In the natural, we often seek to get appointed to those roles that fit squarely with what we think we should be doing. We long to do what we believe we can do well in the natural abilities we were born with. This follows the human plan.
But in the spiritual, it is God alone who can give us our spiritual appointments, assigning us and empowering us for our God-given role in His kingdom. It is one thing to choose the role we want to serve Him, and another to be appointed to that role by God Himself.
You need to stop submitting in the natural and start submitting in the spiritual. “Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants.” (Romans 8:5 GNT).
God’s selection of what we will be appointed to do is not based on our natural abilities but on His divine purpose for our lives to serve Him. It will be the Holy Spirit that can lead you into this role and then empower you from on high to fulfill God’s purpose for you.
God can do more with you than your abilities because He fills you with His own. “Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20 NOG).
Lose the fleshly idea that God has some grand and powerful role in mind for you. Those thoughts will be the hindrance to Him being able to use you very much at all. It’s not how high we serve Him that matters, but how faithfully and willingly we serve Him.
Sometimes it’s the least noticed person at church who is the most pleasing to God. “Anna, a prophetess, was there at the Temple…She was now 84 years old. Anna was always at the Temple; she never left. She worshiped God by fasting and praying day and night” (Luke 2:36-37 ERV).
Lose the fleshly idea that you are unable to be of any value to God in serving Him for His kingdom. That is proof you don’t trust Him nor believe that He can be your strength and give you the supernatural abilities to serve Him in His kingdom.
The call of God is never dependent on the abilities of man, but only his willingness to serve. “For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have” (2 Corinthians 8:12 NKJV).
A spiritual appointment is the role God will assign for a person to walk in. A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability that the Holy Spirit gives to believers to fulfill the appointment they were given. The first is an assignment, and the second is the abilities needed to do it.
You’ll do your best for God when you let Him do His best through you. “Yes, God is working in you to help you want to do what pleases him. Then he gives you the power to do it” (Philippians 2:13 ICB).
If God has appointed you to be a healer, then you can be sure the Holy Spirit will give you the spiritual gift of healing. But this doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit would not sometimes give the gift of healing to someone appointed to be a prophet.
Only God can help you become who He intended you to be. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV).
Just as the Holy Spirit may give you more than one spiritual gift, so God may give you more than one appointment. The gifts and appointments may last for a lifetime or may have a season. God’s purpose for you determines what He will have you do.
The greatest thing you can accomplish is God’s purpose for your life. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and [some] teachers” (Ephesians 4:11 NKJV).
By God’s design, our churches should first have apostles that these messengers would reach out to the lost and the broken. Second, the prophets who would give a prophetic and inspired word from God. And third, the teachers, that God’s children would be trained up in the ways of the Lord. When all three are working together in unity, the power of God will fulfill God’s purposes in that church.
Only the Lord is qualified to assign kingdom roles. “Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages” 1 Corinthians 12:28 NLT).
Also, by God’s design, there are many other appointments for His children. Each appointment fills a gap that will serve His purposes. It doesn’t matter what your appointment is, but will you walk in it? When we are in His will, then He is in us to do through us what we could never do on our own.
The best orchestra has a diversity of instruments with a unity of purpose. “There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:5 NKJV).
Often, the challenge we have is not the appointment God has for us, but the appointment He has for another. It is by no accident that one of the Ten Commandments is not to covet what someone else has. Coveting what others have only reduces what God has for you.
Never covet the spiritual gift God has given to another lest He withhold the spiritual gift that He has for you. “The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others… it is the Spirit who… decides which gifts to give to each of us” (1 Corinthians 12:7,11 NLT).
Do you know your appointment? Do you rely on your abilities to walk in your calling? Do you know what spiritual gift the Holy Spirit has for you? Do you believe that the purposes God has for you are being achieved? Ask the hard questions, pray for an answer, and don’t stop until you get one.
We are but utensils in the Hands of God, and we argue about whether we are a spoon or a fork. “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6 NKJV).
Don’t let the doubts given by the enemy deter you from the call of God. You want to make sure you’re in His will, but you always want to make sure it is the voice of God who is directing you in the way you should go.
