Day Eighteen: How do you know what your mission is?

So, how do we know what our mission is? Listen, obey, listen, obey, listen, obey, and repeat (John 14:15, James 1:22-25).  Seriously, the Christian walk (and living out our callings) is a series of steps of obedience made in faith (Hebrews 11). When they are put together by the Master Builder, they become a tour de force of His glory and love (not anything to do with us!).

I think Paul’s life also shows three other characteristics of missionaries (anyone with a mission) that can guide us in finding our missions. He had a calling, a burden, and a love for that people group or groups who are their mission (Acts 9:15, II Corinthians 12:14-16, Philippians 1:9, Ephesians 1:15-19).

This is important because often in the church today, someone will go on a missions trip and come back with something that might resemble a love for those people they were with; hence, they are convinced they are called to those people. But there is no calling or burden to those people that comes with that love. Most of these people never actually make it back to the mission field because that is not where they are truly called. Now, God definitely can use a short-term mission trip or a mission speaker to call someone to world missions, but a calling and a burden will follow the love.

By a calling I mean God telling you that this is your mission and confirming it. This calling may come through the inner-witness of the spirit, it may come through someone prophetically, or it may come through Scripture. If it is truly God, it will probably come through at least two of the three, if not all three.

By burden, I mean you literally get to share God’s heart for these people. You feel His pain over their lostness or immaturity; they are on your mind, in your heart; you cannot forget them, and you can’t help but pray for them. When Amy Carmichael became aware of girls forced into temple prostitution in India, she had a vision of Jesus kneeling and weeping alone for those girls. She saw herself kneeling beside him and joining him in his weeping. This is a burden. To join God in his heartache over the fate of his lost sheep.

When a person has a love for, calling to, and burden for a person or group or cause, I’d say that’s probably her mission. Everyone’s story looks a little different, but these are guidelines to help pinpoint your mission field.

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