Messenger International

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, everyone, welcome to Gifted course. I am so excited
about this course. I can't even tell you how excited
I am because I know what's going to happen in
your life as a result of walking through these eight lessons. Now,
this is actually a second part of a three part
course series. Now, all three courses are stand alone. It's
important that you understand that. However, I strongly recommend that

(00:34):
you go through each of them. The first one is
called this one is called Gifted, and the final one
is called Multiply. And so these are standalone courses. You
don't have to do all three, but I highly recommend it.
I want to open up this course, this lesson with
a story. Several years ago, I was asked to speak

(00:55):
at the La Dream Center. And my normal procedure is
I fly in on a Saturday night, I preach either
the Saturday night and Sunday morning, and then after the
Sunday morning, I fly home. Well, there's one of our
ministry partners lives in southern California and he knows I
really enjoy golf, so he called and asked if I
could come in a day early and play the Rivi

(01:17):
Era Golf Chorus. Oh my goodness, it was so exciting.
After a great round of golf, we were driving back
to the hotel and this very wealthy financial partner made
a statement to me. He said, John, he just He said,
can I can I really be vulnerable with you and
open up and ask you a question? I said absolutely.
He said, John, I have worked so hard, hours and

(01:39):
hours and hours for years, for decades to build my
businesses up, and our net worth is about nine million dollars.
He said, you know, my wife's cared for, my children
are set for life. He said, I'm entering into the
decade of the fifties. He said, why should I work
so hard as I have done to build our worth

(02:01):
up to thirty five million dollars in the decade of
the fifties. And I immediately looked on the inside. I said, God,
I need an answer for him, and the Lord immediately
gave it to me. And I looked at him. His
name was Stan, I said, Stan. I said, let me
let me present a scenario to you. Suppose I say

(02:22):
to you, Stan, I've written and this was about five
six years ago. I've written about seventeen books. I've gotten
on airplanes flown all over the world, stood on platforms,
fought jet lag, eight crazy foods that weren't normal to me.
They were actually delicious, but I wasn't used to them.
I said, I've endured all this struggles with going in

(02:47):
and out of immigration, and you know, my wife's cared for,
My children are cared for. I said, why should I
get on any more planes and go and preach? Why
should I write any more books? Because everything's good for me?
And he laughed. So he's in the car and he
literally laughs and he said this is what came out

(03:07):
of his mouth. He said, I wouldn't want to be
in your shoes when you face Jesus. And I said, Stan,
you just said the exact same words. And I remember
the smile leaving from his face. And he turned away
from the road as he was driving and looked at
me as if to say what. And I said, Stan,
here's the situation. God has given every single one of

(03:28):
his kids gifts, and we can do one of three
things with these gifts. We can use these gifts to
build the Kingdom of God. We can use these gifts
to benefit ourselves, or we can just neglect these gifts.
I said, my gifts are obvious to you. It's writing
and speaking the word of God. I do it all

(03:49):
over the world. I said, the problem is your gifts
aren't evident to you and how important they are in
building the Kingdom of God. You haven't connected the dots.
And I said, Stan, the Bible says that the gifts
that are not noticeable are actually more valuable, which means
that your gifts could be actually more valuable than mine.

(04:10):
And I'll never forget that. Car went quiet. He dropped
me off at the hotel. Six months later, I just
called him up. One day. I felt to call him up.
I said, Hey, Stan, how you doing? He said, do
you want the real truth? I said sure. He said,
I have been tormented in a good way for the
last six months, every single day over the words that

(04:34):
you've spoke over me in that car. I said, well, Stan,
what are you doing about it? He said, I am
working my tail off to build our businesses to thirty
five million and more so that I can give and
build the Kingdom of God. This is what we're talking about.
Many of you watching this course right now, you have
gifts in your life and they're not operating their dormant

(04:58):
because you haven't connected the dots the way stand didn't
connect the dots. So the purpose of this course is this.
It is to identify and develop your gifts so that
you can enter in to the fullness of your calling. Now,
this is some of the things that we're going to
talk about in this course. First of all, we are

(05:21):
going to learn not just some but everyone that includes
you is gifted for a specific purpose. Most God given
gifts are not directly connected to the church gatherings. So
this is why many people don't recognize how important their
gifts are because they're not directly connected when we have

(05:41):
a church conference or a church service on a Sunday morning.
All right. Number three, there are vast number of gifts
that God gives to his people, and I mean a
slew of them. Number four, You and I are actually
stewards of those gifts. What does it mean to be
a steward? We're going to discuss this Number five, how

(06:03):
to discover your God given gifts. We're going to talk
about that number six, how to develop our gifts. Now,
let me make a statement here. You're going to see
the spiritual in this course, and you're going to see
the practical. Why the spiritual if you look at Romans
chapter twelve, where it talks about our giftings, our supernatural

