The Internal and External Calling.

What is our internal calling?

"Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’^"

^{Matthew 22:35-39 NKJV} 

^{God says is Psalms 139 that he formed us in our mother's womb. So with forming us, he placed callings and purposes within us. God gave plans and purposes to each of us, even before we were born. He gave us a destiny and a purpose.} 

^{1. The Internal Calling- why we were made. Why we are here. What our purpose is.}

^{Matthew 22:35-39 is our first and foremost internal calling that every human being is born with. We were made to love God, because it's one of the desires he put in us and what he's called us to, although not everyone chooses it. God did not destin us for failure, and he never will. He gave us a free choice with destiny, and love is a part of freedom of choice in that.} 

^{Sometimes we loose sight of our internal calling, by getting distracted by....}

^{2. The External Calling. Our school. Our job. Our life. What we're suppose to do.}

^{Where am I called to serve in the body of Christ and in the world? Should I be a mechanic, or an artist? Do I want to get married and have a family, or not? Do I want to go to college, or do I want to work?} 

^{God gave us skills and talents that we can use to glorify him and to reach others! Maybe he gifted you with the ability to fix things, or maybe he gave you skills where you can talk to people. Maybe your talent is solving an algebraic equation in less than one minute, or maybe your talent is giving speeches. Whatever the talent, skill, or gift is, we can all use that gift to serve somewhere in the body of Christ and somewhere in the world. We must choose to put away our selfishness and look for our skills and talents and begin to use them in great ways.}

^{Never let your internal calling be pushed away by the external calling, because when we follow the internal calling, the external calling will automatically fall into place as will everything else.}

^{Write that down.}

^{I think that even though I'm busy, God's going to use me this year. He's going to use my writing skills like he's doing right now. He's going to use my musician skills for more music and worship. He's going to use my people skills to work and to reach out to my school and new people at church as I settle into these new environments. I'm ready to make myself useful to God.}

I've prayed about what I'm going to do this year as far as small groups go at Oakland (but granted I'm not done yet and I never will be until I graduate. I'm still seeking answers!) I'm going to a small group meeting before church Sunday, and there we're going to get schooled on how to really start up small groups and how to keep them running well. There is so much that is happening this year, and I believe that whatever happens, it will all be spirit-led as long as we obey God and always remember our internal calling and continue to stoke it.

^{Define skillful;}

                       ^{useful to God's purposes.}

^{Make yourself available to his calling for you}

                                      ^{and he'll blow you away. I promise.}

^:)