Are You Operating in Your Gift?

This past weekend I had the wonderful honor and opportunity to speak at a local women’s conference.  Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for me and for the conference.  It was a success!  I continue to pray and believe that the words the ladies received will sink down into their hearts and produce some great things in their lives.  God’s Word doesn’t return void! (Isaiah 55:11)  I spoke about discovering your God-given gifts and purpose.

God has been really working on me over the past several years to show me my own gifts and talents and to give me a glimpse of some of the things that He’s calling me to do.  I still don’t know my WHOLE purpose in life, but I’m definitely seeing God reveal bits and pieces of it to me little by little.  I’m not sure if we really ever figure this out all at once anyway.  My sister told me the other day that if God told me everything He wanted me to do right now, I’d more than likely just reply “Heck NO! I’m not doing that!”  She’s probably right.  I tend to be reluctant a lot when God calls me to do something new that might be a little out of my comfort zone.  Sometimes I can be a little stubborn. 😉

I shared with the ladies at the conference that I’ve always said my whole life that I would NEVER be a teacher.  I’ve learned that you have to be careful of what you say you will never do because God has a sense of humor.  Little did I know when I swore off teaching, that it is exactly what God had gifted me to do.  Now when I look back I can see that it was there all along.  I just didn’t recognize it.  Unfortunately, I think this is true of a lot of people and their gifts.  They don’t know they’re gifted or they don’t recognize them for a number of reasons.  Some people have just never been taught.  My goal is to change that—at least in my sphere of influence.  Now this is something that I teach in both my college classes and at Glory House, the women’s restoration home where I teach.  I’d like to continue some of this teaching on the blog here too from time to time because you can’t start operating in your gift until you know what your gifts are.

Discovering my gifts and purpose started for me several years back.  Continue reading →