Purpose And Power Of Authority (21 page)

When you discover your gift, you might find that it functions more in the background, but if you’re not operating in it, then those who need your gift will lack something vital.

Once you know your authority and recognize its uniqueness and the important contribution it brings to others, you have to trust it. Trusting in your inherent gifting will allow you to fulfill your authority and not become sidetracked.

Many of us have been living in an “illegal” manner. Instead of trusting in our gifting, we’re trying to do something else. For example, some people are attempting to undertake business ventures that they weren’t born to do. These ventures are going to be harmful for them. By the time they have failed at them many times and life has beaten them up, they should figure out that these endeavors are not their calls and go back to operating in their
real gifts.

It is true that the pursuit of any genuine calling will involve some setbacks and require perseverance, but this is not what I’m referring to. I’m talking about when people keep running after something that isn’t right for them and blaming either their circumstances, other people, or the attacks of the devil for their problems. But neither their circumstances, nor others, nor the devil is responsible for the barriers to what they’re trying to do if their ventures are not related to their personal domains of authority. People who try to do things they weren’t born to do will cause heartache for themselves and others. They will frustrate everyone around them, and they will become the problem.

Not everyone is gifted to run his own business. Some people are better suited to having a job with a steady salary rather than one that requires taking risks involving capital or overseeing other people. Certain people are called to hold things together but not to initiate them. Holding things together is just as essential as starting them. Every bolt needs a nut, but there are a lot of nuts running around with nothing to be bolted on to. They say, “I want to do this and I want to do that,” and they know they can’t do those things, but they keep trying, anyway. Years later, they’re still in debt trying to figure out how to get their “authority” to work.

In addition, a person can be talented, skilled, and experienced in something but still be unauthorized, because authority has a specific assignment or assignments, as well as a particular realm, connected with it. Again, you wouldn’t let your car mechanic operate on your body. It doesn’t matter how many certificates he has on the wall; he may have gone to ten schools for training in car mechanics and be the best in the country, but you wouldn’t say, “You were so good at fixing the engine in my car, why don’t you open me up and do surgery on me, too?” His skills are useless for surgery. Similarly, authority is specific. It comes down to this question: What was I really born to do?

We must also realize that when we are functioning outside our authority, we may be causing someone else to be out of order, too, because we’re in his place. In this way, we may be gifted, talented, and skilled but also disruptive and even detrimental.

The world is filled with many active but unauthorized people. You need to find the place where you flourish and trust in your inherent gifting. How do you flourish? Again, Paul wrote, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us” (Romans 12:6). Note that he said that your gift comes with grace. The word translated as “grace” in this passage is the Greek word charis, which refers to “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude.” God’s influence has given us the ability to do certain things. So, if you are built to be an apple tree and you’re trying to bring forth oranges, you’re going to be frustrated because that ability isn’t built into you. God gives grace for the gift and power for the purpose. When David was chosen by God to be king of Israel and was anointed by God’s representative, the prophet Samuel, “from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” (1 Samuel 16:13). David received both the authority of kingship and the enabling power by his anointing. Whatever God gives you to do, He graces you to do. Remember, authority is equal to its power.

In relation to exercising personal gifts, Paul said things such as, “If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently” (Romans 12:7–8). Notice how he kept saying “Let him.” When a person has a gift, we, as his counterparts, must trust in his ability and allow him to do it. We shouldn’t prevent him from exercising his gift by making him feel guilty about doing it or forcing him to do something else instead. In other words, we need to let the gift give. We need to allow the person to be himself.

“If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously” (Romans 12:8). Giving is actually a gift in itself. Some people have the ability to make a lot of money, and they do so in order to give abundantly to others. Some people just love to give and are always giving. Without thinking, they will give you their own houses and go live in the street, only to realize afterward, I just gave my house away! Other people have to try hard to give; they have to pray for the willingness to do it. Some people seem to need a special revelation from God to give. Everybody has a different gift, a different strength.

Paul mentioned “encouraging” as a specific gift, as well. Some people were born just to cheer others up and affirm them. Every time they’re around, they say things that make you feel good about yourself. Maybe Paul was thinking of his fellow traveler and partner Barnabas, who was designed to encourage. When those who belonged to the brand-new church in Jerusalem were afraid of Paul because he was known as a persecutor, Barnabas encouraged everybody and assured them, in effect, “This guy’s okay. He has reconnected with the Creator and is living in his true authority now.” And they accepted Paul because Barnabas encouraged them in it. (See Acts 9:26–27.)

One of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Andrew, was also an encourager. There’s no book in the Scriptures entitled “the book of Andrew,” though there are two books named after his brother Peter. Yet Andrew was the one who first introduced Peter to Jesus. (See John 1:35–42.) Jesus got Peter in order, and Peter became one the principal leaders of the fledgling church. Yet Andrew gets the credit for encouraging Peter to meet Jesus in the first place. Everyone has a vital role. Let me therefore encourage you not to be a counterfeit but to trust in and exercise your unique gift. There are too many counterfeits in the world today.

