Discerning God’s Will for Your Writing Ministry

A recent comment reminded me of something a former coworker once shared with me about my blog. She told me that her small group used my blogposts as part of their Bible study.

Blessed with a great restaurant career, I had ventured out in faith by heading into what I believed then, and continue to believe now, is God’s call on my life to Christian ministry and to advance His Kingdom for His glory.

Honestly, Christian ministry has had its twists and turns and looks nothing like I imagined it would.

As I’ve prayed about how God will use me—in fact, IF—I’ve recognized that I’ve been blessed to shepherd people in person and digitally.

As I shared with another Christian blogger friend of mine, as I’ve sought the Lord’s guidance and direction as to “what’s next,” the Lord continues to reveal Himself to me through my ministry as a Christian blogger. In a previous conversation, this same friend boldly and confidently declared, “You’re a writer!”

In my recent posts, like 10 Types of Christian Bloggers: Finding Your Voice in Faith Writing and 7 Ways to Deepen Your Impact as a Christian Blogger, I’ve explored how to glorify God through our blogging as Christians.

The Lord has also reconnected me with people from my past who are hungry to learn more about God and who want to better understand His Word. They’ve intentionally sought me out. One friend even shared that as he found himself asking questions about what he was reading in the Bible, the Holy Spirit brought me to mind, urging him to “Call Rainer!”

These past few months, I’ve learned that sometimes God’s direction doesn’t arrive as a voice telling us where to go, but as a quiet echo reminding us where we already are, both through face-to -face conversations with people and through spiritual wonders they share in their comments on my posts.

Acts 1:7-9English Standard Version

⁷He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ⁹And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Acts 1:7-9 ESV

The Holy Spirit reminded me of the words Jesus said to His disciples in the early sentences of Acts. We begin by blooming where we are planted. Maybe that looks like a post that is compelling, convicting, and challenging. Perhaps, it’s taking time to meet for coffee with an old friend who has recently taken to exploring God’s Word. Whatever it is, the key factor is being faithful in doing the work the Lord places in our hands. Once we take root, God, through the Holy Spirit, grows our ministry beyond our Jerusalem, into Judah, and eventually Samaria. I know this to be true because the people who have generously shared that they’ve prayed the words and prayers in my posts aren’t only local; they live all over the world. This is both mind-boggling and humbling.

There is something supernaturally profound happening when someone not only reads your post, but prays it. These are words that not only carry weight. They become a vessel for people to engage with God.

Friend, I get it. Sometimes it’s hard to muster the courage to keep saying what we’ve being given to say.

However, when we write from inside a lived tension instead of from resolved clarity, people recognize themselves in it. That’s not only ministry, but it’s work that, I contend, advances the Kingdom.

When people read, discuss, and or pray your post in their small group, the words you’ve written are transformed into something communal, mirroring the work of the Church.

Stay here. Go deeper.

To each of you who has taken the time to share how my words and prayers have shaped your spiritual journey: THANK YOU. Truly. THANK YOU.

Knowing that some of you gather in small groups to reflect on what God has placed on my heart to write, humbles me more than I can fully express. It leaves me in awe; grateful, amazed, and quietly undone by the wonder of it all.

Be salty, stay lit.

Rainer Bantau —The Devotional Guy™