Calling begins with a question many people avoid: “Lord, what have You called me to do?” Before Isaiah became a prophetic voice to a nation, he encountered God, heard the divine question, and responded to the summons. Isaiah 6:8 records: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” His answer was decisive: “Here am I; send me.”
But calling is not merely discovering what you can do; it is discerning what God requires you to do. Talent can attract attention, education can create competence and opportunity can create platforms, yet none of these automatically constitutes divine assignment. The deeper question is not, What am I capable of doing? but, “What has God placed me on earth to accomplish?”
That question should become unending. Ask God: What is my message? Who are the people I have been sent to? What burden have You placed upon my heart? What problem have You positioned me to confront? What truth must I preserve? What wound have You equipped me to address? What generation am I supposed to influence? Calling becomes clearer when questions become deeper.
Jesus entered His public ministry with an unmistakable declaration of assignment. In Luke 4:18, He said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” He continued by identifying the oppressed, captives and brokenhearted as part of His mission. His ministry was not built around vague religious activity; it was anchored in a clearly defined divine purpose.
Luke 4:7 presents another dimension of the calling question: “If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” The temptation was an invitation to pursue influence without obedience, authority without the cross and prominence without divine assignment. Every generation faces similar temptations. Not every attractive opportunity is a calling, and not every open door deserves to be entered.
This is why you must keep returning to God. Ask Him repeatedly: Lord, what is the message You have placed inside me? What must I proclaim even when it is unpopular? Where should my voice serve? Whom should I encourage? What should I build? What should I refuse? What must I leave behind so that I can faithfully pursue what You have entrusted to me? Questions protect calling from becoming mere ambition.
Paul understood that divine assignment carries responsibility. He declared in Acts 20:24, “Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.” The objective is not simply to begin well, become recognised or accumulate followers. The greater achievement is to finish faithfully what God actually entrusted to you.
Therefore, do not define your calling merely by applause, titles, platforms or financial reward. Go back to God. Ask again. Listen again. Search the Scriptures again. Examine the burden that refuses to disappear. Pay attention to the people you are repeatedly compelled to serve and the truth you cannot comfortably abandon.
Your calling may become clearer through the questions you repeatedly bring before God. Isaiah asked, and he was sent. Jesus declared His assignment, and He fulfilled it. The question remains for every believer: What has God called you to do, and what message has He entrusted to your generation through your life?
Do not spend your life becoming impressive while remaining uncertain about your assignment. Define your calling. Seek God continually. Ask the difficult questions. Discern the message. Then, when the answer becomes clear, have the courage to say with Isaiah: “Here am I; send me.”
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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