The Bible references God’s people as Living Stones being built up as a spiritual house. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We are commanded to be fruitful and multiply, not duplicate. Every person is uniquely shaped by God. We must understand our God-given design as living stones rather than mere bricks. Every person has a uniquely different perspective. Allowing Jesus to be Lord of our gifted lives is God’s purposeful call upon each and every one of us.
You’re not an accident. You’re not an experiment. You are a purposed assignment from God to your world. Something God wanted done makes you necessary. This season is all about pressing in to know more of what that is.
1 Peter 2:4-9 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ESV
Good teachers teach subjects well. Great teachers teach students well. Cooperating with the unique design of an individual changes the dynamic of that teaching/learning relationship on every level!
Bricks are interchangeable; stones are irreplaceable. We want you to know who God designed you to be.
Life and ministry is never a one size fits all. Your life has context and that is important to understand. Your life is perfectly equipped with the experiences, resources and relationships your dreams require. Our desire in this season is that we all come to a deeper understanding of this in every area of our lives.
Part of this season involves Financial Literacy Workshop coming 9/12 from 9-12 where we will venture into what it looks like for you to develop a financial plan that is right for you, your life and your legacy. An inheritance for your children’s children is Biblical. I’ll be introducing the idea of an endowment that we’re developing to help fund future generations of ministry flowing out of this place beyond our lifetime! We will look at a federal fund that is now in place helping parents invest on behalf of their children. I’m now introducing this curriculum in the U.S. and in England in churches, schools, businesses and as of last month I’m being invited into a university setting with this.
Every person is uniquely shaped by God having a uniquely different perspective. Allowing Jesus to be Lord of our gifted lives is God’s purposeful call for every one of us.
You didn’t make yourself so you can’t tell yourself why you were made! You’re not an accident. You’re not an experiment. You are a purposed assignment from God to your world.
Be fruitful and “multiply” not “duplicate”.
You are designed to multiply your own God-given identity not duplicate someone else’s success.
You Be True To You! Not the you who others want you to be and not even to who you think you should be. Be true to who God designed you to be with the principles of God’s Word guiding you every step of the way.
We have developed a personal assessment for each of you to use in exploring your gifted life as living stones. The Bible gives three categories of spiritual gifts and specifically says every person has been given specific gifts in alignment with your God-given assignment.
The assessment we’ve developed is actually an A.I. interaction that helps bring clarity of your Biblical gifting.
Several of us have walked this out and it is fascinating how enlightening and accurate it has been. After about a 15-minute interaction it results in an assessment of how you are gifted and how you can use those gifts to make a difference in your 5-foot circle.
I’ll bring clear direction for this in a few weeks before making it available so everybody clearly understands these important priorities:
We must always start with our own God-given faculties being brought into a surrendered posture before the Lord!
As soon as you go to A.I. when you should have gone to God you’ve crossed the line.
A.I. is shaping everything more than any of us realize! You can’t just say I’m not doing that. This is shaping everything about our lives. The church needs to be ahead of it not behind it.
As we venture into providing you with this copy and paste conversational guide, discussions in our community group will come back to this. Doing this together is really important so please do get connected and let’s explore the purposes of God together.
Philippians 3:10 For our determined purpose is to know him, to progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him. AMP
Allowing Jesus to be Lord of our gifted lives is God’s purposeful call upon each and every one of us.
You’re not an accident. You’re not an experiment. You are a purposed assignment from God to your world. Something God wanted done makes you necessary and we really do need every single one of you in this fight!
GP2RL: Focus this week on being who God created you to be rather than who others want you to be. You Be You!
