Purpose And Power Of Authority (18 page)

What long-standing aspiration do you have? What vision, idea, or dream is tugging at your heart today? Is your motivation for doing it positive or selfish? Are you willing to do it to honor God and build up others?

What do you imagine yourself becoming? What do you really want to do that you may not have told anyone else about?

It may be something you think about while you’re at your workplace and wish you could be doing instead of your current job. It may be something you see others doing, and you say to yourself, I’d like to do something like that! Only I would do it in this way…. Perhaps it is something you lie awake at night and imagine yourself building, writing, drawing, constructing, or performing. You may have dreamed about doing this thing ever since you were a child.

Ask yourself, “What would I prefer to be or to do? What gifts or skills would I use and develop in order to be or do this?

What do you wish you could accomplish for humanity? Is it the creation of a new invention or a groundbreaking medicine? Do you want to fix a specific problem or bring about a certain reform in society? Do you want to provide a haven where people can obtain much-needed rest and relaxation in the midst of their busy lives? You might not desire to build a physical structure, such as an architect or building contractor would, but you may want to build up the social structures of your nation, and that may be the gifting and area of your personal domain.

Key #6 could also take the form of these questions: “What kind of impact would I like to have on my community?” or “What do I want to pass along to the next generation?” or even “What would I like to be remembered for?”

What positive thing do you have a passion to leave as a heritage to those who will come after you in life?

To answer this question, begin by thinking about your activities and accomplishments in the past—at your school, at your job, with your favorite hobby, or with any other involvements. Pinpoint three endeavors or achievements that have given you the greatest satisfaction and fulfillment in life so far. What is it about these things that gave you satisfaction and fulfillment? Are you currently involved in these activities? Why or why not? Would similar activities, projects, or endeavors bring you the same measure of personal pleasure? If so, what might they be?

Try to evaluate what motivates and gratifies you the most in life, and then imagine the possibilities of how you could incorporate it into your life as your vocation or life focus.

Is there something you would find so rewarding that you would do it even if you weren’t paid for it and received no other type of compensation, even the thanks or praise of others?

Perhaps you are already doing something like it on a volunteer basis at a nonprofit organization, at your church, or as your hobby. What is it, and what is the nature of it? For example, does it involve working with children? Teens? Adults? Helping people recover from addictions? Spending time with elderly people in nursing homes? Fund-raising for medical research? Teaching people to read? Visiting veterans in the hospital? Does it involve community projects, such as planting gardens, recycling, cleaning up graffiti, and so forth? Do you like to volunteer at your local library or a nearby historic site? Or, do you enjoy music or another art form?

Your answers to the above questions may well determine your area of authority, especially since we have seen that many people are much happier working at their hobbies than at their jobs, so that their hobbies reflect their true purposes in life.

The Key #8 question leads to a paradox, however. The very thing that you could do for no money usually becomes the endeavor that will pay you. You do it so naturally and become so good at it that it attracts compensation from people who recognize its value. Or, you are so fulfilled in doing it that you would be infinitely happier taking a job related to that area than you would be at your current job, even though the current job pays more.

The issue is attaining quality of life and fulfilling your true contribution to your generation. Would you rather be paid a little more and experience lifelong frustration and dissatisfaction, leading to mental and physical stress and nagging feelings that your life isn’t counting for anything? Or, would you rather accomplish your purpose, serve others, and live a happier, healthier, and more balanced life? I believe that by living in their personal authority, many people would solve their mental health, physical, or relational problems.

Therefore, ask yourself what activities you are currently receiving satisfaction from that you aren’t being paid for, what you are so dedicated to that you would continue to do it even if you stopped receiving money for it, and what you would do for no compensation at all.

Are you are always thinking about something else you’d rather be doing than what you are currently involved in? That “something else” is probably your area of authority. As long as you continue to think you would rather be doing something else, then you shouldn’t be doing what you’re presently doing. It’s not a difficult thing to figure out.

Another way to look at this question is based on our earlier discussion about our personal authority being our true home, habitation, or abode. Ask yourself, “What would I feel ‘at home’ doing? What seems natural and comfortable to me?”

When you find your authority, you don’t really go to a job; you go “home.” In fact, many people who are functioning in their authority physically work at home because their authority is connected with who they are and their entire lifestyles. If people are happy to leave their jobs, they’re not at home in them. And when they don’t feel at home, they end up being competitive with others. They fight for resources they perceive to be scarce, thinking there are not enough positions, assets, or praise to go around. In contrast, a person who knows and exercises his own authority compares himself only with himself and knows that everything he needs will be provided. He periodically reviews his life by asking himself, “Am I doing what I should be doing to fulfill my authority?”

