Acts 13:36-37 Fulfilling Your God-Given Potential

As we look at three examples of people who fulfilled their God-given potential, we will see how we can also fulfill our God-given potential. What did Jesus, David, Paul, and all the others have in common? It was not marriage. Jesus was single. Paul was widowed, and David had more than one wife. Besides, there is no marriage in heaven. You can fulfill God’s potential without being married. Being married may or may not help you fulfill God’s potential. Marriage helps when the husband and wife are united and learning how to love one another. Marriage prevents you from fulfilling God’s potential when we let your own selfishness creep in. When I as a husband start to think that the marriage is for me, just me and not my wife, then I start to lose the opportunity to fulfill God’s potential. So if marriage is not the criteria, what are the criteria for fulfilling God-given potential?

CRITERIA TO MEET GOD’S POTENTIAL IN YOUR LIFE

1. You receive a CALL from God.

What is your call? Your call is your personal spiritual direction. It is WHAT GOD plans for YOU to DO.

Look at our three examples. You see that Jesus’ call was salvation. (I came to save and to serve.) David’s call was unity. He brought all of the warring tribes under one national unity that was handed over to his son Solomon. Paul’s call was cross-cultural evangelism. He spent his life as a Jewish Christian reaching out to Gentiles.

In theology, we talk about two types of calls from God. There is the general call and a specific call. Your call is the direction in which God wants you to follow Him. God’s will is made known in God’s call.

GENERAL CALL

The general call of God is that everyone comes to Him by accepting Jesus Christ. Everyone is called to repent from their sins and follow Christ. Everyone has this call. For the Christian, this call continues as we stay in obedience to God and doing God’s will. Because we want to bring glory to God, Christians are also expected to give out this call to others who do not know Jesus. We are to proclaim His name throughout the nations.

But how do you do this specifically? God will use your decisions in life as He guides you in life.

SPECIFIC CALL

In our three examples, God’s big plan for David was to establish the Kingdom that would be fulfilled by Jesus. That’s why the verses in the Old Testament here are not about David, but Jesus. (You see this logic used again with the same verses in Hebrews 1.)

Jesus’s call started with the Jews, and then went to the Gentiles. Paul went first to the Jews and was rejected. So he spent his time to the Gentiles.

What was the specific call for these three men?

Jesus – to go to the cross.
David – to unify Israel and begin the kingdom that Jesus would inherit.
Paul – to tell Gentiles about Jesus – cross-cultural mission work and church planting.

Your specific call is how God will work His purpose out in your life. Some things to notice about the purpose of your life and fulfilling your potential:

God’s purpose is highly personalized. “God has thought your life through.” “God thinks about you.” The word “purpose” in the Greek deals with God’s thought process behind His plan.

God knows how each life will turn out, but has a specialized plan for each person. “Nothing in this life is haphazard,” for God says in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you.’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

God’s purpose is progressively revealed in each person’s life. “He won’t tell us [His plan] in totality because He is about relationships,” she said. Moore said that through His plan, God reveals certain aspects of His nature at the appropriate times.

“He wants us to be faithful to Him in the here and now,” God wants you to be faithful in what God has given them to do at this stage in their lives.

God’s purpose is perfectly timed. “You have been assigned to this generation, and if this generation screams one thing to us it’s relevancy.” You were made to be used by God in this generation. He wants to use you now, right where you are.

Your are part of the big puzzle of life that is God’s great plan. Your part in God’s plan includes your job, your family, your location, and your schooling. But these things can change. You can change them. God can change them. So that God can use you to be a light to the world. You are the light to shine.

But it doesn’t matter on what hill you stand, what candle you use, what color the candle is, whether it is small or tall. It doesn’t matter how you are a light:

You can be a:

lighthouse – seamen
lantern – park ranger
light to shine over other people’s teeth – dentist office
operating room – hospital worker
church candle – church pastor
truck light – night driver
flashlight

It doesn’t matter how you are shining the light. It matters that you shine it.
You will reach specific people based on the way you shine light. How you shine the light relates to your commission. So your specific call leads to your commission. What God plans for you to do leads to who God plans for you to reach. Your call leads to your commission.

2. You undertake a COMMISSION for God.

It is your personal Great Commission. It is WHO GOD plans for YOU to REACH.

What is your potential? It doesn’t matter where you work, where you live, nor how long you live. It matters most that you live your life best for God’s glory.

Who are you reaching? Is your light shining? Who’s looking at your life? These people are your commission from God. What relationships are you building in your generation? To fulfill God’s will and plan, you need to be reaching people.

Sometimes we make the mistake of saying I have done too little. It is easy to feel like we have not done enough in our lives reaching people. But God uses His children from all kinds of walks and in every phase of life to do His work. God will give you the spiritual strength you need through the Holy Spirit to reach out to the generation. He will help you.

God did not expect you to reach out to every person on earth. He expects you witness to everyone whom He gives you contact. Because a relationship with everyone in the world is what God wants. He has chosen you as the person to help Him reach everyone – one person at a time, one generation at a time.

A Creed To Live By
By Nancye Sims

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only God knows what is best for you.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.

Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give love. The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly, and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don’t dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope; to be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you’re going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.