Ephesians 4:1-2, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, ² with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love…”

            The first time I read that scripture, I was completely stumped. I read it repeatedly just to make sure I was reading it right. The part that completely shook me was the bold part. Holy Spirit through Paul tells us that we are to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. As I meditated on it, Holy Spirit slowly began to reveal to me what He means.

            As Christians there is an expected way of living that God expects of us. He tells us throughout the scriptures to walk in love or to walk in accordance with His word. That is the expectation that He has of us. Beyond that, He expects us to walk in accordance with our callings. If He has called you into ministry there is a different expectation He has of you, if He has called you into business there is a different expectation, He has of you. Some of these expectations are moral issues, while some are spiritual expectations. I will just focus on the spiritual expectations.

            What are spiritual expectations? Spiritual expectations are things the Lord expects us to walk believing in and practicing. A basic example is God expects all Christians to believe that He loves them unconditionally. That is a truth that is seen throughout the scriptures especially the New Testament. If you are walking worthy of the calling of God in your life, whatever God has tasked you in adding to the body of Christ, God expects you to believe and practice it. A good example of this is Billy Graham, God tasked him to preach God’s word to the world. God expected him to believe every word in the Bible. Another example is Oral Roberts, God charged him to preach about healing. God expected Oral to be fully persuaded about healing.

            Now why is this important because this is basic stuff. To us it might seem basic but to God it is very important. The thing about God is that He sees our hearts. He knows exactly what we believe. One of the most important things that I have been taught is, ‘you can only give what you have.’ A lot of people have pretended to have God’s word in them and have gotten on pulpits and preached the word that they have heard and not the word that is in them. In Acts 19:11-20, there is a story that many of us are familiar with. It is the story of the seven sons of Sceva. These sons of Sceva tried to cast out demons from people without believing the word, they only did it because they saw Paul the Apostle do it. The story goes the demons challenged their authority and chased the sons away. They were doing something from what they have heard.            

Walking worthy of your calling means walking believing in what God has called you to do. Believing in your assignment from the Master. That is how we can fulfill His call in our lives.