People who are causing problems on their jobs perhaps need to be relocated to a different department or area of their companies that they are better suited for. Or, perhaps they need a totally different environment. If you are not functioning in your true position of authority, you can destroy an organization through complaining and conflict. Finding and living in your authority protects you and others because, as we have seen, authority brings order and peace.

You are at home when you are working in your authority and gifting. What would you rather be doing with your life? What makes you feel most at home when you are doing it?

If you could do anything in the world and know that it would succeed, what would you do?

First, eliminate superficial answers to this question! Some of those would be winning the lottery, getting back at everyone who has ever insulted you, and so forth. Instead, this question is designed to help you to eliminate the fear and doubt that can crowd into your mind and block your thoughts when you begin to think about what you would really like to do in life. Forget the fear and doubt and consider nothing to be impossible.

What endeavor, enterprise, creative work, project, or plan would you engage in if it were risk-free? If it would be a success, no matter what obstacles tried to prevent it? If money were no object? If you didn’t worry that you had the wrong background, the wrong looks, the wrong job experiences, or whatever else you would normally think of as a roadblock?

I encourage you to take extra time on this question. Fear can be a powerful inhibitor to thinking clearly, and it may take you a little while to get past any feelings of fear so that you can think and dream without hindrance. Then, when you are able to write down your answer, evaluate it in light of your other answers and what you are beginning to learn about your personal authority.

Discovering personal authority usually comes when we evaluate what is most important to us in life. This is often not what is most pressing on our calendars or what would make us look the most successful in the eyes of others, but what is truly the most significant contribution we could make, along with the best choice of lifestyle that is prioritized to reflect our foundational values and beliefs.

Another way of putting this key question is, “What will I wish I had done when I look back on my life?” or “What will I regret not having done when it comes time for me to die and meet my Creator?”

You therefore have to consider what, above all other things, is the most significant thing you could do with your life, what you want to occur in your life, and how you want to live your life.

An essential final question to ask yourself is what vocation would keep you connected to the Creator and faithful to His authority, laws, and life principles. Personal authority comes from God and would never involve any activity that is contrary to His nature and ways.

First, of course, anything illegal or immoral would not be a legitimate domain for personal authority.

Second, personal authority won’t be found in endeavors that are pursued selfishly or for the purpose of boosting one’s ego or showing off.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. (James 3:13–17)

Working in your personal domain will promote the “fruit of the Spirit” in your life: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). God-given authority is always a positive force; it helps or builds up humanity in some way.

Third, there are certain activities and areas of life that you will know are not the domain of your personal authority because they consistently get you into some kind of trouble—whether that trouble is overt or involves bad attitudes or an unhealthy or unproductive lifestyle. We must seriously ask ourselves, “What types of activities and areas present unhealthy temptations to me? In contrast, what activities and endeavors draw me closest to God and His ways when I engage in them?” The answers to these questions will not be the same for every person. We all need to adhere to the clear principles of Scripture. Yet each person also has his own areas of weakness about which he must be on guard. There may not be anything intrinsically wrong with a certain activity, but if you always feel pulled away from God because of it, then something about it isn’t right for you. “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14–15).

Your personal authority will be positive and uplifting to you. Through it, you will be able to honor the Creator who made you and reflect aspects of His character and purposes.

The above twelve questions are worth taking the time to think about and answer for yourself so that you can move forward with your authority. When you have fully answered the above questions, asking God to guide you in them, and you feel that your answers have revealed your personal authority, write a summary statement of what you believe you were put on this earth to do.

Then, answer the questions for each of the following headings:

• Documenting Your Personal Authority: In what specific ways have I exercised this authority in the past? How can I build on this in the future?
  

• Exercising and Refining Your Personal Authority: In what ways will I develop and apply my personal authority now that I know what it is?
  

• Releasing Your Personal Authority: Who has the knowledge, skills, and commitment to help me to release my authority? (For more information on this, see chapter 11.)
  

Print your summary statement and/or your full profile, as well as a list of the benefits to living in your personal authority, and tape them where you will see them often to help you to focus on living in your personal domain on a daily basis.

God wants all of us to be active participants in His purposes on earth through our personal authority. The Scriptures are the only book that says God created us to have dominion over and to rule the earth. They are the only book that says about Jesus, “You…have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9–10 nkjv).

A king is someone who is authorized to rule. There is a domain of life in which you were born to rule. You’ll never be fulfilled until you discover that area, and you’ll always be trying hard and struggling in some way until you find it. But when you do find it, working in it will seem like operating a well-oiled machine. All of a sudden, you’ll connect with life. That ability is what Jesus came to reclaim for you.

Will you determine to be authentic? Will you seek to discover, by the help of God’s Holy Spirit, who you truly are? I am excited at what you will find when you answer the twelve key questions in this chapter.