FJWL_01:70
         (Dad:) I'm so glad you decided to give Jesus your 100% without any reservations. That sometimes is the answer in itself--total yieldedness. It doesn't leave any room for anything else--for questions, personal desires, personal ambitions, or confusion about anything.
         As for your question about whether leadership is the calling that the Lord has for you: I can understand how you'd have that question in your mind sometimes, especially when you're young, because it's hard to be sure if the Lord's having you help out in a shepherding role temporarily, or if this is your life's calling. But I think you'll find, as I found out, that when the Lord has a calling for you, and He keeps steering you in that direction and you just can't seem to get away from it, then you can be pretty sure that this is what He'd like you to do! When He keeps bringing you back and putting you in that position, when you're not even asking for it, it's a pretty good confirmation that this is what He'd like you to do, because you have the gifts and talents for it; otherwise He wouldn't have given you those abilities.
         The Lord's created us all as different instruments and different tools. If He's made you a hammer, and it's pretty obvious, then it's no use trying to be another tool, like a saw or a chisel, because it's just not going to work!
         The best way to find the will of God is to have no will of your own. I think if you'll accept this calling as the Lord's calling for you, it will take away your questions and help you to be more single-minded, and be able to put more into shepherding and helping others. This is a great commission and an important role, and the Lord trusts you with it. Your age makes no difference. The Lord can choose leaders at a very young age. And since you've been a bellwether for a while now, I think you can count that as an even further confirmation that this is the vocation that the Lord has for you.
         So just do your best. Put your whole heart into it, and the Lord's going to mightily anoint you. You actually already have the anointing; you just have to have the faith to reach out and take it and live it, and the Lord will do the rest.
         You can't always trust or go by your feelings. Sometimes you may have a burden or a desire to do something else; it may even become a burning passion. But you can't always trust that, as it might be a decoy of the Enemy. So if you ever get tempted with that, or if you ever waver, remember how the Lord has commissioned you, and look again at His promises and seek Him for the conviction to do His highest in the place where He has put you, putting your will on His side, filling the need in whatever way it may be.
         Put the Lord's Word, what you know He's called you to do through prophecy, the need and what leadership asks your help in, and what the Lord has commissioned you to do above your feelings. This will be your anchor if you ever question your role as to whether you should fill a leadership position, or if you feel like you would like to do something else.
         That's what I had to do--although sometimes I felt like doing something else, and sometimes I did do something else for a while. The Lord was always very loving and merciful to me, and always gently guided and directed me back into my calling. As long as you put your life in His hands, He'll never fail to lead and guide you. Just keep going for God!



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