Every generation of young physicians enters the medical field with a swirl of questions, aspirations, and decisions that shape their future. Whether you are approaching graduation from medical school, entering or completing your residency, or are already out of training and contemplating your next job move, these decisions carry weight and purpose. You stand at the threshold of a career filled with both opportunity and responsibility—and for those called by God, it is more than a career. It is a calling, a ministry, a life of service dedicated not only to the healing of the body but also to the salvation of souls.

I write to you who are young in your journey of the combined work of medicine and ministry.  Like the individual addressed by Mrs White over 100 years ago, there may be times when you are also perplexed. You’ve graduated, earned your degree, and maybe you have even been in practice for a year or two.   Now the realities of how to work together in medicine and ministry have hit you.  At this time, when you are wrestling with what kind of practice to work in, or to start, where to serve, and how to balance personal ambition with spiritual responsibility, I have a word of encouragement for you. I’ve been there.  At a similar time in my own experience, and in the middle of my own questions when I was seeking guidance, I encountered a passage in Medical Ministry (p. 44) that seemed as though it was written directly to me—and now I share it with you.

“I have wished so much that I might have an opportunity to talk with you. Could I see you, I should say to you what I have been saying to you recently in the visions of the night. You were apparently undecided as to what you would do in the future. I asked, ‘Why are you perplexed?’ You replied, ‘I am perplexed in regard to what is the best course for me to pursue.’ Then One who has authority (Jesus) stepped up to you and said: ‘You are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Your time, your talents, every jot of your influence, is the Lord’s. You are His servant. Your part is to do His bidding, and learn daily of Him. You are not to set up in business for yourself. This is not the Lord’s plan. You are not to unite with unbelievers in medical work… You are to receive the grace of Christ, the great Medical Missionary. His divine wisdom will be given to you if you will refuse to yield to the inclination to link up with the world. God desires you to place yourself where you can work in connection with other physicians. You and the one with whom you are associated may not be of the same temperament. It is better if you are not. That which one needs the other may supply, if each will learn to wear the yoke of Christ. My brother, choose to obey Christ. In His meekness and lowliness, receive His counsel. Stand shoulder to shoulder with your brethren, and this will encourage them to stand shoulder to shoulder with you.” — Medical Ministry, pp. 44–45

This hit me with force. It was not just an idea; it was a divine directive. I realized that the Lord had placed me in this work for a purpose—not to pursue a commercial advantage or operate independently but to labor with other believers, pastors, physicians, and health workers shoulder to shoulder. We are to be yoked together, not buried in our own plans, but multiplied for the Master’s use.

Not Called to Isolation, But to Unity

Young physician, you are not called to walk alone. Jesus sent His disciples out two by two, and so today, He still calls His workers into unity with both those in medicine and those in ministry. The temptation is strong to go where money flows, where freedom seems abundant, and where worldly success beckons. But this is not the Lord’s plan. We are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, nor are we to conform our practices to the commercial standards of the world. To do so is to lose sight of the sacred mission entrusted to us.

The temptation is strong to go where money flows, where freedom seems abundant, and where worldly success beckons. But this is not the Lord’s plan.

It is in working together with God’s people—in ministry with pastors and fellow physicians—that we fulfill our calling. It is through meekness and lowliness of heart that we are able to stand united, encouraging one another, supporting one another, and achieving together what no one of us can accomplish alone: the completion of the gospel commission through medical ministry.

God’s Grace for Your Weakness

Perhaps you are already discouraged. Perhaps you feel you have gone too far.  Maybe you feel you have lost your passion for medical ministry or that your past mistakes disqualify you from this sacred work. Hear the Lord’s voice in your heart as you read the words below:

“The Lord has not left you… He does not desire you to walk in darkness… ‘His life need not be a failure. I will make him Mine. I will show him that I prize his soul… If he will unite with Me, believe in Me, and work for Me, his weakest points… will become his strongest points.’” — Medical Ministry, p. 41

God is not finished with you. He prizes your soul and has a special work for you to do. Your discouragements and failures are not final. In Christ, even your weakest points can be transformed for His glory.

A Mission Field Unlike Any Other

As a physician, you walk into homes, hospital rooms, and people’s lives at their most vulnerable moments. You are entrusted with more than physical health—you are entrusted with souls, and the lord has a work for you to do in this.

“Physicians should seek to direct the minds of their patients to Christ, the Physician of soul and body… There is no missionary field more important than that occupied by the faithful, God-fearing physician.” — 6T 230, 5T 448

“When brought in contact with the higher classes of society, let not the physician feel that he must conceal the peculiar characteristics which sanctification through the truth gives him. The physicians who unite with the work of God are to co-operate with God as His appointed instrumentalities; they are to give all their powers and efficiency to magnifying the work of God’s commandment-keeping people. Those who in their human wisdom try to conceal the peculiar characteristics that distinguish God’s people from the world will lose their spiritual life and will no longer be upheld by His power.” — 6T 250.3

In light of this, the physician is to remain faithful and unashamed of their spiritual identity and mission, even in settings where influence and success might tempt them to compromise. Rather than seeking worldly approval, they are to carry the grace of Christ into every interaction and use their influence to point patients to Jesus, the true healer of both body and soul.

Those who in their human wisdom try to conceal the peculiar characteristics that distinguish God’s people from the world will lose their spiritual life and will no longer be upheld by His power.

Stand Shoulder to Shoulder

You cannot do this alone. We were never meant to. God’s plan is for unity—physicians, pastors, health workers, and evangelists working together in teams, lifting one another up, and laboring for the salvation of souls. This is the divine blueprint, the plan that heaven endorses.

As you make decisions about your future, remember: you are not your own. You’ve been bought with a price. The talents God gave you are not to be buried in personal gain but multiplied for His kingdom. He holds you in His hand, and He has a place for you—in unity, in service, in evangelism.

“I am very hopeful that you will become all that the Lord desires you to be—a gospel medical missionary. You are to be not only an increasingly skillful physician, but one of the Lord’s appointed missionaries, in all your work placing His service first.” — Medical Ministry, p. 44

Young physician, stand shoulder to shoulder with your brethren. Take up your evangelistic duties. Trust God’s plan. And let your life, your work, and your influence reflect the calling He has placed on your heart.

He has work for you to do. Let’s do it—together.