Section Seven - Positioning for the Mission

Called, but to what?
I’m called of God, but to what am I called too? This has got to be your question by now. It took me several years to finally come to peace with my calling and purpose. I spent my early adulthood years chasing a career of Criminal Justice. I thought I was going to be a Criminal Justice Officer the rest of my life. I didn’t understand that this part of my life would be a great treasure now. I felt as though I had failed God somehow for not following through with Criminal Justice yet it was in the experience of that profession that has equipped me to be the Man of God I am today.

I worked very hard in my early years educating troubled youth and leading anti-drug crusades through the drug infested neighborhoods of Bradenton, Florida. Crack Cocaine had hit the streets of Florida back in the 80’s and had become an epidemic. I noted that no one would lead the charge of rallying the citizens of the community to fight this battle so I volunteered. The Criminal Justice Department was overwhelmed with lack of resources and man power to fight this battle so I felt it necessary as an Officer to take the battle to the neighborhoods. We had several successful marches through neighborhoods and I became somewhat of a community leader in my early twenties. Little did I know that the Lord was about to launch me into my calling as an apostle of restoration a few years latter.

Our experiences in life are a golden opportunity to evaluate and take to the Lord for further review of our life and our calling. As I look back on my life, I noticed that I had a heart to see things repaired. To “underdog” the battles few dared to challenge. My challenge to you is this; what in life makes you tick? What sets your heart on fire and really draws your attention?
If all are called, then what are you called to and will you let the Lord choose you? At this time I would suggest that you take out a sheet of paper and start to write down your life experiences. Be sure to write down every area of significance in your life whether it was good or bad. You will be able to start identifying some very strong passions that either have not been given the attention due them or may be consuming your thought life.

Your time on this project is very important and really deserves your attention in order for you to fully benefit from this section and the rest of this manual.

As you write out your experiences, make two columns; one titled “achievements” and the other, “failures.”

Don’t get hung up on the terms, I am just trying to jog your memory of areas in your life that were significant and now can be used as testimonies of God’s grace and mercy as well as your life buttons. Life buttons you ask? Why yes, “life buttons.” These are your passions or personality traits that get you excited and bring you joy and purpose for living. Some of you may have many and others may not. It doesn’t matter as long as you can identify them and write them down at the bottom of your page.

As you have been obedient to the assignment above, start to list your “life buttons” down at the bottom of your paper, for example;

One of my life buttons is seeing things in order, setting goals. Another of my life buttons is to motivate others to be the best they can be or do something they never have been able to do. I also like to make people laugh and see people happy.

To abbreviate these buttons so that they don’t take up to much space at the bottom of your paper, you might simply use a word or two. In the life buttons above I would use the words;
Orderly / Goal Oriented - Personal Coach / Motivator - Crisis Conflict Resolution.

You may also abbreviate your life experiences as well so that you have more room to finish your assignment. Keep in mind that others may also help you as you put your assignment together. Those around you can see areas of your gifts that you may not see. This is important in your personal assessment. Many may also point out some “life buttons” that you are always exhibiting but not thinking about. It is as if it was just part of your make-up; something that you do naturally.

After you write down as much as possible, you may be a little overwhelmed as to all the things you are seeing. It is here where we are able to identify God’s time in your life and the Devil’s time in your life. I have also found to be true, if you have been practicing a bad thing in your life such as being “depressed or angry”, it would do well for you to understand that the Devil has been possibly manipulating your true “life button” of “joy and peace”. Please right those down too.

On the next page I will show you an example of what I am talking about since you may be scratching your head right now thinking I may have lost mine.



Personal Assessment Assignment

Achievements:
1. Completed Criminal Justice Training
2. Became Criminal Justice Officer
3. Assisted in finding jobs for over two hundred people
4. Coached Swimming, Soccer, and Baseball
5. Led anti-drug crusades
6. Worked for a Christian radio station
7. Worked in the missions field, Canada, Guatemala, and Africa
8. Trained many ministers for the work of the Lord
9. Walked 200 miles across the State of Michigan with a large Wooden Cross

Failures:
1. Did not complete College
2. Marriage failed
3. Lost personal business after 9/11/2001
4. Lost home and vehicles to foreclosure
5. Filed bankruptcy
6. Let my loved ones down many times

Life Buttons:
1. Orderly / Goal Oriented
2. Personal Coach / Motivator
3. Crisis Conflict Resolution
4. Travel / Adventuresome
5. Truth seeking
6. Merciful / forgiving
7. Purposeful
8. Peaceful

Depending on how you did on your assignment, I would ask that you keep this worksheet close by, to add to as the Holy Spirit and others assist you.

Honesty is very important since there is no wrong answer here. You do not have to share this with anyone since this is your assignment. I don’t have any qualms about sharing my successes and failures simply because I give God the glory for all of it.

My failures tell me that the Devil had really been working overtime in my life trying to hurt me in my calling.

The areas I have failed in mentally and physically are only areas that Satan knew could keep me from my focus on Jesus and His calling on my life. Since I too was subject to generational curses and have had evidences of them in my life, I use these experiences to help me understand how not to let the Devil in any more and to surround myself with others who’s gifts counter areas of my weaknesses

Your failures actually become the best part of this assignment because it uncovers the Devils schemes in your life. For example; if I love orderliness and am goal oriented why did I not complete my college and allow my finances to become an area of ruin in my life? Or, if I am such a great personal coach and motivator, why did my marriage of ten years fail?

