July 2025 – The Hope Of Your Calling – Part One

THE HOPE OF YOUR CALLING-PART ONE

Dear Friend in Christ:
 
I’ve been praying for you. These have been tumultuous times in the United States and around the world. Most of my dearest friends are facing profound battles in their lives right now. I’m asking the Holy Spirit to renew and refresh you in the name of Jesus, beyond our circumstances or challenges. 
 
This month, I want to share some encouragement with you.  My Dad often told me, “Son, without hope, you cannot start the day.” We all need hope that goes beyond pretty words or wishful thinking. This letter will be Part One of a Two-Part series on “The Hope of Your Calling.” I submit it to you prayerfully.
 
Recently, a young lady who is very precious to me stepped into eternity with Jesus. Miss Faith Bennethum was born 26 years ago with profound and rare health challenges.  She wasn’t expected to live beyond her first few hours. I was honored to serve as pastor to her dear parents, Jim and Jenny, and I traveled to the University of Michigan hospital as soon as she was born to stand in love and prayer with their family. 
 
I cannot tell you the entirety of her remarkable, miraculous story; I’ll leave it to Jim and Jenny to share it. But before she was born, doctors delivered heartbreaking news to them regarding Faith’s health condition. Based on tests and ultrasounds, their diagnosis was realistic, but desperately grim. We cried together on the phone when they told me.
 
As our call was concluding, I sensed the Holy Spirit leading me to ask, “Have you named her yet?” Jim told me, “Her name is Faith.” Before I could think or stop myself, I said, firmly, “She shall not die, but live.” The words stunned me.  I don’t know what Jim and Jenny thought. But in my mind, I thought, “What did I just say? What have I done? Why did I say that?” Doctors were giving Faith a zero percent chance of survival.
 
In my life, I’ve seen charlatans and wolves utter false prophecies and promises to the people of God, resulting in much heartbreak and devastation. I detest it. I’ve heard people make “declarations and proclamations” that were rooted in their own need to perform and please, rather than in the Holy Spirit. I felt sick with worry, as though I had just become one of those hyped-up religious con men making empty promises.
 
After the call ended, I fell to the floor of my bedroom in confusion, grief, and fear, and I cried out to God for Faith and her family. Also, I was angry at myself. “Why did I say that? Where did that come from?” But in my tears, fears, and doubts, the peace of God came upon me. I heard His quiet voice speaking to my heart: “Son, I told you to say that.”  Now, I’m sorry to say, my first reaction to that was, “Oh great, now I’m imagining things.” But the Spirit persisted and reminded me of Psalm 118:17, which says, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” 
 
That became an anchor for me. I became confident that God had a plan for Faith’s life. As I prayed there on my bedroom floor, I began to come into agreement with what I had heard God say.  Boldness, tempered by reverence, continued to grow in me. I knew this was faith and not presumption. I knew she would live and be a testimony to the power and grace of God.
 
When Faith was born, doctors said that her condition was indeed dire, but there were some indications that her lungs were slightly stronger than they expected. Still, her heart was damaged, and doctors didn’t expect her to survive. We prayed and prayed and prayed some more. Above her little bed in the hospital, Jim and Jenny taped up this Scripture that the Lord had given them:
 
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:1-5).
 
When God gives you a word, stand on it. He knows how to take His eternal, perfect, holy Word and make it personal to you. Jim and Jenny clung to that word.  And in the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, that word clung to them and to sweet Faith. Her life and love for Jesus became a testimony and blessing to all who met and knew her. She had a mighty calling on her life, and she fulfilled that calling until she crossed the finish line and heard the “well done” of the Father. I know her family and friends miss her terribly. Please pray for them and join me in thanking God for her life. 
 
A WONDERFUL GIFT
You and I are called by God Himself. Your life, regardless of your circumstances, has purpose and meaning. You are precious to God and your calling in God is precious and holy.
 
He initiated it.
Before time began, He knew us.
In His perfect timing, He formed us and breathed His life into us.
Psalm 100 says: “It is He Who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3).
 
 
God first calls us to Himself for salvation, restoration, and relationship.
 
Conviction of sin and grace for salvation both come from God.
He gives us His love when we are unlovely and unlovable.
We love Him because He first loved us (see 1 John 4).
 
