Most People NEVER Fulfill Their Calling – I'll Show You How

Let's get back to this lie. You have a call on your life and your mind goes right to ministry. It is impossible to fulfill what we have been created to do in our own ability. Everybody that's listening to us, you have a very specific calling.

How do we discover that? I'm trying to figure, make sure my life is purposeful and my life has meaning onto it, which I think that's everyone's heart. And how do I discover that?

So the first thing you got to do is have understanding on your calling, and the understanding is this. Hey everybody, welcome to the Jump Over Your Cut podcast. I am joined today with my son Arden. You look so good. I like that shirt. Good looking shirt.

Thank you.

I'm going to get— Arden, I'm so excited. We finally made it through 2 Peter. We did. It's so cool.

And just in time for another very passionate thing to come onto your I am so passionate about what we're talking about.

Matter of fact, this might be other than the awe of God. This might be one of my biggest passions because I see so many people stuck and I'm going to tell you where they're stuck. Okay. So I want to start with this. Okay. Let's just everybody think about this. If you hear somebody say, I've got a call on my life, or let's say I walk up to a young man and I say, man, there's a call of God on your life.

Yeah.

Where do our minds go?

Ministry. It's positions of ministry, pastors, worship leaders. I've always looked at it that way.

Exactly. But you know, that is the most untrue statement. Every single one of us has a call of God on our life. If you look at Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10, it says we're saved by grace through faith. It's not of ourselves. Our salvation is a free gift, right? But a lot of attention is left off Verse 10, where Paul said, for— now that word for means because of this. So you were created in Christ Jesus to be somebody in verse 8 and 9. But in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, he says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Now listen to this, to do good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in. Now it didn't say we would walk in them, it said we should walk in them. And when I think about this, I think about what David wrote in Psalm 139, I love this. He said, "You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book." So here's the deal. God wrote a book about every single one of our lives before we were born. We all have biographies and God is the author of our biographies. It's not just Margaret Thatcher, it's not just George Bush, it's not just Michael Jordan. We have a book written about our lives. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Now listen to this: every moment was laid out before a single day passed. Yeah, somebody's thinking, yeah, but I've had a horrible life. No, you haven't had a horrible life. What you've had is a horrible devil that has tried to give you a horrible life. Let me tell you something: Satan is trying to mess up what God has created us to do. He's trying to get us distracted, trying to get us off course, because when we enter into what God has created us to do, Arden, yeah, That's when we're fulfilled. And that's why I wrote this book and it just came out. Yes, You Are Called. And I have had some people tell me after this book, actually, the senior editor at HarperCollins, he went through this book and he said, John, this book is so life-changing. He— and he's done all these books. And I'm telling you why. It's because it touches a nerve that every single person walks in. If I look at our Messenger X, our discipleship app. Do you know one of the top courses for 3 solid years in a row has been the course on You Are Called? Yeah. And it's because people have that inward knowing. Yeah.

Well, in today's day and age, just all you are constantly hit with is what everyone else is doing. And so I feel like you constantly have that question and you're— if you're not stable and understanding, well, I know what God's called me to do. You get on social media and you see this person's doing this. You see the highlight reels from every single person around you and they're like, you're doing this. Well, am I actually doing what I'm supposed to be doing? Is what I actually am doing is purposeful? But then when you have that understanding of there has been a book that has been written by you, by God, understanding the purpose that is on your life, like you need to discover what God has called you to do. The world needs to discover. I mean, we talked about this a couple of podcasts ago, Romans 8, where it talks about the unveiling of God's glorious sons and daughters and says the entire cosmos, the entire Universe is waiting for the unveiling of God's glorious sons and daughters.

That's so good.

You owe it to the rest of the world. No, creation's wanting to see what you were created to do. I've always thought about this is there will never be another you. So there never has been another you. There never will be another you. Which means if you just copy your life based off of everyone else around you, that's so good. Then you are robbing the world of the unique expression of who God created you to be and who God called you to be. And so you owe it to this world to discover your calling and figure out what God has for you. And that's what I love about this book. That's what I love about that course. And I love about these conversations that we're going to have because we want to see people walk in their calling.

