Ephesians 4:11-13: "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:"


When one is called into the ministry, what is the end of his calling? For what purpose was he called? According to the bible, God calls each of us for a purpose, but there are some who are called individually for a specific ministry. This certainly isn't new: Consider Abram, Moses, Aaron--all the way to Isaiah, the 12 disciples and to Paul. God called them each to a specific ministry, with certain duties which God wanted only them to perform.


I've always considered a true calling to be something extraordinary, and I'm wondering if any of you believe (as I do), that there are too many ministers today who have either taken their call too lightly, or haven't truly been called to preach. (How would we know?) And what about those who preach a "series of sermons"? What happened to a preacher praying about "what the Lord would have them to say"?


Although the bible tells us that the "word of God won't come back void", meaning that no matter what the intent of those who preach and teach the word, it will never be in vain, I'm wondering about those who have made a 'career' choice of the ministry--if one is truly called into the ministry, when does his calling end?


Dixie

Good to see you around, DN!


If what you say is true, that ministers of God should have some kind of direct contact with God where He actually calls them into ministry AND gives them the content for their sermons...

Doesn't that mean that God would have to be real, and furthermore that those who hear His Voice talking in their heads are not really crazy, but are the very ones we should be listening to rather than the typical humanistic type preachers we currently have everywhere???


**Gasp!!!**

Hi DixieNurse:

You wrote: I'm curious as to what you are trying to establish here. I've not been able decide. However I'm making a comment to see what might shake loose so I can understand better.

You seem to be concerned with just those who are in the preaching ministry. But I would tend to think that a calling from the Creator to any part of serving Him and others would have the same 'end' (purpose) and not have an 'end' but instead last forever. If our calling does not last forever, it can only 'end' in eternal death.

As to the purpose of our calling by YHWH to YaHshua, I believe it is so that we can decide to become righteous just in the same way that They are righteous and so we can live with them forever so that of the increase of the government of the kingdom of YHWH, there will be no end.

While that is the ultimate 'end' or purpose of our calling whether in the preaching ministry or not, The Church of YHWH is made up of different individuals having different capabilities of the gift of the Holy Spirit so that the Body of YaHshua can function in its different capacities united to reach that common goal of righteousness for all.