Are the gifts and calling of God permanent?

by awakened
Re: Are the gifts and calling of God permanent?

Or can a person be disqualified from their original calling? If so, how so?

I will say that I do not believe a person can be disqualified from their calling. There is no denomination, no person, or nothing that can disqualify us except what lay between our ears, meaning the lies we believe.

Romans 8:34 Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God””and He is interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 11:29 For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you.

I'm sure you'll get many more answers! :)

God bless,
Lisa

I can't see a free gift(or grace)(ability)(bent in a certain way) as something that could be taken away. I do believe examples like king Saul and Sampson may be good indicators of those who perhaps did not follow the call of God on their lives, or even the nation of Israel in the wilderness journey where they were never able to enter into the rest of the Lord, but the very idea really speaks to the integrity of God more than the response of the person and how grace and free choice operates in the real world and are seen in scripture with abundant examples..And please I do not really want to get into a calvinistic argument verses free will and all that mess.

On a side note I have read testimonies where people said that they were not God s first choice and so forth, honestly I believe they are wrong and that through maybe some sort of false humility that is how they see it...I highly doubt that The God of all Creation who Knows the end from the beginning consulted with them and would make such a statement, that is plainly human reasoning and thought processes.

My two cents:) Now I'll duck as the words start to fly.....

Romans 11:29- Gift and calling of God are irrevocable.

God's calling of a person will not change at all. Even if they no longer walk with Jesus. They should still be able to exercise their gift. I have the gift of tongues and share God's word. I actively use my gift of sharing Word for building the body of Christ. Even if I slip up and do not walk in a way pleasing to God, still I can use my gift to build Church. But I myself will not be qualified for his kingdom. That is why Apostle Paul said that " after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified". (1 Cor 9:27).

So a preacher who is actively serving God can be disqualified if he is not walking in a manner worthy of God.

We read it in Matthew 7:22- Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

These were people who had their gift and calling. They even fulfilled it by prophesying regularly in Jesus name. Still Jesus will disqualify them from entering his Kingdom calling them evildoers.

In essence, gift and calling are not something for us to worry about. If we have them then let us use them the way he wants it to be used. But apart from that our personal salvation is more important. But normally gift and calling will easily blind people. They see how useful they are in ministry and miss the real purpose of God's calling which is personal salvation of their soul.

Hmmmm...I was thinking the whole Saul and David scenario...

In case of Saul he lost his Anointing within 2 years of becoming King. But he remained as a king for over many years. God did not remove his calling to be a king though he did not back his work.
Even Samson lost his anointing and was captured but his calling was always kept. He was able to die doing his calling of fighting the philistines.

I believe Judas also did not lose his calling. If he repented and come to Jesus after resurrection, he would have continued as an apostle just like how Peter was accepted.

God's calling will always remain but his standard will not be reduced for us, though he mightily used David as a King, he still punished David for his sin of adultery.

Brother Mark,

I thought that's what you meant (ministry/task), and while I agree with the other saints who've posted in context of receiving Gods grace and we know the gifts are without repentance, I do believe with regards to a ministry or task it is different....

The first thing that came to mind when I initially read your OP was Ravenhill's voice "beware lest another MAN steal your crown" and because I learned that application from him I might just be a lil biased-

Tho it would seem to be the case with the mule as well,... I mean I can't imagine that the mule was Gods first choice when we know that the Lord had given the words to the prophet. And Annanias and Saphira would (for me) also be on this side as well as Moses not entering the promised land-

Tho in the case of Jonah it would seem that God "made him" call the people of Nineveh to repentance... so on that one as well as Joseph (Egypt) would go the other way
So for me it's not a "fixed" thing in that God is not bound by a law as it were..

Honestly there are, like most issues, scriptures that can be read to make a case for both sides and this may be a case where both are true?

Tho it would seem to be the case with the mule as well,... I mean I can't imagine that the mule was Gods first choice when we know that the Lord had given the words to the prophet. And Annanias and Saphira would (for me) also be on this side as well as Moses not entering the promised land-

I do not have time to search but is there a place where God tells Moses that he will lead the people into promise Land? I always believed the calling of Moses was only to Lead the people out of Egypt. Which was never taken away from him.

Regarding Annanias and Saphira, there is no mention of God's calling upon them. They were originally saved people who were part of a Church but never given any responsibility.

I believe we are discussing about people who can fulfill God's calling even after slip up. I believe everyone can fulfill even if they repent or not.

Solomon was a great King and God used him to write the books in Bible and never took the kingdom away from him. But his soul was not preserved because of his disobedience.

I believe God is consistent with his dealing. He has never removed anyone from their calling. People have ran away and never returned. But if they chose to stay with their calling, he never removed them even though they became unfaithful to him.

I am not a Calvinist. I believe man can lose his salvation. But salvation and calling to serve God are two different things. Though they accompany each other at the beginning, they may not be coupled with each other till the end. Salvation may be removed but ministry calling may still be successful.

Hmmm,
Don't know about being disqualified from original calling but I remember reading of a preacher who was called to go minister in some backwoods area. The church grew and did become huge. However, the preacher began to notice an elderly man in the first 3 rows or so, who always had tears in his eyes. Finally the preacher got curious enough to talk to said man.
Turns out 10 years before the preacher moved to said backwooods, the elder man was called to move to that same location, even received a vision of what the church building would look like!

He showed the preacher and it was a rough outline of the church building!

I don't believe the 'old preacher' was disqualified from his original calling but I do believe he lost a great opportunity that was a significant part of his ministry, hopefully, NOT his life work.

I can't recall now the reason he gave for failing to obey the leading he had to move to that area.

The book was long ago, I don't even recall the title or the preacher's name but I can't ever forget that story.

I do believe a person can be called and fail to live up to that call...for myriads of reasons.

May the Lord help us to finish our race well. Amen!

Per your request...
Numbers 20:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

In my understanding (which may be biased) this is a perfect example of what I believe brother Mark is asking-

Also Matt 22:1-14 could be interpreted in light of brother Marks question-

Per your request...
Numbers 20:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

In my understanding (which may be biased) this is a perfect example of what I believe brother Mark is asking-

I understand that but is there a original promise for Moses and Aaron that they should bring the congregation into the land? I do not know if it exists. So my point is they never had the calling hence it was not revoked. God just restricted Moses from entering the land. Moses's only calling was to lead the people out of Egypt which got never revoked.

Hi Theophila,

That is an interesting anecdote. Thank you for sharing.

I think that it is helpful to consider whether any ministers can disqualify themselves in the New Testament.

What about divorce? Is that pastoral or five-fold call "permanent" if he has an unscriptural divorce?

There are also individuals who -- while not necessarily permanently "disqualify" themselves -- are not supposed to stand in ministry while they cannot control the affairs of their own household.