Category Archives: Gifts, Calling & Purpose

Your Gifts Are Intended to Point People to God

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Your Gifts Are Intended to Point People to God

Your Gifts Are Intended to Point People to God 

Last week we discussed how your gift will make room for you.  We also mentioned that our gifts should advance the kingdom of heaven.  One of the primary purposes of our gifts is to point people to God.  Through our gifts, people will see God in us.  People will see that God gave each of us a variety of unique talents and abilities that could have only come from God.  Our gifts can serve as an avenue to reach people for God or to speak into the lives of others.

“So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11, 12 (NLT) 

One of the primary purposes of our gifts is to point people to God.

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Unfortunately, you CAN use your gift without acknowledging God.

It is completely possible to operate in your gifts and use them well but still not point people to God.  Unfortunately, we see it every day in the secular world.  You don’t have to be Christian to be gifted—God has gifted EVERYONE.  You also don’t have to be Christian to figure out that you can use your gifts to become prosperous.  There are droves of celebrities worldwide that are not Christians.  They have discovered their gifts and have used them to get wealth, fame, honor and influence.  God MEANT for our gifts to do this…but that’s only half of their purpose.  Additionally, God intended for our gifts to direct others back to Him, to point people to God which is where the gifts came from in the first place.  We need to keep in mind that someday God will hold us accountable for how we used our gifts too.

God is absolutely big enough and powerful enough to not only use our gifts to bless us but to point people to Him without it removing any of the benefits.  We will NOT suffer if we use our gifts to glorify God.   Continue reading →

Your Gift Will Make Room For You

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Your Gift Will Make Room For You

Your Gift Will Make Room For You

God gave us our gifts and our talents for a couple of purposes.  One is to point people to Him, which we’ll talk more about later.  Another purpose of our gifts is to bring us prosperity, honor, influence and happiness.  Pretty cool, huh?!  The bible says that your gift will make room for you.  I’d like to encourage you today that God does want you to be Happy, Healthy & Prosperous, and He will use your GIFTS to help you accomplish that!

Your gift will make room for you…your gift is designed to prosper you, to make you money and bring you wealth, and to provide for you. Your gifts were designed to help you make a living.  They will advance you in life and move you forward.  God wants to bless you through your gifts.  In turn, your gifts will be a blessing for other people too.  Your gifts will meet a need, and consequently you will be compensated for that.  It’s a win-win!

It’s pretty cool to me that I actually get to do what I love (teach, write, speak) and get paid for it!  I think for so long I felt like I was just going through the motions in life, in my jobs, and in my roles.  I lacked a sense of purpose.  I think a major factor in that was that I hadn’t discovered my gifts yet and wasn’t fully using them.  I was frustrated because I was operating outside of my gifts.  When I started to discover my God-given gifts and started to use them, joy was an automatic by-product.  Knowing that I was helping others with my gifts and getting paid to do so was a huge bonus!  The proverb that your gift will make room for you started to make a lot of sense to me. 

Your gift will make room for you. #success #prosperity #fulfillment #proverbs1816

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YOUR GIFT WILL MAKE ROOM FOR YOU MEANS THAT IN ADDITION TO ADVANCING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, YOUR GIFTS & PURPOSE ARE MEANT TO PROSPER YOU AND BRING YOU SUCCESS AND FULFILLMENT.

“A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.” Proverbs 18:16 (AMP)

“A present [gift] is a precious stone in the eyes of its possessor; Wherever he turns, he prospers.” Proverbs 17:8 (NKJV)

“But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” Deuteronomy 8:18 (NIV)

When we faithfully operate in our gifts the way God intended (to serve Him and His people), those gifts will bring promotion into our life.  If used right, Continue reading →

You Will Have to Answer to God for How You Used Your Gifts and Fulfilled Your Purpose

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You Will Have to Answer to God for How You Used Your Gifts and Fulfilled Your Purpose

You Will Have to Answer to God for How You Used Your Gifts and Fulfilled Your Purpose

We talked a couple of weeks ago about how we will one day be evaluated by God.  Part of that process will be an evaluation of how we used and stewarded our gifts, talents, calling & purpose that God has given us.  We will have to answer to God for what we did with what He gave us.  Essentially, we will have to give account for how we used our gifts and how we fulfilled God’s plan for our life.