Arden, as we're getting ready to go into this scripture, let me, let me say this. So many people ask us, how does John and Arden go so deep in their study? It's easy. We have this program called Logos. I have been using it for years. I use it to write books. Arden, I use it for my podcast. I I have my notes on one page of the computer and the Logos is right next to it. I can go into root word studies, I can go back to the original, I can see what was happening in the time period. It's absolutely amazing. It's a game changer.

And not only that, but Logos is offering everyone who signs up right now for this limited time offer 60 days free.

Okay, that's amazing.

So it is completely free for you. So please, please do not miss this chance. Go to Logos. So logos.com/bavere, and you can sign up right there. Not only that though, there is a video that's a Zoom call that we did that shows you how to better use it. Because if you have a tool and you don't know how to use it, you probably won't use it. And we want people using this every single day because it will help them go deeper in their studying of the word.

So everybody just click the link below and we can jump right back into our study. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. First thing I want everybody to know is we— our calling is holy. It is God set apart. God personally picked out what we were created to do, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he gave, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. So here's David writing, this book was written about our life before we were even born. Here's Paul writing, that God gave us purpose before time began. So we have the general callings, of course, in Scripture. And this is unique. This is, this is similar to every single Christian. We're called to live a holy life in 1 Thessalonians 4:7. We're called to the upward call of knowing Jesus intimately in Philippians 3:14. We're called to live in liberty. That's Galatians 5:13. We are called into the family fellowship with his son Jesus. That's 1 Corinthians 1:9. We are called to peace, 1 Corinthians 7:15. That's the general callings. But then there's the specific calling. And with that specific calling, God has given us unique gifts. These gifts give us the ability to fulfill what he's created us to do. And there's something really interesting about our callings, Arden. It is impossible to fulfill what we have been created to do in our own ability.

Hmm. Interesting.

Now think about that. Yeah, it's impossible for us to fulfill what we've been created to do in our own ability. Why did God make it like that? So rely on him, right? So we have to rely on him. Yeah. So we'd never be able to boast so that he would get all the glory.

Yeah.

So, you know, maybe we'll touch on that in the next podcast.

But and I say that you can have more impact because I think if you do things in your own ability, you can only have so much impact. But understanding the grace of God empowers you beyond your own natural ability is understanding, like, you know, even what the prayer of Jabez is. God, you know, expand my lands, the prospering. When he talks about it, it's like, God, without you, I can do this much. With you, I can do this much. And that's what I want to see from my life and my calling.

So let's get back to this lie. You have a call on your life and your mind goes right to ministry. Yeah, everybody has a call on their life. And I think this is so beautifully illustrated by my friend named Steve. He was a Navy SEAL for 20 years and he was so good he became a Navy SEAL instructor. And that's the elite of the elites when you become an instructor. When I was in Hawaii several years ago, a friend of mine said to me, John, there is a Navy SEAL that wants to meet you. Would you go to dinner with him? And I said, if any Navy SEAL wants to have dinner with me, I'm going. Yeah, because I just love the Navy SEALs.

You have the utmost respect.

I do. Yeah. I'll never forget it. We were in Hawaii. There was a table. It was a round top table, sat 8 people. And he came in with his wife. My friend came in with his wife. I was there and there was one other couple. And I remember they sat him right next to me. And all I did was say, okay, what's your story? And oh my gosh, he opened up with this. He said, John, I'm a, I'm a Jew, but I got saved at a young age. I found out Jesus is my Messiah. And he said, from a very young age, I was taught, I was trained that if you really want to serve Jesus, you need to go into ministry. And he said, I felt like I wanted to serve him the best I could with my life. So I went to Bible school and he went to Bible school for 2 years. And then the third year of the Bible school was an internship. So he was interning at a very large church in the northeast part of the United States. And he said, During that year, he said, I got accused of sleeping with a girl. She accused me of sleeping with her in the youth group. He said, John, I never slept with her. It was a lie. He said, but all my leaders chose to believe her. And he said, they immediately threw me out. My credentials were destroyed. Yeah, I had no more credentials for ministry. I was kicked out of this denomination. And he said, I am like 3 years down the drain. Yeah. And he said, I started seeking God like I've never sought God before. He said, John, I casually sought him before this, but he said, now I was really seeking God. And he said, God spoke to me while I was fasting and praying and said, I didn't call you to ministry. I called you to military.

