Your greatest superpower is the grace of God because it is God’s **grace **that gives you the motivation, the power, and the *ability *to fulfill your purpose in life according to God’s will.
You have a destiny to accomplish! There is a purpose in life you were born to fulfill!
“But God had special plans for me even before I was born. So he chose me through his grace.”—Galatians 1:15 (ERV)
Your individual purpose was lovingly created in the heart of God before the world began!
“God is the one who saved and called us with a holy calling. This wasn’t based on what we have done, but it was based on his own purpose and grace that he gave us in Christ Jesus before time began.”—2 Timothy 1:9 (CEB)
It is the grace of God that guides us to accomplish our purposes according to God’s design.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”—Hebrews 12:28 (NKJV)
“I Feel So Alive!”
When we are acting in harmony with the grace that God has given us, we will feel like we are doing what we were born to do. As a friend of mine said to me recently, “I feel so alive when I am doing this! This is what I want to do all the time. I can’t imagine doing anything else that would make me feel like this!”
Just a word about accepting positions in organizations:
Most leaders in businesses and in churches do not understand the concept that grace is given to each person by God to equip and enable them to accomplish certain purposes in life. Because of this lack of understanding, most leaders will assign people to positions for which they are not well-suited. Leaders tend to assign people to positions depending on which positions need to be filled, rather than on which positions people have been gifted to accomplish based on the grace they have been given. This is backwards, but it is how most people are assigned to positions in organizations.
On the other hand, if you’ve ever watched the TV show, “The Profit,” you may have seen billionaire Marcus Lemonis reassign people in the businesses that he acquires, based on the competencies they demonstrate in the work environment. He is a very good judge of people and their strengths and weaknesses, and he really takes time to get to know people and to understand the gifts, talents, and abilities that they carry. He may tell his partners that “Sheila should not be the floor manager. Marsha is the real floor manager. Sheila should be working on product design.”
People who may have been in positions for years may be reassigned overnight. Remarkably, Sheila and Marsha, who may have been struggling in their previous positions suddenly begin to thrive, almost as if they are coming to life for the first time because they are finally released to do what they were gifted to accomplish.
When Lemonis makes these kinds of personnel changes, it is because he is essentially discerning the grace that people have been given, and then reassigning them to roles that fit the grace that motivates and equips them.
In the case of Barnabas and Saul, God spoke to their leaders at the right time, telling them to release Barnabas and Saul from their current positions so that they could pursue the purpose for which God had called and equipped them by His grace:
“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’** **Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.”—Acts 13:2-3 (NKJV)
You can tell if you are working in a position that does not match the grace you have been given. Working in a position for which you have not been given grace may leave you feeling drained and exhausted, even if the work is not physically demanding. If the work you are doing feels like drudgery; if you dread going to your job; if you are bored with your work; or if you dream of doing something else, those may be signals from God that the work you are doing is not what God intended for you to do with your life. God may be trying to prompt you to change what you are doing because what you are doing now is not in agreement with your purpose in life. You may be working against the grace that God has given you.
“When the congregation of the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and the devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, talking to them were urging them to continue in the grace of God.”—Acts 13:43 (AMP)
But, that’s not always the case. Sometimes we have to endure tedious, boring, distasteful assignments because that is part of our preparation before we move into the purposes we were born to accomplish.
“This is what I am saying: When young children inherit all that their father owned, they are still no different from his slaves. It doesn’t matter that they own everything. While they are children, they must obey those who are chosen to care for them. But when they reach the age the father set, they are free. It is the same for us.”—Galatians 4:1-3 (ERV)
In my case, I spent eleven years as a classroom teacher in public schools. I loved the kids, but I hated the work. It often felt like drudgery. I often wished that I could be almost anywhere else in the world if I could only get out of that job.
But those eleven years were necessary training for what I am doing now. When I first started work as a classroom teacher, I was painfully shy and socially awkward. Looking back, I needed the experience of being a classroom teacher to develop assertiveness, confidence, and other qualities of my personality that were not there before.
