Have you ever had a calling from God?

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My neighbour is an accountant. He is 33, married to a lovely woman and has no children. They are both very Christian and regularly talk about God in everyday conversation ie. when they got married they could feel God’s presence etc.

He has recently had a calling from God to try a long held dream to become a singer. He says he has felt God leading him down this path and can no longer refuse him.

This is all great but what does a calling from God actually involve? What’s the difference between that and just deciding you fancy a career change? As a non Christian this is not something I have ever experienced but interested to find out.

I've not had it myself, but most of the ordained people and lay preachers I know would probably say so. Ditto things like Authorised Pastoral Assistants (does exactly what it says on the tin) and in a smaller way churchwarden and members of committees. (I don't count my own membership, unless you consider the certain knowledge that no-one else was going to volunteer to be a calling). People who found mission projects almost certainly have the same thing.

A calling to be a singer.... hmmm... I mean, I'm not a vocational analysis expert, but I suspect that would be looked at somewhat askance. I concur that he's a bit bored of being an accountant and wants to get famous, and thinks it will be received better if he says God wants me to do it.

I'd also be very carefully scrutinising his plans for becoming "a singer". I'd give a lot more credence, for example to "make sure I have 2 years' expenses saved up and in the meantime join a load of high-level amateur groups and network, get some decent tuition and learn theory and arranging and then concentrate on building up places that value my reliability and entertainment" than "go on X-factor".

It's an inarguable way to ensure an equally religious wife agrees to support him financially, practically and emotionally to give up earning a living and going out every night/not coming home due to recording sessions and gym visits and fancy clothes right up to the point at which he trades her in for an easily impressed 19 year old.

Christians believe that callings/vocations can be for anything that isn’t sinful. So God could call you to be a nurse or a teacher or an ethical business owner or indeed a singer!

It’s a bit sad hearing so many people be so disrespectful about religious beliefs (that are not harming anyone if you disagree).

Has god given his wife a calling to be the breadwinner in a role that covers the mortgage and all bills while he's becoming 'a singer'? Because he won't be bringing money in.

Let's face it after all, nobody ever gets a calling to be a bin man or fish scaler. It's always something socially acceptable and/or glamorous.

(Nuns, monks and the Priesthood are a completely different category).

He sounds deluded. I'm sure these 'callings from god' are just based on wishes of the individual to justify what they're doing. Oh I tripped over a kerb by a church 'that must be a calling from god'. or other such examples. I find it all really silly

Ok so back when I was s child I wanted to steal some chocolate as I went to put it in my pocket I heard someone yell my name kind if in my head iyswim I put it back

No idea if it was God or my conscience but it was pant wet scary for a kid to hear and I didn't steal so 🤷‍♀️

Yes I have!
The rudeness and unkindness on this thread says way more about their unpleasant character than those who are replying thoughtfully. It reminds me of the biblical verse of recognising the roots of a tree by its fruit 🤔

I'd expect a calling to be in a vocational capacity, tbh... Priesthood, healthy worker, etc.
Btw, can we lay off the sky wizard/fairy shite, please? There's always some 40watt on every thread like this who thinks it's witty.
It's not.

@Russellbrandshair there is also one particularly apt in this case.

Philippians 2:3-4 (3) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, (4) not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

I love that verse!

Presumably if nobody ever had a calling from God there would be no Priests, Vicars, Monks, Imams, Rabbis, etc.

I've had a few clear callings and they've all led amazing places.

@Merryhouse the certain knowledge that nobody else is going to volunteer is the closest I've had to a calling!

I haven't heard my calling yet, but I have met people that i laughed at thinking that they were just being holy on to turn up and do as they were called to be. Has he fasted about it?

I had a dream with God in it the other week.
I am not even a believer and it scared me stupid!

I am not Christian and I’m not sure my religion has anything that would translate as a ‘calling’ but I do think we reach pivotal points in life where we can go one way or the other (I don’t think it’s necessarily anything to do with God though). I once got offered a job in another country, which I’d never considered even travelling to before. I looked at photos of the neighbourhood where I would live and I knew it was meant to be somewhere I was supposed to live. I took the job and moved there, and met dh (also an expat who had just moved there for work) 8 weeks later. The rest is history. I was never that sure about doing anything before.

That said, quitting one’s job to become a ‘singer’ just makes someone sound a bit mad in the current climate. So that is more likely to be insanity talking than God.

I guess God could be calling him to sing professionally for a number of reasons:
He might sing the Christian message.
He might sing other things but that will give him opportunities to witness to many.
He might become a singer which then would lead to some other service to God.

Someone I know well who is now a wonderful vicar, who was "called" in middle age. He experienced three different groups of people, who all knew him in very different contexts, all suddenly telling him he should consider ordination. This happened in one day. He'd never given it a moment's thought previously!

@Windyatthebeach why did it scare you, if you don't mind my asking?

I'd tell him he clearly had the wrong number!

I’ve felt God’s presence or “messages” from him, which I don’t really talk about as it makes me sound a bit weird xD brought me back to the church though

Never had a calling but I suspect it’s similar with the message being “oi Dave, you should be a singer”

If the way you understand and make sense of your emotions and thoughts and experiences is that they come from god, then you're going to label your internal experiences that way.

They're not different feelings or emotions or experiences to the ones other people have, they're just labelled and explained differently to fit within the individual person's framework of reference and meaning.

Yes: many, many times.

How do I know? Well, how did I know what stuff to put on my parents' shopping order today? They told me. God does likewise.

I'm also an accountant (albeit one who doesn't want a career change). And ... there's no way I'm batshit: I have a very sound grip on reality!

I am a Christian and have not experienced a calling - I do have faith, though.