Yeah.

I'll never forget that as long as I live. I'm sitting in that restaurant going, really? And he said, so I went to the recruiting offices. He said, I started out with the Army, then I went to the Marines, then I went to the Air Force. And he said, I'm just flat the whole time. He said, but then came the fourth one, and the fourth one was the Navy. He said, I'm sitting with the recruiter, and the recruiter's got a list of things that we could enlist for. And he starts reading down the list, and he says the word SEALs. "When I hear the word SEALs," he said, "life exploded on the inside of me." And he said, "I said to the recruiter, 'That's it. That's what I need to do.'" And the recruiter goes, "Oh no, no, no, no. You don't want to do this. Every single guy in this recruiting office, we signed up for the SEALs and we flunked out. They flunk out 9 out of every 10 guys that try for the SEALs." He said, "I don't care. I know that's what I'm supposed to do. Sign me up." So he goes to the Navy SEAL training. Now, What he didn't realize, and also the recruiter didn't realize, what he didn't realize is Navy SEALs, one of the big things they do is swim. And the recruiter didn't realize that he didn't know how to swim. And there was a reason he didn't know how to swim, and that's because he was born with very defective ear canals. And they had to operate and put tubes in his— and he said, John, if I just got a couple drops of water in my ear, I was in excruciating pain. I said, what did you do? He said, I started praying that Jesus would heal me. I said, and did he? He said, well, it was about 2 months. I said, what do you mean? He said, I'd go out and I taught myself how to swim, and I endured the excruciating pain every day. I kept speaking to my ears to be healed in Jesus' name. He said, after 2 months, one day I went out and to my surprise, there was no pain. I went down 5 feet, no pain. 10 feet, no pain. He said, I was totally healed.

Yeah.

So now he's in, he's in training and they come to what they call Hell Week. During Hell Week, he's carrying a boat on top of his head. He's on the beach of San Diego and he's running down the beach with this boat and he's got another SEAL guy behind him. And he said some kid must have dug a hole in the sand with his little toy shovel. He said, my foot goes right into that hole with that big heavy boat. Yeah. And he said it tore everything from my ankle up to my knee. Oh. And he said, "John, it was bad." And he said, "My Navy SEAL physical was that week." He said, "Now, let me explain to you something about a Navy SEAL physical." He said, "It is extensive." And he said, "That's the final leg to become a Navy SEAL. If you pass all the training and you're one of the 1 out of 10 guys that make it through all the training, there's only one more hurdle you got to go through." and that's this physical. And he said, I walk into the physical, of course, with a cast and crutches, and the doctor fails me. And he said, I looked at the doctor and says, no, no, no, you can't do this. This is my life calling. I know I'm supposed to do this. And the doctor was really gruff with him and said, I am an officer and you are questioning my judgment? And he said, I walked out of there so, so dejected. So heavy. And he said, my friend saw me and said, you know, I've been going to a Bible study. Study? Why don't you come with me tonight? It's tonight. He said, I've never been to the Bible study. I go with my friend to the Bible study, and it's actually an officer, a high-ranking officer of the SEALs that's teaching the Bible study. And that very night, you know what he's teaching the guys? How to be led by the Spirit of God.

Yeah.

