“She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.” (Prov.31:18)

We are living in interesting times. We are living in a world and culture that tends to define us in terms of our performance.

Take for instance, in my country where schools rate the well-performing students very highly, the well-paying careers are reserved for such students to study and excel in, while the rest of the students have to contend with what is “left” on the table.

This has left many women disoriented, demoralized, and tied, as it were, in careers that they hate or at least didn’t bargain for.

Our capitalistic society hasn’t helped much either. The focus on profit rather than nurturing people to be the best they can be has gravitated to the issues at hand.

We are having women who will probably never reach their highest potential in their calling and purpose because of these kinds of realities in our society.

These realities are facing us as we ask the question: can I know my mission in life and hence walk in my calling and purpose in the Lord, as a Christian believing woman?

From the title, you can tell my persuasion. My answer is, yes, you can. I am so convinced that God has a specific plan and purpose for each of us. There is a very specific task he wants you to accomplish here on earth. That’s what I am calling mission.

Knowing your mission will help you not only know what God wants you to do, but it will also help you rise above the opposing cultural realities such as those I’ve mentioned above to relentlessly pursue your purpose; a purpose that arises from having clarity of your lifework.

This pursuit helps you to rise in your faith to trust God to reveal and lead you on the path of fulfilling your purpose.

In the book, A Woman of Noble Caracter, how Can I Become One? that you can find here, I have defined mission as a God-given/ inspired call to accomplish a particular purpose here on earth in fulfillment of the Great Commission articulated in the gospels.

Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus, who suffered much for the gospel, expressed this in some of his writings. Look at these three for instance:

“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” (Acts.26:19-20)

 

“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts.20:24)

 

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2Tim.4:7-8)

One can now understand why Paul kept preaching the gospel, from house to house, and from city to city, despite great opposition because he lived for a higher purpose.

Nothing could deter him.

From this previous post that you can find here, we understood that profitability comes from knowing that your work is God ordained.

For your work to be God ordained, it must be that it is driven by the clarity that comes from knowing your mission in the Lord.

I’m hence thankful that in this blog post, we are not on a journey to formulate a mission that best fits us. We are on a journey to discover what God has already placed in us and ordained even before the creation of the world.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph.2:10)

These are works that kept the Proverbs 31 woman working, being profitable, causing her lamp not to go out at night. (vs 18)

That’s why we are exploring this verse one more day.

Let’s now explore the 5 ways you can know your mission and calling; your life work.

1. Pray

Our mission and calling have everything to do with God and what he is doing in and around you.

What this also means is that he is the one who is at work in you, having prepared you for the task ahead sovereignly, so you can fulfill what he has purposed.

What better way to go than to seek him with diligence, asking him to lead you into his purpose over your life.

Why not seek him in his eternal Word, the Bible, to direct your step so you can be where he wants you to be, doing what he has called you to do?

Why not look to him to show you where he wants you to work in his harvest field?

God will reveal to you. He will lead you divinely. Trust him.

He will make his will clear very differently for each of us. I say this because sometimes in our weakness, we imagine he will do it the way he did it for this person I know.

The key to knowing God’s will is obedience. Jesus said,

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John.14:15)

Elsewhere, the Psalmist says:

“Who then is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.” (Ps.25:12)

God has his way specifically chosen for you. As you walk with him and obey, you will receive instruction from him concerning which way he wants you to take.

His plan will unfold before us as we walk in obedience.

So, pray, continue faithfully in his Word, and seek his face. He has promised to be found by those who seek him with all their hearts. (Jer.29:13) He will make his will clear before you.

2. An inclination to minister to a certain group of people in the body of Christ

Because God has gifted us differently, an inclination to minister to a certain group of people may be indicative of his mission placed on your heart.

Not all of us feel at home among children for example. Some cringe on the inside when left among the youth in the body of Christ.

I know a woman who thrives among the less privileged in society, having the gift of mercy that causes her to get to the root of helping such rise out of their circumstances.

