I NSIDE EVERY human being is a miracle waiting to be discovered and released.
Pastors ask me over and over how I seem to be able to motivate and develop the potential in all the great people I serve. There are two simple answers to that question. First of all, I am convinced that every Christian has the innate desire to do something great for God, to lay down at the foot of the cross the biggest gift he or she possibly can. All the needed motivation already exists inside them.
Second, and most important, I believe in people. That is the key to leadership. I believe there s a special calling, purpose and gift waiting to be manifested through every person. As a pastor, one of my primary concerns is helping people discover the special measure of grace God has put in them.
We live in a society where kids are so often told that they can’t do anything right, that they’re no good and that they’re not really wanted. I’ve had so many people tell me, “Pastor Tommy, you are the only person who has ever believed in me.” Even when a person shows no outward signs of potential at all, I just believe it’s there. Each person has a special grace and calling.
Of course, there are people who attend Phoenix First Assembly who at first have a hard time believing God can use them to do anything. Believing in yourself, however, can become contagious. These members see many people with no more ability than they have stepping out in faith, pouring into empty vessels and seeing miracles happen. As a result, they begin to believe they can do great things too.
Hundreds of Christian conferences are held each year in every part of the country. In order to get people to come, the biggest and the best speakers are invited and advertised. Each year we have more than six thousand pastors and church leaders attend a conference at our church. But we do little advertising, and we don’t have any guest speakers. All the sessions and workshops are taught by our staff and laypeople.
So many keep coming each year because each person walks away with the idea that if these people can do it, certainly I can too. We have created an atmosphere that causes people to begin to believe in themselves. Now we’re having to expand to two conferences a year.
When PEOPLE FIND THEIR grace and calling, it’s like striking oil. The searching process is sometimes long and hard, but the returns are overwhelming.
One of the best ways to discern the calling of God is to discover the special measure of grace which is your gift from God. Many people labor to fulfill some occupation or calling that is not theirs. Their ministry or occupation is a burden because the grace of God is not working with them. This often happens when people try to be what others expect of them. At other times people fail to discover their gifts because their priorities are wrong. They consider one calling more socially esteemed and are determined to do that, with or without the grace of God.
I have noticed that when people operate in their giftings, they feel a sense of power, grace and fulfillment. I used to have an old Plymouth. When I would crank it up on a cold morning, it would cough and sputter. I would start off to the church running on about five cylinders. Even with the accelerator pushed to the floor, the car would barely move. But when that old engine warmed up and all eight cylinders kicked in, I could feel a surge of power.
That’s the way it feels when you serve in an area that uses the gifts God has given you. You feel the grace of God kick in. Sharon Henning found that grace and gifting when she reluctantly took over the wheelchair ministry.
It is no wonder that the Bible so often mentions grace and the calling of God together. In each of the following examples, Paul refers to his calling as an apostle or to the ministry gifts of Ephesians 4 as a function of the graces and abilities given by the Holy Spirit.
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift, therefore it says,
“When He ascended on high,
He led captive a host of captives,
And He gave gifts to men.”...
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as
prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.
Ephesians 4:7-8,11
I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.
Ephesians 3:7-8
THROUGH whom we [the apostles] have received grace and apostleship [the calling to be an apostle]....
Romans 1:5a
AND since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching.
Romans 12:6-7
When you find yourself serving with the gifts and in the calling God has given you, the power of His grace becomes a reality. Grace is not just forgiveness and unmerited favor. Grace is God’s strength and power enabling you to do more and be more than you ever could in your own strength. Listen to what the apostle Paul said about working with the help of grace.
BUT by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10
God has graced so many people in our church with ministries any of which would exhaust me in a very short period of time: Larry Kerychuk and his great ministry to college and professional athletes; Lloyd Zeigler and his tireless work leading the Master’s Commission; Leo Godzich and his ministry to AIDS patients; Jeff Allaway and his persistence in inner-city bus ministry in over 100 degree temperatures; Lorna Gail, who selflessly directs ten ministries related to women; Diana Nutt, who directs the largest totally volunteer nursery and early childhood ministry that I know of; Walt Ratray, who ministers each week to over two thousand transients, homeless and prisoners with seven homes to house them in and a mission. The list goes on to include hundreds of deacons and deaconesses and over 180 ministries to the hurting.
