Day 155: Luke 9:1–6

So they went out and traveled from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere (v. 6).

I find it interesting that Christ’s instruction to His disciples to go and minister was for a specific mission or task. I believe the concepts of calling and task are often confused in the body of Christ. I know that I confused the concepts in the early years of my surrender to ministry.

When I was in my mid-twenties, my wonderful ministry mentor, Marge Caldwell, helped me to see that God had equipped me with some of the speaking gifts. Once I began to exercise those gifts, I assumed that speaking was my calling. God soon made very clear, however, that my calling was to surrender my life every day to His will, to be His woman, and to do what He asked, whatever that was. I remember sensing Him speak to my heart saying, “Beth, I do not want you surrendered to an assignment. I want you surrendered to Me.” I realized that God did not want me “hung up” on the kind of assignment He would give me. He didn’t want it to matter to me whether He asked me to teach the Word of God to a hundred people or to rock one baby in the church nursery. My calling was to be abandoned to Him.

The Twelve were called to be Christ’s learners or pupils. They also were designated apostles, meaning they would be sent forth. What would His pupils be sent forth to do? Whatever He told them. In our human need for the security of sameness, we tend to want one job assignment from God that we can do for the rest of our lives. He’s far more creative than that!

You may ask, “Isn’t it possible for God to assign a lifelong task such as preaching at one church for forty years?” Absolutely! But we are wise not to make assumptions by surrendering to the assignment! Our calling is to surrender to God. Think of the pitfalls we could avoid if we were more abandoned to God than to a particular kind of service.

Remember the meaning of disciple: pupil, learner! We can’t keep skipping class—our time with God in the Scripture and in prayer—and expect to know when He’s scheduled a field trip!