God, Is That You?

“How can I tell if what I want to do is really God’s calling?”

Because I’m a Christian life coach who specializes in helping people find and fulfill their Christian calling, people ask me this question more than any other.

My answer is a 7-step calling-confirmation process, based upon biblical examples and teaching, my own experience coaching my clients, and personal observations of dozens of Christians’ lives.

Who Has a Calling?

Before we talk about how to confirm what your calling is, let’s clarify who has a calling from God. Every Christian has a calling. Christian calling is not just for pastors, missionaries, and other church workers. For example, in the Bible, God called David to be a king, and He called Joshua to be a military leader.

God calls every Christian in three ways:

1. God’s universal call to all people for salvation:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Your calling begins when you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and you give control of your life to Him.

2. God’s general call to all Christians to love Him and love other people:

[Jesus] answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

This is God’s general call to all Christians to discipleship, learning to pray, read the Bible, serve, fellowship, and share our faith in Christ.

3. God’s specific call to every Christian to make a difference for Him in a unique way:

It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. (Ephesians 1:11)

This Bible verse shows that calling is first about who you are, and second about what you do. As you become genuinely yourself in relationship with Him and people, you will more fully do your calling.

God calls people today to work in many non-church-related paid vocations, volunteer positions, and even family roles—not just at church but everywhere—through which His followers become who God created them to be and do what God created them to do, sharing Jesus’ love and salvation.

A 7-Step Calling-Confirmation Process

1. Passion Ignites Your Calling

Here I am, Lord! Send me! (Isaiah 6:8)

In this verse, Isaiah expressed his deep passion and desire for God to call Him according to His purposes.

The first powerful sign of God’s calling is passion. You ache to do a certain role, accomplish a certain goal, or help certain people. The desire is so strong that you can't let it go. You think about it. You pray about it. You dream about it.

Your passion usually connects with highly impactful times in your own life, especially as you’ve seen God work. For example, I’ve always had a strong desire to fulfill God’s purpose in my life, so I want to help people find their purpose in Christ. God delivered a friend of mine from addiction and anger, so he wants to help other people do the same.

Passion for calling is stronger than normal desire. Passion for calling might periodically wane, but it won’t go away. You feel like you “just can’t not do it!”

Sometimes, people can identify the very day and hour when God called them to do something. I had that experience when God called me into vocational church ministry. However, my calling to Christian coaching and my calling to college teaching developed over time. You don’t need a Damascus-road experience, like the apostle Paul, to launch your calling. However, eventually, God will ignite passion in ways that are unique to you, touching the deepest part of your heart.

However, passion alone is not enough to confirm God’s calling. You don’t know whether you’ll be good at it. You don’t even know if your passion is strong enough to persist through all of the inevitable obstacles.

Therefore, passion is tested and clarified through experience.

2. Experience Clarifies Your Calling

These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them. (Matthew 10:5)

Jesus didn’t just teach His disciples—He sent them out! He gave them on-the-job training! This is the only way to explore your calling.

If you believe God might be calling you to something, try it out. For example, if you’re considering a call to be a pastor, ask a trusted church leader to allow you to preach or visit the sick. If you’re considering starting a new ministry but you don’t know where to begin, do online research and contact people who might give you clarity. If you feel called to a certain career or volunteer cause, find and ask people who could help you explore that.

Often, people think they need absolute clarity about their calling before taking any steps forward, worried about making a mistake. But gaining experience is essential for confirming God’s call, and He will guide you along the way.

You’ll never know whether God is calling you if you don’t take the first steps and give it a try!

3. Fruitfulness Confirms Your Calling

[Jesus said,] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5)

The only way to bear fruit—in your calling or in any other way—is to stay close to Jesus, discerning and learning where He is leading you. Never fear. Even if what you think is your calling turns out not to be, as you grow in Him, He will show you where you will bear the most fruit.

After God ignites your passion and you’ve taken the first exploratory steps, keep at it for a while. At first, the going might be tough. After all, you’re ramping up new knowledge, skills, relationships, and circumstances.

Eventually, after some time, if this is God’s calling, fruitfulness will follow. You’ll discover you’re good at it, and you really do like it, and you want to do more. God will probably even transform people through what you are doing.

Yes, you’ll make mistakes, and you might even face opposition. But the overall result will be confirmation through fruitful results.

4. Hardship Refines Your Calling

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

As you continue to explore your calling, God will refine your character and teach you how to be strong through the hard times. God might address habitual sins, an unbalanced lifestyle, unhealthy finances, or persistent addictions. Talk with a trusted, same-gender, mature Christian friend about these issues, and ask him or her to help keep you accountable.

5. Failure Strengthens Your Calling

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Failure is inevitable during the process of confirming God’s calling.

Even if this is indeed God’s calling, you’re learning new things and taking new risks. You’ll make some bad decisions, commit some serious mistakes, and even sin along the way.

You might discover this is not God’s calling at all. Perhaps it’s not what you thought it would be, so your passion wanes. Or perhaps you’re just not very good at it. That happened to me when I pursued a career as a medical researcher, failing at that, but later discovering I was much better at researching things of God.

Remember that God doesn’t waste anything. Even if you spend years preparing for and doing something that you eventually quit doing, God will use what you learned in your next calling role. In fact, most people do more than one calling role throughout life, each time finding a better fit for who they are and what they do best. For example, at various times in my life, I was a college chemistry professor, pastor, and Christian life coach.

6. God and Others Launch Your Calling

While [the people in the church at Antioch] were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)

The context of this verse is God’s calling of Barnabas and Saul into missions, and their church’s confirmation of that call. This is still the way church workers are called and confirmed, but the same principle applies to any calling. As fruitfulness results from your passion, other people will confirm it, whether your calling is in the church or outside the church. Those people might include an employer, ministry leader, coworkers, friends, or family. However, don’t worry that your calling ultimately depends upon someone offering you the right position or job. Ultimately, it is God who calls you, and He will make a way.

If the role that you are exploring really is God’s next calling role for you, He will open the right doors at the right time with the right people, launching you joyfully into your new calling role. Sometimes this suddenly happens during a literal 24-hour period, but often it develops more slowly.

7. God Celebrates Your Calling!

The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

This verse was God’s promise to celebrate the Israelites as His people, even after the destruction of their nations by their enemies because of their own unfaithfulness to God.

This verse also beautifully expresses the love of God portrayed throughout the entire Bible, especially culminating in Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins on the cross, and His calling to each of us to love others as He loves us, becoming fully who He created us to be and doing what He created us to do! God celebrates you and your calling, and He will guide you into clarity and fruitfulness in it!

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