Paul wanted to visit the Church of Corinth sooner, but he saw a great and effective door that he had to attend to. He actually doesn't come and stay with them, if you read 2 Corinthians you will find out he couldn't because he was busy with his "great and effective door". So what does that mean? What exactly is a great and effective door?
A great and effective door in your life is an opportunity that comes up that coincides with your calling. So, Paul's calling was to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. It was not his calling to build up and disciple churches, although he did some of that too, his main objective was to spread the gospel to unbelieving Gentiles. So Paul's great and effective door would be giving him the opportunity to do just that. He could have stayed with the Church he developed in Corinth, and helped them grow. But he would much rather do what he was better at and what God wired him for.
To discover what a wide and effective door is in your own life, you need to know what your calling is. I spent many years at church, signing up for every class, every ministry, every trip, and whatever I could get my hands on. I had no idea where God was calling me and I was going in every single direction possible. But as I grew and matured, I began to slowly discover what my calling was, so I dropped some things in ministry and focused on others.
I still don't feel like I have a very clear direction. That is something that I am really digging to find. I have a mission statement, but I am still not sure it is totally accurate. I want God to be the one giving me my calling rather than me just giving myself one. A wide and effective door doesn't happen very easily if God isn't holding it open.
If you know me, you probably know my struggle with what is next in life. I have made plenty of plans, but instead of wide and effective doors there have been closed vaults. I know God has a plan for me, but I have been so lost and I have no idea where the path starts or which direction it goes.
Based on my current mission statement; The purpose of Emily Troe is to prayerfully and lovingly use my creative gifts and talents to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ the those who have rejected or been rejected by the church, I have seen a few wide and effective doors. One of them being my church. My church is a very arts based church, and those are the "creative gifts and talents" that I was referring to. Another wide and effective door is some of the people that I have gotten to know. I have a wide base of people who reject church or that the church has rejected that I have the opportunity to share Christ with.
But beyond that, I am stuck. Should I go to school next year, or not? Should I go to discipleship school? Should I go to an arts school? Should I go travel to another country and preach the gospel? Should I go back home and do ministry at my own church? Should I find a man, marry him and start popping out babies? Okay I hope that last one can wait a little bit...
There are so many options that i have available for me. And the doors all seem about the same width and the effectiveness varies depending on what I am going to be doing after. I just feel so directionless. I am tempted to write down all my ideas, put them in a hat and whichever one I pull out I would do. But I just don't know how wise of a decision that would be.
I suppose I should just look at what gifts God has given me and sort those out. Well I just took a spiritual gifts test and here are my results:
| Score | Graph of Score | Spiritual Gift | Statement / Response | ||||
| 25 | ========================== | Hospitality | 13 = 5 | 41 = 5 | 69 = 5 | 97 = 5 | 125 = 5 |
| 23 | ======================== | Music | 20 = 5 | 48 = 5 | 76 = 3 | 104 = 5 | 132 = 5 |
| 21 | ====================== | Encouragement | 6 = 3 | 34 = 5 | 62 = 3 | 90 = 5 | 118 = 5 |
| 19 | ==================== | Pastoring | 21 = 5 | 49 = 3 | 77 = 5 | 105 = 3 | 133 = 3 |
| 19 | ==================== | Faith | 9 = 5 | 37 = 5 | 65 = 3 | 93 = 5 | 121 = 1 |
| 19 | ==================== | Exhortation | 8 = 3 | 36 = 3 | 64 = 3 | 92 = 5 | 120 = 5 |
| 19 | ==================== | Missionary | 19 = 3 | 47 = 5 | 75 = 3 | 103 = 5 | 131 = 3 |
| 19 | ==================== | Poverty | 22 = 3 | 50 = 5 | 78 = 5 | 106 = 3 | 134 = 3 |
| 17 | ================== | Wisdom | 27 = 1 | 55 = 3 | 83 = 5 | 111 = 3 | 139 = 5 |
| 15 | ================ | Leadership | 16 = 3 | 44 = 3 | 72 = 1 | 100 = 3 | 128 = 5 |
| 15 | ================ | Apostle | 2 = 3 | 30 = 3 | 58 = 5 | 86 = 3 | 114 = 1 |
| 15 | ================ | Administration | 1 = 5 | 29 = 3 | 57 = 1 | 85 = 3 | 113 = 3 |
| 15 | ================ | Discernment | 5 = 3 | 33 = 3 | 61 = 3 | 89 = 3 | 117 = 3 |
| 13 | ============== | Teaching | 24 = 3 | 52 = 3 | 80 = 1 | 108 = 3 | 136 = 3 |
| 13 | ============== | Writing | 28 = 3 | 56 = 1 | 84 = 3 | 112 = 3 | 140 = 3 |
| 13 | ============== | Mercy | 17 = 5 | 45 = 1 | 73 = 3 | 101 = 1 | 129 = 3 |
| 11 | ============ | Intercession | 14 = 1 | 42 = 1 | 70 = 3 | 98 = 3 | 126 = 3 |
| 11 | ============ | Craftsmanship | 4 = 5 | 32 = 1 | 60 = 1 | 88 = 3 | 116 = 1 |
| 11 | ============ | Evangelism | 7 = 3 | 35 = 1 | 63 = 1 | 91 = 3 | 119 = 3 |
| 11 | ============ | Celibacy | 3 = 1 | 31 = 3 | 59 = 3 | 87 = 3 | 115 = 1 |
| 11 | ============ | Giving | 10 = 1 | 38 = 3 | 66 = 3 | 94 = 3 | 122 = 1 |
| 9 | ========== | Prophecy | 23 = 1 | 51 = 1 | 79 = 3 | 107 = 3 | 135 = 1 |
| 9 | ========== | Knowledge | 15 = 3 | 43 = 3 | 71 = 1 | 99 = 1 | 127 = 1 |
| 9 | ========== | Helps | 12 = 1 | 40 = 1 | 68 = 1 | 96 = 1 | 124 = 5 |
| 8 | ========= | Miracles | 18 = 5 | 46 = 1 | 74 = 0 | 102 = 1 | 130 = 1 |
| 2 | === | Healing | 11 = 1 | 39 = 0 | 67 = 1 | 95 = 0 | 123 = 0 |
| 1 | == | TonguesSpeaking | 26 = 1 | 54 = 0 | 82 = 0 | 110 = 0 | 138 = 0 |
| 0 | = | TonguesInterpreting | 25 = 0 | 53 = 0 | 81 = 0 | 109 = 0 | 137 = 0 |
All right, well it was near what I expected. Hospitality is number one, I didn't know music was a spiritual gift, but okay cool. And number three is encouragement. I love how I have I tie of 5 for number 4 and all of them work together really nicely. There is Pastoring, Missionary, Poverty, Faith, and Exhortation. I have really wanted to be a missionary for a long time. I don't know if I would be a missionary for my whole life, but I do want to do it for some time of my life. And the fact that those 5 gifts are so needed as a missionary is really cool.
So this thought process is going to be a lot longer than this blog, but all I can say now it, thank the Lord that celibacy is low on the list!
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