Your Unrepeatable Opportunity
By Tommy Newberry
Are you struggling to know your purpose? God has a plan and a place for every man, and that includes you.
As men of faith, we each are responsible for our own spiritual walks with God. That encompasses loving our wives, leading our kids, and providing for our families’ financial futures.
From time to time the continuous pressure to perform and excel in all arenas of life will leave us feeling bogged down. With these immediate pressures constantly pleading for our attention, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.
And what is “the big picture”? Knowing, loving and serving God, of course. But also, knowing who you are in Him is a major factor in seeing the big picture.
You were created in the image and likeness of God to do wonderful things with the limited time you have in life. That’s no exaggeration–you have no greater duty in your lifetime than to determine what God put you here to accomplish.
Without a deep sense of purpose, life will be devoid of true significance or long-term meaning. It will be marked by cynicism, pessimism, apathy and mediocrity. You will trudge along in a perpetual survival mode and will constantly need to be filled with outside things: busyness, distractions and continuous activity.
Some of us settle for a life like that, but none of us really want it. God’s way for us is better if we’ll accept it on His terms,
What’s Your Dream?
God had one particular thing in mind when He made you. You might recognize this as your ultimate vision or dream. For some men, a dream will shake the entire world. For others, it will soothe one tiny community
In either case, the world will be left a better place when a God-given dream is fulfilled. God wants the world to be different because of your life.
What do you think motivated God to bring you into the world? There is an answer for you to that question. It’s worth searching for because the answer reveals your purpose. And in this purpose you must find your true place, or what I call your “Genius.”
Your Genius is your unique path to glorify God. When you arrive in your Genius, you will know it. You will feel a sense of destiny. What you most love to do will merge with what you do best. This is where you will invest your life in your own way, making the difference that you are uniquely equipped to make.
What do you think motivated God to bring you into the world? There is an answer for you to that question. It’s worth searching for because the answer reveals your purpose. And in this purpose you must find your true place, or what I call your “Genius.”
Your Genius is your unique path to glorify God. When you arrive in your Genius, you will know it. You will feel a sense of destiny. What you most love to do will merge with what you do best. This is where you will invest your life in your own way, making the difference that you are uniquely equipped to make.
The more you experience your Genius, the more you are drawn to it. As you experience your Genius, the tinge of dissatisfaction in your heart, which perhaps only you knew existed, will disappear.
You will enjoy invigorating surges of self-worth. There will no longer be a need to compare yourself with anyone else. You will be healthier, more creative, more joyful. All of us do relatively well in certain areas of life, yet there is but one Genius for each of us.
When you engage in activities that demand your special talent, your brain releases chemicals that trigger satisfaction as an incentive for you to continue in this area. It is a positive reinforcement mechanism that is part of God’s perfect design. These talents then get converted into strengths, and eventually Genius if you sustain the course long enough.
Your unique conglomeration of character, talents, life experiences and personality merge together and spark a dream in you. The more often you engage in your strengths, the more crystallized your vision becomes.
With this God-given dream imprinted on your mind, you become intrinsically motivated, needing less and less prodding from the outside. You become inwardly directed, and self-discipline comes virtually with-out effort.
Sooner or later, we all are confronted with the question of whether we are heeding the call and following our ultimate vision. Are you now serving God by daily becoming a little more like the man He wants you to become?
Throughout your life, you will constantly be changing. With each change you will either move closer to your Genius or farther away.
No matter how far you may have strayed from your Genius, you can always find it again. Your Genius is always waiting for you because no one but you can fill it.
Take comfort in knowing that every experience you have ever had, no matter how seemingly unrelated, can be used to your advantage in your Genius when you finally find it. And you will find it if you look wholeheartedly for it.
Be God’s Man First
Unfortunately, many men are bystanders reacting to change rather than creating the change they seek. Too many believe change is an external event that occurs haphazardly. As a result they are molded and thrown off course by their circumstances.