(06:24):
giftings from God, it says the way they operate is
by faith. I believe it's the six verths of Romans twelve,
and I'll go through it when we get there. But secondly,
there is a practical aspect of discovering and developing that gift.
So we're going to really identify both what else are
we going to do. We're going to talk about how

(06:44):
to effectively use your gifts, and finally we're going to
identify and develop the correct listen to me motivation for
using those gifts. In other words, our intentions, our motivations.
So this is what we're going to cover over the
span one of these eight lessons. It is so important
that you journey through every single one of them because

(07:05):
everyone has a purpose. And by the way to go
into further study, this course is taken out of X
Multiply your God Given Potential, and I do go much
more in depth in this book. So if you're enjoying
this course, make sure you read it because there is
so much more to say. All right, let's begin. I'm

(07:27):
going to go to probably the most familiar scripture for Christians,
and that is Ephesians two eight nine. We all know it,
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast. I think if
anybody saved a week or two, they know this scripture.

(07:50):
We are saved by grace, and it's not of ourselves,
it's not our good works. It's because of what Jesus
did with us. This is where the disconnect occurs. However,
the very next verse. You have to remember this Bible
was not written in chapter in verses. They're just one
long letters. The Church later on, I believe it was
around the fourteenth century, put in the chapters and the verses.

(08:13):
But the very next statement after this very famous scripture
is verse ten, and that it begins with the word four.
Now four it's a conjunction. It means because of this,
So Paul is actually not finished with his thought. And

(08:34):
I think it's amazing that we always quote these two verses,
but we stop before the word because of this four.
So what does he go on to say? For we
are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works
we're created in Christ. Now listen to this for what
for good works? Okay, which God prepared beforehand that we

(08:58):
should wat in them. It doesn't say we would walk
in them. It said we should. Our free will enters
into this, our obedience enters into this. God designs something
for you. But you are the one that determines are
you going to walk in that calling that He prepared

(09:18):
for you beforehand, before the foundations of the world, before
you were conceived in your mother's womb. God has a
specific plan for you. I don't care how you were
brought into this earth. If you were born what society
calls illegitimately, you were born on purpose, for a purpose.

(09:41):
That is exactly what this scripture says. And so in essence,
what this scripture is saying, do you know what this
is saying. This is saying this, we are saved by
grace to be someone a child of God. But we
were inequally listen to me, we were equally empowered by

(10:03):
that very same grace to do something. You have a
mission from heaven. I mean, think of yourself. He's like,
you're an agent right from heaven and you're this ambassador
and God has prepared this magnificent work. And you know
what he did. He gave you tools to fulfill that

(10:24):
assignment that he gave you. You got it? Are you
tracking with me? I mean it's so cool. Let me
make this really clear. We're called, all of us are called.
I'm gonna read some scriptures because I want to solidify this.
Two Timothy one nine says God, who has saved us
and called us, listen to the word called with a
holy calling. Your calling on your life is holy, not

(10:47):
according to works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which He gave to us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. That was two Timothy one nine. Look at
First Corinthians one twenty six. For you see your call, brethren.
We're supposed to be able to see it. We're supposed
to know it, and we're going to talk about that
Ephesians four one. For you have been called by God.

(11:09):
First Corinthians seven twenty. Let each one remain in the
same calling in which he was called Romans eleven, twenty nine.
For the gifts, now here we go. We got him together.
The gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable. They're unchangeable. Hey,
that means if you're not walking in your god given
calling and you're thirty five years old, guess what. The

(11:32):
calling is irrevocable. In other words, there's still time to
get involved. You know. Moses didn't really enter into his
call until he was eighty. Smith Wigglesworth, one of the
greatest greatest ministers of the gospel in the twentieth century,
didn't even enter into his calling until he was in
his fifties. He was a plumber before that. It is
never too late, and that's why I highly recommend that

(11:54):
you go through the Called course because I specifically talk
about this. It actually is one of our Messenger International
most popular courses. Now I want to say something here
that it's gonna I think a lot this truth eludes people.
All right, are you ready for this? And that is this,
When we engage in our calling and use our gifts,

(12:17):
it energizes us, it strengthens us. Listen to these scriptures.
Jesus made this statement in John four thirty four. My food.
Now I want you to say that out loud. Food.
My food is to do do do the will of
him who sent me, and to finish his work. Jesus

(12:40):
had an assignment we all have assignments. Jesus said, my
food is to do it and to finish it. Now
listen to this, Jesus says in John twenty twenty one.
As the Father sent me, so I send you so.
Just as Jesus had a specific assignment and it was
food to him, so we have a specific assignment. It's

