Hearing voices telling me i have the call to the ministry

[NotSparedTheRod]

Hello all,

some of you may have seen my other posts where I wrote about hearing voices. I still do; a legacy, I feel, of my long time of drug and alcohol addiction. For a while now they've been trying to convince me that they're the call to becoming an ordained Christian minister. I have no training in ministry, never took a single course on it, and only got baptized within the last calendar year. What do you all think? Is it the devil trying to fool me, or make me hate Jesus/the church, or could it be legitimate?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[PloverWing]

In my church, we have a discernment process for people who feel a calling to ordained ministry. The person meets with their pastor, and with a group of lay people in the congregation, and they have extended conversations to discern together the exact nature of the call, and the kind of ministry that would be the best fit for the person.

Do you have anything like that in your church? I would at least begin by talking to the pastor, who might be able to give you some guidance. If there are wise lay people in the congregation whose judgment you trust, you might talk to them as well.

 

[Pioneer3mm]

To:OP
---
It seems that you need healing & restoration.
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You need more detail/clarity..
- concerning..the 'call to ministry'.
---
Sometimes..it takes years to find out/confirm the calling.

 

[linux.poet]

Long term drug and alcohol addiction can alter the states of the mind. Perhaps what you should do is step forward and actually take a course (just one course, don't overdo it) on some kind of ministry subject. If that is experience is good, you can expand your education and continue on a profitable path for your life. If that experience is bad and makes you miserable, you can use that experience as internal clout to argue against the voices in your head and tell them to shut up.

That is honestly what I would do if I were in your situation. Sometimes the voice inside of my head has proven true, and other times he has been a big fat liar. The only thing to do is to test his conclusions using scripture and data from the external world.

 

[oikonomia]

In my church, we have a discernment process for people who feel a calling to ordained ministry. The person meets with their pastor, and with a group of lay people in the congregation, and they have extended conversations to discern together the exact nature of the call, and the kind of ministry that would be the best fit for the person.

Do you have anything like that in your church? I would at least begin by talking to the pastor, who might be able to give you some guidance. If there are wise lay people in the congregation whose judgment you trust, you might talk to them as well.

In the Lord's recovery of proper local churches there are things we learn to avoid.

What is the Lord's Recovery?

We are all brothers and should avoid hierarchy.
We are all functioning members of the body of Christ.

We should not have a clerical class or a group of professional spiritual people as mediators.
If one has the faith to drop their job to give all their time to serve the church, we can support such.
But they are still and forever just "brothers" or "sisters."

There should be no clergy class and no laity class.
This stifles the normal function of all the members of the Body of Christ.
The New Testament teaches the priesthood of the believers.

There should be no such titles as "Reverend So-and-so" or "Father So-and-so" or "Mother So-and-so."
There need be no special garb like turned around collars or long robes and special hats.
If you seek education in Greek or Hebrew or Church History or any Seminary like subject,
some of that may be helpful. But you are STILL in the church just a "brother."

Any degree or "ordination" you may receive is a status towards the world not towards the church.