For the most part, your circumstances are simply a reflection of what is going on inside your secret world of thoughts, feelings and beliefs. To state it bluntly, your private thoughts don’t stay private for very long.
What you think about most will ultimately be revealed for everyone to see. Do your thoughts line up with who God intends you to become?
Human beings are never static. We’re either growing or shrinking as we move through our brief stint on Earth.
As you renew your thinking, your world of circumstances begins to improve as well. To expect it to be any other way is like pretending the tail can wag the dog.
Living on purpose requires deliberately deciding in advance how you are going to grow more like the person God wants you to become.
This decision requires that you get in touch with your core desires. It is these high-intensity desires, sometimes called the “DNA of success,” that reveal the role God made you for. God’s will for you is something splendid and magnificent–far better than anything you could ever design for yourself.
Reject anything less than His absolute best. Refuse to settle for the average life. Instead, fight off the pull of mediocrity and stand out by using your strengths in service to others. If necessary, be unconventional and even productively eccentric.
Commit to Action
The single biggest reason men underperform is because they were sloppy in choosing the right race in life. We tend to pursue comfort more than character. We often find we’ve chosen the wrong careers. So we resign our-selves to simply enjoying our evenings, weekends and vacations and make no long-term goals.
The dream God plants in your heart, in your DNA, will not come to fruition by accident. There is a price. The price requires that you surrender the concepts of safety, security and comfort for the higher reward of living the life God gave you and leaving your unique mark on the world.
You must escape from your personal comfort zone if you want to become the difference-maker you were designed to be. Jump, and trust that the net will be there.
All along the path to fulfilling God’s purpose, you will face resistance: institutional, cultural, relational, financial and mental. This is simply part of the Genius game. You must press on in the face of all the pressure to conform.
You must take action that leaves no doubt you are committed to your ultimate vision, and you must do this before you have the money, before you have the confidence, and even before you have the blessing of those closest to you.
You first must commit unconditionally; then the plan will come and the resources will emerge. Only after you give up all thought of retreat will you become an unstoppable force.
So why not dare magnificent things with, through and for God? Do you really believe that all the vast plans of God have already been accomplished?
Have the most significant lives already been lived? Have the greatest marriages already happened? Have the best books and songs already been written?
Have the most inspiring movies already been filmed? Have the ultimate medical advances already occurred? Have the most creative businesses already been launched?
The best of everything may, in fact, be yet to come. Think beyond the urgencies of the moment and find the creative reserves that God made you to carry, that you never knew existed. Today or tomorrow may very well become the most electrifying day in your history.
Accept that you have been custom-made by God to serve an exclusive function in this world, even if that role is not yet clear to you. This is your Genius, and it’s up to you to find it.
No extra human beings are being created to replace you. God has a plan and a place for every man, and that includes you.
Clues to Discovering Your ‘Genius’
You are an original, irreplaceable masterpiece. That’s the way God made you. Your DNA proves it. There has never been anyone just like you, and there never will be anyone just like you.
When you accept yourself as a child of God, you will not see restrictions on the amount of impact you can have in this world. And how you see yourself sets the ceiling for what God can do with you.
Your life here on Earth is your special, unrepeatable opportunity to magnify the greatness God has placed within you. In His purpose you will find your true place, your “Genius.”
Let these signposts be a guide to helping you recognize and fulfill your Genius.
Having passion. Your Genius will always be characterized by enthusiasm, intense interest and pure fun.
Continually learning. In your Genius, learning new information takes little time. You will find that you easily visualize new concepts and quickly integrate them.
Yearning. When you experience a deep desire that just won’t go away, it’s a strong sign that you may be approaching your Genius.
Winging it. Pay attention to areas of strength, ones in which you achieve great results even though you put in very little effort or preparation.
Article “Your Unrepeatable Opportunity” written by Tommy Newberry excerpted from New Man magazine, July/August 2007 edition.
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
