.
And he said, And, Barbie, you are a teacher.
And, man,
(21:44):
it was like somebody gut punched me. I mean,
it it just was, and because
sometimes when truth hits, truth hits. Emphasis
on the word hits. When truth hits, it hits.
And, you know, I I thought about that, and he I remember him
saying, listen. Your gifts are supposed to work
(22:07):
in tandem. They're supposed to work in tandem.
And if you will do that, the ministry will flourish. Quit
competing with each other. But all I heard was, you are a
teacher. Anyway, and,
I am very sure that Mary and Jeannie left that
building, left his office with so much peace. And I had
(22:29):
to go find a corner somewhere and cry for a little bit.
But it was okay. It was good, and it confirmed in my spirit all
the things that I didn't want confirmed. And so I
rushed immediately. No, I didn't.
So about it was probably a year later, and we're in that other
sanctuary, and we're having a women's meeting. And, you know, it's
(22:53):
been a good day. I've led a women's meeting. It's been a good day. And
I start to leave, and Jeannie Gibson gives it one of these
right into the aisle way where I'm going. And she looks at me and she
says, how long will you reject the
mantle?
How long will you reject the mantle? And the smart, elegant me
(23:16):
went, how long have I got? But I didn't
but I didn't say it, and that was two.
That was two. And I was like, okay, God. I
hear you. I hear you, Lord.
I heard him, but I didn't obey him.
(23:39):
And sometimes when the natural is not
working, God can go supernatural. He can do something in
your life that can go, oh, really? Now she's asleep. Let's talk to
her here. And, that's exactly what
happened, exactly what happened to me.
And, I went to sleep one night, and
(24:02):
I had this dream. And it and in this dream,
I was running down the hallways at this church, which was not unusual
because we do that a lot here. And I was running down the
hallways in this church, and I had an armful of clothes, and
I knew that I was supposed to change clothes. And,
(24:22):
as I was running, trying to get where I needed to be, I didn't know
where I needed to be, but I knew I was going somewhere and that there
was a time limit. And as I ran down this
hallway with his clothes in my hand, I saw pastor
Ronnie, and he was standing in the doorway of
what we now call the mail room. And he was
standing in the doorway, and there was this large,
(24:45):
tall man standing in that doorway, and pastor
Ronnie was on the outside of it, and he had his arms hooked under that
man. And the man was just kinda bending over,
and as I was trying to run past,
pastor Ronnie turned and he said, can you be
instant in season? Can you be instant in
(25:07):
season? And I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. I can.
And he said, get over here. I need you to help me take this
weight. And I went under the man's arm into the
what's the mail room now, and I got behind him,
and, pastor Ronnie was still holding him, and I and I put
my arms there to try and hold him. And
(25:31):
pastor Ronnie said, Can you take that weight? And I said, Yes,
sir. And he started to let a little bit go, and when he did, man,
my feet started sliding. They just started sliding, and
he looked across that shoulder and in one of his stern voices and if any
of you have ever experienced one of his stern voices,
you do pay attention when he does that. They're very,
(25:53):
very rare, and you know that he means business. And he looked across
it, and he said, I need you to take this weight. And
I said, let me plant my feet. And I planted my feet, and
I changed my position, and I tucked into the to the
back of that man. And when pastor, Ronnie
started, pushing or starting to release some of the weight,
(26:16):
I could carry it. I could carry it, but the man
just started to slump a little bit. And this time in the dream, I
looked across the shoulder of the man and I looked at Pastor Ronnie and I
said, will you release me?
You, man, a prayer language hit me. And when this prayer
(26:38):
language hit me and I put my hands on that man's
back and that man stood upright and the
Holy Spirit just began to minister to this man,
and just strength came. And I
turned around and I looked. I stuck my head through, and I could see
pastor Ronnie. He was down the hallway, and he was ministering to
(27:00):
people, and he was loving on them and he was hugging them
and he was praying with them and he was encouraging them. He was
shepherding them. He was shepherding them. And the
Holy Spirit spoke to me and it became so clear
that the man he was holding up in the doorway was the
body. The man he was holding up and trying to support
(27:23):
was the body of Christ that he was given charge to.
And there was something about that, guys. I'm telling you. Something
clicked on the inside of me when I thought, Lord,
I need to do this so that he can do what he has been called
to do. And then all of a sudden in my spirit, I
understood calling for the first time. It was never
(27:46):
about me. It was never about what I could do. It was
never about any of that. It was about ministering to the body of
Christ and supporting one another so that everybody else can go and do what
they have been called to do. See, your calling is not
about you. I missed that somehow.
But in that moment, to watch the joy on
(28:08):
his face as he was doing what God called him to
do gave me the most tremendous
peace to go, God, this is absolutely
what I want to do, whatever it looks like, whatever it feels like,
whatever it sounds like, whatever is required in it, God. I
wanna do this so he can do that. And if we
(28:30):
can get in that mindset and begin to understand that our gifts
and our callings and the things that God has designed us to do
have everything to do with everybody else. And God's just
going, can you be that support?
And every position from the top
to the bottom is a support position,
(28:53):
every position, because that's what we do in the body
of Christ. It changed everything for me.
And twenty two years later, is still changing
things for me.
