Once I taught a class called "Jump Starting Your Ministry" (or How to Know the Call of God on Your Life). One thing that we discussed in this class was how to know you are called, and if you know you are called into the ministry, how do you get your ministry started? The more we discussed it in class, we began to realize in actuality everybody is called.

Everybody who is a Christian is called to teach the Word of God somewhere. It may be on the assembly line at General Motors. It may be behind the checkout stand at Wal-Mart. Wherever you are is where the calling is on your life. The calling is not a building. The calling is not a place. The calling is not a radio program. The calling is not a book. The calling is the Spirit of God working in you and speaking the gospel through you. That's the calling.

Of course, we know that some are called into a special placement in the church. Ephesians 4:11-12 says, "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry." If you are a saint (born again), then you are called for the work of the ministry. What is the work of ministry?

The call on your life is to be a witness and an influence to everyone you come in contact with. Is there something that hinders the call? Is there something that is holding you down and keeping you from going forward? Are you living your life without witnessing power? Could it be there is something real simple that is keeping you from influencing people? The answer to that is, yes!

We know that Acts 1:8 says, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." That power is to be a witness.

You can do all the right things – go to church, raise your hands, sing and read the scriptures – but for some it seems that everything is stale. Nothing seems to be working. The two main things that can cause this staleness and hinder the call of God are offenses and unforgiveness.

Jesus said in John 8:31-32, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Here's the truth. If you are offended or if you are in a state of unforgiveness, you are bound. If you have unforgiveness and offenses in your heart, you are not going to accomplish anything and the call of God will not work in your life. You need to be set free.

If you are an offended, unforgiving person, the influence you have on the people in your neighborhood, the people who work with you, the people who come into your office, will be null and void for the gospel. It won't work. You can know all the right scriptures, you can sing all the right songs, you can pray all the right prayers, but your life, by being an offended, unforgiving person will nullify everything that you do. People will look at you and think you are a hypocrite because you talk it, but you don't walk it. This is what hinders most people in their personal ministry.

Let's look at offenses. Matthew 18:7 says, "Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!"

Jesus said that offenses will come. Here's what the word offend means: to trap, to snare, to entice to sin, to place a stumbling block or an impediment in the way. It means to cause a person to distrust one that he ought to trust.

When you become offended, you step into the devil's snare. He entices you to sin and he places a stumbling block, which is the offense, in your path that will keep you from doing the ministry that God has called you to do. The word offend also means that you will distrust the trusting hand. So when someone reaches out their hand to help you, you will distrust them.

Offended people feel they are never wrong. They always have an excuse and they will always look back at the offense as the reason for their actions. Offended people offend people. This cycle must stop.

Galatians 5:15 says, "But if you bite and devour one another, beware. . ." This is not talking about actually walking up to somebody and biting them on the arm. What is biting and devouring? Biting and devouring is actually hurting and taking a bite out of someone else's heart. Devouring them is a type of destroying. "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:15-16)

The answer to biting and devouring each other is for us to walk in the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit, we will walk above the offenses of life. You cannot hear God properly if you are offended and you will not function in your calling until you are "offense-free!"

Devotion 0117