What it Costs to Carry (Part 4)

Carrying as Obedience, Not Exposure

(Galatians 1:15–17)

One of the clearest indicators that a calling is genuinely conceived by God is this: obedience moves inward before it ever moves outward. Paul’s account in Galatians dismantles the modern assumption that encounter should lead immediately to exposure. After being apprehended by Christ, Paul does not seek affirmation, platforms, or alignment with established voices. He writes, “I did not consult with anyone. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem… but I went away into Arabia” (Galatians 1:16–17). His first act of obedience was withdrawal.

This pattern offends a culture that equates visibility with faithfulness. We are trained to believe that if God speaks, the next step is to announce, activate, and apply. Scripture teaches something far more demanding: when God conceives a calling, obedience often looks like restraint. The carrier is asked to protect what has been given, not showcase it. To listen more than speak. To be formed more than seen.

In the natural, pregnancy immediately imposes limits. The body must adjust. Energy is redirected. Certain environments, activities, and exposures become unsafe. These restrictions are not signs of weakness; they are signs of life being protected. In the same way, spiritual carrying narrows options. Not because God is limiting the carrier, but because the life being formed requires focus, shelter, and time. Exposure too early introduces risk the calling cannot yet withstand.

Paul’s obedience in Arabia was not inactivity; it was formation. Scripture does not tell us what happened in those hidden years, but it tells us what did not happen—he did not rush to be recognized. He did not attach his calling to reputation. He did not borrow authority before his own was formed. When he finally emerged, he carried weight that did not depend on approval because it had been forged in obedience without witnesses.

Carrying as obedience reframes faithfulness entirely. The question is no longer, “Who knows?” but, “Is this protected?” No longer, “Am I being used?” but, “Is what God placed in me being preserved?” Exposure asks, “How do I show this?” Obedience asks, “How do I carry this without losing it?”

This codex insists on this distinction because many assignments are lost at this exact crossroads. When obedience is replaced with exposure, the womb becomes a stage, and life becomes performance. But what God conceives does not require immediate recognition. It requires a carrier willing to disappear long enough for the work to become strong enough to live on its own.