Called to Be a Doctor

Dr. Andrew Stenhouse, former president of Doulos Missions International, tells how he heard the audible voice of the Lord calling him to be a medical doctor at the age of 17. (Note: This was originally recorded in August 2016).

Audio

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As seventeen-year-old Andrew Stenhouse settled into his promising university studies in geology and his cartography work in New Zealand, his meticulously planned career path was about to experience a radical, divine redirection.

The turning point came when a Christian friend named Ruth invited him to attend a worship service. Sitting quietly in the pews, Andrew enjoyed the service until a profound spiritual encounter changed the trajectory of his life forever. During the preaching, he heard the audible voice of God speak directly to him from his right side, declaring, "You are going to be a doctor."

Startled, Andrew whispered to Ruth, "Did you hear somebody talk?"

Whispering back, she admonished him, "Shush, Andrew. You don’t talk in church."

"I know," he replied.

Moments later, the voice spoke again with the same clear command. As the reality of the call sank in, his entire body began to shake violently like a rag doll, disrupting the service and causing nearby congregants to pull away in alarm. Realizing that his Creator was moving upon him, Andrew began arguing silently and inwardly with God, pouring out his resistance:

"This is my Creator doing this... I started talking to God and telling Him how I hated the war in London during World War II and the bombs and blood and guts and people not coming back to school. And the one thing I didn’t want to do was be a doctor."

The internal and physical struggle intensified to the point where the shaking grew so severe he feared he might physically die. Fearing for his life, he stopped resisting and fell silent.

Instantly, the shaking stopped. Then, a second voice spoke—not from his right side, but encompassing him from his lower left, as though the Holy Spirit or God was completely surrounding him. This time, it was an unmistakable command: "You will be a doctor."

Surrendered and humbled, Andrew answered, "Yes, Lord, I will be a doctor."

From that exact moment onward, everything else in his life lost its hold. Though he had been raised strictly and knew people would think he was out of his mind—and indeed, everyone he told later thought he was nuts—the divine mandate superseded all else. At seventeen years old, he immediately resigned from his geological survey job and dropped his geology courses.

Leaving his familiar surroundings behind, Andrew crossed over to New Zealand’s South Island to begin pre-med studies. The academic hurdle was immense; having focused entirely on languages, mathematics, and geology, he had none of the foundational science background that his peers had spent their entire lives acquiring. Yet, driven by absolute obedience to the call of God, he stepped forward into a medical career he had never wanted, walking straight into the destiny the Heavenly Father had prepared for him.

Author's note: See the Home page of this blog for more podcasts on the life of Dr. Stenhouse. The next post is about his Medical Studies.

A more complete interview about his calling into medicine can be found here at The Voice That Changed Everything and the podcast at this link. You may access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master. Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.