Priscilla Shirer: Step Into Your Calling!

Priscilla Shirer speaks with TBN’s Praise about pursuing God’s calling on your life, and feeling confident in where He has placed you!

“We pray because our own solutions don’t work and because prayer deploys, activates, and fortifies us against the attacks of the enemy. We pray because we’re serious about taking back the ground he has sought to take from us.”
― Priscilla Shirer

Every single time you make that chicken for dinner and you set it on that table and you teach those kids a bible verse before bedtime.
Don’t let anybody tell you that that ain’t ministry, high school student, college student.
You’re the only student that stands for truth.
When your professor says this is the way it is and you say no, that’s not the way it is.
Don’t let anybody tell you as the light on that college campus that you are not in ministry.
Every single one of us has an assignment and the day is coming when we’re gonna have to give an account.
Luke chapter nine verse one and two says this and he called, that’s Jesus.
He called somebody said, he called, he called the 12 together and he gave somebody said he gave, he gave them power and he gave them authority over all demons and to heal all diseases.
Verse two. And then he sent somebody say he sent, he sent them out, he called them, he gave him treasure and then he sent them out.
Verse 10 says, and then when they returned to him, they gave an account to him of everything they had done and taking them with him.
He withdrew by himself to a hill called Beth Sada. The multitudes were aware of this verse 11 says.
So they followed Jesus because you know, wherever Jesus went, a crowd was sure to follow, they weren’t quite sure he was the Messiah.
But what they did know was that when this man showed up, blind people could see what they knew is that when Jesus showed up, the lame could walk and the deaf could hear the dead were being raised.
So wherever Jesus was, they came, the crowd followed and welcoming the multitude.
Jesus began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who were in need of healing.
Verse 12. So the day starts to come to a close and the 12 come to Jesus and say now Jesus, you’re gonna have to send this multitude away.
They’ve got to go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging. They gotta get something to eat.
Jesus, come on. Now here we’re in a desolate place.
Verse 13, Jesus said to them, uh-huh, you give them something to eat.
They said, Jesus, we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless perhaps you let us go and buy food for all these people because you know, we’re not enough as we are right now.
There were about 5000 men.
Scholars say the reason why Luke specifies men is because there were women and Children too.
So there were probably about 15,000 hungry people that day, Jesus said, have them reclined to eat in groups of about 50 each.
So they did so have them all reclined.
And then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and then he broke them and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
And verse 17 says, they all ate, they were all satisfied.
And just so you know how satisfied they were, they went by and picked up all the leftovers because there was overflow.
In this story, we meet a hungry multitude, a multitude that is placing a demand.
They have a need. There is a lack that needs to be filled.
And most of the time when this proportion of the scriptures is looked into the multitude is what we concentrate on the five loaves and the two fish and how they were satisfied with it.
But just for a few moments tonight, I wanna talk to you about the 12 disciples, those who walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus, those who were in close communion with Jesus, those who would come out on a Friday night to be in the presence of Jesus amongst the people of Jesus.
I wanna talk to the disciples of Jesus.
The disciples on this occasion had been called to Jesus by Jesus.
They were having a conversation with each other.
Jesus entrusted them with power and authority and then he sent them out. I love that.
This gospel is one of the Synoptic gospels.
The Synoptic gospels are those that tell their three of them, Matthew Mark and Luke, these three tell some of the similar stories in a similar tone in a similar way so that we’re able to get more layers to the story.
I love the gospels in that way they give us layers just like if someone were to offer you a chocolate cake, but they gave you options.
You could have a one layer chocolate cake or a seven layer chocolate cake.
Which one you’re gonna choose seven every single time? Because the more layers there are the more rich and delectable.
The experience becomes Mark. Chapter six is a layer of choc chocolate cake for us.
It tells us that this is the experience when Jesus called the disciples to himself and then he sent them out in prayers.
Do you remember two by two into the neighboring towns and communities?