He will use supernatural means if he wants to. Now here's the
kicker on this, guys. I walked out of that space and out
(29:16):
of that place, and I went, God, I hear you. I
get it. Absolutely, Lord. I wanna do that,
but I'm not gonna talk to him. Lord, if you really
want me to do that, you're gonna have to talk to pastor Ronnie, and
I'm not gonna approach it. Because let me tell you something, the moment you seek
a position, you lose it.
(29:39):
Most of the time when you don't want one, that's when you get it. Anyway,
but I did. I said, lord, I'm not I'm not going to him with this.
I'm not gonna do that. That just lord, I know what you've done in my
spirit. Now if you do something else here, lord, I'm I'm
with you, whatever you wanna do. Well, he
listened. And literally
(30:02):
forty eight hours later, forty eight hours later, I
didn't even have time to get all of the, are you sure Jesus is
out of my system? But anyway, forty eight hours later, I'm
down here in the church office and pastor Ronnie steps out of his
office and he says, hey, Barbie, can I see you for a minute? No. And,
and I and I walk in and I'm telling you guys, I had not told
(30:25):
anybody any of this. None of it. Nobody knew. I hadn't even told
Hal, and I tell him everything. Hadn't told him
anything, and pastor Ronnie, I go in and I sit down in his office, and
he says, Barbie, what's God been telling you?
I don't know. What have you heard?
(30:48):
Oh, nothing. What's God been
telling you? What's God been telling you?
And I told him part of it, but
not all of it. And what was interesting to
me is that, like, the week prior, the elders had
(31:08):
met, and they had decided that pastor Roni needed help, and
nobody told me that. And, and then he had walked in his
garden, and while he was walking going, God, I don't know who this person
is that the elders think that I need, and the Lord
gave him my name. Nobody told me that either. Otherwise, I might
not have stepped so easily into his office. But here's the
(31:31):
thing, guys, God is so able to put you
where you need to be. You don't have to pursue a
calling. You don't have to pursue a destination.
You pursue him. If you delight yourself
in him, he will give you the desires
of your heart. And that doesn't mean, you know, I'm
(31:53):
gonna get that roller coaster in my backyard. It just
means he changes and shifts the desires of
your heart if you will delight yourself in him. So yes, the
one thing you need is him. The one
thing you need is him.
I'm struck by the fact that he spoke to me in the night watches,
(32:16):
and I'm struck by the fact that he speaks when
you get still and set your heart to listen.
That's what he did. Every time Eli told Samuel, go back and lay down.
Go back and lay down. Go back and lay down. And then when the lord
speaks, just say, speak, lord, your servant's listening.
Sometimes we are not still enough to listen. We are so
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busy and we are so caught up and and we just don't get still
enough to listen, and that's actually why I'm excited about the women's retreat
this year because it has everything to do about getting still and
being quiet before the Lord and trusting him to speak to us.
But if you will get silent and you will spend some
time with him, He will speak to you.
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He will give you clarity.
Here's where I got hung up. Sometimes the Lord will speak through
gifts and talents and specific
anointings, but not always. But not
always. See, when I moved here, I was a songwriter in Nashville,
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and I thought, this is what I'm supposed to do, even though I didn't like
it. This is what I'm supposed to do, but I
think sometimes God uses your gifts and your talents and your abilities to
move you to the place where he is actually going to use
other gifts and abilities and talents that you don't even know you have
yet. You know what? And it's not that he did away with the
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things that brought me here. He's been he's incorporated those into the
things that he's actually called me to, and the reason I say
that is don't make assumptions about what your
calling is based on how well you sing, how well you teach,
how well you dance, how how well you write poetry. Don't
make assumptions on that. You have a God who is much bigger than your abilities.
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He is much bigger than your abilities. And living in Nashville, there's,
like, I think the latest statistic was 2,400,000,000
songwriters and singers.
But you know what, guys? That may not be the thing he chooses to use,
and I'm so glad that it wasn't. That is not the world that
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he wanted me in, and I'm so grateful that it wasn't.
And I'm so glad I didn't pursue it beyond where God said
no. Thank you, Lord, for the no. I'm gonna go
write that right under her words. Thank you for the times that
you said no. And here's the thing, guys.
Until that time comes when you know for sure,
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for sure, for sure this exact thing that you were supposed to do with your
life, the thing that you were gonna go to, can I give you a couple
of ideas? What about this?
You shall love one another. You shall love one
another. You shall love your God with all of your heart and your
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soul and your mind and your strength.
That's what you're called to do right now. Love him.
Love him. Love him.
Do justly. Love mercy.
Walk humbly with your God. You can do that today. And
every time you do it, you're gonna grow. And every time you do it, you're
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gonna mature in your faith. Do these things that the Lord has
already made clear to everyone.
Read this one
to me.
Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Let's do one more.
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That's a whole list of stuff you can do right now until you find out
if you're gonna be a plumber or a teacher or an orator or a
veterinarian or a pastor or a teacher. Until he
reveals those things to you, you got a whole lot of things you
can pour into and allow God to grow you. Just to allow God
to grow you, I'm so grateful that he does this.
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Here's one of the things that struck me, and I'm getting ready to close this
out. One of the things that struck me is
when you talk about calling, the word
vocation always comes up. Right? This is what I'm gonna do.
This is gonna be my vocation, and I'm it's gonna
encompass, you know, the people that I live with. It's gonna involve
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community. It's gonna be all this, and it's gonna be my vocation.
