Calling

Being A Good Steward Of Our Design

“A movie of my life began to run in reverse, right in front of my eyes… rewinding past my birth, past my conception and into eternity. As the movie unfolded, I could see myself standing with God in a timeless place… before the earth was created. He pointed to me and said, “I knew you here!” Then He fast-forwarded the movie to my conception in my mother’s womb. I watched as He carefully formed me. A set of blueprints with my name on it appeared, and I watched as God built one-of-a-kind attributes into me. Talents, abilities, personality and looks meticulously fashioned in my mother’s womb, according to His perfect plan. Next, He reached into my heart and planted a deep purpose for my being me… something that no on else could ever fulfil, a call that only I could accomplish. As I watched Him form me in silence, I realized that each of the attributes was actually a piece of His likeness. People could therefore experience a part of God by observing my life.” ~ Jason Vallotton - Winning The War Within

So far we have been looking at issues of who we are but now we want to begin to explore what we were called to do. For many of us, this is somewhat of a frustrating endeavor. I hope to give you a tool that will make this easier. First of all, the principle behind the tool: The principle comes from Ephesians 2:10. We were all deliberately designed by God for a purpose. There are good works that He has planned for us which we are uniquely designed to successfully accomplish. There are people and assignments that have been put in your pathway because they need precisely your type of personality and your particular strengths and life experiences to accomplish them.

Therefore, if we study our design we can begin to understand what we might be designed to do. The diagram above shows a fishbone diagram. I want you to replicate it on a blank sheet of paper. Each bone has an aspect of your design. Now fill in aspects of your design under or above each heading as follows:

• Personality - What words would you or others use to describe yourself? A personality test such as Myers-Briggs or DISC can also be helpful here. (e.g. extrovert, introvert, analytical, adventurous, cautious) Be careful here to weed out false identities from personality traits. For example, you may know yourself to be an anxious person but the root of anxiety is fear and God did not give us a spirit of fear. So you know that this is not who God designed you to be. This is a false identity.
• Gifts/Strengths - What are your strengths? What spiritual or natural talents do you have? (e.g. playing the guitar, administration, faith, prophetic, soccer.)
• Wounds/Trials - Often God uses us to help people who went through the same struggles as we did. What challenges have you overcome? (e.g. poverty, abuse, bullying, learning disability)
• Passions - What are you passionate about? This is distinct from gifts and strengths in that you may or may not be good at it. (e.g. music, sports, airplanes, leadership, history, architecture)
• Prophetic Words/ Life Verses - Have you ever received any prophetic words or do you have any verses in scripture that seem to be particularly defining for you? (e.g. I received a word about designing courses and study plans such as this one and a life verse of mine is Mat 11:28-30)
• My People - Are there any specific groups of people that you feel extraordinarily compassionate toward? (e.g. refugees, teenagers, stay-at-home moms)

Sometimes this exercise takes several weeks to complete. Be gentle with yourself. When you have completed this exercise, begin to craft a mission statement for yourself. It should be something that evokes a deep passion in you. Passion is contagious. Someone passionate about their life 'infects' everyone they meet!

(As an example, my mission is to be an example, a catalyst, and a servant in God's glorious plan for maturing the Bride of Christ into the absolute perfection, full authority, and dazzling beauty of all that Christ is!)

Journal wIth Holy Spirit: What patterns emerge for you from your fishbone diagram? What can you see yourself doing that will bring you tremendous fulfillment and keep you energized even if you do it every day?