Jesus also commanded us to love God with all our heart, mind and soul (Matthew 22:37). However, too often we relegate this love to the realm of feelings. Loving others, in reality, is seen in the living; what we say, what we think and what we do. If we are unwilling to help our brothers and sisters in their time of need or if we think judgmentally of them, maybe we aren't as loving as we think we are and that needs to change.

God wants us to live - think, speak and act - morally, in line with His laws as we walk through this life. But there is another part of what God wants for us that is a bit more difficult to achieve at times. That is, God has a specific will for each believer that may not be the same for other believers. For instance, in some cases, God gifts a believer with the ability to preach or to teach. In other cases, a person may be gifted with the gift of pastoral care or hospitality. Paul lists a variety of gifts/callings in his letter to the Ephesian church (Ephesians 4:11-16). In verse 11, Paul lists five areas of service: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and/or teachers. This is by no means, a comprehensive list of gifts, abilities or service areas. Paul was listing the most well known. Notice too that Paul says people are gifted with these areas of service to perfect the saints, for the work of ministry and for edification (v 12).

Both apostles and prophets are long since come and gone. Prophets were notable in the Old Testament and to some extent, the New Testament period as well. Once the Church came into being (Acts 2), apostles became part of the foundation of that new Body. In the building up of believers, these apostles were very necessary and without them, we would not have the New Testament today.

Once the last apostle died out, there were no more apostles. However, God continued and continues to this day raising up people for ministry; evangelists, pastors and teachers for the purpose of edifying believers within the Church.

I guess we can categorize God's will for us as two basic areas: His moral will that all Christians are supposed to be obedient to, and His specific will for each believer, which may look somewhat different for each person. Obviously, not all believers are called to specifically be evangelists, pastors or teachers. However, it is clear from Matthew 28, that all believers are to spread the truth of the Gospel in our daily lives, though with some individuals, God specifically places a call on their life to enter into full-time evangelism ministry.

What about pastoring or becoming a teaching pastor? Frankly, I'll admit that I have been dealing with this question for myself for decades. Years ago, senior pastors told me they believed God was calling me into ministry, the pastorate. It was interesting though that try as I might, it was simply not a good fit for me. That might be due to several things like timing. Maybe I was too young? Maybe I didn't have enough life experience under my belt. I'm speaking only for myself as I know others who received a call to the pastorate at young ages and entered into that field and in fact, are still there.