And it literally, vocare
literally means calling, vocation, but the
root comes from the word voice.
Voice, to vocalize, could mean to sing,
could mean to say, could mean to preach. But here's the thing. It
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literally means when you step into
that thing that God has designed you for, those places
that he has called you to be, the things that he has called you to
do, you finally find your voice.
You finally write your song. You
begin to speak. Your life begins to speak,
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and you begin to grab hold of the voice
that he's given you. And I just have this thing in my spirit, man,
that I can just see every single person walking along here on
this little planet with their voice,
with their song being lifted. It's a symphony.
And I have to tell you that it lifts toward the father
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as you begin to walk in his path for
you. So often I know that my voice in
that symphony was the one that was singing off key. I know that
I was the one playing in the wrong key, because I didn't
want to take this path that God had laid
for this voice. But when you
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do, guys, you join a symphony
unlike anything that you could ever encounter. There's camaraderie and
there's peace and there's Holy Ghost and there's leading
and there is direction and there is
purpose. When he calls you,
whether it's through familiar voices or whether it's through the
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supernatural, or whether it's through a dream, or what whatever,
say yes. Say yes,
and let the song begin.
The Lord reminded me when he called
me, after I stopped fighting,
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he gave me this poem.
And it says my hope, and I remember this, I
remember feeling like this because I wouldn't let go.
And he said, my hope is fading swift my Lord, how can
I, the standard meet? Just not too far
to climb my child, when you're sitting at my feet.
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Lofty thoughts soon come to heal and troubled minds find
rest. When lying close to hear your heart resound,
just do your best. But Lord, my best has
never been acceptable this far. And he said, you've you've sought the wrong
opinions, child. You are fine just as you are.
More than I have created, child do not strive to be. The anointing
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flows easily. It is a gift from me.
If what you do seems difficult beyond this peace of mind,
search your heart for motives true and your answers that you
will find. For what I've placed within you flows directly from my
throne, the ease with which you translate, tells if the source
is me alone. So dear
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child, let rivers run and let my spirit be swift
spread upon the wounded crying soul that you will touch in
my stead. Be tendered by emotions that at times will
overwhelm. Listen to the spirit's heart and discern the
soulish realm. Call white as white and black as black, no
grays your eyes will see, for quite distinctive is the
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difference between this world and me. There's a
counterfeit to meet each circumstance and you're sure to face.
Look to me, to wisdom grant, and depend
upon my grace. Speak what you hear and
see of me. No words from others speak. Be
careful of the sinful pride, and make sure that it's me you
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seek. For much I give into your hands.
This call a price will pay. But with it comes
greatest reward, and it will all be yours someday. For now
though, heart be quite content to seek my face and grow.
Patience learn and peace do plant, and mind all seeds you
sow. Expect the least expected, for you
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know not this place. You've cried for it, fought hard for it, but
you've never seen it twice. Surprised my child, surprise
I bring your heart once more, it's true. But you cannot even
fathom the plans I have for you. My
thoughts are so much higher than what you could yet perceive.
I ask but one concession, child. You must
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just believe. Believe me when the circumstance
just says this cannot be true. Believe me,
child. Then stand back and see what your
God can do. For you have been
commissioned. You have been called.
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Samuel is told we find this passage. It
just tells us that Samuel grew. It just tells us that
Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and not one of his words was
allowed to fall to the ground. And then I love the last
portion. It says that God continued to reveal
himself to Samuel and Shiloh. He continued to
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reveal himself through his
word. Until you know what?
Until you know, just grow.
Just grow. Allow him to reveal himself
to you in a place of peace.
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Just grow. Father God, I thank you so
much. I thank you so much
again, Lord, for your persistence, for your
faithfulness, the way you love, the way you
never give up. May we all know
your voice. May we listen, and may we
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obey father. In Jesus name,
amen.
Amen.
Bless you, Lord. I don't want anything
else. I don't need anything else.
He is our one thing. Amen? Amen. The beauty of that
is when he tells us, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all of these things will be added unto
you. It's all within him. It's, you know, if you get
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him, you really don't need anything else because he
encompasses all of it. What a good and faithful God
we serve. Amen? Amen. I'm so excited about what God
is doing in this place. I was walking
through earlier and there is a testimony wall out there
right now that you can just stop by and jot, you know, two or
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three sentences, four paragraphs, whatever. You know, whatever's on your heart.
I might erase the bottom two, but it'll be fine. But I walked past
it and it said when somebody had written down, I am so
thankful that God said no.
And I went, wow, I wanna meet that person. Because
we are so, I love the wisdom behind that to
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go, whatever God speaks, whatever he says, whatever he tells
me, that's what I want. That's where I wanna go. And,
tonight we are going to talk about one
thing. It's
so easy to just go there. But tonight, we are gonna talk about
the one thing that he has called us to.
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The one thing that he has called us to. And I love that it's
not entitled, The One Thing He Has Called Us to Do.
It is, What He Has Called Us to. And that's
exciting to me. So we are going to jump into the word
tonight. You know what, guys? There
are so many beautiful servant hearts in this
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house tonight. There there are people, you know, climbing
through Styrofoam ball pits. There are people who
are, you know, blowing up balloons. There are people who are chasing your
babies right now with one ponytail over here and one
eye that has mascara on it, but they're happy. And,
you know, they're just serving so beautifully and I'm so grateful for that.
