Hey Mighty Hero - you were made to shine!

Global Leadership Summit

I attended a 2-day Global Leadership Summit held at Knysna Vineyard Church in October 2016. The Summit was founded by BILL HYBELS (senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in America), and is committed to mentoring leaders worldwide and empowering people to pursue their God-inspired dreams and visions. We were inspired, uplifted, educated and encouraged, and I try to share some small snippet of that with you:   

YOU WERE MADE TO SHINE
Inspired by BISHOP T D JAKES (Pastor, The Potter’s House)
 
Don’t limit yourself by titles, job descriptions, people’s expectations. Inside one seed may be more than one tree – there may be a whole forest of trees! Use every gift that God has given you. You are gifted, and God wants to take what He gave us and multiply it. So don’t keep it and hold onto it. If you are not doing something that scares you – you are not growing!
 
Your dream must be bigger than you. If your dream is about you, then it is too small. God has given you more than what your life shows. You are more than what they call you and what they pay you. Don’t listen to the voices (yours and others) that say: ‘you are less than; you will never make it; you can’t do it.’ Don’t let others try to extinguish your flame. ST PAUL encouraged and exhorted Timothy to: ‘fan into a flame the gift that has been placed into you.’ (2 TIMOTHY 1:6) ‘For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.’ (2 TIMOTHY 1:7)
 
The REV MARTIN LUTHER KING JR proclaimed: ‘Every person must have a concern for self, and feel a responsibility to discover one’s mission in life. God has given each normal person a capacity to achieve some end. True, some are endowed with more talent than others, but God has left none of us without talent. Potential powers of creativity are within us, and we have a duty to work assiduously to discover these powers.’
 
God said: ‘Your task is to build a better world.’
I questioned: ‘How? This world is such a vast place and, oh, so complicated now.
​And I am so small and useless, there is nothing I can do.’
But God in all great wisdom said: ‘Just build a better you.’
(JOEL WELDON, motivational public speaker)
 
We have a duty to grow our gifts and talents into their fullness. The Parable of the Talents (MATTHEW 25:24-29) warns about burying your gifts and talents: use them or lose them! We are commanded to be fruitful and multiply. God gives us grace to discover ourselves. Re-image yourself. Think the impossible, invisible, intangible.
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​You were made to shine
You were made for more –
so much more!
Child of everlasting light
Burn bright!
(Song by Natalie Grant)

HEY MIGHTY HERO!
​Inspired by DANIEL STRICKLAND (Pastor, Salvation Army)
 
GIDEON was a judge during a time of trouble in Israel, when they were suffering under the grip of Midianite oppression. One day, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying: ‘Mighty hero! The Lord is with you!’ Here is a man who was so afraid of the enemy that he was hiding away, and God calls him a mighty hero! But that is who the Lord saw when he looked at Gideon. God calls out what already exists within us. God instructed Gideon to rescue Israel from the Midianites. Gideon can’t believe what he is hearing. There must be a mistake. He responds: ‘How can I do this? My family is the weakest, and I am the least in my family!’ The Lord replies: ‘I will be with you …’ (JUDGES 6:11-16)
 
Many of us are like Gideon. When we look at our lives, we see mistakes, failures and problems. We see someone who fails to live up to God’s high calling on our life. We know God wants us to serve Him and to use us for His glory, but we are so filled with fear, and a sense of our own inability that we refuse to trust Him. We feel totally inadequate and so we come up with excuses. God calls us: ‘Hey, mighty hero!’ We answer: ‘Who me? You must have it wrong. I am not the right person.’ Our inner tape must be replaced with what God says about us.
 
One the one extreme, people suffer from chronic insecurity; and on the other extreme, people suffer from pride and arrogance. True humility is not putting yourself down. It is agreeing with God about who you are. True dependency is agreeing with God about who He is. Instead of focusing on who we are – we must focus on who God is. Without God, we are weak, but with God we are mighty! We must move from being insecure > to claiming our identity in Christ. We must move from being self-reliant and independent > to carving out a pocket of dependency on God. When you know who you are and you know who God is – there is no stopping what can be done! We must step into true humility and dependency: not I but Thou – then humility and greatness co-exist.
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​REFLECT: How do you disqualify yourself? Do some of these sound familiar: I am not good enough, not talented enough, too small, I have no support, no resources, I am not creative enough, I don’t have enough faith.  

When are you going to stop believing these lies, and listen to the truth of what God says about you?

​INTENTIONAL LIVING
Inspired by JOHN MAXWELL (Leadership expert) 
 
To be successful in anything, it is uphill all the way. The problem is that people have uphill hopes but downhill habits! Achievement is not accidental. We must live intentionally. Intentional living involves intentional thinking. We have to intentionally motivate ourselves to achieve. But we are inherently selfish, and selfishness fights against going uphill. Selfishness wants it easy for the self. Most people don’t lead their own life – they accept their life. If you simply accept your life, this is unintentional. Be intentional. Make a difference. Don’t sit around and wait for a miracle to happen, when you can be one! Be the change. Be the hope. Be the light in the dark. Be the leader that you are looking for.
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May you be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. All glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. (St Paul's prayer in EPHESIANS 3:20)

​The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.
NUMBERS 6:24-26