Okay. So he starts giving an example. He said, you know, like today there was a there was a medical report that came across my desk that threw this Navy SEAL cadet, whatever they call him, out because of his leg. And he said, I overrode the doctor's decision. Yeah. And he kind of perked up and he was like, no way. And so he goes up to the doctor or to the high-ranking officer after— not the doctor, the high-ranking officer after. He said, who was that cadet? And the doctor, he said his name. And the doctor said, oh, you're the one. So God had that guy there. Yeah. Now he starts telling me stories about when he's in combat, and for the next hour and a half, I'm mesmerized by it. Yeah. How God had delivered him and saved him, how people were blown up, how he should have been killed, and how God delivered him. So here's a man who thought, I want to serve Jesus. And yet Jesus himself says, I didn't call you to ministry. Yeah, I called you to military. And he's got He's got the 20 years to prove it with the fruit of it. So, Art, you can see he definitely thought the way he could serve Jesus was by going into ministry. But he found out that God called him to military. His story is one of millions, millions of people. I have another friend. He thought, I am— I want to serve Jesus. I love him with all my heart. So he went into youth ministry. He said, John, I could barely eat for 5 years. I wasn't making any money. I could barely afford the rent. He said, I was in prayer one day and God said, I've called you to the marketplace. He started a business. Now his business is in 5 states. He makes floorings. Okay. And he has been able to give over $1 million into the kingdom. He said, John, I know for sure the call of God in my life wasn't to preach behind a pulpit. It wasn't to be a youth pastor. It was to be in the marketplace. And he said, I have influenced and impacted so many people in the marketplace. So I want everybody to know, everybody that's listening to us, you have a very specific calling. And that calling, as Arden, you so beautifully said, you don't want to copy somebody else's life. Because then that unique calling on your life is left out. Hey, everybody, we'll get back to the episode in just a moment. But first, I want to thank the patrons who make this podcast possible. Your support behind the scenes is critical to sharing these messages. So thank you. To become a patron, just click the link in the show description or go to johnbevere.com/patron. Now let's get back to the show.

Well, then how do we, how do we discover that? Because I think a lot of people obviously are probably asking the question, like, I'm in the similar place as Steve was, and I'm trying to figure, make sure my life is purposeful and my life has, has meaning onto it, which I think that's everyone's heart cry. And how do I discover that?

So the first thing you got to do is have understanding on your calling. And the understanding is this: your calling is bigger than you, and your calling always impacts others. So if you see your calling as, hey, I want to be the big person on campus, I want to be known, I want to make money, I want to make money. Yeah, you're going down the wrong track already. Yeah. Your calling that God gives you is ultimately going to impact people. Okay. If you look at— if you look at the Bible says that we in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, and I would say this is first and foremost in understanding how we're called. Yeah, the Bible says that, that without faith it's impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Now, the Bible doesn't say that God rewards those who casually seek him and wonder in doubt. Yeah, it's basically saying he rewards those who seek him diligently in faith. If we look at Jesus, he's got 30 years he's preparing for what he's put on this earth to do. Yeah, that 30 years he's spending a lot of time with the Father. But what happens in the 3 years of his ministry? Does he stop praying? I've got the call. I know exactly what I'm supposed to do. What is he doing?

He keeps spending time in prayer. He continues to go and isolate himself, which has always been something that is mind-boggling to me. I'm like, you look at his life and I love that because he has 3 years and you're thinking, well, get as much interaction with people, as much time that he can perform miracles and wonders.

But yet he says, I only do what I see my Father in heaven do.

And I love that because that only comes from his time.