To be authentic in our authority, we must also learn to accept and be comfortable with the gifts and perspectives God has given us. Some people are always apologizing for being themselves. The remedy for this improper mind-set comes from a verse we looked at earlier: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (Romans 12:3). Again, what is the other side to this statement? Once you find out how you ought to think about yourself—as you learn God’s Word, as you gain knowledge about who He created you to be, and as you are transformed by the renewing of your mind—then think that way. “Think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (verse 3). You’re to think about yourself with clearheaded honesty—not with intimidation or fear about what others will think or say—about who you really have been created to be. If you therefore happen to be very good at something, and you know it, you can say, “Guess what? I’m good at this.” That isn’t pride or boasting, even though some people may perceive it that way. You’re just thinking in the way that you ought to think about yourself, and, by manifesting your gift, you allow others the opportunity to blend it with their gifts for the corporate good.

Don’t Evaluate Yourself by Someone Else’s Authority

As we think of ourselves “with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given” (Romans 12:3), we need to evaluate how we are fulfilling our purposes in life in relation to what the Creator has designed us to do. We are not to use other measures, such as the standards of other people’s gifts or false authority. There are many people who are proud of accomplishments that God is likely disappointed in because they have been sidetracked from their true purposes. There may be things you have done that you think are great, yet God is saying, in effect, “Based on your authority, this doesn’t come close to My purposes for you.”

This is one reason why you shouldn’t allow other people to tell you how “great” you are. Only the Creator knows how great you could be. When you receive plaques, awards, or accolades from others, you have to consider those honors according to a higher perspective. They could be dangerous to you if you start to think that you have already “arrived” and fulfilled your purpose when you actually have more to do. Believing such tributes can also be limiting if they reflect things you have accomplished based on a counterfeit authority rather than your true authority. They can cause you to veer further off course from where you should be based on your inherent gifts. A lot of people want to be things they’re not authorized to be, and they “think more highly of themselves” than they should.

Evaluate Yourself by Your Own Capacity and Potential

If you are not sidetracked but are currently pursuing your personal authority, you need to evaluate your progress in relation to where you would be if you were truly applying yourself and being purposeful in fulfilling it. For example, if your car has the capacity to travel at a speed of 150 miles per hour, but you never go over 65 miles per hour, that doesn’t cancel the car’s ability to travel 150 miles per hour. Perhaps you are going 65 and pass another person on the road who is going only 50. The other person may be impressed and say, “Wow, isn’t he speedy?” and you may be feeling pretty accomplished. But when you compare yourself with your own “speedometer”—your capacity, your potential—you may actually be doing rather poorly.

When my son and daughter were younger and still in school, I sat them down for a talk because each of them had a grade on the latest report card that was lower than what they were capable of. My wife and I had worked hard with them in their studies and knew their abilities. I asked my daughter, “Are you pleased with this?” She said no but added, “But many children received grades similar to this.” I said, “Let’s forget about the other children. Are you pleased with this?” “No, Daddy.” “Okay. What do you think you were capable of getting in this class?” She said, “I could have gotten a ninety-five.” I said, “Good. So, why didn’t you get it?” And she had to literally judge herself. She said, “Because I didn’t try hard enough.” I said, “You see, you don’t need a teacher’s report card. You are your own report card. If eighty percent of the class got the grade that’s on this report card, and you got one mark higher than eighty percent, then you may appear to have done well. But if you compare yourself to what you should have gotten, you have fallen short. You can always find somebody whom you are better than. But the person you have to ‘beat’ is yourself.”

Have you ever stood before a crowd and performed something, and the crowd cheered, but when you went offstage, you were upset? I’ve had this experience a number of times. Why do we feel this way? Because we were not comparing ourselves against the people’s reaction but against what we knew we were capable of.

Evaluate Yourself by Your Creator’s Purpose for You

When we are born, we come onto the stage called earth, and our audience is an audience of One. We were created to “perform” for that single audience. He is the Manufacturer of the entire world, the Author of all creation. He built everything to fulfill what it was designed to do. And God expects pleasure from all these things. “Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11 kjv). The entire creation was designed to please God. The only thing God is having trouble with is human beings! Every fruit tree knows what fruit it should yield, but somehow we humans keep becoming things God never intended. And I believe God is too frequently saying, “This is not what I wanted. How did I get this product when I built that one?”

That is why our number one goal should not be to please other people but to please the Author who created us. As Paul wrote,

We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you.…Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others.…For we do not want to boast about work already done in another man’s territory. But, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.(2 Corinthians 10:13, 15–18)

Remember that authority is from the Author and for the Author. Authority is fulfilled when the Author is pleased. This is critical to God. Until He says, “Well done,” we don’t quit trying. Until He says, “Good and faithful servant,” we have not made it. (See, for example, Matthew 25:14–29.) Everybody else is just applauding. Only God knows when the show is over. Only He has the right to say when you have succeeded or failed. So, the pleasure of the Author is the goal of the authorized.

Paul emphasized, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4). The Author knows what He gave you and what He authorized you to become. And “[you] will stand, for the Lord is able to make [you] stand.”

If you knew and exercised your personal authority at one time but have strayed away from it, the first thing you should do is submit to your authority again so that your gifting can be renewed within you. You should (1) submit to your Creator, (2) submit to the personal authority, dream, and gifts He’s placed inside you to help guide your life instead of trying to be someone else, and (3) submit to others in community and relationship as everyone serves his gifts for the benefit of all involved.