(13:03):
food to us. Now listen to this. This is amazing.
Are you ready for this? What does food do with us?
Food strengthens us, It energizes us. I mean, do a
little experiment, eat a meal, let's say, on Monday, and
don't need anything for four days. Tell me how much
energy you have, Tell me how much strength you have. Well,

(13:25):
doing the will of God in our life is what
strengthens our inner man. I have to tell you this
with a very heavy heart. But I've been in ministry
for over thirty five years, and what I have noticed
causes people to backslide quicker than anything else is when

(13:46):
they become lethargic and lazy in regard to the call
of God on their life. On the opposite, I remember
when I was a young man taking care of Leicester
summerle Lester Summral was one of the greatest men of
godd in the twentieth century. I had the privilege of
hosting him at our church. Several times he would come in.

(14:07):
He was so full of energy. He was writing three
books at one time. He was doing a Bible course
while he was writing the books. He had so much
energy that he literally wore out all the young men
that traveled with him. He was full of life and
energy because he was engaged in doing what God had

(14:28):
created him to do. That is what will happen with you.
If you're feeling tired, lethargic, lazy, you don't have a
lot of motivation. You need to check up. Am I
really doing what God has called me to do? Because
it is your food, It is what energizes you. So
let's talk about this. God prepared a work, a calling

(14:48):
and gave you the tools. Now here's where we start
really going into the gifts. All right. If you want
to know more about calling again, watch that course calling.
All right, let's think about it. If I'm need my
tooth repaired, I do not go to the ophthalmologist. The
ophthalmologist doesn't have the knowledge or the tools to fix
my tooth. Who do I go to? I go to

(15:09):
a dentist, right, Okay. If I'm building a house and
let's say something is wrong with one of my light fixtures,
I don't call the plumber. The plumber doesn't have the
correct tools or the knowledge. It's the same with us.
So many of us are frustrated because God's given us
gifts tools for what he's called us to do, but

(15:29):
we're doing something else. So we're lethargic. We don't have
the energy, and we struggle at what we do. Why
because we have tools for something else. If I'm going
to be on the tennis circuit, okay, the Usta tennis
circuit and all I have is dental tools, I'm going

(15:49):
to be frustrated. I'm not going to be able to
hit a tennis ball very well, whether it's got with
a pick or something else like that. So it's so
important that we understand the tools that God has given
us help us accomplish what He's called us to do. Okay,
So here's why discovering your gifts is so important and

(16:10):
operating in them. Proverbs chapter eighteen, verse sixteen says a
man's gift makes room for him and brings him before
the great. Now the makes room is a very interesting word.
It's a Hebrew word. And this is how the Complete
Word Study Dictionary defines it. A verb indicating to enlarge. Okay,

(16:31):
it means to extend, to open wide. It means to
gain living space or territory. So the gift of God
in your life, what does it do? It opens up
or creates a pathway for you to move into what

(16:52):
you are going to be best at all. Right, So
it's literally going to create a space. It's going to
create a pathway for you to travel. And I love this.
You're going to get to meet him on the last lesson.
His name is Chris Pace. But he made a statement
one time that I think is so powerful, and he says,
when you discover your gifts, you move in the right direction.

(17:14):
You move in that pathway in the right direction. But
when you develop your gifts, you rise in the right direction.
So let's say that again. Okay, it's really important you
understand that when you move in your gift, you move
it in the right direction. Right, you discover you move
in the right direction. When you develop those gifts, you
rise in the correct direction. If you look at Proverbs,

(17:35):
chapter twenty two, Verse twenty nine, it says if you
are uniquely gifted, or the new King James version says,
if you excel in your gift right, you will rise
and be promoted. You won't be held back. So if

(17:55):
you excel in your gifts, God says you're going to rise. Remember,
if you discover your gifts, you start moving in the
right direction. If you develop your gifts, you rise. Think
about King David when he was just a boy, he
was out there playing the harp. He was gifted to
play the harp. He wasn't just a gifted warrior. He

(18:15):
was gifted to play the harp. But he excelled at it. So,
in other words, you can have a gift and because
you neglect the gift, you don't excel at it. David
probably was out with those sheep and had that harp
with him and was singing songs to the Lord. But
when the King, when somebody of importance needed a skilled musician,

(18:37):
David was the first one his men recommended. Why they
wouldn't have recommended him if he didn't work on that gift.
That's why it's important to focus in to develop your gifts,
because why you will rise into the arena that God
has called you to. So. In closing, let me say this.
What if somebody walked up to you and said, hey,

(18:58):
I have a secret. It will cause you to be
able to rise above all your natural abilities, and that
secret is only known by a few. Would you be
interested in knowing that secret? Well, I'm going to talk
about that secret. It really exists in the very next lesson.