Now, I feel very confident and comfortable speaking to groups of any size, and I have led conference sessions on four continents. Looking back now, it is clear to see that, as painful as it was at the time, I needed those years in the public school classrooms to develop into the person that I am today so that I would be fully equipped to fulfill my purpose.
Grace is always given by God to support you as you pursue your purpose in life. Grace was given to the early apostles of Jesus Christ to empower them to fulfill their life callings as apostles. They were also given insight into the purpose and mission of their callings, so that they could fully cooperate with what God had called them to do according to His will. This is stated in Romans chapter 1. In this same passage, we are also assured that *we *have been called by God as well with a unique purpose to fulfill!
**“**It is through Him that we have received grace and [our] apostleship **to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s sake among all the Gentiles, **and you also are among those who are called of Jesus Christ to belong to Him”—Romans 1:5-6 (AMP)
God’s Grace Will Guide You
Paul was so in tune with the grace of God that empowered and motivated him, that he could recognize when God’s grace prompted him to write and speak certain exhortations to guide us:
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you …“—Romans 12:3 (NIV)
“But I’ve written to you in a sort of daring way, partly to remind you of what you already know. I’m writing to you in this way because of the grace that was given to me by God. It helps me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.”—Romans 15:15-16 (CEB)
God’s grace will not only guide you *find *your purpose in life, but grace will also prepare you and guide you to *fulfill *your life’s purpose!
“According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it.”—1 Corinthians 3:10 (AMPC)
“I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return]. It is right for me to feel this way about you, because [you have me in your heart as] I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the good news [regarding salvation], all of you share in [His matchless] grace with me.”—Philippians 1:6-7 (AMP)
Your Gift Mix
The specific gifts and talents that you have are the perfect mix of “tools” that you will need to fulfill your purpose in life. We are all given a unique mix of gifts and talents according to the purposes that we were born to fulfill.
“Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us”—Romans 12:6 (AMPC)
The grace of God looks different in every person. God’s grace manifests itself in different gifts, talents, motivations, and purposes, but all are necessary!
“Just as each one of you has received a special gift [a spiritual talent, an ability graciously given by God], employ it in serving one another as [is appropriate for] good stewards of God’s multi-faceted grace [faithfully using the diverse, varied gifts and abilities granted to Christians by God’s unmerited favor].”—1 Peter 4:10 (AMP)
It is the grace of God that leads you to become the person you were born to be! Grace actually guides you and molds you into the person you need to become in order to fulfill your destiny in life!
“I have become a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given so that I might proclaim to the gentiles the immeasurable wealth of the Messiah and help everyone see how this secret that has been at work was hidden for ages by God, who created all things.”—Ephesians 3:7-9 (ISV)
“But God’s grace has made me what I am. And his grace to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But I was not really the one working. It was God’s grace that was with me.)”—1 Corinthians 15:10 (ICB)
You are needed! We need you! The specific gifts and talents that you bring to the table are needed so that all of us can help each other to reach our destinies in life!
“I thank my God always for you** because of the grace of God which was given you** in Christ Jesus, so that in everything you were [exceedingly] enriched in Him, in all speech [empowered by the spiritual gifts] and in all knowledge [with insight into the faith].”—1 Corinthians 1:4-5 (AMP)
God’s grace can overcome all of your shortcomings, mistakes, and failures so that you can still be empowered to fulfill your purpose in life, even if you’ve messed up more times than you can count!
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord because he trusted me and gave me this work of serving him. He gives me strength. In the past I insulted Christ. As a proud and violent man, I persecuted his people. But God gave me mercy because I did not know what I was doing. I did that before I became a believer.** But our Lord gave me a full measure of his grace.** And with that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
“Here is a true statement that should be accepted without question: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them.”—1 Timothy 1:12-15 (ERV)
