Kaleō – Lesson 1
I look around this room at this beautiful group of women, many of you I am blessed to call my friends. I don’t know the depth of your stories and what it took to get you all here in this room, but I am pretty sure God has done a mighty work in you. I see women who have a strong faith in their savior, women who read and soak in as much of the Bible as they can and women who want more. Women who the Holy Spirit has called for such a time as this, much like when Esther was called.
Esther 4:14 tells us that Mordecai sent a message to Esther ‘For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’
So, what did Esther do? She went to the King with boldness, which could have gotten her killed, but instead, led to her people being saved from complete annihilation.
Esther 8:16 The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.
Now, God probably hasn’t called any of us to save enough people to fill an entire nation, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have something very important for us to do.
So, what is Kaleō καλέω (kaleō)?
Kaleō καλέω (kaleō),: to beckon or call.
Kaleō καλέω (kaleō),: The biblical word often used in scriptures means “call,” however it is no ordinary call. This kind of calling carries the thought of a sense of strategic power, purpose, specific intent, and concrete direction.
Kaleō καλέω (kaleō),: This call is special. It's the call that appealed to Moses through a burning bush. It's the call that beaconed Samuel late at night. It's a call that the Apostle Paul would refer to over 29 times in the New Testament, almost always with a sense of divine purpose.
Kaleō καλέω (kaleō),: most biblical scholars would agree, is a call that comes from God with a sense of service, sacrifice, and dedication.
Ephesians 4:1-9, 11-14
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says, “When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Now I don’t know all the reasons why God chose to put us all together from the far reaches of the earth, to land in this country, to become part of each other’s lives, but I believe one of the reasons is to encourage each other.
Proverbs 27:17 tell us ‘Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.’
I know for myself I have been completely blessed by your friendships and I look forward to walking the streets of Heaven with you all in the future.
I cannot help but feel we are all here for a reason bigger than just ourselves, and I think we all know this is not just a coincidence we are all here at the same place at the same time.
For me, the cost of being here was almost unbearable; I lost a marriage of 23 years, and not just a horrible rotten marriage, this was a marriage that I loved being a part of, one I thought would last me my entire life. I knew when it was imploding that God would turn the ashes into something beautiful, but it was still incredibly painful to walk through. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that all you women, sitting around this circle are just a part of the beauty that came from the ashes of my old, beautiful life, and I am finally at a place in my journey that I am glad I went through what I went through.
Before I even thought about doing this study, I felt compelled to ask my group of friends, why are you here and how can I encourage you to live out the calling God has placed on your life. Then as I thought about doing this Bible study and several of you encouraged me to do it. I realized this would be the perfect group to pose this question to.
Why are you here? How can I encourage you to live out the calling God has placed on your life? How can we encourage each other during this season of our lives?
It is entirely possible and likely we are in different stages of our walk with Jesus and have very different calls on our life from the Holy Spirit. I thought we could spend the next four weeks figuring out what each of our callings might be and how our spiritual gifts will help us accomplish what God would like us to accomplish for the Kingdom while we are here during this season and any season we have coming up.
Along the way I would like to encourage everyone to be an encourager. Let’s lift each one up, support each other’s thoughts and ideas and hopefully by the end of the four weeks we will all have a better idea of what direction we should each be heading in to make an even bigger impact on the Kingdom than we already are.
Because we are. Each one of us is making an impact. We all live by the fruits of the Spirit, which are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control. (Galatians 5:22) Now, let’s take these fruits of the Spirit, add in our spiritual gifts and dive into what God is calling us to do for His Kingdom.
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
We are all called. What Jesus gave Paul He has also given to us. None of us are second-class believers. He calls us all to share what he’s given to us with a needy world. You have a call. Why not step into it?
Also, in John 14:26 Jesus says ‘The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.’
Kaleō – Lesson 2
Purpose: Last week we talked about not confusing our calling with our purpose. Our purpose, as Christians never changes throughout our lives. Our main purpose is to know God and make him known, to glorify God, by not only loving God, but by loving people. Also, by obeying God’s word that He so graciously laid out before us. Our ultimate purpose always comes back to bringing God glory.
I want to start out today’s lesson by saying first and foremost our calling, each one of our callings, is to be obedient to God. Hopefully this takes a little pressure off if you feel like you’ve been searching this past week and are feeling lost. Just ask yourself, ‘Am I being obedient to God, am I listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying to me and following through with his promptings?’ If you are, and you have been then you are right on track, you are walking in your calling already.
Because being obedient is your calling today and every day. However, as you continue to be obedient, He will increase the call on your life, and I am sure He has in different seasons in different ways. Many of us walked in one of our first callings daily when we became mothers. Now, many of those motherly roles, that once took so much of our time, are no longer needed in the same way, so during this season of our life it only makes sense to think God has new callings for us.