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So let's get into the word tonight and see if we can grow a
little bit and look a bit a little bit more like that as we step
into what God has for us, this morning or this
evening. What what time is it? First Samuel,
with me and let's read this together. And I just need you to shake your
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arms for just a second. That was a very worshipful song. And
I saw a couple nod off right over here. And,
so either that or we're gonna serve some coffee. Ready? Let's say it as
pastor Kevin says with gusto. The boy,
Samuel New
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Is this reminding anybody of your toddlers at home? I'm just asking
for a friend, go lay down, go lay down, go lay down. I actually
love this next verse because he finally gets
it.
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Now this first line should remind all of us that even
leaders are not perfect, and it takes us a while to get there. Then Eli
and Eli, said the Lord. Call you.
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Servant is listening. So Samuel went And lay
down in his place. So that we're praying to
their calling as to where all he has to live from us.
Samuel. Samuel. And Samuel says,
Can you even imagine? The Lord went and stood there.
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The Lord went and stood there. He was issuing a calling
to Samuel, and it was taking a moment for it to get
across. And I want you to understand that as the Lord begins to call us,
sometimes it takes a little while for it to get across. But
father, I am so grateful that you are persistent.
I am so grateful for your faithfulness and the way that you
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pursue your people, Lord. I thank you, Father, that you
never give up. I thank you that your gift and your call are irrevocable,
and I thank you, Lord, for the way you love us enough to just wait
and to clarify things with us over time. Lord, I ask
that our hearts be teachable tonight. I pray, Father God, that anything that
is of mine would just be forgotten, and yours would stand in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Amen. There was just something about
that that I got tickled at when it said, and
then then Eli realized.
It's interesting to me that there are so many
so many conferences on calling.
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There are so many books on calling. There are so many things.
If you Google it, I don't advise it, but if you do,
especially those of you who are supposed to be fasting social media, don't do it.
Because it was like, you know, five steps to find your calling,
three steps to know your calling, stop chasing your
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calling, and live your life. You know, it's just like this constant thing,
book after book after book on purpose and and
and leading and all of this and, you know, how to find that place in
your life. And and I think the one that probably
struck me most was the one that said, stop chasing your
calling. Stop chasing your calling.
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Calling. It is a divine
interdrawing. You know, I've heard this all of my life. You know, you
gotta find your calling. You gotta find what God has called you to do because
once you know what God has called you to do, then everything is just
everything is gonna just fall into place and it's gonna fall into a lie. And
it's gonna fall into a lie. And anybody who ever found their calling. Is that
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true? Was your life easier before?
No answer to that. It's probably a whole lot less
peaceful though because there's something on the inside of each of us that
needs to know that God is calling us. But here's the
interesting thing to me.
This is what I get asked more than anything. What has God called me to
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do? I got stopped in the lobby one day and
if I had if I had been, you know, having one of my mean streaks
that day, it probably would have worked out a little bit better because somebody said,
I know that God has told you what I'm supposed to do.
And I should have said, I hear maintenance in your
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But I'm like, Lord, please speak to them. You know,
God does use, spiritual authorities to speak into
your life. But when he does, nine times out of 10, it's
because they're just gonna confirm what God's already told you Because
you hear from God, you hear from him. And so this is
what I hear so much. What am I called to do? Well, there
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are a thousand verses in the word that give us direction and they
give us insight and that give us a little bit of leading, but
here's the thing. We're not instructed to seek our
calling. I can't find that anywhere. We're instructed to
seek him with all of our hearts. Now scripture does tell us
that we are to make our calling secure and that
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we are to, be worthy of the high
calling of Jesus Christ, that we are supposed to, you
know, be solid in that foundation.
But when he's addressing that, he is literally
saying, make sure that you're saved. Make sure that
your relationship with Christ Jesus' whole. Make sure that you're
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pursuing the right things. And so it's interesting to
me, kind of weird to teach on calling
and then throw up, don't do that. Anyway, but we're
not called to pursue it. We are called to pursue him because
everything about that ties into what we just say. If we will
pursue him, if we will pursue him with our
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whole hearts, what happens is that that he just begins to
unfold these things in our life that we hadn't seen
before or that we hadn't paid attention to before.
A lot of what I feel like I'm supposed to share with you today has
to do with personal testimony, because listen, I
can give you the five steps to find your calling or the four
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steps to find your calling or the don't chase your calling,
but all I can tell you is how God did it in my life.
And then I can tell you some of the steps and some of the things
that he used in my life. And yours may look very different, but
my hope would be that the Holy Spirit would minister to you just as
he ministered to me in trying to bring me to the
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place in my life where I would actually submit to what
he had designed me to do.
And, you know, that fancy definition
earlier, really all it boils down to is what my mama would say. This is
what God created you to do. This is what God created you for,
and ultimately, it's to worship him, and ultimately, it's to follow him.
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But we gotta busy ourselves on the planet too and do the
things that he has designed, those works that he foreordained
for us to do in the earth. So as I
was praying about it, I thought, Lord, when was the first
time you began to direct me? When was the first time that I could
honestly say you were tugging me in a specific
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direction? And I was about 11 years
old. And for those that don't know, my parents are pastors,
which that in and of itself makes you never want to be a pastor ever
in your life. And, because when you're a child and you're
immature, understanding that
shepherding a flock costs your parents something,
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that their resources do have to be spread out about more than
you. But so that I I I really wanted
nothing to do with that, but I I was about 11 years old and we
were at a church and we had a traveling youth evangelist.