Each of us has learned that when we work long and hard, we feel physically tired, but inside we feel invigorated because we are working in the calling and by the grace God has given.
Be Careful What You Do With That Gift
The word burden is often used by people to describe God’s guidance and direction. “I’ve got the burden for China,” says one, while “My burden is for Africa,” says another.
What people mean by burden is that they feel a desire or compassion to help a certain group of people. I feel compassion for lots of people groups. Nevertheless, I am not led by my burden as much as I am by my calling. I have found burdens come and go, but the sense of calling remains. For example, I don’t feel a great burden to get up at 5:00 a.m. to pray, but I feel called to it. So I’m up.
The word burden is found in its Hebrew and Greek forms throughout the Bible, but in almost every case it has a negative connotation, implying that a burden is something you don’t want to have. The most notable ref
erence in the Now Testament is when Jgsus said, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. 11.30, KJV).
On several occasions in the Old Testament, a reference is made to the “burden of the word of the Lord,” but in no case did the burden refer to the prophet’s compassion for the people to whom he was called (see Zech. 9:1, 12:1; Mai. 1:1). It was more a sense of obligation to be faithful as God’s messenger.
As I have said, each one of us has a special calling and gift of grace to use in serving the Lord. But just as there was the burden of the word of the Lord, there is the burden of the gift of God. In other words, we are stewards of our gifts and graces. What shall we do with what we have been given?
Notice how Peter understands our accountability as stewards for the grace we have received.
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10
Listen to what the apostle Paul says:
INDEED you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you.
Ephesians 3:2
Every person has a gift and measure of special grace, but many people never discover it because they are unwilling to let it operate. Others recognize the potential miracle within them, but if they never use it, they will never feel the power of God working in and through them. Even though the grace and potential existed, if the widow had not poured into the empty vessels, no miracle would have occurred.
In the parable of the talents, one of the servants took the talent he had been given and hid it because of his
fear. The talent was taken from him and given to the one who had many. The parable ended with these words:
For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
Matthew 25:29
We have found that if we pour, we get more! What motivates us to serve is not the fear of judgment if we don’t use our gifts, but the desire to feel the grace of God working through us. The greatest joy you can have in life is to find a gift of grace and use it to serve others. When you discover that, you want to serve more and more.
One man said to me, “Pastor, if you said we needed to provide a steak dinner for five thousand hurting, homeless people, the members of this church would drive a herd of steers right through the auditorium to try to provide that food.”
Why do people respond so enthusiastically when I give them a chance to serve by pouring into empty vessels? They’ve learned that the greatest joy in living is giving.
See the Need and Take the Lead
Shortly after our bus ministry had fueled dramatic growth in the church, a jolly young man flew to Phoenix to meet with me.
“Pastor, I saw you on television the other day. You said the way to grow a church is to find a need and fill it. I heard you talk about how you started with one old bus, and as soon as it was filled you bought another and then another, until six months later you had forty buses.”
He went on to tell me everything that I, of course, al
ready knew: how one ministry after another had been started.
Then he said, “Pastor, there are over four hundred thousand senior citizens in Phoenix. Nobody is reaching them, but God has laid it on my heart to help you reach them. Pastor Barnett, if you’ll hire me, I’ll reach ’em.”
My initial response almost made me miss the miracle God had for me. “I can’t afford it,” I said.
“Then I’ll work for free,” said Keith Buchanan.
Well, it was hard to pass on that deal. During the next several years, Keith became phenomenally successful and developed a great ministry. Because of Keith, I have found myself going to the board again and again, asking them to buy more buses.
The same is true in business. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their best-selling book In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America's Best Run Companies reveal that success in business comes from recognizing needs.
