Beyond the Gift

Preface
God is not impressed by what He gave us in the form of our gifts and talents, but He is impressed by what we do with the deposit He has invested in us. In our world today, society celebrates the person who is gifted. That person may be a great athlete or a master musician. However, what impresses people does not impress God, because He is the one who gave the gift in the first place.
Every human being on the planet was born with a unique, God-given ability to arrive at their purpose in life. In other words, you are gifted for the assignment that is on your life. The problem in our world today is that too many human beings that are born into this world leave without discovering their purpose, and sometimes even their gifts.
My dad’s generation went to work to earn enough so that their children could gain a good education, which they themselves did not have the privilege of affording. That generation sacrificed their dreams to live them through their children. Just imagine how long those people lived without knowing why they existed or the gifts they possessed. Many of them died short of fulfilling their purpose in life.
Death is not an indication of completion.
Our Gift Is Not the End, But It Really Is the Means to the End
The only reason you are equipped with gifts and talents is to fulfill your purpose. You were not meant to die as a caterpillar, but you were meant to go through the metamorphosis and become a butterfly. Sad to say that some of us crawl out of life and never fly out of life. All of us came to this Earth as a seed, but trapped within us is the potential to become a tree, and the many by-products that a tree can offer.
The purpose of this book is to appeal to a generation that there is much more they have to accomplish than their gifts and talents—their life’s purpose and ultimate assignment. Your gifts and talents might look nothing like your assignment, which can sometimes be misleading. In the ancient archives of the Bible, we see the truth of this statement being played out, time and time again. You see, God never begins with a harvest, but He always starts with a seed. I had to learn this, because God will give us an idea or give us an interest, but we will have to be the one to research and investigate what He has given us. This is what happened to Moses, the first leader of Israel when He encountered the burning bush. It sparked his interest, so he drew closer to investigate. Sometimes we have to investigate the idea or the interest He has placed in our hearts. Let us now draw our attention to a couple of people who made it to their assignment.


Your Gift Is the Transportation to Your Assignment
King David’s gift was the ability to play the harp, but it was not his ultimate assignment. His life’s ultimate assignment was to rule over the nation of Israel and die as a king, not a harp player. His gift of playing the harp was the transportation that allowed him to be discovered and commissioned to Saul’s house to be set up for his assignment. Proverbs 18:16 says a man’s gift will make room for him and bring the giver before great men. The room the gift creates is the opportunity to fulfill your assignment.
1 Samuel 16:14–18 NIV says, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, ‘See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.’ So Saul said to his attendants, ‘Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.’ One of the servants answered, ‘I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.’”
Who would have thought the next king of Israel would have been a musician?
Another record in the Bible rolls back the curtains of the life of a young Hebrew boy by the name of Joseph. This young man dreamed of his future assignment, which caused an uproar in his family. He eventually got sold into slavery by his brothers and ended up in prison. While in prison, he encountered two of Pharaoh’s staff—the butler and the baker. He interpreted their dreams, both men were released from prison, and Joseph was forgotten for at least another two years. However, the seed he had sown was working all this time. Little did Joseph know that it was the gift he had released that spoke on his behalf and gave him an opportunity to enter Pharaoh’s palace and solve a problem. Then he was promoted to his assignment. When it comes to your ultimate assignment, the lifespan may be months, three years like Jesus, or several years like the Apostle Paul, but your assignment is the last work you do before you die. If you don’t die after your ultimate assignment, then it was just an event.
Nehemiah thought he was just a cupbearer until his assignment called him. He was in position, serving his gift to the king by being his cupbearer. He was rightly positioned, which was a segue into his assignment. Moses thought his fortune was to become the next pharaoh, until the birth pains of his assignment began screaming from the inside as he saw the injustice of his own people.
We see this same pattern played out in more recent historical figures as well. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela went away to study law to fight for justice for his people. However, his ultimate assignment involved imprisonment for over twenty-nine years and becoming the first Black president of his country. Martin Luther King Jr. began as a Baptist preacher, but his assignment was to lead the civil rights movement.
Let us embrace the purpose for which we were created, and embrace the ultimate assignment that God sent us here on Earth to accomplish. Join me as we ascend the assignment.