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Choose the Topic you would like Al to Address: Choose a Topic Below... Love Sex Pregnancy Loneliness Priorities Too Busy Insecurity Material things Rejection Anger Forgiveness Suicide a Sin Witness God's Will Ministry Satanism Security Death Salvation? I feel suicidal Bad Language Drugs/Alcohol Addiction Gossiping and/or Lying Guilt Trust Smoking or Dipping? Abortion Occult Suffering My parents hate me Rebelling Obedience Sharing Jesus with Parents Divorce Question 15. How can I know for certain that God is calling me into the ministry? Many people go into the "professional, full-time" ministry for the wrong reasons. Here are a few: • A person may have had an intense experience when he or she became a Christian, and want to maintain that "spiritual high." They think the ministry is as "high as you can go" with God. • Some Christians do not understand who they are in Christ and believe that they have to "perform" to get God to accept them. The only way to really win God's approval, they think, is to make the "ultimate sacrifice" and go into the ministry. • Sometimes it is not God's approval a person is trying to win as much as it is the approval of parents, a girlfriend, or someone else important to that person. • If a person is trying to get rid of old guilt, sometimes going into the ministry, and "giving it all up for Jesus," is the only way he feels he can even the score. • Sometimes if a person has failed in other vocations, the ministry may look like a place to hide. It may also seem like a safe place, away from the temptations and trash of the secular business world. • Men who are insecure and need admiration, authority, or hero-worship look to the ministry as a way to have it all. The pulpit becomes a stage, and the position becomes a way to have power over people. You need to first search your heart honestly and see if you are guilty of having one or more of these bad motives. Ask God to show you what is really in your heart (Psalms 139:23-24). Maybe you've just become a Christian. Or, perhaps you've drifted away from your faith, and now you're back with enthusiasm. Is God calling you into the ministry, or is he just calling you to a new, Holy lifestyle? The world does not need more preachers; it needs more Godly Christians. The call to full-time ministry is a special one. If God is calling you, He'll let you know. The desires will burn brighter and brighter and nothing will dim it. Even though you could be successful at other things, you know you couldn't be happy doing anything else. God will also confirm it to you through mature Christians. One last thing: If God is calling you to the ministry, you will begin to minister now. You won't wait until after your education is complete. You'll have a desire to start where you are and look for ways to serve the Lord today. PSALMS 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.