Purpose And Power Of Authority (15 page)

When you know you are doing something you were not born to do, you will feel irritated in your current job. You won’t feel comfortable in it. Have you ever heard anyone say about a job, position, or environment, “This is just not me”? What do they mean by that? The job, position, or environment is locking them in. It is cramping their style. It is stopping them from being who they were meant to be.

It is frustrating to be in a place that you can’t wait to retire from. Most people don’t want to retire from something when they love it. Do you desire to be released from your job? Do you look forward to receiving your pension? If so, it is probably because, deep inside, you know you’re not doing what you were born to do.

In addition, when you are not operating in your true territory, other people who do naturally operate in that territory will intimidate you. Remember my encounter with the shark when I was spearfishing? The shark intimidated me because he was in his natural environment, but I was not. If you are trying to do what you were not born to do, then the people who were born to do it will threaten you without even trying, because you will feel inadequate. Again, you will have to try extra hard to do what they’re doing naturally.

To manifest your God-given authority, you first need to ask, “Am I flowing naturally in my personal domain? Or am I out of place?”

Second, your life is eternally valuable to your Creator. You have been made in His image, are loved by Him, and have been redeemed by Him. Likewise, your personal authority or assignment is immeasurably valuable to Him.

Do you know—are you convinced of—your value to God and to His purposes for the world?

Remember that one of the principles of authority is that the intent for which a product is designed determines the design of the product itself. The author or manufacturer determines the design, capabilities, qualities, and characteristics of the product. All of these are in keeping with the purpose for which the product is created. Therefore, the author is also the originator of the value and worth of the product.

I want to give you an indication of how awesome you really are through the truths presented in Psalm 139. This psalm, written by King David, helps us to better understand the value of our unique personal authority. The reason why God gave up His Son Jesus Christ to die for you is that He knows the treasure within you. The authority that He put inside you is so valuable that He didn’t want you to go to your grave without manifesting it. We cannot allow the cemetery to be the burial place of the treasure God has put in our lives. The earth needs your purpose, your authority, and your gift!

You Are Wonderfully Made

Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being.” God created your inner “circuits,” your components; He caused you to be a vital being, made in His image, and gave you purpose.

“You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (verse 13). God not only created your inmost being, but He also created your body. After you were conceived, He knitted or wove you in your mother’s womb, according to His own design for your life.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (verse 14). You are “fearfully” made. This refers to a positive fear, such as reverence and awe. You are “wonderfully” made. The Hebrew word translated “wonderfully” means “to distinguish,” to “put a difference,” or “to be distinct.” God made you unique.

You may feel that you are not perfect, but all of your physical characteristics are in God’s plan. When you look in the mirror, your first statement should be, “Wonderful!” because you are wonderfully made. Your temperament, your personality, your stature, your face, your skin color, even your family heritage are all used by God for your personal authority. Why? Because your purpose required that you be who and what you are.

The prophet Isaiah declared, “O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). He also said, “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’” (Isaiah 45:9). Let us not therefore reject what God has done. Let us not speak against what God calls good. We shouldn’t compare what God calls good to what men call good, because men don’t know what good is. God made you beautiful.

You Have a Special Purpose for Your Life

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body” (Psalm 139:15–16). This means that your whole structure, your body, was not hidden from God when you were made in the “secret place.” God’s eye is on pregnant women and on their unborn children. This is why we have to be careful about our concept of when a fertilized egg becomes a human being. As soon as the egg and sperm unite, God releases an eternal spirit to take up residence in that “house.” I believe that God does not allow a sperm and an egg to unite unless He has a reason and a purpose for that human being. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding that conception, it is a result of preconception. God has already preconceived in His mind that He wants something accomplished on earth. He has something He wants to accomplish through you, and so He created you to do it.

You are not a mistake. Every time a male discharges sperm, about fifty million sperm are released. All five hundred million sperm dash toward the egg, but only one makes it. Four hundred and ninety-nine million potential humans did not make it to the egg, because what is needed on earth required you. That is why I believe there is an awesome sense of destiny deep inside every human being. There is a cry that says, “I was born to do something. I don’t know what it is, but there is something I was meant to do!”

Where does that cry come from? It comes from beyond your intellect and beyond your emotions. It comes from a place so far within you that the Bible calls it “the deep”: “Deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42:7). And what is your deep calling out to? It is God. Only God can answer your cry. The cry can be satisfied only in God because nobody knows a product like the one who made it. No one knows the material like the author. Nobody knows the reason why something was made better than the one who created it.

Beyond a doubt, this planet needs the personal authority you’re carrying within you. The same is true about every other human being. It is a tragedy whenever someone dies through a drug overdose or a suicide or another type of abuse to his own body. God weeps because those people never discovered who they truly were.

Likewise, when an unborn baby is aborted, all of heaven weeps because earth will never receive the awesome gift that God has sent through that child. Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Mary, the mother of Jesus, had had an abortion? In that manger lay a child who carried within Him the salvation of the world. Or, what would have happened if Moses’ mother hadn’t protected him and had allowed Pharaoh’s soldiers to kill him? In that basket drifting along the Nile was a child who carried within him the leadership of the nation of Israel and the writing of the first five books of the Bible.