“So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Romans 14:12 (NIV)

“For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing].” 2 Corinthians 5:10 (AMP)

“For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.” Matthew 16:27 (NLT) 

We will have to give an answer to God for the question, “Did you do what I asked you to do?”

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In John 17:4 (Message Translation) when Jesus was praying at the Last Supper he said, “I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do.”  Even Jesus had an assignment for which he had to answer to God.  Just as God had an assignment for Jesus, He has an assignment for us as well.  It’s up to us to figure out what that assignment is and then to use our God-given gifts to fulfill it.

It is our responsibility to discover and use what God has given us.

The famous 1800’s preacher, Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon Our Gifts and How to Use Them, “Every living saint has his or her charge to keep — their talent, over which they are a steward. A measure of gift is in all of us, needing to be fanned into a flame.”  His sermon uses the example of Paul telling Timothy not to neglect the gift that is him.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”  2 Timothy 1:6 (NIV)

Rick Warren, renowned pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?, stated in a devotional (‘Make the Most of Your Talents’), “You are a manager of the gifts God has given to you.  They may be great or small in your eyes, but they matter to God.  “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2 NIV).  When God made you, he made an investment in you, and he expects a return on that investment.” 

Give God a return on his investment in you. #Godgivengifts #stewardship

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We can see an example of that statement Continue reading →

You Have God-Given Gifts

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You Have God-Given Gifts

You Have God-Given Gifts

Last week we talked about measuring whether or not we are operating in our gift and how sometimes our frustrations can be indicators.  There were points in my life where I KNOW that I wasn’t using my gifts, and I’m sure of that now because of the frustration that I was experiencing during those times.  I don’t think I fully comprehended that God has given me some gifts that He wants me to use in order to fulfill the calling and purpose that He has placed on my life.  If you are experiencing some frustrations in your job, career or role that you play, maybe you need to start focusing on the God-given gifts placed inside of you and determine if and how they fit into your current roles.  This starts with first and foremost recognizing that you ARE indeed gifted! 

We are, each and every one of us, gifted by God.

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I actually changed my major in college because of frustrations and not recognizing my gifts.  At the time, I didn’t even know that it had anything to do with my God-given gifts.  I just knew I was miserable in my classes and couldn’t imagine a life-long career doing something I hated.  I originally majored in Accounting and had imagined myself one day becoming a tax attorney.  Then I started taking some classes for Accounting.  I did well in them, but I absolutely HATED them.  They were so boring to me.  I didn’t enjoy working with numbers.  I much preferred writing papers to filling out a balance sheet.  There was so much paperwork and so little interaction with people.

After researching the career more, visiting with my professors and taking a few classes, I quickly realized that Accounting was not the path for me.  I knew it would not make me happy because I wouldn’t get to do the things I enjoyed most.  Those are the things that I now know as my God-given gifts.  Thankfully, my frustrations guided me away from a career that God never intended for me.  I think if I had known more about my God-given gifts I could have avoided some of that frustration, and I could have saved the time and money of taking classes I didn’t need!

I now know that God has given me gifts.  Continue reading →

Are You Operating in Your Gift?

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Are You Operating in Your Gift?

Are You Operating in Your Gift?

This past weekend I had the wonderful honor and opportunity to speak at a local women’s conference.  Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for me and for the conference.  It was a success!  I continue to pray and believe that the words the ladies received will sink down into their hearts and produce some great things in their lives.  God’s Word doesn’t return void! (Isaiah 55:11)  I spoke about discovering your God-given gifts and purpose.

God has been really working on me over the past several years to show me my own gifts and talents and to give me a glimpse of some of the things that He’s calling me to do.  I still don’t know my WHOLE purpose in life, but I’m definitely seeing God reveal bits and pieces of it to me little by little.  I’m not sure if we really ever figure this out all at once anyway.  My sister told me the other day that if God told me everything He wanted me to do right now, I’d more than likely just reply “Heck NO! I’m not doing that!”  She’s probably right.  I tend to be reluctant a lot when God calls me to do something new that might be a little out of my comfort zone.  Sometimes I can be a little stubborn. 😉

I shared with the ladies at the conference that I’ve always said my whole life that I would NEVER be a teacher.  I’ve learned that you have to be careful of what you say you will never do because God has a sense of humor.  Little did I know when I swore off teaching, that it is exactly what God had gifted me to do.  Now when I look back I can see that it was there all along.  I just didn’t recognize it.  Unfortunately, I think this is true of a lot of people and their gifts.  They don’t know they’re gifted or they don’t recognize them for a number of reasons.  Some people have just never been taught.  My goal is to change that—at least in my sphere of influence.  Now this is something that I teach in both my college classes and at Glory House, the women’s restoration home where I teach.  I’d like to continue some of this teaching on the blog here too from time to time because you can’t start operating in your gift until you know what your gifts are.