Those those three things scare you in and of itself. A
traveling youth evangelist can mess up our youth group and then leave
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the mess to us. But, he came,
his name was Hank Davis. Hope he's not watching. Anyway,
he gathered us all together, and it was a weekend and we had had a
lock in. And, he gathered us
all together and he said, okay, guys, I believe you can hear
from the Lord. I believe you can hear from the Lord. I know you
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trust your parents to hear from the Lord for you, but I believe you can
hear from the Lord. So this is what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm
gonna ask you to take an hour by yourself and go
that's like seven years in a teen life to
have to go off by yourself with nobody to talk to, nothing
for an hour. You know? But we did, and we went
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and we gathered. You know, some went downstairs, some went over here, and people
found corners or or whatever, and we prayed as best
we knew to pray. And he had specifically
said, ask the Lord to show you what he has planned
for your life. Ask the Lord to show you what your calling might be, what
you might be destined to do. And, and so
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we all did. And in about an hour, we all he called us back together,
and he started around the circle. And he said, you know, what are you called
to do, Steven? And, of course, Steven, who played the piano
like Mozart, said I'm called to be a worship minister. That made
total sense. You know? Isn't it funny how when you are in a
religious setting that somebody asked you about your calling and it
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always has to do with the church? Does that mean everybody
out there is missing their calling? Because I am really
glad there are plumbers and electricians and that there
are craftsmen and people who can fix my car and,
you know, people who walk in their
callings just as we walk in hours. And so we're going
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around the circle and one's gonna be a missionary. And I'm thinking, girl,
you don't even like to be outside. If you see a bug, you are out
of here. You are not gonna be a missionary. I
was a little cynical as an 11 year old. Anyway and so
he gets to me and he says, Barbie, what did you see? And I said,
I saw a platform and a pulpit.
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He said, really? I said, yeah. I'm gonna marry a pastor.
And so that set me on a journey to date
no one who would ever be a pastor in their whole
life, And then I
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met Hal.
I met him, and God began to do what only God
can do.
See, eternity is written on the hearts of men. Eternity
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is written on the hearts of men. That's what
scripture says. And all of these things that start taking place in
our life is just literally the eternity,
the thing that you are designed and called to do, the thing that
God etched on your soul that says there's more to this life
than the life that I am living now that that causes you to
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go, God, I need you to show me. Well, when the
Lord is trying to reveal something to you, you know, it's funny to me because
I think, God was trying to show me something when I was 11 years old,
but I didn't have the wisdom or the understanding to understand that he might
be doing something different than what I expected him to do
or what I wanted him to do. But as time goes on and the
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Lord increases our wisdom and increases our knowledge, we begin to
understand the things that the Lord had maybe shown us when we were young or
when we were whatever. But I'm telling you guys,
from that point forward, it's like I was so hesitant in
anything that had to do with teaching or calling or
pastors or anything like that because
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I had a different plan. I had a different plan.
And, I'm so glad that I listened to his plan, but it
it took a while to get there. And I want you to know if God
has called you to something and has set things in motion, it
might not happen in the timing that you think it should happen,
but God doesn't change his mind. God doesn't
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change his mind, and he always finishes what
he starts. He always finishes what he starts. We don't,
but he does, and I'm so grateful for that. So what he did is he
set this thing in motion in my life where everything,
man, everything started to touch that eternity. Everything.
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I remember sitting and watching a video of a
pastor of a teacher, and I just remember crying and
thinking, why does that hurt? Why does that hurt? This
isn't even a sin message. But I found myself sitting there
going, how did how did he
come up with that? How did he get there?
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God, what did you do? I've studied that same passage of
scripture before and that is not at all what I got. And I would
just be challenged and I would think,
God, that it was it was as if they were
running their fingernails down the the eternity that was
written in my soul, leaving gouge marks that
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weren't gonna go away, fully awakening that thing. And let me tell
you something. When God has called you to something, that's gonna happen to
you over and over and over again to the point that it
will frustrate you. If you are called to be a teacher and you are listening
to somebody teach you, it will frustrate you because there's something in
you that knows that's what you're supposed to be doing.
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And you're like, Lord Jesus. And so that eternity
on my heart begin to get, challenged. It
begin to do that. And to me, that's that is the equivalent
of deep calling to deep. You ever just get
around somebody and everything in you testifies?
It's like this wavelength that you get on together in the
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spirit, and it's the the eternity in their hearts and the calling,
and it's touching yours, and everything in you is waking up
and and whether you want it to or not.
And I love that God uses things in that way.
I can't remember what I put up here.
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God uses God
uses familiar voices to speak to the eternity
on your heart. Now, I found it
interesting that every time God called,
Samuel, he went to Eli because that was the voice of
authority. That was the spiritual covering that he had.
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And let me tell you something, guys. I don't think it is a stretch
by any means to go. A lot of times, the voice of
authority in your life that God uses is the one that's very familiar,
very familiar. For me, there were two
that really changed my world, and that was Jeannie Gibson and
Ronnie Mink. And, they were
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both just such strong voices in my
life. And and the first time I remember,
I was fine with serving in the church. I
was fine with organizing events. I
was fine with doing women's ministry or playing piano.