Every day, I walk with a sense of awesome responsibility, knowing that I have to do what I was born to do before I die. And so do you. You were not born just to make a living. You were born to give a unique aspect of life to this planet, to make a contribution. That area is your authority; that’s the domain in which you exercise leadership.

You Are a “Best Seller” Waiting to Be Read

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). Before you were conceived, God “finished” your life. What you were meant to do was ordained and “written” before the day you were born. This means that you are a best seller waiting to be read by life. Everything that you are supposed to be and do and accomplish is already written in this “book” God has written as your Author. You are already predestined to reveal to the world the hidden thoughts and plans of God, which He has placed within you.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand” (Psalm 139:17–18). I believe David was saying, in effect, “When I think about what You have done in my life, and about the plans for me You wrote in Your book, the knowledge is absolutely priceless to me, though I am not capable of analyzing all of Your amazing thoughts!” God’s thoughts about you are so awesome that your attempt to understand them would be like trying to count the grains of sand on the seashore—an impossibility. What God thinks about us is so remarkable that nobody could calculate or comprehend it.

Think about some of the people you know whom you grew up with. Aren’t there some people you thought would never make it in life but who now have successful businesses? There are people whom society had evaluated and declared would never be any good to anyone, and yet, after a while, God did a miracle in their lives. They got in touch with their own personal authority and their gifts, and they became tremendous assets to society. I find these types of results amazing. This is why the Scriptures say that God’s thoughts about us are so awesome that we can’t analyze them. To manifest your God-given authority, you should never write yourself off but rather discover what God has written about you.

God created everybody with a domain of authority, and that domain is where you manifest your true self. The Author’s goal for you is to be authentic, and you are authentic when you become what you were designed to be. I have met thousands of unauthorized people over the years who were doing something they were not born and “wired” to do, and they were filled with frustration.

Many people live their lives, die, and are buried without ever having really “shown up” on earth because they were never authentic. They live for sixty, seventy, eighty, or more years, but nobody ever “sees” them—they never witness the manifestation of who these people really are on the inside. They see mere impressions of other people that they have put on like veneers. If you compare yourself with others and feel inferior to them to the point that you try to imitate them; when you try to talk like other people, look like other people, and do things like other people, you are not being authentic.

To be authentic means to manifest one’s true self and to fully exercise one’s gifts. Are you authentic? Have you recognized what is unauthentic about yourself and shed the veneer from your life?

It’s a paradox that while certain people are intimidated by or resent people who are authentic, there is also nothing in the world that attracts some people more than a person who is authentic. Authentic people draw others who see something fresh and confident in them, and who sense acceptance from them because they are no longer in competition with others.

Tell yourself, I will be authentic before I die. As I pursue my inherent authority, other people are going to be able to see who I truly am. Right now, I’m still wearing other people’s images, but living according to my authority in my personal domain will remove the veneer and let what is inside be revealed.

Once more, to be authentic is simply to be what you are naturally. Have you ever heard someone exclaim, “Look! Do you see that bird? It’s flying!”? No. Birds fly overhead every day, so that we often don’t even notice them. Birds are authorized to fly, and they are authentic when they are doing what they were meant to do.

Likewise, personal authority is inherent, natural, and right. When you find what you were born to do and function in it, it is so natural that it is not “second nature” but “first nature.”

Perhaps, when you see people in their natural domains, or functioning in their strengths, you sometimes think, I wish could play the piano like that. I wish I could write like that. I wish I could speak like that. I wish I could paint like that. I wish, I wish…. You must stop wishing and discover your own territory. That is the way to be authentic. That is the way to manifest your personal authority.

Seeds become trees because that potential is naturally within them. All they need is the right environment and the right nutrients. Likewise, manifesting your personal authority requires you to nurture the right environment for it. Paying attention to this aspect of authority will allow you to flourish and to maximize your effectiveness.

Create Your Optimum Environment

You create the right environment by removing what is distracting and superfluous to your authority and replacing it with what will build you up in it. For example, if you want to develop your gift for making furniture but spend all your time watching old television programs, you will not fulfill your potential in life. Instead, you can visit and observe other furniture makers at their craft, do research on furniture design, find a space where you can work, and so on.

You can also create the right environment by seeking the support and encouragement of those who know you and will affirm your gifting, and by gaining additional knowledge, training, and skills that will help you to optimize your abilities.

In addition, your personal authority will often create an environment in which it can thrive as you operate in your personal domain. A colleague told me that during a business trip, she was in an airport going from one gate to another for a connecting flight when she saw a women’s restroom with a sign outside that read, “This restroom was cleaned by Valerie.” When she walked inside, she heard Valerie singing cheerfully, “This is a good day. It’s what you make of it”—“it” referring to life. Valerie greeted every woman who entered with a cheery, “Welcome to Valerie’s happy restroom!” The place was sparkling, and so was Valerie’s personality. In the rushed, tired, and harried world of a busy airport, she lifted people’s spirits while providing a much-needed service. She created her own positive environment, and she oversaw that large restroom with true authority!