Let’s bust another myth together …

If you’ve been a Christian for very long, you have heard someone ask (or you’ve asked yourself) how to know what God’s will is for them to do.

Many ministers respond to that by suggesting the person start by looking at what they’re interested in and good at, and chances are that’s God’s hint for what they should pursue.

For some that could be true, but the idea that what God wants us to be about doing is what interests us is a myth! There are multiple times in scripture we see someone called by God to do something they did not want to do, but God would distinguish them by leading them to do something far afield of their “interests.” In fact, three of the most well-known characters in the Bible are people we know because God distinguished them by calling them to do something they really did not want to do. Look at these examples:

1. Moses. Other than God, Moses is one of the greatest characters in all of the Old Testament (in fact, the whole Bible). God selected him to lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt to a promised land “flowing with milk and honey” …

“Then the Lord told him, ‘I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey — the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt,'” Exodus 3:7-10.

But Moses wasn’t interested in the job offer …

“But Moses protested to God, ‘Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?'” Exodus 3:11.

That was Moses’ way of saying, “Not interested, God, find someone else!”

But God didn’t, Moses did, and we know him for being used by God to lead Israel out of Egypt.

2. Jonah. If ever there was a man completely disinterested in what God was calling him to do, it was Jonah. You can read the story in the book of Jonah, about how God wanted Jonah to go preach repentance to the people of the city of Ninevah, warning them if they did not repent God would destroy them.

“The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish,” Jonah 1:1-3.

To run in the opposite direction of where God tells you to go is to be completely disinterested in the assignment God has for you! Nevertheless, Jonah would wind up preaching God’s message to the people of Ninevah who would respond by repenting and God spared the city.

3. Paul. Before God changed Paul’s name, he was known as Saul. Saul, you might remember, was a Christian-hating Pharisee whose passion it was to imprison and/or kill Christians in his zeal to crush this new “people of the Way” …

“Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison,” Acts 8:1-3.

Of course, Jesus would step in with a blinding introduction to Saul, who as the Apostle Paul would become the greatest church planter ever … not something Paul as Saul had any interest in!

Simply put, it could well be that the greatest way God will ever use you for His kingdom and His glory is in something you currently have no interest in at all. So don’t be misled that God’s will for you will be something you’re already passionate about. It MIGHT be He will call you to something you don’t really want to do, but in your being faithful and obedient to His call, He will change you to have a passion for what He has assigned you to do.

So don’t assume God’s assignment for you is something you’re interested in already; instead, pray until you understand what God would have you do, then be faithful to respond in obedience, and do exactly what He has assigned with zeal and for His glory.

Scotty