One of the biggest struggles that the average God-fearing Christian faces is trying to discern the will of God in a certain situation. 

Everywhere I go, I find Christians crying out, “If only I can find God’s will for my life. Then I will not feel so lost. But how can I find God’s will for my life?

However, the Bible tells us that God is a loving Heavenly Father who desires the best for us and does not delight in playing hide-and-seek with us.

Robert Hudnut once said, “All we have to do to hear God’s call is to do what we are already doing … All the Bible people did to hear God speak was to do what they were already doing. Then the call came.”

We need to recognise that there are two aspects to God’s call: There is a primary calling, and there are secondary callings.

Our primary calling is a call to be. It is a call to be someone – not something or somewhere.

“And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:6)

Our primary calling is a call to a Person – not a purpose.

It is a call to fellowship with Christ. It is a call to be followers of Christ.

Jesus’s disciples were just going about their daily chores when the call came to them. Peter and John were merely fishing in the Lake of Gennesaret when they were called by Jesus to be His followers. Matthew, a tax collector, was simply sitting at a tax collection post when he was called to follow the Lord.

The first time we answer a call from God is at conversion, when we are called out of the kingdom of darkness into His marvellous light.

Our primary calling is a call to a Person – not a purpose.

What is God calling me to do?

Our secondary callings can take many forms, whether it is to be a teacher, lawyer, doctor or homemaker.

They are callings rather than a calling. And our secondary callings matter only because the primary calling – to follow Jesus – matters most.

So how does God call us? How do we know if God is calling us into something?

It starts with living life.

As we live life, stuff happens. We experience go through more and more events where all sorts of things happen – good, bad, ordinary.

When enough of these events have accumulated, we reach a point where we cannot remain as we are.

Changes need to take place; decisions have to be made.

Then we reach a listening point. We come to a point where we have to listen for what God is saying, because so many things have happened.

If we make a correct response at the listening point, it becomes a call for us and we move onto the next thing that God is calling us into. 

But if we do not respond correctly at this point, we can go on a detour – what we sometimes term as a “wilderness experience.”

However, God is good. When we are in this detour, God will, in His grace and mercy, bring us back to another listening point.

More events will happen to bring us back there to make a fresh response. If we respond correctly, it becomes a call. And if we don’t, we experience another round of detour.

So how do we know that it is a call?

We know that it is a call when our soul comes alive – when it is awakened. Suddenly we realise that this is what we are supposed to do.

When your soul is awakened, you begin to experience God’s pleasure in your life. But this does not mean that our circumstances become better.

There may have been times when our circumstances actually got worse, yet we stayed in these situations because we knew it was the right thing to do.

After answering a call and experiencing God’s pleasure, we go back to living life. As we live our lives, some more events will accumulate and the cycle goes on.

And so, secondary callings are happening all the time, moving us from one thing to another until we fulfil our destiny in God.

We know that it is a call when our soul comes alive – when it is awakened. Suddenly we realise that this is what we are supposed to do.

In this regard, everyone is called!

The call is not a destination but a journey. While there are many listening points in critical junctures in our lives and many callings into the next phase, there is only one ultimate destiny – to follow Jesus whole-heartedly.

A call is a call obeyed. So if you did not obey, you did not hear.

A call has an ability to awaken the soul. So don’t miss the listening points in daily life because we are too preoccupied with our own circumstances or value action above reflection.

To find out more about Pastor Benny Ho’s book on the topic, “Discerning the Will of God”, visit his resource page.

And for more practical handles on how you can discover your personal calling, read this article below.