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I was fine with all of those things. I just didn't wanna go
any deeper. I wanted to attend and I didn't wanna go
any deeper, but somehow I went somehow. Somehow,
I wound up with me and Jeannie Gibson and another woman that were and we
were leading women's ministries. And can I tell you something? When you are
being disobedient to the Lord, everything makes you mad. When
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you are being disobedient to the Lord, everything steps on your
toes and you step on everybody's toes. You get
offended. You get angry. You think they should be doing that this way,
and really, you're the one that God is trying to deal with. At
least that's what I've heard. Anyway
and so we were the three of us were having a little bit
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of a conflict because I wanted to run things my way. I
know that's a shock. I wanted to run things my way, and they were had
the other things. And pastor Ronnie called us into his office. Do you remember
this? Did you?
Confirmation. Anyway, he said
he he called us into his office. It's like getting called into the principal's
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office, you know? And he scoots three chairs over in
front of himself, and he's sitting here, and he was like,
Okay, ladies. And I'm like, Oh.
He said, I wanna he said, You are not in competition with each
other. And he shared a little bit more, and then he looked at
Mary, and he said, Mary, your gift
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is encouragement. Your gift is encouragement, so
you need to encourage. And then he looked at Jeannie, and he said,
Jeannie, your gift is hospitality, and
you need to use that gift to serve the ladies in this body.
And he said, And, Barbie, you are a teacher.
And, man,
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it was like somebody gut punched me. I mean,
it it just was, and because
sometimes when truth hits, truth hits. Emphasis
on the word hits. When truth hits, it hits.
And, you know, I I thought about that, and he I remember him
saying, listen. Your gifts are supposed to work
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in tandem. They're supposed to work in tandem.
And if you will do that, the ministry will flourish. Quit
competing with each other. But all I heard was, you are a
teacher. Anyway, and,
I am very sure that Mary and Jeannie left that
building, left his office with so much peace. And I had
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to go find a corner somewhere and cry for a little bit.
But it was okay. It was good, and it confirmed in my spirit all
the things that I didn't want confirmed. And so I
rushed immediately. No, I didn't.
So about it was probably a year later, and we're in that other
sanctuary, and we're having a women's meeting. And, you know, it's
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been a good day. I've led a women's meeting. It's been a good day. And
I start to leave, and Jeannie Gibson gives it one of these
right into the aisle way where I'm going. And she looks at me and she
says, how long will you reject the
mantle?
How long will you reject the mantle? And the smart, elegant me
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went, how long have I got? But I didn't
but I didn't say it, and that was two.
That was two. And I was like, okay, God. I
hear you. I hear you, Lord.
I heard him, but I didn't obey him.
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And sometimes when the natural is not
working, God can go supernatural. He can do something in
your life that can go, oh, really? Now she's asleep. Let's talk to
her here. And, that's exactly what
happened, exactly what happened to me.
And, I went to sleep one night, and
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I had this dream. And it and in this dream,
I was running down the hallways at this church, which was not unusual
because we do that a lot here. And I was running down the
hallways in this church, and I had an armful of clothes, and
I knew that I was supposed to change clothes. And,
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as I was running, trying to get where I needed to be, I didn't know
where I needed to be, but I knew I was going somewhere and that there
was a time limit. And as I ran down this
hallway with his clothes in my hand, I saw pastor
Ronnie, and he was standing in the doorway of
what we now call the mail room. And he was
standing in the doorway, and there was this large,
(24:45):
tall man standing in that doorway, and pastor
Ronnie was on the outside of it, and he had his arms hooked under that
man. And the man was just kinda bending over,
and as I was trying to run past,
pastor Ronnie turned and he said, can you be
instant in season? Can you be instant in
(25:07):
season? And I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. I can.
And he said, get over here. I need you to help me take this
weight. And I went under the man's arm into the
what's the mail room now, and I got behind him,
and, pastor Ronnie was still holding him, and I and I put
my arms there to try and hold him. And
(25:31):
pastor Ronnie said, Can you take that weight? And I said, Yes,
sir. And he started to let a little bit go, and when he did, man,
my feet started sliding. They just started sliding, and
he looked across that shoulder and in one of his stern voices and if any
of you have ever experienced one of his stern voices,
you do pay attention when he does that. They're very,
(25:53):
very rare, and you know that he means business. And he looked across
it, and he said, I need you to take this weight. And
I said, let me plant my feet. And I planted my feet, and
I changed my position, and I tucked into the to the
back of that man. And when pastor, Ronnie
started, pushing or starting to release some of the weight,
(26:16):
I could carry it. I could carry it, but the man
just started to slump a little bit. And this time in the dream, I
looked across the shoulder of the man and I looked at Pastor Ronnie and I
said, will you release me?
You, man, a prayer language hit me. And when this prayer
(26:38):
language hit me and I put my hands on that man's
back and that man stood upright and the
Holy Spirit just began to minister to this man,
and just strength came. And I
turned around and I looked. I stuck my head through, and I could see
pastor Ronnie. He was down the hallway, and he was ministering to
(27:00):
people, and he was loving on them and he was hugging them
and he was praying with them and he was encouraging them. He was
shepherding them. He was shepherding them. And the
Holy Spirit spoke to me and it became so clear
that the man he was holding up in the doorway was the
body. The man he was holding up and trying to support
(27:23):
was the body of Christ that he was given charge to.
