Are you in a season of trying to discover God’s will for your life? Do you long to live a life filled with passion and purpose that has an eternal impact? Is your heart broken for the billions of unreached who are lost in darkness without any chance to hear the Gospel, in danger of a hopeless eternity without Jesus? Have you ever asked yourself the question, Am I called to missions? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, this blog is for you.
Misconceptions About Being Called to Missions
For many people, when they hear the word missions, they think of someone living in a hut in Africa. God does call some people to this type of missionary life, but there is so much more! Some examples of mission work that YWAM Redding is involved with include:
- Mercy ministries
- Music ministry
- Working with children
- Refugee camps
- Creative and prophetic evangelism
- Bible distribution
There are a variety of ways to be called to missions. God gave you specific talents and passions to be used for His glory, and all of them can be part of sharing the Gospel!
Many people also have the misconception that you are required to be poor and struggling financially if you are called to missions. God doesn’t stop being faithful to His promises to provide and care for you once you become a missionary. YWAM is filled with testimonies of the Lord pouring out supernatural provision. Don’t allow fear of finances to hold you back. If you simply say yes to pursuing the Lord and His heart for the nations, He will be faithful to provide all that you need to be called to missions as you step out in faith.
The last misconception that many people have is that you need to have a specific personality type, gifting, level of spiritual maturity, etc. to be called to missions. While it is always important to grow spiritually, God wants to work through you where you are at! Let any burdensome expectations of perfection fall away from your idea of what it looks like to be a missionary.
How will God show me that I’m called to missions?
If you are waiting for a dream or vision to confirm that you are called to missions, that may happen, but more often, His guidance comes more subtly through intimacy, out of the overflow of relationship with Him. The closer you draw near to Jesus, the easier it is to hear His voice and sense where He is leading you. Even before He desires to “use” you to be called to missions, His heart is to have an intimate relationship with you. He desires to speak to you and guide you, but let your first priority always be chasing after the “one thing” of deeper intimacy with the Lord.
You can know for sure that God’s call for your life will always involve the completion of the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of all nations. We are all called to be missionaries, and as you seek Him with an open heart, willing to say yes to wherever He calls you, He will reveal the role that He wants you to play in telling others about Jesus.
What should I do next to pursue being called to missions?
One of the best ways to both grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus and receive guidance and direction for your life is to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS)! You can read more about doing a DTS here.
At YWAM Redding, our focus is ongoing to the hardest and darkest places to share the Gospel with the unreached, specifically the Muslim world. There is only one missionary for every 555,000 Muslims. Over 70,000 people die every day in the unreached world without Jesus. This is why we go because our motivation for being called to missions is that God has broken our hearts for the lost and filled us with a burning passion to go to them with the Gospel. Don’t waste your life chasing after earthly pursuits with no eternal significance. Ask the Lord to give you His heart for the lost, and He will also fill you with His passion for the nations. This is one of the most dangerous prayers that you could pray because once you are touched by the Father’s furious compassion and love for the billions who are perishing, you will be forever changed. There will be a cost to your yes. But the eternal rewards are worth it. Above all, Jesus is worthy to receive the reward of His suffering.