Unlocking your purpose through your gift
Your purpose also includes money
In today's world one of the main topics to talk about is money because life evolves around it. The rich are finding ways to receive a better return off of their investments and become richer while the middle class and poor are looking for other ways to make more. For many people money also is an ego booster that prompts them to show off the latest style car, home or clothing. People who trust money will do just about anything to acquire it, even if it means hurting another physically or emotionally. The bible says in 1 Timothy 6 that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Notice it is the love of money, "not money itself" because money is neutral in that it is neither good or bad, but depending on the character of the individual who has it money will simply display that character. For example if a person is a giver before they have money, they will be bigger givers when they do have it, if a person is a thief without it, then they will become a bigger thief with it. So you see money only amplifies the character of a person.
Wall street is bigger than ever with people investing into everything from penny stocks to real estate with many people making money while others lose it. In this world where investing is so wide spread, why are more people not moving toward investing in themselves? well some reasons may be that a person may feel they have nothing to offer, while others may feel that there is no market for what they do have to offer. Nursing homes today are some of the wealthiest places on earth because of the wealth of untapped gifts talents and abilities.They are filled with millions of aged individuals who never tapped into their God given gifts talents and abilities, and now they may look back with regrets wishing that they could be twenty-five years old again and do things differently. Well life is not over until it is over, and as long as there is breath in the body, one can do something. Moses was 80 years old when he began tapping into his gift as he is on the back side of the desert he sees a bush burning but not being consumed. If we today are going to tap into our gift,talent and abilities, God must get our attention just as he did for Moses. Could it be that for some, the unemployment crises came to get their attention so that they could begin focusing in on what they may have to offer and then receive the money that they need? how many people hate the job that they spend half of their lives in? every now and then God will allow events to come into our lives to get our attention so that he can send us toward our true destiny. Moses' occupation changed from shepherding sheep to shepherding people. When things are bad, making it hard to make ends meet, pray and seek God to find out if the trial is simply an attention getter, because to continue to herd sheep (Moses example) will not bring fulfillment if the will of God is for you to shepherd people.
Flowing with purpose through your gift
The next thing that happens is that God speaks to Moses from out of the burning bush and calls his name.What I like about this is that out of everyone who may have been named Moses, God was talking specifically to him. Only he could do what God was about to ask him to do, only he had the gift talent and ability to carry out his purpose and he could except the challenge or reject it. Today you and I have the same challenge, we can find our purpose and use our gift talents and abilities to flow with it, or continue complaining about what we are doing is not fulfilling. I'm not saying to go out and quit your job tomorrow, but to change your mindset and begin to look into what Gods plan and purpose is for your life. God calls Moses' name because the bible says that a good name is rather to be chosen than many riches, wow!! many people are concerned with the riches at the expense of their name, so they ruin it with cheating and lies until they cannot be trusted. Listen... character is the most important thing when tapping into a gift because a gift can take a person a long way toward fame and fortune, but only character will keep them there! this is why God is more concerned about character than riches. He told the rich ruler in Mark 10 to sell all that he had and give to the poor because he was concerned about his character first, but the money would soon follow because Proverbs says that he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord and that which he has given will he give to him again. God will never become indebted to us and the rich ruler was no different
Unlocking your purpose begins with knowing God
Unlocking your purpose begins with God showing you and I who we are, where we are and where we are going. Our gifts will be directly linked with this purpose
Who am I?
You are not what you did in your past that may have brought guilt and disappointment. But you are everything that God says you are according to his word. The freedom that comes with using your God given gifts will happen as you forget those things which are behind and reach for those things that are before. Moses had to forgive himself for murdering an Egyption from his past.
Where am I?
God clearly tells Moses where he is when he says the place where you are standing is holy ground. Certain responsibilities only take place as a person has a knowledge of where they are. For Moses he had to remove his shoes from off of his feet. But for a person who is in financial trouble it would be knowing how much debt they are in.For a person with relationship problems, it would be knowing where the relationship is concerning communication, trust, etc. Using your gifts will accompany getting
Where am I going?
Moses now has direction and knows where he is going. God tells him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. As we head in the right direction for our life, our gifts will accompany us just as the rod of God and Aaron who was Moses' spokesman did.
