ABIDE IN YOUR CALLING!   DO960    3/8/80

         1. GOD'S WORD SAYS, "LET EVERY MAN ABIDE IN THE CALLING WHEREIN HE IS CALLED!" God knows what He called you for. He knows your talent & He knows your special assets--He knows your liabilities too, & you'd better stay out of them! Everybody has got their talents, their calling, their gift, & if they're going to be useful to God's Kingdom they've already had their training & their experience.
         2. But if you don't let the LORD lead & let the LORD do it through you with the instrument that He has made & gifted & talented & experienced & trained for the job, no matter how good you are, even God-made, if you don't let God lead you'll still flunk! You've got to be inspired!--It's just a certain spark that you've gotta have!
         3. I AM A GREAT ONE FOR HEREDITY. If you were born in a Christian family & lived in it all your life with the knowledge of God & His Word & spiritual things, experience in God's work, you've got a headstart on everybody else!
         4. But God's had to rob the DEVIL of a lot of people that we have. The Lord made them & designed them & prepared them & gifted them for the work, but the Devil got ahold of them & kept them busy in his field. Then the Lord jerked them out of it & took all that talent, experience & training to use for Himself!
         5. It's all in the hands of the LORD, & if God hasn't actually created you & made you & trained you & given you the experience for the job & the talent for it, the gift for it & it's not your calling, you might as well forget it! You might be able to handle it if you had to, but if it's not your calling & it's not your best, you're not going to do your best at it because it's not your field, & you just can't expect a square peg to fit a round hole! It just won't work, that's all!
         6. Do what GOD called you to do. Find the job that God fitted you for, made you for, gifted you for, talented you for, designed you for, created you for & gave you the training in & the experience in, & do that job. And the fact is, if you're doing well, it's probably the one you're already in, or you wouldn't even be there!
         7. BUT IF YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW IT, YOU NEED TO FIND THE CALLING WHEREIN YOU ARE CALLED.--And it shouldn't be too hard to do--just look back: What were your parents? What were your grandparents? What special talents or gifts or training or callings or occupations or professions did they have?
         8. And look at yourself, what kind of gifts do you have? What particular proclivities & special talents do you have? What were you trained for, educated in? What experience did God see to it that you had?
         9. You say, "Well, I'm not doing what I was doing in the World before" or "this isn't what I got my education for & this isn't what my parents did.--I'm doing something totally different!" Well, maybe you were trained in the wrong profession to begin with! Maybe you were a square peg in a round hole, but in God's work you finally found your calling, your place, your proper hole, your proper niche where God can really use you & which He made you for to begin with.
         10. He probably even gave you the right parents & grandparents for it & has sowed the seed in you to bring to full flower today, now, when it's needed. So why on Earth should you be trying to do something else that you're not fitted for, educated for, experienced in & is just not your calling?--Quit trying to fit your square peg into some round hole! Pray & ask God what your calling is & what you're best suited for, & stick to it!
         11. THERE'S A PLACE FOR EVERYBODY, & EVERYBODY OUGHT TO BE IN THEIR PLACE! So find what God wants you to do, what God made you for, what you were born for, what you were given the heredity for & the environment for & the education & training & experience for & the talent & the gifts & the knowledge for. You ought to know by this time!
         12. For God's sake, if you HAVEN'T found it, FIND it!--And for God's sake, if you HAVE found it, STICK to it! Don't go flittin' around from here to yon, hit & miss & just makin' a mess! Find your calling & stay in it, in Jesus' name! "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called."--Shtick to it! (See "Shtick!", No.703.)--Have you?

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