He didn't say I only do what I see my Father in heaven did doing. Yeah, it's what I see what my Father in heaven doing. No, I'm not correcting. No, no, no. I'm saying with a lot of people, they're like, I just want to know where I'm called. And then thank you very much, God. I've got my plan and I'm good to go. Jesus was out praying sometimes all night long. I think what has kept me fresh in ministry for 43 years is the fact that I was out on the tennis courts this morning. It was 39 degrees out. I had my hood on this morning. I had my, my down coat on this morning, but I was out there from 5 to 6 walking around that tennis court and walking in our neighborhood, praying and seeking God for the will of God for today, for today's podcast, for— for what does God want me to do this week? What does he want me to do today? And this is what Jesus was doing. Sometimes they, you know, I love, I love the Gospel of Mark because the guys are searching everywhere for him. It's like early in the morning and they're like, where do you go? Where do you go? And they finally, after searching for quite a while, find him in a deserted place and he's praying. And he said, hey guys, the apostles come running up to him and said, everybody's looking for you. And he said, no, we're going to go to other cities because it was for this purpose that I came. And I'm like, wow, sometimes you're going totally opposite. I'll never, ever, ever forget when a multibillionaire asked to meet with me. A multibillionaire. Okay, this guy, he was flying around in his Gulfstream 550 doing a God tour.

I was with you too.

I know.

Yeah.

Okay. You remember this? So we were doing this conference in Dallas in this, in this auditorium. And the leader of the conference said, this multibillionaire has asked if there's any way he could have lunch with you. Yeah. And he said, John, he's legit. Do it. And I said, okay. He said, I'll cater in the lunch. You guys just do it right at the arena that we're doing the conference in. I said, sure. So I remember walking in that room with you and I'm supposed to be— I'm supposed to be ministering to him. This is why he wants to meet. Yeah. Arden, I You're my witness. I barely said anything for 3 hours. I was mesmerized by what this man said.

Yeah, the stories.

But he sat there and he said, John, I was a floundering businessman. And he said, I was reading all the books, all the Wall Street or the New York Times bestsellers on business, on marketing, on, you know, marketplace and strategies. And he said, I'm floundering. And he said, one day I'm sitting in church And I'm listening to my pastor. And he said, my pastor is preaching a powerful word. And all of a sudden the thought came to me, wait a minute, he depends on the Holy Spirit to do what he's called to do. I'm called to the marketplace. Why don't I depend on that? Do you remember this?

Yeah.

Why don't I depend on the Holy Spirit? So he said, what did he do? He started getting up every morning and he got his Bible and he got a notepad. And he'd pray and he'd read and he'd say, whatever you want me to do, Holy Spirit, today, I'm going to do. Yeah, whatever it is. And he said, I made up my mind. I'm going to be committed to this process no matter how ridiculous it sounds. I'm going to do it. Yeah. And then he told the story that the Holy Spirit told him to do something. And he said, John, it seemed crazy. It seemed insignificant. Why in the world would I do this? But he said, I was committed to the process, so I did it. And he told me to do something. So I said, he said, I remembered what came to my mind. This is how the Holy Spirit works, is when the prophet told the king of Israel, hey, shoot the arrows in the ground. And the king only shot 3 arrows. And the prophet rebuked the king and said, okay, you're going to have 3 victories over the Syrians, but you should have shot 5, 6, 7, 8 arrows, right? So he said, I'm not going to do that. So he did what God told him to do 20 times. And what happened? Do you remember what happened that day for him?

He secured like 20 of the hospitals in Vietnam or 20 hospitals in Vietnam.

What happens if he would have done it 30 times? Yeah, right. So in other words, but the point being is now here he's this multibillionaire. Yeah, he was floundering, but he realized I'm called to marketplace. But there was one more thing he realized he needed, and that was to be like Jesus, to be completely dependent. I only do what I see my father doing. So The first way that we walk in our calling, and it's not a one-time thing, is that we seek God diligently in faith, not in wonder and doubt. Number 2, how do we know our calling? Get planted in a local church. Okay. Okay. So go ahead.

I mean, let's, let's talk about this one a little bit. How does that help you? Because I think there's a lot of people right now after COVID that are not planted in a local church.

I think it's affecting them. Yeah. Psalm 92:13, exact quote: Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish. Now let's just talk about it. If I, if I, if I have a seed and I put that seed right here on that table, I could fast, I could pray, I could cry out to God.

Yeah.