And there was something about that, guys. I'm telling you. Something
clicked on the inside of me when I thought, Lord,
I need to do this so that he can do what he has been called
to do. And then all of a sudden in my spirit, I
understood calling for the first time. It was never
(27:46):
about me. It was never about what I could do. It was
never about any of that. It was about ministering to the body of
Christ and supporting one another so that everybody else can go and do what
they have been called to do. See, your calling is not
about you. I missed that somehow.
But in that moment, to watch the joy on
(28:08):
his face as he was doing what God called him to
do gave me the most tremendous
peace to go, God, this is absolutely
what I want to do, whatever it looks like, whatever it feels like,
whatever it sounds like, whatever is required in it, God. I
wanna do this so he can do that. And if we
(28:30):
can get in that mindset and begin to understand that our gifts
and our callings and the things that God has designed us to do
have everything to do with everybody else. And God's just
going, can you be that support?
And every position from the top
to the bottom is a support position,
(28:53):
every position, because that's what we do in the body
of Christ. It changed everything for me.
And twenty two years later, is still changing
things for me.
He will use supernatural means if he wants to. Now here's the
kicker on this, guys. I walked out of that space and out
(29:16):
of that place, and I went, God, I hear you. I
get it. Absolutely, Lord. I wanna do that,
but I'm not gonna talk to him. Lord, if you really
want me to do that, you're gonna have to talk to pastor Ronnie, and
I'm not gonna approach it. Because let me tell you something, the moment you seek
a position, you lose it.
(29:39):
Most of the time when you don't want one, that's when you get it. Anyway,
but I did. I said, lord, I'm not I'm not going to him with this.
I'm not gonna do that. That just lord, I know what you've done in my
spirit. Now if you do something else here, lord, I'm I'm
with you, whatever you wanna do. Well, he
listened. And literally
(30:02):
forty eight hours later, forty eight hours later, I
didn't even have time to get all of the, are you sure Jesus is
out of my system? But anyway, forty eight hours later, I'm
down here in the church office and pastor Ronnie steps out of his
office and he says, hey, Barbie, can I see you for a minute? No. And,
and I and I walk in and I'm telling you guys, I had not told
(30:25):
anybody any of this. None of it. Nobody knew. I hadn't even told
Hal, and I tell him everything. Hadn't told him
anything, and pastor Ronnie, I go in and I sit down in his office, and
he says, Barbie, what's God been telling you?
I don't know. What have you heard?
(30:48):
Oh, nothing. What's God been
telling you? What's God been telling you?
And I told him part of it, but
not all of it. And what was interesting to
me is that, like, the week prior, the elders had
(31:08):
met, and they had decided that pastor Roni needed help, and
nobody told me that. And, and then he had walked in his
garden, and while he was walking going, God, I don't know who this person
is that the elders think that I need, and the Lord
gave him my name. Nobody told me that either. Otherwise, I might
not have stepped so easily into his office. But here's the
(31:31):
thing, guys, God is so able to put you
where you need to be. You don't have to pursue a
calling. You don't have to pursue a destination.
You pursue him. If you delight yourself
in him, he will give you the desires
of your heart. And that doesn't mean, you know, I'm
(31:53):
gonna get that roller coaster in my backyard. It just
means he changes and shifts the desires of
your heart if you will delight yourself in him. So yes, the
one thing you need is him. The one
thing you need is him.
I'm struck by the fact that he spoke to me in the night watches,
(32:16):
and I'm struck by the fact that he speaks when
you get still and set your heart to listen.
That's what he did. Every time Eli told Samuel, go back and lay down.
Go back and lay down. Go back and lay down. And then when the lord
speaks, just say, speak, lord, your servant's listening.
Sometimes we are not still enough to listen. We are so
(32:38):
busy and we are so caught up and and we just don't get still
enough to listen, and that's actually why I'm excited about the women's retreat
this year because it has everything to do about getting still and
being quiet before the Lord and trusting him to speak to us.
But if you will get silent and you will spend some
time with him, He will speak to you.
(33:02):
He will give you clarity.
Here's where I got hung up. Sometimes the Lord will speak through
gifts and talents and specific
anointings, but not always. But not
always. See, when I moved here, I was a songwriter in Nashville,
(33:23):
and I thought, this is what I'm supposed to do, even though I didn't like
it. This is what I'm supposed to do, but I
think sometimes God uses your gifts and your talents and your abilities to
move you to the place where he is actually going to use
other gifts and abilities and talents that you don't even know you have
yet. You know what? And it's not that he did away with the
(33:45):
things that brought me here. He's been he's incorporated those into the
things that he's actually called me to, and the reason I say
that is don't make assumptions about what your
calling is based on how well you sing, how well you teach,
how well you dance, how how well you write poetry. Don't
make assumptions on that. You have a God who is much bigger than your abilities.
(34:08):
He is much bigger than your abilities. And living in Nashville, there's,
like, I think the latest statistic was 2,400,000,000
songwriters and singers.
But you know what, guys? That may not be the thing he chooses to use,
and I'm so glad that it wasn't. That is not the world that
(34:28):
he wanted me in, and I'm so grateful that it wasn't.
And I'm so glad I didn't pursue it beyond where God said
no. Thank you, Lord, for the no. I'm gonna go
write that right under her words. Thank you for the times that
you said no. And here's the thing, guys.
