WHO IS CALLING ME? – He has to identify the person of the caller.
WHY IS HE CALLING ME? – He has to know the reason for the call.
WHAT IS HE CALLING ME TO DO? – This is where the work to do is explained.
These questions must be answered if the man must function effectively. There are other questions of the HOW? WHEN? WHERE? That he must get which has to do with the work he is to do he is sent.
The word MINISTRY in the NT is Greek word “DIAKONIA” which means (a) to wait (b) to serve (c) to attend.
In the book of Mark 3:13-15, Jesus called the apostles. In between what to do which are ministry or service and the calling, there is an “ORDINATION” (Mark 3:14). Now there is also a direct connection between ministry and calling. You cannot call a man if there is no work to do.
The ministerial calling can be divided into two namely GENERAL CALLING AND SPECIFIC CALLING. The former has to do with whatever that a child of God is involved in, that is his ministry.
The latter is the five-fold ministry (Ephesians 4:11) – Ministry therefore is God’s mandate for a man’s life; it is his divine assignment; the reason for his being here; the totality for which his life is called forth.
Therefore, the total sum for every man’s life is “SERVICE” which is ministry. However every child of God is a minister of some sort which means whatever a child of God does, which do not provide opportunity to serve people in the interest of God is a trap to his destiny.
Jesus in (Mark 3:13-14) called some people to himself first and then ordained them, this ordination is not to go into the ministry but to BE WITH HIM. God is not in a haste to send people into the ministry. He who had not been with the Lord cannot be sent into the ministry, for God to commit a divine assignment to the man He has called; He has to do a work in the life of that man.
God must be justified for doing what He is doing by placing the man in an office, that’s why the man must “walk with Him”.
GOD MUST JUSTIFY THE MAN HE HAS CALLED, IN OTHER FOR HIM – GOD TO BE JUSTIFIED BEFORE MEN ABOUT THAT MAN.( Because man will always ask why this man, why not the other man?) In other for God’s name to be respected, and not blasphemed, this man must work with him with him (Romans 2:24).
When God has finished his work on that man, He will now send him on the ministerial assignment.
None but He who man the world can make the minister of the gospel, for every man who enters the ministry without a distinct call from God becomes a worse man than he would have been had he remain a lay man. No man ought to be a minister who has not a specific or general calling from God, for the true minister enters into ministry not for what he can get out of it, but for the sake of what it can get out of him.
Jesus said, the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
God bless you
Pastor Nkem Nwokeabia Senior Pastor,Petra Worship Centre, Enugu