They were supposed to teach and preach and perform miracles that would authenticate the deity of Jesus Christ.
Mark chapter six, our layer of chocolate cake tells us that they expended themselves.
Y’all, they were busy from sun up to sundown.
They were about the task of doing what it was that Jesus had assigned to them.
They wanted to be diligent about it so much so that when they came back to Jesus, they gave an account to him and Jesus recognized their exhaustion.
He saw that they were tired.
In fact, Jesus himself commented that they didn’t even have time to eat because they had been so busy, they were depleted and they were tired and they came back to Jesus and they gave him an account for how they handled the assignment that he had entrusted to them.
If you were a believer in Jesus Christ, you got an assignment and don’t let anybody tell you that your assignment isn’t ministry just because it happens to be in a corporate setting.
Mother of small Children who’s chosen to stay home with those kids, don’t let anybody tell you that ain’t ministry every single time you make that chicken for dinner and you set it on that table and you teach those kids a bible verse before bedtime.
Don’t let anybody tell you that that ain’t ministry corporate woman when you sit around that boardroom table and you’re the only one that has a set of ideals that lines up with the truth of scripture at a table with those who are thinking and acting and planning in a way that is left of God’s word.
Don’t let anybody tell you that you around that boardroom ain’t ministry. That’s ministry.
High school student, college student.
You’re the only student that stands for truth when your professor says this is the way it is and you say no, that’s not the way it is.
Don’t let anybody tell you as the light on that college campus that you are not in ministry, every single one of us has an assignment and the day is coming when we’re gonna have to give an account and here’s the thing.
You don’t know when that day is, the day is coming and you don’t know the day or the hour.
Neither do I when we’re going to have to stand before him and give an account for how we handled what he had entrusted to us.
I’m asking you tonight, how are you handling your assignment?
Because young women, if you think that you’re young because of your age, listen to me if you’re 20 but you only have till 30.
You’re pretty old. If you’re 50 you’re gonna live until 100 then you’re pretty young.
Age is just a number my friend and you and I cannot qualify young or old base birth based on our our birthdays.
It’s based on our death date.
And since we don’t know when that day is that I implore you sisters by the mercies of God to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called.
Because listen, I don’t know about y’all but when I see him face to face, I’m looking for a well done.
I’m looking for well done.
When I see him, he will not ask me how many Instagram followers I had.
He will not wonder whether or not folks liked my post.
He will not be interested in whether or not my selfies were perfectly lit.
He will ask me, did I know his son? And then I will give an account.
So the disciples, they come and they give an account to Jesus.
I wondered if there was a recipe for effective ministry because if these guys were willing to come and look Jesus in his face and give an account.
I figured there might be a recipe for us for effective ministry. I’m interested. Anybody interested?
There are three ingredients to the recipe.
Luke chapter nine verse one, it says he called them, he called them and his calling superseded any personal ambition that they had, they laid down whatever they were going to do because they heard the call of God beckoning them to do something else.
The beautiful thing about that entire picture is that all of the glory of God, the Father, all of the glory of heaven was packaged in human flesh, Jesus one so much God, the Father wanted so much to make sure that he could speak and so that humanity could hear that he left his throne in glory, put on flesh so that the disciples could hear his call.
And in the same way, he has given us the Holy Spirit so that each and every one of us have the privilege to hear the calling of God on our lives, the conviction, the unction, depressing the fire that is shut up in your bones sending you in a particular direction.
Heed the call of God on your lives. Then they were not just called.
I love so much that before he skips to the third, uh, ingredient in the recipe, sending them.
I love that. Before we get to the third one, there’s that second one, he did not just call, but then he gave them power and authority.
It means that what he was calling them to do, he was simultaneously equipping them with supernatural power to be able to pull it off.
So it’s good news for anybody in the room that you feel like you’ve got a dream that is way over your head.
You’ve been called to do something.