For 1,000 years. And that seed's going to sit there. Yeah, but if I plant that seed in the soil, what's it going to do? It's going to flourish. It's going to grow, right? Okay. If I plant a cotton seed, I'm not going to get tomatoes. Yeah. If I plant a peach seed, I'm not going to get apples. If I plant a peach seed, I'm going to get a peach seed. Now, here's this calling on my life, right? When I plant in a local church, What happens? The seed in me begins to grow. I flourish into what I'm created to do. You don't see. Here's the thing. We all want the knowledge, the analytical knowledge of how do I get from point A to B? Yeah. No. Seeking God diligently in faith. Yeah. Number 2, planting in a local church because God said, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Okay. I believe that when we are planted in the work of God in a local church, if it's a ministry like Messenger, whatever it is, we're planted. All of a sudden now we begin to flourish into what we are created to do. Yeah, that's number 2. Number 3, resist. Stay away from distractions. You know, this world's got currents. Yeah. Do you remember when our friend Josh took us fishing? Do you remember this? Yeah.

I spent a lot of time chumming the water. That's what I remember.

Oh my gosh. I felt so bad for you. Yeah. Throwing up like crazy. And I'm so blessed. I mean, I've been on planes where I remember one time 28 out of 30 people threw up, including the person next to me threw up, went through 2 bags, and I came off the plane thinking, wow, that was fun.

Yeah, I'm lucky it's just seasickness. And so Bonine, those. If you guys ever need a quick solution that will fix seasickness, it's Bonine. You take Bonine the night before and then the morning of with your breakfast. And that's good to know. It has worked every single time for me.

Okay, but let's talk about when we were fishing and let's talk in between the times you were chumming the water. I'll never forget this. And it really taught me a lesson. There was a wreck. We were like 20 miles offshore in the Gulf of America. It was called the Gulf of Mexico back in those days. But we were, we were, we were 20 miles offshore. Yeah. And the captain, our friend, knew where a wreck was and it was snapper season. And my favorite fish out of the Gulf is snapper. And I was like, I want to catch snapper. I want to. So he was like, John, I got, I got you covered. So he brings us to this wreck and we, we let down our lines and I mean, the snappers are hitting like crazy. For about 15 seconds, literally 15 to 30 seconds. And then all of a sudden it goes dead. And about 2 minutes later, I look at him and say, what happened? He said, we're already 100 yards away from where that wreck was. I said, in just like a minute, we drifted 100 yards. He said, yeah, that's how strong the ocean currents are. Now think about it. This life has a current. Okay. It's like we're out in the ocean and all of a sudden, if we aren't— if we don't have direction, we're going to be pulled by the currents. So whatever's happening on social media, whatever's happening on YouTube, whatever's happening, you know, amongst our friends, we're going to become that clone. Like you said, we're going to become somebody we really weren't intended to be because the only place you're going to find where you were really created to do is by seeking God, and there's no— there's no other alternative. But actually, he loves that. He wants to spend the time with us. Yeah, right. So when our friend the captain turned on the motor, what were we able to do? We were able to bypass all the currents and we were able to go exactly where we wanted, whether it was back to the wreck or whether it was back to the docks. We were able to go where we wanted to go. Yeah. You know, I am amazed, but Paul— or I think it's Peter. Yeah, he says in 1 Peter 1:18, you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. Now listen to this from your aimless lifestyle. So in other words, unbelievers, he said, have an aimless lifestyle. So in other words, they're going to be pulled by whatever the current of the world is. If the world's like really into gender, you know, this or, or this kind of sexuality or this kind of, you know, what's fun or pleasurable to the world, we're going to be pulled by it. So the key to finding your calling is not being distracted. Yeah. And that leads me to, I think, one of the most amazing, amazing ways of finding your calling. And that's Luke chapter 9 and 10. In Luke 9, I mean, this is, this is, this is crazy amazing. It says in verse 57, now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to Jesus, Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go. Listen to this guy's passion. I want to serve you. I want to fulfill what I'm created to do. I'll follow you wherever you go. Jesus looks right at him and says, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man doesn't have anywhere to lay his head. What's Jesus dealing with here? I mean, here's a guy goes, I want to follow you wherever you go. Now he says, I don't even know where I'm going to lay my head next. Yeah.