We left off with part one of this series illustrating how Moses as an example tapped into his gift. God asks him to go down into Egypt and tell Pharoah to let his people go and Moses responds with"I cannot speak". Remember that God will use your gifts talents and abilities to carry out his will and purpose for your life but one of the hindrances to tapping into ones gift is to focus on ones liabilities instead of assets. because of this lack of focus, new gifts that one may have go untapped and undeveloped. Think about it... God would not tell us to do something that we could not do because he would be unjust to do so, so Moses "could" do what he imagined that he could not because of past failure in that area. Desire is a very strong emotion and it brings the needed motivation to do what needs to be done to accomplish a goal. Psalm 37:4 says to delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart, this desire is crucial to tapping into ones gift.
God tells Moses that he would send his brother Aaron with him to speak, which was the support Moses needed to develop his own gift. No man is an island and everyone needs support at one time or another. Many times God will connect us with someone else that can do what we have been gifted to do also, so that we can have an example of how to tap into our own gift. Notice Aaron was to be a mouthpiece for Moses, the very gift that Moses already had (he had his own mouth) because God told him in the beginning to go "tell" Pharoah to let his people go.
Believe in yourself and your gift
The next obstacle Moses faced was his inability to believe in himself. May I say that a person who refuses to believe in themselves will also not believe in their gifts. No matter how polished a persons gift talent or ability may be, they will not convince others to benefit from them because people will see a person the same way the person sees themselves! in Numbers 13 Israel saw themselves as grasshoppers and others saw them as grasshoppers also ( Numbers13:33) .A scripture that I refer to when I'm doubting myself is Romans 11:29 where it says the gifts and callings of God are without repentance (irrevocable) which means that God will not take back what he gave you. Think about the magnitude of this statement...God through his omniscience knew in advance the mistakes you and I would make in our future before he ever gave us the gifts that he did, but he gave them to us anyway never to take them back because he believes in us all. So if no other person believes in you, God does and because he does you and I should do the same.
What is that in thine hand?
And Moses answered and said but behold they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice:for they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him what is that in thine hand?
May I tell you this? don't worry about what other people are going to think about you and your gift because everyone has an opinion, but the only truth that counts is God's truth. Moses was worried about whether he would be believed or not and God simply turns his attention back to himself and what he already had, because God knew that Moses would not make room for his gift, but that his gift would make room for him. This is an important principle to understand because today people try to make room for their gift by trying to become buddy buddy with someone in authority that can help their career, they may bribe, blackmail and a host of other things to achieve their goal. But proverbs 18:16 says that a man's gift will make room for him meaning simply concentrate on being the best that you can be at what you do and someone will notice and you will be compensated.
When the Lord asks Moses what was that in his hand Moses only saw a rod, but God saw much more which is why we cannot look at what is in our possession in just one way because God sees what it can become.There is more to your gift than you know, but as you continue to seek the Lord and use what he has already given you, you will begin to tap into new territory. God tells Moses to throw his rod on the ground, something that was unusual for Moses because his rod was not meant to be thrown down, but to help with shepherding. We must be willing to try new things with our gift within God's guidance because there is more pertaining to it than we know. Ephesians 3:20 says now unto him that is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within us. A born again person can do more than they or any other person for that matter can ask or think because of the holy spirit on the inside (1Corinthians 6).
When God tells Moses to throw down his rod in Exodus 4:3 Moses obeys and the rod becomes a serpent and Moses runs from it. The rod of Moses now becomes the rod of God just as our gift must become Gods gift if it is going to be maximized. We must be willing to relinquish control of it and let God take control, meaning we must obey him as it relates to our gift. The rod itself was one of Moses' gifts that would accompany him throughout his encounters with pharoah, and that God was teaching him how to tap into. As his rod becomes a serpent and Moses runs from it God tells him to pick it up by the tail. This was a control issue because serpents are never picked up by the tail, but by the head. A crucial part of tapping into our gift today is to relinquish control of our gift trusting God that he will work things out for good. Trusting God will at times place us in vulnerable positions just like for Moses grabbing the serpent by the tail, but if we will obey him in the how what where when and why's of using our gifts, we will have success.
