Obedient to his calling

 I have always known that God would use me in some kind of ministry for most of my life. Even when I walked away from the Lord, I never truly walked away from that knowledge. Every time I read or heard Isaiah 6, I would feel that nudge in my spirit that God was asking that directly to me.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Over ten years ago, just before I got married, Paul and I discussed that we felt God was calling us to full time ministry in The Salvation Army, and a couple of years later, we began our new appointment in North Wales as Territorial Envoys. (For those of you not in the Salvation Army, or those of you that are and don’t know, a territorial envoy is a leader within the Salvation Army who hasn’t been away to the training college, and learns on the job. We have annual training, have to complete a number of annual training hours and in many ways learn to just get on with it!!)

Our 8 years in full time ministry within the Salvation Army, have been so wonderful. There have been some real mountaintop experiences, and there have also been times where I have felt in a valley…or even a pit with no way out. However throughout this time God has been powerful, and I could testify to his goodness in even the darkest times. 

One of my favourite verses in the bible in the message translation Romans 12:1-2 says: 

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

This is certainly something I have strived to live by, in my ministry, my marriage, my parenting and everything in between. However recently I have felt God calling me to more.

Paul and I went into ministry as TEs always agreeing that if God made a way we would explore becoming officers in The Salvation Army. Having a young child with down syndrome means that life can be a little more complicated, and moving to the training college certainly wasn't an option for us as a family. However I began to feel God speaking to me saying that now was the time. 

I spent some time praying and seeking God and found many confirmations along the way. Although in the natural it didn’t really make much sense to offer for officership especially as I have had 8 years of fulfilling and fruitful ministry. However I kept hearing the gentle calling of God saying ‘I can use you more as an officer’. 

1 Peter 1:14-15 says

As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you.For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.”

The Salvation Army has been brilliant with looking at flexible options that fit with the uniqueness of our family. They also have been working towards a new route to allow Territorial Envoys to be obedient to the call of officership, while affirming and acknowledging the vitally important role that TEs play in the Mission of the Salvation Army. 

The way ahead is far from being easy to see and I have very little idea as to what the next year might look like. But all I do know is that I have answered God’s call by saying “Here am I, Send me” and he will honour it. 

God is still at work in The Salvation Army and is still calling his people within it to offer their everyday ordinary life for his glory. My challenge to you is: are you being obedient to God’s call?