We all are striving to become more and more like Jesus, who also had a calling. His calling, first and foremost, just like ours, was to be obedient to God.
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38
As we get older, we can look back and see how God uses our specific circumstances so we will be able to serve Him in specific ways. Our callings are what we are made for, the specific good works which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in.
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
John 14:26 Jesus says ‘The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.’
We are all called. Jesus gave Paul the same Advocate He has given to us, and just like Paul we are called to share what He’s given to us with a needy world. We are all part of the body of Christ, all part of His church.
Ephesians 4:11-13 NLT tells us: Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
While these gifts are freely given for those who believe, they do not come without a cost. We use our gifts in our calling, and callings usually have a tendency to crush our spirit, but take heart, Psalm 34:18 tells us…
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
The reason we go through a crushing season is so the chaff we willingly or unknowingly carry around with us, has to be blown away.
The chaff is anything in our lives that is not helping us and is not useful to the Kingdom. Things like addictions, bad habits, sometimes it is even groups of friends and sometimes it is even turning away from family members. This can range from being annoying to being downright painful.
Matthew 3:12 tells us He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn, but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”
Let’s take 5 minutes and write. Think about in what way you have been crushed, so that your chaff can be blown away.
What things in your life bring you pleasure?
What gives you a sense of purpose?
What ignites your passion?
What are you doing when you feel most like the Holy Spirit is right there helping you?
What is Jesus trying to tell you?
How does He want to use you for the benefit of the Kingdom?
I’d love it if we could go around the room and share what it is you think your calling is. Maybe it is creating a movie, maybe it is praying with strangers, maybe it is praying with friends, maybe it is being a prayer warrior. There is nothing insignificant when Jesus calls you. Let’s all try to step out of our comfort zone and claim our calling.
Kaleō – Lesson 3
Good morning my beautiful friends!
If God is with us who can be against us? Romans 8:31
Well, the enemy, actually. He is always against us, and sometimes I feel like he has been working overtime in this group in some ways, but still God reigns, for if God is with us who can be against us right?
Romans 12:2 says: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.
The enemy is going to try and use our own mind to get the best of us, especially as we step more and more into our calling. That is why it is so important to renew our mind. One way to renew our mind is to capture every thought. If you know the thought you had was not a ‘God’ thought, but one that the enemy is trying to get you to believe….shut it down!
I was told once that we have six seconds to shut a thought down. After that it is a choice whether we keep telling it to ourselves.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Another way we can shut out the voice of the enemy is by listening to those who have our best interest at heart. Our friends who encourage us and lift us up. The ones who see us as Jesus sees us with love and compassion.
So that brings us here to Ephesians 2:10: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
He knows the work He has set aside for each one of us specifically!!! I love that. And he brought us all here together so that we can encourage each other in what it is He has prepared in advance for us to do.
Romans 8:28 tells us:
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
He wants us to work in our giftings to fulfill what he has called us to do.
Last week the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask you all for three words in regard to your calling. While working on this lesson mine came to me. Whenever I’ve thought about my words this week, I would throw different things around. Like trying to come up with the three that would stick. But then, like the Holy Spirit does, my three words settled on me. They weren’t a list, like I thought they were, they were a sentence. I’m a Writer! All the other words that I was grasping at will fall under this statement! Under my calling. I’m a Writer! I have known this for quite some time, but I have just ignored it, by cleaning house, playing solitaire on my phone, and all the other tiny distractions I do, while making excuses why I’m not writing. Portugal has been good for me. I have been able to silence some of the noise that comes with living in the US and focus, really focus on what God wants from me. Turns out he wants me to be a writer.
Let’s go around the room and share what your three words are, how they came to you and what your next step feels like.
During this time we are just going to let each person talk about their three words, how they came to them and what the next step feels like.
But, while each person is talking, if you feel like the Holy Spirit has impressed something upon you about that person, please write it down and we will take turns sharing that at the end of our session together today. We just want to let everyone have a chance to share their three words.
Sharing time
Homework: I would like everyone to draw an envelope out of this bag and open it when you get home. I think I would like to keep the names you draw secret for this week and then next week you will share who’s name you drew. During the next seven days we will each prayer for our sister in whatever way we each feel led. But let’s also do some focused prayers for 1. Direction in their callings 2. Peace in their callings 3. Excitement for their callings and 4. for the Holy Spirit to really bring more clarity to them about their calling.
That is the first part of our homework. The second part is through this prayer time be asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how you can encourage them.
Bring to next week’s study a letter, or a note, to your person, along with a scripture about your sister. Notice how the Holy Spirit helps you write the letter.
We will each read our letters to our sister. This will not only encourage your sister, but I feel like we will all be encouraged by this exercise of encouragement.
If you feel led to write a personal letter or note that is just for your sister and not for the whole group, by all means please do so, but please have one you can share with the group as well.
Lesson 4
I will be posing Lesson 4 on February 28th