Magnify Your Calling

When a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts a call to serve in the church, that person also works to magnify the call. President Gordon B. Hinckley, past president of the Church, spoke of the meaning of the term.

That word magnify is interesting. As I interpret it, it means to enlarge, to make more clear, to bring closer, and to strengthen.[1]

President Hinckley’s remarks were specifically given to those attending a general priesthood meeting, but his counsel applies to all members issued callings in the Church.

If we are to magnify our callings, we cannot live only unto ourselves. As we serve with diligence, as we teach with faith and testimony, as we lift and strengthen and build convictions of righteousness in those whose lives we touch, we magnify our priesthood.

President Henry B. Eyring also spoke of magnifying a calling. He said, “To everyone, man or woman, girl or boy, who has been called or who will yet be, I give you my counsel.” He discussed three truths that a person called to serve needs to know. The third was:

Just as God called you and will guide you, He will magnify you. You will need that magnification. Your calling will surely bring opposition. You are in the Master’s service. You are His representative. Eternal lives depend on you. He faced opposition, and He said that facing opposition would be the lot of those He called. The forces arrayed against you will try not only to frustrate your work but to bring you down. The Apostle Paul described it this way: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.”

There will be times when you will feel overwhelmed. One of the ways you will be attacked is with the feeling that you are inadequate. Well, you are inadequate to answer a call to represent God with only your own powers. But you have access to more than your natural capacities, and you do not work alone.

The Lord will magnify what you say and what you do in the eyes of the people you serve. He will send the Holy Ghost to manifest to them that what you spoke was true. What you say and do will carry hope and give direction to people far beyond your natural abilities and your own understanding. . . .

God magnifies those He calls, even in what may seem to you a small or inconspicuous service. You will have the gift of seeing your service magnified. Give thanks while that gift is yours.

You can have the utmost assurance that your power will be multiplied many times by the Lord. All He asks is that you give your best effort and your whole heart. Do it cheerfully and with the prayer of faith. The Father and His Beloved Son will send the Holy Ghost as your companion to guide you. Your efforts will be magnified in the lives of the people you serve. And when you look back on what may now seem trying times of service and sacrifice, the sacrifice will have become a blessing, and you will know that you have seen the arm of God lifting those you served for Him, and lifting you.[2]

• See also Calling, Mormon Callings, Magnifying One's Calling