Purpose And Power Of Authority (17 page)

Since you know your intrinsic value and distinctness and are free from competition and comparison, you don’t feel jealous of others. If other people can do certain things better than you can, this doesn’t make you feel second-rate. Why not? Again, it isn’t any of your business. You can do things that other people cannot do. You understand that according to the way the Creator designed the world, everyone’s authority complements everyone else’s authority, and that problems begin when people feel others have something that is greater than they have but that they should have.

You never lose the genuine you for the sake of jealousy because you know it is the only “you” that has real authority. Whatever you were born to do, no one else can do as you can, with your personality, perspective, and experience. You recognize that being jealous of someone who was born to do something you can’t do, or who was born to do it in a different measure than you were, is a total waste of time. Instead, you tap into your own authority and
get to work!

Because you know you were born to do something specific and are trusting in your ability to fulfill it, you are not afraid of failing or of anyone who may criticize you or attempt to prevent you from doing it. You have such conviction about your calling that you move forward with anticipation and purpose, no matter what.

As a person operating under authorization, you find that fulfilling your personal authority is enjoyable and not anxiety-producing. Even with the inevitable pressures, struggles, and responsibilities of life, you sleep well at night because these difficulties ultimately aren’t your problem. You are functioning under the delegated authority of your Creator, and He will make a way for you to do what you are meant to do. Your job is to do what you were designed to do, and the Authority above you is responsible for everything else, including the results of your efforts.

Your authority automatically produces in you a passion for life because it operates in the midst of your deepest desires and vision for the future. This gives you tremendous internal motivation to act on your purpose and gifts and to see your vision become a reality. As you function in your personal domain, you exhibit qualities of a self-starter. You don’t wait for someone to prompt you to use your gifts or to work toward your goals; instead, you can’t wait to get up in the morning and continue working on them.

Your internal motivation and passion also foster a persevering attitude within you. No matter how long it takes to develop your natural abilities, put your plans into action, or see results, you keep going and keep believing and keep moving forward.

The combination of all the above makes you authentic, which means you express your true self, reflecting your dreams, ideas, and creativity. You know yourself well and consistently act on that knowledge, using your gifts to manifest the treasure that God has hidden in your inner being and wants you to serve to the world. And, you maintain your authenticity, because you are aware that it is vital for exercising true authority and keeping it effective.

Are you ready to receive all the above benefits in your life? In the next chapter, we will look at some specific and practical questions that will help you to confirm your own personal authority.

Chapter Nine

Millions of people use the social networking Web site Facebook. On it, they maintain profiles with details about their lives, as well as photos of family and friends, lists of their favorite books, the results of popular culture quizzes they have taken, and much more. Yet, with all that information, I wonder how many of those millions still do not truly know themselves and the personal authority God has placed within them. The world is filled with unauthentic people, doing the unauthorized. They may be sincere and well-meaning in their endeavors, but one can be sincere and unauthentic at the same time.

I encourage you to take the time to make sure you truly know yourself, because it is impossible to exercise personal authority until you do. Since the Creator has placed your authority inside you, to be exercised through the guidance and power of His Spirit who resides within you, you will learn much about yourself by examining your thoughts, ideas, and personal passions.

Your personal authority can be described using various terms, such as your life’s vision or purpose, your realm of leadership, and your gifting. It can be identified through your natural desires and what you sense as your inherent assignment in life. All these words are helpful for understanding the concept of personal authority as it manifests itself in various ways in your life.

This chapter includes questions for you to reflect on and answer in what I believe will be a fun and inspiring exercise for you. Thinking about these questions is going to awaken in you some hidden dreams. You will be drawing from your inner desires and passions and imagining possibilities generated from ideas that reside deep within your heart. In this way, you can move from just thinking about personal authority or wishing you could exercise it to actually operating in it.

To summarize your “research,” I suggest that you develop a Personal Authority Profile. A sample profile is included in the back of this book. This profile should generally be reserved for yourself to help you understand your authority. People can run into problems when they start consulting other people to discover themselves because they may succumb to another person’s opinion instead of pursuing what is truly authentic about them. You have to protect yourself from that. On the other hand, you may want to show your profile to your spouse or one or two close friends because sometimes others who know us well can help us to see aspects of ourselves that we are not able to see, such as gifts, talents, and interests that we may take for granted or abilities we may have forgotten that we exercised in the past. They may say, “Remember when you loved doing __________ as a child?” or “I recall how good you were at __________.” Use discretion and don’t share too much until you have come to many of your own conclusions, so that you won’t be unduly influenced by others. Then, share your findings with two or three others, if you wish.

Ask yourself the following twelve key questions, taking time to remember the past, to evaluate your current gifts, abilities, and preferences, and to envision the future. Record your conclusions in a notebook or on a computer file after you use the sample profile form to discover your personal authority. Also consider what might be preventing you from fully realizing your personal authority—or realizing it in the first place—such as fear, complacency, and so forth, and use the suggestions in this book for overcoming them.