You don’t have the money, you don’t have the time for you don’t have the patience for you don’t have the gifting for you don’t have the talent for, you don’t have the connections for the good thing.
And the great thing about our God is that he does not call people who are already equipped.
He calls you. And then for the people that say yes, he equips them with what they need for the calling.
He entrusted them with power and authority.
And can I tell you why this is important?
This is important because in order to accompli accomplish supernatural tasks, you have to have supernatural capacity.
In other words, you can be the most talented person in the world.
But if you go in your own strength and power, you still won’t be able to accomplish the God calling on your life.
It requires what it is that only God himself can give to you to accomplish the task.
All the enemy hopes you will go in your own power.
He hopes you will think you are flashy enough and savvy enough and talented enough and impressive enough so that you will no longer lean on God instead of leaning to your own understanding.
But it is not by power and it is not by might.
It is by the spirit of God and some trust in horses. Other folks trust in chariots but not us.
We trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
So he called them and then he entrusted them, he gave them some treasure and then he sent them.
He’s the one who did the sending, resist the urge to send yourself to do something that it is not yet time for.
Because just as important as our calling is that is equally as important as the timing is in which that calling is outworked in our lives.
And if you go too soon, you might, if you, if you give birth too soon to that, which God is trying to produce through you, you might abort what it is that he’s trying to accomplish in you, the spiritual backbone, the fortification that He was trying to establish in you.
So that you could handle the spotlight when it hit you.
Because listen, that spotlight that you may be craving if it hits you and you have no character, it will burn you to a crisp.
So he called them, he entrusted them, he sent them out and they returned to him and gave an account.
They were tired, the disciples had been given it everything they had.
And I know there are some of you in the room and you would admit that you haven’t done it perf perfectly.
But man, you’ve sure been purposeful. You’ve been intentional about this marriage.
You’ve been giving it everything you’ve got, you’ve been intentional about that teenager.
You’ve been giving that kid everything you’ve got this toddler that has this specific bent or this specific issue that you’ve been doing everything you can going to see every expert that you can reading everything that you can to be the best that you can as a mother, single mother, you’ve been giving it everything that you’ve got working, the jobs that you’ve got to work to keep food on the table, you’ve been giving that business, that ministry, that endeavor, everything that you have and you, the disciples are tired.
The good news about Jesus is that when the disciples come to him tired, he does not say go away from me and get yourself together, come back and then I can use you.
He says come away with me.
In other words, listen, the cure for your exhaustion is intimacy with Jesus.
That’s the cure y’all. I’m saying. I agree.
Take the holiday, take the vacation. Tell them you need a little sabbatical.
You gotta step back for just a little bit. You need a little margin in your life.
Take the holiday, but don’t take a holiday from Jesus.
Don’t take the sabbatical from your relationship with the Lord.
Prayer shouldn’t exit your schedule because these are your rest days.
You still need to be the deer that pants after the water.
Your soul has still got to be replenished and can only be replenished when you have intimacy with him.
You’re trying to figure out Lord, you told me that I was gonna be replenished.
You told me that I was going to refresh.
You told me that you had something that you wanted to give to me.
Why would you take me here to this place where I’m being pressed down by a multitude of issues and concerns and frustrations.
There’s something overwhelming me that is bigger than what I feel like I have the capacity to handle.
Why would you bring me here?
This tells us that the story of the feeding of the 5000 is not just about the 5000.
It’s also about the disciples. It’s not just about the multitude getting fed.
It’s about the disciples being fed physically, spiritually, emotionally.
And it tells us that the five loaves and the two fish are the gift to the multitude.
But it’s the multitude. That’s the gift to the disciples because the multitude is what’s going to make them have to finally open up their drawer, pull out the treasure that they would have otherwise ignored.
Place it in the hands of a multiplying master who’s gonna show them what it looks like when he takes their little bit and makes it a lot.
There is no replenishing like watching God multiply your loaves and fish.