Comfort.

Obviously, this guy loves comfort. He loves security. And I, I remember one day praying, Arden. I had an image that there was this massive crowd around Jesus and this guy was outspoken. You know, he's the guy that's like, I'll do it. And then where is he later? I remember when I was a youth pastor for 2 years, I discovered this. I had, I had literally kids walk up to me and they were so excited about the anointing because there were drug addicts coming to our services. They were getting completely delivered. There were witches that were coming into our service that were getting saved. Witches. They were coming in to disturb our services. This was in Orlando, Florida, and they would end up getting saved. So I would have people coming up to me going, man, I'm with you, I'm on your leadership team. And then I wouldn't see them for 4 weeks. Yeah. And I'm like, where'd you go? Well, you know, I had this come up and this come up and this come up and And I'm like, oh, wow. And they wondered why they didn't flourish in what they were called to do. Yeah. Okay. So they were too busy creating security for their life and comfort for their life to say, I'm going to put the thing, the kingdom of God first.

Yeah.

See, Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all the things you need will be added. And I'll never forget when, when I was young in ministry, God said, don't seek me for the blessings. Don't seek me. For the provision. Just let me give it to you. Seek first to build my kingdom. And that set the course for me as a young man. And so this guy, obviously Jesus looks into his heart and sees this guy's got a real issue with security, comfort, right? So he gives the answer. And this is what the Holy Spirit showed me. This guy started gradually stepping back. He said, you know what, Jesus, I'll usher for you when you come to my city. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll work the parking lot for your— for whatever you do. And he's just backing away. Right. And so is a lot of other people that put a high premium on security and comfort. Yeah, they're all backing up. So the next one, Jesus now looks at a guy and says, follow me. This is verse 59. But he said, Lord, let me first go bury my father. Now, this one's caused a lot of people to stumble. It's quite easy. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. Now, Jesus is not being heartless. The guy just lost his father. Jesus knows something this guy knows, and Jesus exposes it in the Jewish tradition. And it's also— you'll see it in the law— that when the oldest son buried the father, he gets a double portion of the inheritance. Yeah. If he doesn't fulfill his duty of burying the father, he is bypassed, and the double portion goes to the secondborn. This guy's got money on his mind. Yeah. So he starts backing up, and so do a lot of other people who it's more important to them to make money than it is to fulfill destiny. Yeah. So then I want to make this point really clear. He didn't say, I won't follow you. He said, let me first. So he not— he's not saying, Jesus, I don't want to pay the price to follow you. Say, let me 'First go bury my father.' So I'll never, ever, ever, ever forget this. There was a guy who worked for our ministry and he was in a high position. And I remember God told us we were going to move from Orlando, Florida to Colorado. And I said to him, I said, 'Hey, we're going to be moving and we're going to be going to Colorado. Are you coming?' And he hem-hawed around for a while and he finally said, 'No.' No, I don't think so. I said, okay, that's fine. Then he came back to me a month later and he said, you know, I really feel the tug. I'm supposed to be coming to Colorado with you. I said, okay, great. Well, then, like another month later, I was on— I was on a trip and I had a vivid dream. Now, very rarely does God speak to me in vivid dreams, but I remember I was on a trip with this guy. We were going to preach somewhere and I had to, I had to do some things before I could go to the hotel. When I finally got to the hotel, he was gone and my suitcase was not unpacked. It was sitting on the bed. His suitcase was completely unpacked. I went to open the drawers to put my stuff in the drawers of the hotel room that we were sharing. Yeah, every drawer was filled with his clothes. There wasn't one drawer open and I had no place to put my clothes. And then I woke up and I— and God said, He's putting this first. And I remember 2 weeks later he came to me and he said, I don't think I can go. I said, you know what? God's already told me it's okay.

Yeah.