Until that time comes when you know for sure,
(34:51):
for sure, for sure this exact thing that you were supposed to do with your
life, the thing that you were gonna go to, can I give you a couple
of ideas? What about this?
You shall love one another. You shall love one
another. You shall love your God with all of your heart and your
(35:12):
soul and your mind and your strength.
That's what you're called to do right now. Love him.
Love him. Love him.
Do justly. Love mercy.
Walk humbly with your God. You can do that today. And
every time you do it, you're gonna grow. And every time you do it, you're
(35:34):
gonna mature in your faith. Do these things that the Lord has
already made clear to everyone.
Read this one
to me.
Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Let's do one more.
(36:06):
That's a whole list of stuff you can do right now until you find out
if you're gonna be a plumber or a teacher or an orator or a
veterinarian or a pastor or a teacher. Until he
reveals those things to you, you got a whole lot of things you
can pour into and allow God to grow you. Just to allow God
to grow you, I'm so grateful that he does this.
(36:29):
Here's one of the things that struck me, and I'm getting ready to close this
out. One of the things that struck me is
when you talk about calling, the word
vocation always comes up. Right? This is what I'm gonna do.
This is gonna be my vocation, and I'm it's gonna
encompass, you know, the people that I live with. It's gonna involve
(36:50):
community. It's gonna be all this, and it's gonna be my vocation.
And it literally, vocare
literally means calling, vocation, but the
root comes from the word voice.
Voice, to vocalize, could mean to sing,
could mean to say, could mean to preach. But here's the thing. It
(37:13):
literally means when you step into
that thing that God has designed you for, those places
that he has called you to be, the things that he has called you to
do, you finally find your voice.
You finally write your song. You
begin to speak. Your life begins to speak,
(37:36):
and you begin to grab hold of the voice
that he's given you. And I just have this thing in my spirit, man,
that I can just see every single person walking along here on
this little planet with their voice,
with their song being lifted. It's a symphony.
And I have to tell you that it lifts toward the father
(37:59):
as you begin to walk in his path for
you. So often I know that my voice in
that symphony was the one that was singing off key. I know that
I was the one playing in the wrong key, because I didn't
want to take this path that God had laid
for this voice. But when you
(38:21):
do, guys, you join a symphony
unlike anything that you could ever encounter. There's camaraderie and
there's peace and there's Holy Ghost and there's leading
and there is direction and there is
purpose. When he calls you,
whether it's through familiar voices or whether it's through the
(38:43):
supernatural, or whether it's through a dream, or what whatever,
say yes. Say yes,
and let the song begin.
The Lord reminded me when he called
me, after I stopped fighting,
(39:03):
he gave me this poem.
And it says my hope, and I remember this, I
remember feeling like this because I wouldn't let go.
And he said, my hope is fading swift my Lord, how can
I, the standard meet? Just not too far
to climb my child, when you're sitting at my feet.
(39:26):
Lofty thoughts soon come to heal and troubled minds find
rest. When lying close to hear your heart resound,
just do your best. But Lord, my best has
never been acceptable this far. And he said, you've you've sought the wrong
opinions, child. You are fine just as you are.
More than I have created, child do not strive to be. The anointing
(39:51):
flows easily. It is a gift from me.
If what you do seems difficult beyond this peace of mind,
search your heart for motives true and your answers that you
will find. For what I've placed within you flows directly from my
throne, the ease with which you translate, tells if the source
is me alone. So dear
(40:13):
child, let rivers run and let my spirit be swift
spread upon the wounded crying soul that you will touch in
my stead. Be tendered by emotions that at times will
overwhelm. Listen to the spirit's heart and discern the
soulish realm. Call white as white and black as black, no
grays your eyes will see, for quite distinctive is the
(40:35):
difference between this world and me. There's a
counterfeit to meet each circumstance and you're sure to face.
Look to me, to wisdom grant, and depend
upon my grace. Speak what you hear and
see of me. No words from others speak. Be
careful of the sinful pride, and make sure that it's me you
(40:57):
seek. For much I give into your hands.
This call a price will pay. But with it comes
greatest reward, and it will all be yours someday. For now
though, heart be quite content to seek my face and grow.
Patience learn and peace do plant, and mind all seeds you
sow. Expect the least expected, for you
(41:20):
know not this place. You've cried for it, fought hard for it, but
you've never seen it twice. Surprised my child, surprise
I bring your heart once more, it's true. But you cannot even
fathom the plans I have for you. My
thoughts are so much higher than what you could yet perceive.
I ask but one concession, child. You must
(41:43):
just believe. Believe me when the circumstance
just says this cannot be true. Believe me,
child. Then stand back and see what your
God can do. For you have been
commissioned. You have been called.
(42:11):
Samuel is told we find this passage. It
just tells us that Samuel grew. It just tells us that
Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and not one of his words was
allowed to fall to the ground. And then I love the last
portion. It says that God continued to reveal
himself to Samuel and Shiloh. He continued to
(42:33):
reveal himself through his
word. Until you know what?
Until you know, just grow.
Just grow. Allow him to reveal himself
to you in a place of peace.
(42:53):
Just grow. Father God, I thank you so
much. I thank you so much
again, Lord, for your persistence, for your
faithfulness, the way you love, the way you
never give up. May we all know
your voice. May we listen, and may we
(43:15):
obey father. In Jesus name,
amen.
Amen.
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