“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” John 17:4
If we pressed the rewind button and played that verse in reverse here are the keys to a fulfilled life purpose in the year 2021.
#1 God entrusts work to us.
#2 We labor within the boundaries of the work he has entrusted us with.
#3 God receives the glory for our creative fulfillment of his entrustment.
Summary: Entrustment—Completion--Glory.
In American business and leadership—often in the church world too—success has become the driving focus. Maybe that has changed some because of the challenges we’ve faced in 2020, but the equation tends to look more like this.
#1 Seize the opportunity.
#2 Engage in personal ingenuity and hard work.
#3 Then you will experience success and multiplication.
That equation reduces to this summary: Smart—Engaging—Successful.
This is a faulty measuring stick, even for businesses. It can also become an idol. After all, not everything that grows or multiplies is healthy. Weeds can multiply. Cancer can grow bigger. Evil may attract crowds just as well as man or God can. God’s measuring stick isn’t success, growth, and multiplication. It’s living a completed and abundant life in Him.
When something is connected to the Life Giver it lives on the Life Giver’s nutrients, and it produces the Life Giver’s fruit. Abiding in the vine isn’t a spiritual principle; it’s a life principle. The branch receives everything from the vine--its purpose and it’s resources. This includes your business, leadership, family, relationships and ministry.
Entrustment. When flowers awaken in the spring they glorify their creator. They are singular and small, but they fulfill their purpose beautifully. Your ministry or business may feel like a single tulip in a forest of towering oaks. You feel small. The world is telling you to become an oak tree—or telling your ministry to become mega. Your job is to remind everyone in your organization what God is telling you to become. If it’s a tulip, then have the courage to stay a tulip. Live in your entrustment, not someone else’s.
Completion. When God calls us to something, He provides the resources to fulfill the calling. Our second job as a leader is to keep pulling the weeds of self-sufficiency out of our company culture or family culture. Both the big business and the small ministry may slip into self-sufficiency. It is a training process to remind ourselves and others to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding.
Our creative powers are designed to operate best in collaboration, collaboration in teams and collaboration with the Holy Spirit. When we partner with the Holy Spirit, when he is a part of our team meetings and inspiration processes, his creativity is revealed in us. We become a billboard for God’s glory. Mankind reveals the image of the creator when we partner with him.
Glory. It should be the burning desire of every leader to shine a light on God’s awesomeness. Your influence and leadership are only a spot light given to highlight God, not yourself or your organization. The Bible says, all things flow from God, through God, and back to God. Anything short of giving radical credit back to God is very nearly an assault on his Lordship. But under the canopy of his leadership we experience his protection and peace.
Each of us has God-given assignments to build God’s kingdom on earth in natural and supernatural ways. Making your home and garden beautiful for Jesus is a way we accomplish it. Making our businesses and ministries a service of worship to the heavenly Father is also a way we accomplish this. It’s a new year. Don’t be side tracked by all of the drama. Live in Jesus and fulfill your calling! “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Tags: calling, purpose, mandate