Discovering my gifts and purpose started for me several years back.  Continue reading →

Top 10 Posts of 2015

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Happy, Healthy & Prosperous Top 10 Posts of 2015

Top 10 Posts of 2015

“Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered” Psalms 105:5 (ESV)

This week I’m sharing the Top 10 Posts of 2015.  I like to take the first of the year to recount some of the top or most popular posts of the previous year.  I like to share them for a couple of reasons…

First, there are several new subscribers/followers who may not have seen or read these posts and might find some of them to be helpful.

Secondly, looking back also helps me to remember what God has done and is still doing through this website (that I oh-so-reluctantly started…and sometimes still reluctantly continue!).

Lastly, it helps me (and hopefully you too) know how to pray based on what the current need or demand is, and when I know that I know how to continue to pray for others.  For example, 3 of the most popular posts have to do with leading someone to Christ or praying for someone to come to Christ.  For starters this makes me SUPER excited to know that people are actively seeking these types of websites out.  To me this means that the body of Christ is continuing to grow, and I know to continue to pray for the people who have come across these posts to have boldness to lead someone to the Lord and to agree in prayer with them that their unsaved loved ones will be saved and grow in their relationship with God.  Another example, is that the posts about being unloved and unwanted are overwhelmingly popular…which makes me so sad to know that there are so many people feeling unloved and unwanted.  I continue to pray that they will know and fully experience the love of God and of others.

Take Some Practical Steps:

  • As you look through this list of most popular posts, please take a minute to pray for one or more of the topics that stand out to you (like my examples above).
  • Please click on and read or re-read one or more of the posts from which you feel you may be able to receive some benefit or of which you might need some reminding.
  • Pay it forward…if one or more of the following posts has benefited you, please forward it/them to others you feel they may benefit (you might prayerfully consider who to share them with), or consider sharing them on your social media channels (sharing links are available at the end of each post).
  • Lastly, please pray for me this year to #1-continue to help others, #2-for me to have to right words at the right time, and #3-for the right people to be directed to my site for God to help them.
    Remember what God has done for you and pay it forward!

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Top 10 Posts of 2015

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Do Others Have a Gift You Wish You Had?

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Do you ever look at another's gift or talent and wish you could do what they do? Learn more about your gifts and how they can complement others' gifts.

Do Others Have a Gift You Wish You Had?

I didn’t get the creative genes gift in my family, at least not when it comes to decorating, crafting, sewing, etc.  My mom and my sister Shawna probably possess the creative prowess in these areas of a hundred people.  Not me.  Nope.  Give me something to write, teach or stick me in front of a crowd of people to speak any day!  But put me in a room of kids to pull off a birthday party, and I’m toast.  That is utter torture to me.

Thank goodness my kids have their aunt and grandma!  Without them my kids’ birthdays would consist of some really sad decorations (or none at all), maybe a really ugly but yummy cake (I can cook even if it doesn’t look pretty), maybe a few family members over to our house (or better yet a restaurant, that way I don’t have to clean up after everyone), and probably some pretty cool presents (I AM really good at shopping 🙂 ).  I guess I’m somewhat of a minimalist.  I typically like to keep things simple—probably more because I’m not very good at the creative stuff.  It’s not one of my gifts or talents.  I am so very thankful that God made us so that our gifts complement one another.

I’ve learned that that keeping things simple is not all bad.  I’ve also learned that my kids can have the really cool birthday parties, and it’s STILL simple.  It’s simple because I’ve learned the art of delegation.  I simply delegate those tasks that I’m not good at or that seem torturous to me to others who actually enjoy doing them and are quite good at them to boot.  In other words, it’s their gift to do those tasks that I despise.

Take this past weekend for example. Continue reading →