Others are very clear about God’s call to minister on the mission field, trailblazing a path among them for the gospel to be preached effectively.

Some are very clear that their acumen and success in the entrepreneurial space are for them to raise resources for the kingdom’s mission to be propagated by those on the front line of missions.

We could go on and on with these examples that God’s people are embodying as they serve God, knowing their mission.

You could have an inclination to minister to a specialized group of people or a specialized area in the body.

Pray, trust God to show you what he is doing. He may have placed on your heart that burden so you could reach that specialized group.

I know a woman who, even in her old age, thrives among children. She can come up with a song and teach little children in a few minutes. Together with the children, she’ll act out the words of the song and the children will come away with a message.

Find out what group God might have given you an inclination towards. Trust him to lead. Your mission will eventually get clear.

3. Experiences in your Life

With God, none of our experiences go to waste. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. (Rom.8:28)

I want to believe even experiences we’ve had before coming to the Lord Jesus will be used by God for the fulfillment of his purposes.

My husband, even as he is growing older, thrives among young people; especially men.

He got born again in his mid-twenties. He made very bad decisions before then in his life.

As he ministers to the youth, he says he never wants to see a young man waver and grope around in life as he did, for lack of an older man to direct him on the right path.

His past experiences motivate him to minister to young people if only that they might be helped to avoid the potholes he fell victim to.

You might be reading this and you’ve gone through a lot. Part of what you might have gone through was perhaps traumatizing.

We live in a fallen world. As God works in you, healing and restoring you, causing you to experience his comfort, strength, and encouragement, you might just be the person he wants to use to minister deeply to those who’ve gone through similar experiences.

They will feel you can identify with them much more than one who has never gone through such an experience.

You might sense he has given you a burden to reach out to such in the body of Christ.

4. Reading and, or, Listening to stories of others God has been using

I am presently reading Becoming Elisabeth Elliot. This is a book that’s inspiring me a lot toward fulfilling God’s will.

It’s helping me see the hand of God at work, weaving my seemingly mundane daily experiences into a pattern by which I might just trace his purpose in hindsight, that is getting fulfilled albeit my knowing it.

I had the opportunity to read and listen to several biographies of men and women of God as I was growing up. I read the stories of Billy Graham, John Newton, Hudson Taylor, George Muller… and more recently Elisabeth Elliot, Isobel Kuhn, David Livingstone, and others.

I cannot tell you how much these stories have impacted my life, spurring me on towards seeking God to be all he wants me to be.

God has used the lives of these men and women to shape my understanding of God and his harvest field, shaping my decision-making in doing the will of God.

Never underestimate the power of content, both read and watched, about such men and women of God. God has used such content, again and again, to help many of us discover our calling and mission in him.

5. Get busy in God’s vineyard

More often than not, the best way to know God’s will is to get into God’s vineyard, doing what you know is right to do.

I’m certain you know that joining those going for an evangelistic outreach on a Sunday afternoon after the service, for instance, is the will of God; especially if you’re comparing this to that same afternoon chatting away with friends.

I’ve never forgotten the advice of an older man at the time, telling us as young people to get involved in as many activities as we can handle in the church or Christian union in high school and college.

Knowing the will of God in terms of mission may happen by elimination. You might find yourself deriving lots of fulfillment in certain activities rather than others.

Eventually, as you grow in the faith, this elimination will lead you to one major activity and area that might just be definitive of what God has called you to do.

Keep remembering that this will work best when you are already immersed in a personal relationship with God, a relationship that is real and personal. A relationship with him in his Word and prayer.

Don’t just sit back to only listen to your Sunday sermon or the midweek preaching, then go home, and expect to know what God has called you to do.

Get involved in the life of a God-honoring, biblically sound local church.

God may even use the input of others around you in the church to help you identify your place in the body of Christ.

Get involved and get to see God at work, directing you to where he wants you to be and to do what he wants you to do, as you clarify your mission in him.