When you have an honest to goodness call of God in your life, you can’t help but take action. His call compels you. His love and grace draw you. Our love for Him spurs us to action that sometimes is met with skepticism and negativity from others.

Call is a question of “who” you are listening to – as in God – and who you are becoming.
The Latin word “voca” means voice. The German word “beruf” is the idea of an inner voice, a spiritual call.
“There is more in a human life than our theories of it allow. Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path. You may remember this “something” as a signal moment in childhood when an urge out of nowhere, a fascination, a peculiar turn of events truck like an annunciation: This is what I must do, this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am.” (James Hillman The Soul’s Café.)

A call that doesn’t require action is not a call at all. When God calls, He expects an answer. Many times people have confused a call with a desire to be involved with something they think is cool or would bring success and a popular name. A call is not about being successful or having people recognize our name. It is about doing the business of the Father; there is no greater occupation in the world.

God has a purpose for all of us and we must know what it is if we are to accomplish his plan for our lives and churches.

There are people who have not heard from God, but they go ahead and “do” anyway. To act on a non-call from God is down right dangerous. I guess that type of action could be classified as stupid and prideful. We have leaders in churches who are ineffective because they do not have God’s call on their lives. There are guys out there on the speaking circuit who are teaching pastors and church planters how to plant and grow a church and all they have is theory, not a call.

Let me encourage you that if you do not have a clear, absolute call from God, to graciously step aside from what you are trying to do on your own. It is not a sin to walk away from something that you want to do, but have not been called to do. It is a sin to continue to stay in a place when you are not called.