An engineer at 3M corporation sang in the choir at his church and needed a bookmark that would not fall out of his hymnal. He fooled around for months trying to solve his problem. As a result, today we have 3M’s Post-it note pads, and those who work in offices feel they cannot do without them. Virtually without exception, the last few chairmen and all the key executives at 3M were people who recognized needs and championed products to meet those needs. 1
Some people want to do something great for God, yet they have not responded to the needs He has placed before them. Whether in ministry or in business, success and position are not going to be handed to you. No one’s preparing an invitation for you to be the head of a great ministry or the president of a big corporation.
Some people think if they just had a certain position, they could do great things. But the position won’t make you great. You can take any job or any ministry and make
it explode, if you will only find the need and meet it.
You will see a marvelous work in your life if you si m ply practice this principle. Don’t worry about how to meet the need. Just step out in faith, and God will show you how. Find the need and take the lead!
Find Yourself: You’re in There Somewhere
I don’t like using the phrases “called into the ministiy” or “called to preach.” They seem to imply that ministry or preaching is some kind of special position for only a selected few. We are all called in one way or another to be ministers of Jesus Christ and to tell others about the good news.
You are not an accidental person. God has a unique purpose for you that only you can fulfill. No one else can do it, and if you don’t fulfill that purpose, no one else will.
Of course there may be someone else who will take that job, marry that man or share the gospel with that hurting person. But even if someone does replace you, he or she will neither be able nor inclined to carry out that purpose in the same way you would have done it.
I have a wife and three children, and each one of them loves me differently. Each one encourages me, challenges me and delights me in a special way that no one else in the world can.
If you don’t praise God and love Him, someone else will. But not exactly as you would.
God has a task on which He desires to see your special touch. Others could do it, but not with your unique touch.
YEARS AGO IN A little Southern town a man was carving a bust out of a large piece of wood. Eventually that log became a statue of Abraham Lincoln. One little boy who had seen the beginning of the project looked in amazement at the figure and said, “Wow, I didn’t know Abraham Lincoln was in that log!” Yes, Lincoln was in there all along. He just had not been discovered.
A lot of people are like the prophet Jeremiah, needing to discover who they are.
NOW the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated
you;
I have appointed you a nations.”
prophet to the Jeremiah 1:4-5
God revealed to Jeremiah that his life-purpose was to be the prophet to the nation. That had been determined even before Jeremiah had been conceived in the womb.
From birth, Jeremiah was who God had made him to be. Now it was time for Jeremiah to find out who he really was, to discover who he had always been.
Each one of you was made with a special purpose in mind. You’re a lot like that log with the bust of Lincoln in it. Somewhere in there is the real you. It’s up to you to make the discovery.
I have often said that on a Wednesday night over forty years ago at Victoria Tabernacle in Kansas City, Missouri, I was called to preach. It is more accurate, I am now sure, to say that on that night I simply found myself. I realized who I was and what I was meant to be. I found that inside that little boy was a preacher. And once I realized who I was, things that were not truly who I was began to fall away.
You see, the devil’s plan for you is to make you into someone or something that you’re not. He wants to distort your understanding of who you are. To create the statue, the woodcarver simply needed to chip away the things that didn’t look like Lincoln. That’s the last thing Satan wants us to do — allow God to chip away the excess in our lives and reveal who we are and His plan and
purpose for us. So the more sin we can be tempted to live with, the less likely we are to discover who we really are and what God’s purpose for our lives is.
You should not think of the two paths before you as God s plan or the devil’s plan. The choice is between who you are and who you are not.
People who are living in sin and selfishness are lost — lost in the sense that they haven’t yet found themselves. The literal definition of the Greek word for sin is “to miss the mark.” 2 To live in sin is to be walking down the wrong road on the way to being someone you are not.
Even before you were in your mother’s womb, God consecrated you — that is, set you apart — to do and be something for Him. The real joy, peace and fulfillment are in being who you are.
You’re in there somewhere. Find yourself!
S I X