Your Work Matters To GodSample

THE DEPTH AND WIDTH OF YOUR CALLING

“God must love you a lot! He doesn’t allow someone to go through the kinds of adversity you have experienced unless He has a special calling on your life.” Those were the words spoken to me by two different mentors at two different times within a three-year period. Later I would learn another related truth from a respected man of God—a man whom God uses throughout the globe. “The depth and width of your faith experiences are directly proportional to your calling.” What were these men of God saying?

They were describing a process of preparation that God takes each of His leaders through when He

plans to use them in significant ways. A “faith experience” is an event or “spiritual marker” in your life about which you can say, “That is where I saw God personally move in my life.” God showed Himself personally to you in an unmistakable event. It was the burning bush for Moses; the Jordan River for the nation of Israel; or Jacob’s encounter with the angel. It was the feeding of the 5,000 for the disciples. It was the time when you saw God face to face in your life.

If God has plans of using you in the lives of many others, you can expect that He is going to allow certain faith experiences to come into your life in order to build a foundation that will be solid. That foundation is what you will be able to look back on to keep you faithful to Him in the times of testing. Each of us must have personal faith experiences in which we experience God personally so that we can move in faith to whatever He may call us. Do you need a personal faith experience right now in your life? Pray that God will reveal Himself to you. He delights in doing that.

Questions

Describe a faith experience event in your life in which you experienced God in a very personal way.

If the depth and width of our faith experiences often determine the level of call upon our lives, how should we view difficult trials that may come into our lives?

Why are “faith experiences” important for the Christian?

Workplace Application

It was March of 1998. God had miraculously provided the money for me to attend a Christian business conference on the island of Cyprus. After I led a morning devotional time, a man from England came up to me. “I need to talk to you,” he said. I did not share any of my personal life in the message that morning, so he knew nothing of my series of financial crises that were part of my life at the time. He said, “The Lord wants you to know He had to remove your finances to insure the reward He has for you in Heaven.” I was shocked! How could this man know my situation? A few moments later, we were praying together. While in prayer he said, “I see a tree. It is full of fruit and the fruit is now beginning to fall. You are the tree.” I began to weep. That was the third prayer incident over the last three years in which someone had described my life as a tree— however, this was the first time the fruit was falling. God allowed me to have this “faith experience” to encourage me in my faith journey. He wants to do the same for you.

Has God ever taken you to your own “Red Sea” experience where if you did not receive a breakthrough, you might be overcome by the circumstance? God often sets up situations in order to frame your life through the experience. God wants to build a testimony through your life. Begin to look for opportunities to experience the power of Christ in your circumstances.