Confirmation of the call

NORSK
Through the whole of my ministry, I have stressed the importance of confirmation. Yesterday I wrote about creating an environment in which the Holy Spirit can act and speak with reference to an important event in Acts. Here is what the Holy Spirit said:

“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
Acts 13:2b-3  

I am totally convinced that Barnabas and Saul had felt the calling for a long time, but the mission was so important that they needed the sanction and confirmation from the church. “No man is an island”. We all find ourselves in a context, in this incident the context was the community of believers, and as such it is important that the community confirms what the Holy Spirit most likely already had told the people concerned.

It is intriguing to see how this happened in the first church.

• Fasting – sharpening the one/them who shall confirm
• Prayer – supplication of the one who is calling
• Laying on of hands – the visual confirmation of those who are called

I do not know if it was from this moment Paul realized that he had received an apostle’s ministry, but I normally make a distinction between the spiritual gifts and the ministry gifts, and that distinction is that the ministry gifts are to be identified and confirmed by the church.

‘Manna’ for today:

I want to confirm what I see the Holy Spirit does for and in people.