And he— it's not that he didn't want to be with us. It's just that he put something first. So it's not that he didn't want to be with us in the ministry. He just put this first, his own, what he wanted and what he loved. Was where he lived and his friends and his established life. Yeah, it's okay. He's a great brother. He— I still have a relationship with him today. Yeah, but he was like, you know what, I'm going to do this. And that was fine. But I think God used that to teach me something because look at the third one. So we got, we got, we got comfort and security on the first one. We got what's on the second one? Money.

Money.

Yeah. What's the third one? Okay. The third one's verse 61. And another said to him, Lord, I'll follow you. But first, first, first, here we go again. First, let me put what's important to me first. Go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom. Now he's not saying that person won't get saved. He's not saying that person won't go to heaven. The word fit means well situated, useful, suitable. To be fitting or appropriate with the proper probable implication of usability. So what Jesus is saying is there's a call on your life, but you're putting your relationships before your call.

Yeah.

How many times have I seen wrong relationships cost people the call of God on their life? Whether it's a girlfriend, a boyfriend, whether it's the wrong group of friends that we're running around with, That literally can cause— so the love for money, the love for comfort and security, the love putting all this first on relationships. I can see 3 groups of people just backed up. And now Jesus started with a large crowd, but he's got a small crowd. Listen to this. After these things. Chapter 10, verse 1. Very next verse. After these things. After what things? After Jesus just whittled the crowd down. The Lord appointed. The word appointed is so interesting. Yeah, there is appointed and there is chosen. They're the same words that you'll find in the New Testament. Remember Jesus said many are called, few are chosen. Everybody's called, few are chosen. In other words, few pay the price to be separated or chosen.

Yeah.

After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them '2 by 2 before his face into every city and place where he was about to go. Then he said to them, the harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few.' Why are the laborers few? Because few pay the price to be chosen, to be appointed. So here's the thing. You may be called to the medical field, maybe called to the marketplace. You may be called to the educational field. You may be called to vocational ministry. You may be called to the arts. But the question is, are you going to pay the price to be separated to where God places his hand on you to fulfill it the way he wants you to fulfill it? Hmm. Yeah, that's good. I wonder if many of those people that backed up in that crowd ended up ministering to people. Yeah, being true believers. But did they walk in their high calling? And that's the question you asked me at the beginning of this podcast, or in, in the midst of this podcast. How do we know? Number 1, we, we seek God diligently in faith. Number 2, we get planted in a, in a local church, in a ministry. I don't care if it's a home group, I don't care if it's a church, I don't care if it's a ministry. You're planted in the work of the kingdom. And number 3, you don't allow yourself to be distracted with what the world chases after. Yeah. Whether it's comfort, security, whether it's money or whether it's relationships, we keep the call before us and make that what we focus in on. Yeah. I want to say this before we close. We are called to be good husbands. We are called to be good wives, good parents.

Yeah.

We don't put the work of what we're called to do above our families, because I believe our first calling is to be a part of a family, because you find family in the garden before you ever find ministry or other callings. Yeah. So we put our family calling— that is so important.

Well, I feel like that goes back to— I think a lot of times people try to skip over their first calling, which is to be the son or daughter of God. Their understanding of who they are, who they've been created by. And I think through that is the reflection of what they're called to do. And so if you neglect those things, you're neglecting who God created you to be. And I think that's really good. But Dad, I want to make sure people are getting the book. And for anyone that's interested in the book and also even the course that we talked about, they can go to youarecalled.com.

You are called.

You are called. Dot com. So easy. Exactly. And it's just a great reminder.

So it's Y-O-U-A-R-E—

Called.

C-A-L-L-E-D.com. And that will take them to Amazon, Barnes Noble. It'll take them to Books-A-Million. It'll take them to all the retailers so they can get a hold of this book that has just come out. And it is so exciting. Yes. All right. Well, until next time, this has been the John Bevere Podcast with Arden and John. And I want to say this. In the very next podcast, we're going to float over into the giftings that give us the ability to fulfill what we're called to do. So we'll see you then.