He lifts us out of the pit, out of the miry clay, Psalm 40 tells us. He sets our feet upon a rock and makes our footsteps firm. This is in contrast to our former condition of being lost and trapped in sinking shifting sand. Then, He puts a new song of praise in our mouths and causes us to be a testimony of salvation to others. Again, this contrasts with our former way of thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting. New Lordship in our hearts and minds produces a new way to live.
 
By His grace, our eyes are being opened to Who He is and who we are in Him. We are daily discovering more about how He made us, and the purpose and cause for which we have been born. He is continually giving spiritual gifts to us and also revealing the power of those gifts to us. These gifts are not merely for our own blessing, but they cause us to be a blessing to others 
 
To know that God has called you and to understand what He has called you to be and to do is a wonderful treasure. The Apostle Paul put it this way when he was writing to the Christians living in Ephesus:
 
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…” (Ephesians 1:15-19).
 
I believe Paul’s prayer was not only for those Christians at that time in Ephesus, but for all of us who have faith in Jesus and love for His people today. If that is true, then this prayer is for you right now. What would it mean to you if God heard and answered this prayer?
 
Paul acknowledges that wisdom and revelation are gifts from God for His people.
God, our Father, is the Source of all blessing. The Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth, is also your Father. He actually desires to give you good gifts even more than you may want them. Can you comprehend the magnitude of that? I can’t. 
 
His wisdom is not according to the wisdom of the world. Isaiah said in chapter 55 that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways. Isaiah notes that as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are God’s thoughts higher than our thoughts.
 
Yes, His perspective is higher and greater than ours, but He desires to shower His wisdom down upon us, like rain from heaven, which nourishes good seed and provides bread for the hungry. His Word does not return to Him void; it fulfills the purpose for which it is given.
 
EXPANDING REVELATION
We will talk more next month about the power of creation truth and how it relates to our own lives and callings. But I am hoping this letter will began to expand your thinking about God’s personal care and plan for you. Regardless of your age or circumstances; regardless of your past successes or failures; if you are reading these words, I assure you that God has even more in store for you than you can imagine.
 
One thing I would personally ask of you is that you would seriously pray for us here at CSM as we work to be obedient to God’s calling for us. We need intercessors like never before. Our small staff has experienced intense personal spiritual attacks on our health, finances, resources, and families. Even as opportunities for outreach expand, the ministry itself has experienced a significant downturn in giving and support; many other ministries report similar shortfalls.
 
We have made some painful financial cuts in our budget since my Dad passed away 15 months ago, and we are making more cuts as I write this. Would you also prayerfully consider a special financial gift to support CSM this month? And, if you find our resources helpful, would you be willing to let your friends know about this ministry? You can share our social media posts on your own social media pages. We are on Facebook at Charles Simpson Ministries, as well as X Twitter @CSMinPublishing. We continue to add videos–including new shorts and visualizers–to our official CSMPublishing YouTube Channel.
 
In addition to developing many new resources, such as online audio and video streaming, we are also committed to preserving the teaching legacy of my Dad, Charles Simpson. We have an amazing archive and we want to share it. We need special resources above and beyond our current finances to preserve and distribute this material. Please pray with us for wisdom and provision.
 
Of course, you can visit us at our website: csmpublishing.org. We’d love to hear from you (see card enclosed) and pray over any requests you may have. We love you and thank God for you daily.
 
In Jesus,
Pastor Stephen Simpson
President
By Stephen Simpson June 30, 2025 Categories: Pastoral Letters Relationships Spiritual Growth Work & Service Worldview & Culture Worship & Prayer Tags: anger blessing calling character conviction diagnosi diagnosis doubt faith fear gift grace heartbreak hope Jesus life perseverance plan prayer relationship restoration salvation sin tear testimony truth wonderful
About the Author:

Stephen Simpson

STEPHEN SIMPSON is the Editor of One-to-One Magazine and the Director of CSM Publishing. In addition to publishing ministry, Stephen has served in leadership for churches and ministries in Costa Rica, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and Michigan, as well as being the Senior Pastor of Covenant Church of Mobile (2004-2013). He continues to travel in ministry across North America and in other nations.

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