How many of you want to fulfill your purpose before you leave the planet? If you said yes to that question then keep reading because I have 3 practical steps that will help you fulfill your purpose before you leave the planet.
Step 1. Use Your Gift
God has given each of us gifts and abilities in order to fulfill a specific purpose on the planet. The problem is that most of us don’t know what that purpose is, so we pray, fast and wait for God to supernaturally tell us what our purpose is while we neglect to use the gifts and abilities that He has given to us. The irony of this is that your gift is the ability that God has given you in order to fulfill your purpose. The Bible says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.” (Rom. 12:6) In other words each of us have different gifts according our unique calling or grace. I will say it like this: You’ve been gifted to do what you’ve been called to do. Therefore, if you don’t know what your calling is just start using your gift. The beautiful thing is that as you start using your gift, you will gain momentum and clarity that will take you to your purpose. Years ago, when I discovered my gift was teaching, I did not know what I was called to do. However, God led me to use my gift anyway. I started teaching first grade, then fifth grade, then college students and today I teach professionals in the corporate world & church world. I am now more clear about my purpose than I have ever been.
Step 2. Develop Your Gift
It is not enough for us to have our gifts. We must also become good stewards of them. God has given us gifts and it is our responsibility to cultivate and develop these gifts and abilities in order to maximize our impact in the world for the Kingdom of God. The Bible tells us, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you…..” (1 Tim. 4:14) Our gifts are the seeds of our future that God hides inside of us. Our job is to locate those seeds, use them, invest in them, and cultivate them, so that they produce the future of our dreams. Developing your gift may include going back to school, reading books, finding a mentor and consistent practice. However you choose to develop your gift is fine as long as you do develop them. I love what the comedian Steve Martin had so say along these lines. He was asked once about how a person could make it in Hollywood and he answered, “Become so good they can’t ignore you.” Whoa! I believe that is what we must do as believers in this world. We must develop our gifts and become so good at using our gifts to do good work that men will see our light and glorify our father in heaven.
Step 3. Deliver Your Gift
Delivering your gift is about turning your gift into your work. Some people settle for using their gifts on a part time basis. They volunteer on the weekends in church and for other organizations and go to work on Monday and put their gifts on the shelf. I believe that God wants us to take it up a notch. I believe that He wants our gifts to gradually become what we do for a living. 65-70% of our waking hours is spent at work and if we don’t get the opportunity to use our gifts in our daily work then I believe that we are robbing ourselves of the opportunity to make our biggest contribution to our workplaces . You see, your gift is your superpower; it’s what you do best with the least amount of effort. When you don’t get a chance to share your gift at work, you are cheating yourself, your workplace and your God from experiencing the best that you have to offer. Some of us are not as successful in our work because we are not leveraging our gifts at work. Using your gifts at work will open up doors for you and create opportunities where God gets the glory. The Bible Tells us, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.” (Proverbs 18:16) I believe Joseph understood this when he used his gift of dream interpretation while he was in jail to serve the chief butler and baker. His gift made room for him and brought him before the king and caused him to be promoted into his purpose. The truth of the matter is that we were not sent to this planet just to make a living, pay bills and die. We were sent here to use our gifts to solve a specific problem, serve a specific people and uniquely impact the world for the Glory of God! This is our purpose as believers and our gifts are the keys that will open the doors.