Stepping Into Your Calling

Photo: Ruben A. Navarrete

If you have been wandering in the desert, following God but not yet having the opportunity to enter your Promised Land, this passage in Deuteronomy is for you! Deuteronomy 9 is about entering your Promised Land--stepping into your calling. First, remember where you have come from. You have been lost in the desert, wandering around for a long time. You may have been going through a trial or test in your life. You may feel like you have been in a deep, dark tunnel for years. You may have been in a valley and felt alone, hopeless, helpless, discouraged, depressed. But in reality, you were never alone! "When the valley is dark, I will not be afraid. For you, my God, are by my side" (Psalm 23:4).

But now it is time to leave the desert and enter the Promised Land! God has something else in store for you, and it may be sooner than you think! Is there a calling that God has placed on your heart, maybe even long ago? Is there a passion to start or join something bigger than you and your own picket fence? Is there something you are drawn to and excited about that you never had the opportunity to do before? It is a place to use your gifts, to serve, to help, to conquer, and to claim victory!

1. Your Calling is great and may seem impossible.
"Hear, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky" (Deut 9:1). God called Israel to enter the Promised Land, which was a land full of giants. It did not make sense in the human mind to enter this land because it was inhabited by large and powerful groups of people who had been established for generations and had large, walled cities. But that is exactly what God called them to! He does not have a small task for you but a great and mighty work that will expand His Kingdom! So do not make excuses or doubt your ability because God has ordained you for this! It is His work that He will do in and through your life, your words, your testimony, your service, your work, your abilities. So at the time God shows you, cross over the Jordan and enter the Land. Do things you never thought you could do and conquer things you think are too hard for you. It will feel like you are fighting giants and beating unbreakable walls, but that is how God works throughout history. God gave David victory over Goliath with a stone and slingshot. God brought down the walls of Jericho simply by His people marching around the city. God gave Gideon victory over thousands with only 300 soldiers.

2. God is calling you to victory over your enemies.
"The people are strong and tall-Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: 'who can stand up against the Anakites?' " (Deut 9:2) I do not know your battles, but the real battles are spiritual and not physical. You may feel your battle is against something or someone in this world, but the true enemy is Satan (not your boss, your family, your peers, your addiction, your past, your insecurities, etc). And as you step into your calling, God is giving you and will continue to give you victory over your past and present struggles, no matter how big they are.

3. God is going ahead of you.
"But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you" (Deut 9:3a). You can have confidence in entering your calling because God is going before you, preparing the way. He will destroy the enemies in your path. Claim that victory over your life and circumstances! Claim that victory over Satan's attacks.

4. God is working quickly!
"He will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you" (Deut 9:3b). As you step into your calling and obey God in each step, He will give you rapid victory over problems that you may have struggled with for years in the past. He wants to drive out these things quickly and completely! This is what God has promised, and He cannot break His promises! He plans to get rid of them completely and permanently. If you hold onto these things, they will stop your progress and hinder ultimate victory. So follow God's lead because He is working quickly to accomplish His purpose through you RIGHT NOW!

5. God is not giving you victory because of your righteousness.
"After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness...It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land...It is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Deut 9:4, 5, 6). It is in our sinful, egotistical nature to take the credit for the good things we do for the Kingdom of God. God knows that, so He repeated the same phrase three different times in this one paragraph. Obviously, He wants us to guard ourselves against pride when God gives us victory. He is the One who does the fighting and conquering, and He is the One who should get the credit. We can be confident because of Him, not because of ourselves. Don't forget that on our own, we caused ourselves to wander in the desert all these years. We have been stubborn and unfaithful and disobedient. When we have victory, it is not because of ourselves; instead, God gives us victory in spite of ourselves.

6. God is calling you to fight with Him against evil.
"It is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you" (Deut 9:4,5). There is great evil occurring all over the world, and God is hard at work against it. So join with Him in this work. One way that Satan works is through complacency and self-absorption. It is time to get off the couch, off your games, off your spending sprees, off your pity parties, off your phone and get to work for the purposes of God in this world! Spend time thinking about what you have been through in your lifetime. How did God carry you through? Be reminded that others are facing similar struggles and need an advocate, a friend, a mentor, a helper. How does God want you to be a channel of His mercy to them?

7. Guard against idols.
"Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves...I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain" (Deut 9:12, 21). God is serious about dealing with idols, and He does not tolerate idolatry in your land of calling. Sometimes idols can be subtle, and Satan will deceive you in this area. The Israelites formed an idol during the forty days that Moses was up on the mountain talking with God and receiving the tablets of the ten commandments. They made an idol for several reasons. First, they did not trust God fully. Second, they wanted something they could see. Third, they were following worldly examples. When dealing with idols of any sort, God commands us to completely destroy them many times over. Moses destroyed the golden calf by melting it, crushing it, grinding it to powder, then putting it into a stream to carry it away.

Whatever your calling is, I encourage you to step into what God has laid on your heart. It may be as small as spending more quality time with your kids. It may be as big as starting a new ministry. It may be as personal as learning how to love. It may be as life-changing as overcoming a chronic bad habit. Whatever it is, God is on your side, working to bring you out of the desert where you have lived for so long. God's will is for you to overcome and to be victorious just as Jesus Christ overcame death by rising from the dead! "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you" (Rom 8:11 NLT).