Here, then, are twelve keys to discovering your authority. The following questions are meant to help you to hone in on your personal domain. Some of the questions are similar, but their purpose is to confirm what you were designed to do in life. If you give totally different answers to each question, then you will need to continue refining your answers. You also may not have a clear response to every question, but focus on the ones that you do have specific answers to.

Write down what you profoundly feel you would like to do with your life using your gifts, and what you would like to do to impact humanity in your lifetime. These will not be things that you have a general or passing “interest” in but rather a deep yearning or aspiration to do.

Through the years, you may find two or three things that you are meant to do in different seasons of your life, but you have to distinguish between what you might like to do and what you feel you must do. It is too easy to spread ourselves thin and then never fulfill our purposes. Remember that although you may experience stages in your life in which you engage in various endeavors, and though you may manifest your personal authority in several ways using one or more gifts, these manifestations will be centered around a particular area or theme that reflects God’s specific purposes for you.

What do you really care about? What gifts and abilities do you especially enjoy using? Once you find the answers to these essential questions, you can tap into your passion to help fulfill your personal authority.

God set each one of us apart and said, “You were born for this assignment. You have the authority to be free within this domain of life.” Again, authority is the freedom to be who you are. Authority doesn’t restrict; it releases. Authority doesn’t hinder you; it helps you. Authority doesn’t stop you; it provides momentum and access. Authority is the most awesome experience of freedom anyone can have. It is incredibly satisfying to be doing what you know you were born to do, and to be doing it without limit.

Jesus stated, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). He was saying, in effect, “With God, all things you were called to do are possible.” Nothing is impossible if you were born to do it. It may take twenty, forty, or even sixty years, but you will get it done. Think of Noah, who was born to build the ark so that he and his whole family would be safe when the earth was destroyed by the great flood. No one could build a boat better than Noah did! He built a huge structure that would house him and his family, as well as all the animals they took with them, and that would be completely watertight—and it worked! (See Genesis 6:5–8:22.)

I imagine that people laughed at him, because the ark took him nearly one hundred years to build, and it had never rained on the earth prior to this time. They probably criticized him, abandoned him as a friend, and talked about him behind his back. If he had built the ark during our times, he would have been the brunt of mockery on all the television talk shows and Internet blogs. Pictures of him and his ark would have been on the front pages of the major newspapers. The media would have said he was crazy, demented, nuts. But despite the immense challenges, Noah kept on building.

When someone is authentic, when he is passionate about his purpose, he can’t be stopped; he won’t be discouraged for long. No matter what people throw at him, he still says the same thing: “I’m going to do it.”

What do you have that kind of passion about?

There is constructive anger, and there is destructive anger. Most of us think of the destructive kind when the word anger is mentioned. Yet some anger is legitimate, such as anger directed at the wrongs in this world. Paul wrote, “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26–27). He was quoting Psalm 4:4, which reads, “In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.”

Anger can be legitimate, but misdirected anger makes us vulnerable to being tripped up by the devil and weakens our authority. For example, when Cain became angry because his brother’s offering was accepted by God but his was not, God told him, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:6–7).

In another example, Moses desired that his people be released from the oppression of slavery in Egypt, but he took matters into his own hands and killed an Egyptian overseer who was abusing an Israelite. As a result, he had to flee the country for forty years until he was ready to follow God’s way of setting the people free. (See Exodus 2:11–15, 23–3:22.)

Anger that is selfishly or rashly motivated is destructive, but anger that is based on a desire for people to be treated right, that is based on compassion for others, and that is grieved by injustices is constructive if it leads to positive action to remedy the problems instead of being allowed to fester into resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, or violence against the perpetrators. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody” (Romans 12:17).

What is it in life that makes you angry enough to take action on behalf of those who are mistreated, abused, or oppressed? What plans do you have that could alleviate the suffering of others? What ideas do you have for communicating positive values and mind-sets to people? The answers to these questions will lead to your personal authority.

Is there something specific you would like to accomplish? What recurring dreams do you have for your life? I believe that the thoughts, ideas, plans, and dreams that remain consistent within you were put there by your Creator. We will talk about timing in a later chapter, but you should realize that your consistent thoughts and dreams can come to pass even if they don’t manifest right away.

I often refer to Key #4 as “the idea that never leaves you.” Perhaps you have become preoccupied with other things, but this idea always returns to your thoughts. It is a passion that won’t subside, a persistent desire or tug at your heart.

Joseph had God-given dreams of being put in a position of authority over his family. Not understanding at first that this position was for the purpose of helping his family survive rather than for feeding his ego, he went through a series of extremely humbling experiences—including being sold into slavery and being imprisoned because of a wrongful accusation—before he was ready to fulfill his personal authority in life. He eventually became the second most powerful ruler of Egypt under the pharaoh and saved the lives of his family during a time of severe famine. (See Genesis 37, 39–47.)