Does Your Skill Set Need To Be Suitable To Your Calling?

What is your worth? When I had the responsibility for educating a good number of students I was constantly battling against their apathy. There was no vision, no understanding of the importance of education. We know that when a person is involved in something that they have not grasped the importance of, there is a lack of interest and energy put into the activity. I figured if I could not inspire them with the joy of learning I could at least help them grasp the value of it.

I told them that they needed to see themselves as a commodity. In their future, when they would approach a potential employee, that person, representing the company, was going to size up their potential value to the company. If they had the correct skills to fit in with their company they would be hired; if they are missing skills, they would be overlooked. Their responsibility, as a commodity, was to add value to themselves. Finishing High School would add value to them and would make them eligible to apply for basic jobs. If they knew which companies they were interested in working for then they could discover what skills they needed to add to themselves, to gain value. Of course this did not just include education so they needed to understand which direction to go in and what steps they had to take to increase their value. However, sometimes Christians make the mistake of applying this principle to the Kingdom of Jesus.

The Kingdom of Jesus works on difference principles. First, the greatest value that you have is that Yahweh loves you. It is opposite to the principles of the world. What skills and knowledge you have do not play into the relationship we have with Jesus. Yahweh made the decision to love us, with all the cost that comes with loving us, and that gives us value beyond our imagining. Of course there is more to us than just being the object of Father's affection. He has also left us here with purpose. We are his workers, warriors, servants and our great desire is to live each day in his will. But his will for us is not limited to our skills and abilities. Remember, our value is not what we have gained from knowledge but is found in relationship. In this relationship we desire his will and his will is obedience in what he instructs and the direction he sends. The clear fact is, Jesus equips us for that which he calls us.

Let's look at the simple example of Daniel. We could chose any example. We could look at Peter, Paul, John but I like using Daniel. He and his friends were in captivity but the ruling king liked to take the best educated of each conquered land, train them in his society and surround himself with their knowledge and wisdom. Yahweh wanted to take advantage of this so he could influence the king and protect his people so he needed to equip these four men to be the best, to have the greatest influence.

Now people consider Daniel and his friends and figure that they were simply men of knowledge who Yahweh moved into place but that is not what scripture says. It says that Yahweh took these four and he gave them the skills he needed them to have in this place in which they found themselves:

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. (Daniel 1:17)

Too often we dismiss Yahweh's will and calling for us because we measure ourselves against our past abilities and skills, but it doesn't work that way. We are not a set of tools that are designed for one purpose. We are a lump of clay that Yahweh fashions with his will for his purpose. We may be in that purpose for a life time or he may change our purpose from time to time, according to what he needs. We can never limit Jesus to our inabilities or lack of skills. We can never say no to the vision he gives us. We cannot shut the door on his purpose and calling because we think we are not qualified. Jesus qualifies and equips us.

When Jesus calls us he does not do it according to some aptitude test he gives us. He doesn't do a skills survey. He doesn't do it according to our intelligence or temperament. According to this world our temperament makes us better suitable to some things than to others. The Kingdom does not work this way. The only things Jesus is looking for is willingness, availability and obedience. He chooses who he wants for what he wants and we have no right to limit his choices by our limitations. He chooses. He qualifies. He equips. So think on that for a little bit before saying no to Jesus.

An Uneducated Pastor

Can you imagine volunteering for your job instead of getting paid? Imagine walking into your boss and telling him you don't need the company computer, you are going to provide your own. Or a bus driver telling the city he's going to provide his own bus? Silly, right? Yet so many of us do that with God. He doesn't want anything from us except our friendship, love, emptiness and availability  For everything he calls us to he equips. Yet, most of us turn down his provision and try to resource the tasks ourselves.

How many things do you do in God's name that actually come from you? How many times have you spoken from your wisdom, served in your strength, reacted by your conviction, given from your riches? We can do a fair job in our own ability but God intends for us to go beyond fair to supernatural, beyond anything we could have ever imagined. When we do things in his anointing everything changes. He doesn't need anything we have to offer, he pours it out on us. Wow! do we ever have it backwards.

This is what the great apostle Paul requested the Ephesians to pray for him:

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:19-20)

"Words may be given me", he writes. Paul did not speak from his own great knowledge and training. Paul did not speak from his own opinion or speculation. Paul did not study for four years to come up with the gospel of grace. Paul was in-filled by the Spirit. equipped, enabled and empowered to be the apostle to the Gentiles. He was given the revelation of the gospel of grace through the Spirit of God.

We've gone crazy with education. Knowledge is great. All minds should be expanded to the best of our capacity but God is not dependent on our education. We do not have to go off and be trained according to the methods of man before we can preach, teach and evangelize. A pastor does not need letters after his name and neither do apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers. There is nothing wrong with Bible colleges but God doesn't require them. We need to have Paul's understanding of God's equipping.

Style and methods do not mean anything compared to the anointing of God. We need more servants who are dependent on God for all things than we need educated men and women filling the positions in the Church. We need men and women who say to God "here am I send me" and desire their lips to be touched by the burning coal. We need men and women who understand that their power to serve comes from the Holy Spirit not seminary courses. We need men and women of God who are more interested in the anointing than in man's recognition of their studies.

I would rather sit under the training of an uneducated former alcoholic, saved by grace, empowered by the Holy Spirit than the best trained and educated seminary graduate. The anointing of God is all that we need to serve him to the full potential to which he has called us. Do not let anyone tell you any different. God's training school is all you need. Put your confidence in Jesus and you will be amazed how he uses you for his glory.