The 67-year-old six-stone OAP was knocked to the floor outside his old home in Gateshead by a mugger, breaking his collar bone in January.
Following the attack an online fund set up for him reached £330,000 within days allowing him to buy a new home.
Now he has announced plans to move to Shetland and work for the Church.
He said: "I am a Christian and I am open to the Holy Spirit.
"I have had a calling from God to move to the Shetlands."
He added that he would have liked to have been a church minister had he not been partially sighted.
His role will not to try to make people go to church, but to talk to them about his faith, he said.
The pensioner added that he had never been to Shetland before, but that is where God is calling him to.
Mr Barnes is pictured above with Katie Cutler, the woman who started the campaign to raise money for him.