The Upward Call of Medicine
July 26, 2026
The Upward Call of Medicine
“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 3:14
I’ve read that verse countless times throughout my life. For years, I assumed Paul was simply talking about spiritual maturity separate from my work.
In the past couple years, I began asking a different question.
What if the “upward call” also includes the very vocation God has entrusted to us?
What if medicine itself has an upward call?
Not a different profession. Not another certification or credential. Not more medical education. But instead, stepping into a higher way of practicing the profession we’ve already been called into.
If you’ve ever walked out of a patient encounter knowing you did everything medicine trained you to do yet still sensed there had to be more…you’re not alone. Most clinicians have never questioned their medical knowledge. They’ve questioned why, despite all their knowledge, something still feels incomplete. We’ve been trained to think critically, analyze data, follow evidence, and develop excellent treatment plans. Those are extraordinary gifts and should never be abandoned.
But somewhere along the way, many of us unintentionally separated our clinical expertise from the very One who created the human body. I know I did.
One morning, I got called into working with an adult recreational basketball player who suffering what appeared to be a significant calf injury sustained during a pick-up game earlier that week.
Years of orthopedic training immediately told me this was most likely greater than a 50% tear of the posterior tib muscle. As I evaluated him, I could clearly palpate a substantial disruption within the muscle fibers.
As I carefully palpated the injured tissue and started some manual therapy, something happened that I blew my mind.
The fibers beneath my fingertips “grabbed” and “reconnected” right under my fingertips!
It felt as though the torn tissue supernaturally reconnected the torn fibers.
And then instantly, I sensed a rush through the muscle as circulation returned.
I stopped. I paused and “smiled deep within.” I knew the Great Physician had hijacked my therapy and used me as a vessel to show off His power…His healing power!
I examined my patient again.
The defect I had clearly felt only moments before was gone.
His pain resolved.
His strength returned.
His muscle function was normal.
That extraordinary experience changed me forever.
Not just because I witnessed an amazing miracle. But because I also realized I had misunderstood my role in medicine.
For years, I thought my responsibility was to become a better and more knowledgeable healer. The more dedicated I was to my medical career, the better I could “heal” a patient. God showed me that our calling in medicine was something very different. He was inviting me into partnership with His power.
My medical education had not been wasted. I needed to have knowledge of the pathophysiology of a ruptured muscle. I needed to have the knowledge of how to restore injured muscle tissue.
My clinical reasoning was not being replaced:
My hands were still needed to be in position for the exam and to start treatment.
My mind was still thinking of what needs to be done for a partially ruptured muscle to return him to the court.
My sports medicine experience still mattered.
But what I realized that day, I was no longer responsible for healing alone. The omniscient and omnipresent God was the One who carried healing. I was just the one who needed to be in position. That day, I began to understand what I now can call the upward call of medicine.
The upward call is not about becoming more successful with more credentials or a higher job role.
And it is not about abandoning science.
It is about allowing the God who designed the human body to become your greatest Partner in medicine and allowing Him to display His Glory through a vessel — flowing miracles when Hewants to perform a miracle.
At White Coat Revival, we believe God’s original design for medicine is best expressed when science and Spirit work together — not an either/or, but instead in a beautiful unified partnership with YOU — the child of God called into a vocation in medicine.
Your knowledge and skills are a blessing from God.
Your positioning is His plan, and your ability to heal your patient deepens, because your burden becomes lighter when you realize healing was never yours to carry alone.
In Philippians 3:14, I believe Paul was inviting us into more than spiritual maturity.
He was inviting us into an upward way of living.
An upward way of thinking.
An upward way of serving.
And perhaps…
…an upward way of practicing medicine by standing in the gap bringing Heaven here on earth and letting healing miracles flow when God leads you.
Before seeing your next patient, pause for just a few seconds and ask: “Lord, how would You like to partner with me today?”
Then practice medicine exactly as you’ve been trained… while remaining open to Holy Spirit wisdom, discernment, compassion, and peace only He can provide.
I’d love to hear from you.
Have you ever experienced a patient encounter that you simply couldn’t explain through your training alone?
There is power in the testimony! So please email and tell me about a time you witnessed the Power of God showing off through you!
info@whitecoatrevival.com
“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.”
– Philippians 3:14–15 (NKJV)