All too soon, however, it’s all over – the celebrations and vigils are done; Christmas lights packed away; restaurants are quiet and the roads are busy again. It’s back to the old grind; time to face up to the fallouts of the previous month’s excesses and get back to work. And so the cycle begins again.
Or does it? Could 2008 be different? Will you show up for your appointment with destiny and align yourself with your purpose? God made you for a specific purpose. And, we know, the ultimate purpose – the reason we are all still here, is to establish God’s kingdom on the earth. However, oftentimes when considering how to build God’s kingdom, we give little attention to what is within our power to do right now. The truth of the matter is we all have something that we have absolute power and control over that God gave each of us as a crucial kingdom-building tool – our gifts and talents.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be. In the Parable of Talents, Jesus made it clear that each and every one of us have been given at least one gift or talent. The two servants who utilised their talents experienced spectacular success – a hundredfold return – because their specific talents were allocated to them based on their individual abilities (Matthew 25:15). They were so perfectly matched to their gifts that they were virtually guaranteed success. They couldn’t fail at it – if only someone had told the other servant who buried his!
So why is success so important to kingdom building, I hear you ask? Well, for one, success begets influence. You cannot have influence in an area where you are not successful; and influence is a crucial kingdom building tool.
Did you know you can build God’s kingdom by becoming a man or woman of influence in your chosen field? The Oxford Dictionary defines influence as “the power or ability to affect someone’s beliefs or actions.” Sounds like evangelism, doesn’t it? In the past few years we’ve seen good examples of this phenomenon where an influential person puts an obscure religion on the map just by associating with it. That’s the power of influence. When you have that level of success, you don’t have to preach to have people follow or imitate you. So there is, in fact, a clear and direct link between what we achieve in our different fields and building God’s kingdom.