When the Holy Spirit is your guide, you’ll be going in the right direction. “If you wander from the right path, either to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘You should go this way. Here is the right way’” (Isaiah 30:21 ERV).
Do you know who the apostles, prophets, and teachers are in your church? Do they work together or do they operate in opposition to one another? Or are they even there? The problem with most churches is that they don’t really want all three of them.
When we preach on Holy Spirit power, the Devil always sends someone to prevent it. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves… having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1,2,5 NKJV).
The reason so many fail in their calling is that it really wasn’t their calling to begin with. Too often, we are led by our intellect more than we are led by the Spirit of God. Test yourself to be sure you know beyond a doubt that the Spirit of God has appointed you to what you’re doing.
Trying to operate outside God’s calling is like trying to eat soup with a fork. “And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11 AMPC).
The best way to know you are in God’s will is not if things are easy, but if He is continuing to lead you the way in which He would have you go. Sometimes it’s the closed doors and seemingly insurmountable obstacles that prove we are going the right way.
Don’t look for the easy way but the right way. “Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it” (Matthew 7:13-14 CEV).
I pray that God would richly bless you with the knowledge of your spiritual appointment and then the knowledge of the spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit will give you in order to help you walk in the calling God has ordained for you from before the beginning of time.
Live the life that God has planned for you. The Lord told Jeremiah His plan for him: “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4-5 NLT).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
So good, brother Paul! Thank you for your thoughts on spiritual gifts here…. You are a blessing!
Sharon Aguilera (Revive Covenant Church)
Thank you, Sharon! I’m so blessed whenever I get to come to Revive and here you play the anointed music. It has been a tremendous blessing to me!
Beautiful writing my friend! Beautiful!
Thank you my friend!
So very richly real and Holy Spirit helpful this writing on spiritual appointments is! I thank the One Three Person God for your spiritual appointment, beloved brother Paul.
Such inspiring writing my brother! It has been an observation to me that Holy Spirit anointed writing as well as speaking carries a beautiful tone of wisdom within. This is most certainly true in what you have written here. As you point out so well our desire in how we want to serve God can and often is off course particularly to the new or self focused believer. Spiritual maturity is not measured in how many months or years, we know the mature by the spirit and their words as well as actions. As you state here. “God’s selection of what we will be appointed to do is not based on our natural abilities but on His divine purpose for our lives to serve Him” The following paragraph from this posting grasped my attention. “Do you know who the apostles, prophets, and teachers are in your church? Do they work together or do they operate in opposition to one another? Or are they even there? The problem with most churches is that they don’t really want all three of them” It could be asked do the apostles, prophets, and teachers recognize themselves as to their calling and election? 2 Peter 1:10 NKJV Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. One thing that is certainly lacking or nonexistent in most church settings is that of the apostles and prophets not recognizing their own calling and election. Or if they do the church structure based on values of the world opposes them. From experience I have seen and been part of the apostle and prophet working as to the biblical model of Ephesians 2:20 the word clearly states this is to be the order of church structure. Ephesians 2:20 NLT Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. Apostles and prophets operating in tandem have an ability to recognize and call the body into alignment and proper function. The apostle recognizing a calling and gifting and the prophet confirming that without knowing what the apostle has said to the ears of a brother or sister seeking the will of God has the ability to change the course of the life of the hearer. The truly seeking heart has a confirmation in their spirit that confirms the truth of what they hear. This can be a wonderful way of confirming spiritual appointments. Let us never loose sight of our purpose. Ephesians 4:9-13 NASB Now this expression He ascended what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things. And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the [knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
It’s so interesting with how the church can stray so far from the guidance given at the outset of Christianity in the Word of God. And along the way some new church will come on the scene, and the Holy Spirit will be on fire for that church. And then a denomination will be born, and over time new leaders will take over, and the organized religion will start to take hold, and before you know it the Holy Spirit is organized right out of the church. And all the while religious men think themselves the guardians of the faith, when what they have really guarded is their natural positions that will be stripped away the moment they step into heaven. What we need in our day is even a few small churches that dare to stand on ALL the Word of God, and welcome the holy Spirit with more than just a song, with their hearts.