Call of God

One of my lecturers, Ps Eunice, told us today that she has walked with God since she was four years old... and now some 65 years later, she is still going strong, having never departed from doing His will. Pretty amazing. It helps that she was born into a precious home with loving, spirit-filled devout Christian parents who prayed for her every day! That's what my children will be like ;-)

Anyway, what was really interesting is that she said that during her life, because she had the gift of administration (i.e. she was great at organising things), many people tried to get her to fulfill jobs requiring this gift. Seems fair enough, I mean, she was good at them and enjoyed organising things. But her point being, that although God has given each one of us certain gifts, it doesn't mean that jobs requring the use of those gifts 100% of our time is what God wants us to do. In fact she said that some people miss their calling because they get caught up in doing minor things they are good at, rather than the major thing they are meant to be doing with their lives.

There are actually three different types of gifts mentioned in the Bible:
- firstly, the nine manifestation gifts referred to in 1 Corinthians 12
(i.e. words of wisdom, words of knowledge, discernment of spirits, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, faith, healing and miracles);
- secondly, the five-fold ministry gifts referred to in Ephesians 4:11
(i.e. teachers, prophets, apostles, evangelists and pastors); and
- thirdly, the motivational gifts referred to in Romans 12:6-8
(i.e. prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, administration and mercy).

At 69 years old, Ps Eunice is deeply content and satisfied because she discovered (many years ago) that God's purpose for her life was for her to be a teacher of the Word of God, rather than being an administrative assistant or some other role that uses the gift of administration. She said her gifts of being able to organise things well, among others, have definitely come in handy, but if she had put all her attention to doing those tasks, she would have missed the ultimate purpose God had for her.

Wow, I wonder what God's purpose is for me. I was really inspired - imagine getting to that age and knowing you have lived a life in accordance with God's soverign plan.