The Faith To Use Your Gifts For Your Purpose

It is common for us to confuse our gifts with our purpose.  In fact, most people will spend their entire life developing their gifts, focusing on their gifts, and never scratching the surface of their purpose.

Purpose is eternal, gifts are a means to accomplish the purpose.  For example, my gifts are speaking and writing and connecting people.  My purpose is using those gifts to lead others to Jesus.  I could use my gifts for many things and never lead a person to Jesus.

Using your gifts for God is not easy.  It requires a daily dying to one's self, setting aside your personal ambitions and selfishness.  It requires setting aside accolades to do the less popular.  It requires thought and work and discipline.  But it is so worth it.   Folks, if you know the feeling of living in God's will, it is a high with no comparison.

So how do we live in the will of God and use our gifts in alignment with our purpose?  Well, this is our journey, isn't it?  It's what our time on earth is all about, answering this one question and acting on the answer.  Let me help point you in the right direction.

Last week, I attended the Purpose Driven Conference at Saddleback Church led by my Pastor Rick Warren.  This conference had about 1000 attendees of Pastors and Church Ministers from all over the world.  All with the same focus, how they could use their giftings as Pastors to grow their church and lead more people to Jesus.

I listened as Pastor Rick taught how to create the proper balance of worship, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship, and ministry in your church.  The information was amazing and all based on scripture. But something really stuck with me that Pastor Rick spoke about.  One of the reasons I love my Pastor is that he preaches the Bible in such a way that it makes sense to even a non believer.  (Part of His Church growth strategy.)  He has a way with words and a way with making the Bible relative. 

He said, "If you want to see the Church grow.  Do what Jesus did.  Jesus came to earth and interacted with people.  He met their needs, loved them, and was interesting as He taught them.  He planted a church and preached reconciliation, he equipped leaders, assisted the poor, cared for the sick and educated the next generation."

Those seem like simple enough tasks, right?  We could all use our gifts to focus on one of those goals couldn't we?  And if we did, we would be fulfilling our purpose of growing God's church.

What are your gifts?  Are you using them in the context of your local church and to spread the gospel?

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