Being goal oriented, I didn’t finish my Bachelor’s degree and would probably have a great career right now in Criminal Justice? This is where I had to really spend time with the Lord. It wasn’t my calling! I was only allowed to experience this area for one reason only, and that was to study the devices of Satan. What a schooling I received from this!

My achievements also share with me areas of my life that I may have excelled in and now have skills that I have added to my gifts as an investment. But there is a warning here; some of these achievements may have been for my own glory and not really for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. I then have to look at my achievements and reevaluate them using my life buttons to determine if I was becoming prideful or really serving the King with the gifts he has given me. Nonetheless, even the achievements in my life regardless of intentions are great tools identifying my strengths and gifts given my by the Holy Spirit. This manual is another example of the gifts given me, to assist the Church clean up the mess the Devil has had us making.

Holding the thief accountable:
By identifying who the real thief is (Satan), I am able to request those areas robbed of me and my life back 7 times what was taken. Once again, we are talking about issues established early in my childhood that would hinder me as I grew into adulthood. “Trusting God” being the most important portion of my childhood faith needed to be restored. Remember, you need not be ignorant of the devices of Satan. Our faith in God is our biggest threat to Satan’s kingdom.

Assessment of your gifts:
As you have been working on your assignment, let’s start to look at your life buttons and then start comparing them to both sides of your assessment. How does your achievements in life point to some of your life buttons? Can you see how your failures point to the opposite of your life buttons?

For instance;
My life button of being “orderly” would explain my experience in completing my training as a Criminal Justice Officer as well as not completing my college education. It would also point out that not being orderly in business which was a fact of not trusting the Lord for my business would tell me that the enemy tripped me up here. It has always been my desire to have a reputable business that was prepared for any emergency. I am not blaming 9/11 for my failures, but the lack of trusting God for prospering my business regardless of the status around me.

The same could be said of my marriage. I didn’t consult the Lord prior to marriage; I let my emotions and flesh, make my decision for me. Being a personal coach, I knew what needed to be done in my marriage but did not trust the Lord for it. My ex wife and I are good friends to this day; she is happily married to her high school sweetheart and has just had a baby girl. I pray for them often because my daughter Faith stays with them during the school year and with me during the summer. Yet in the process of all this I have learned how to forgive and to loose those who the enemy is using to offend my life and purpose for being here.

Life’s lessons are the most precious tools for your calling as long as you don’t get hung up on unforgiveness towards others, especially unforgiveness of self.

As an apostle, I most assuredly need every life experience I have had to be a better representative of the one who called me, Jesus Christ. I know what it means to be sent and have had the witness of His Holy Spirit with me where ever I go. You too, have His witness in you if you belong to Him. All of us are sent. All have a part to play until the Lord returns. Your calling may not be one of service to the Body of Christ but to the world in general. You already know that you are an ambassador of Heaven and that the Lord has prepared you for a specific task or duty. Look again at your assignment. Do you understand now that these life buttons are actually passions and desires the Lord has placed in you? No matter how big the passion or desire, I know you have them. This is where true joy comes in. And I know that the power of love will fuel those life buttons if you let it.

I am sure you have heard in your life by some pastor / preacher this question; “if you could do anything in this world, and money was no option, what would that be?”

I have asked myself that question many a time and now I can honestly say I am doing exactly what I know to be the true calling on my life. My passion is the Church of Christ. It is the very thing I have had the most concern for because it was out of order. I had become an accuser of the very thing I was called to serve. I would often criticize the church for its lack of good fruit. I was witnessing people being thrown to the wolves and scattered to the four winds by pastors who had become; “career” pastors and not “called” pastors. The Church wasn’t being motivated to get beyond the pews of Sunday morning and out into the Harvest of souls on Monday. Ministers would hold the truth of God’s Word in unrighteousness and would not dare confront sin in the pews for fear that the tithes would leave the building. My advice to all pastors / teachers is this; “you either preach it all, or don’t preach at all!”

After being corrected about my self righteous attitude by a dear brother and fellow laborer in the Lord, I repented of this attitude and started to love these ministers and show them by example how to shepherd their congregations. If truly I am a “repairer of the breach,” the breach needed to be repaired in me first.

As an apostle I had been trained up by the Holy Spirit in all the offices of the ministry to include the offices of; the prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, and the apostle. My life experiences have assisted me in identifying the enemy of our souls and how to combat his devices with the truth revealed in us by His Word and the prompting of His Spirit.

Being a King for the Kingdom:
As I have been spending time with President Stephan Milongo of the Mwinda Christian Party here in the Republic of Congo, I have come to understand that there are those on this earth that have the gifts of governments and the gifts of giving. I have listened intently to this powerful Man of God as to how a good government is truly run. Brother Milongo explains that too many times people run to the President or leaders of a country with their hands out. And too many times leaders give in and give out money to those who only drain a land and not give back. He said that a true King must never enable his people but provide opportunity for each individual to let their gifts shine. A citizen is a builder of a community or country in which it is a citizen of, a stranger is there to either visit or to tear down.

Our Pastor Floyd Martin of; Raising Kings for the Kingdom of God, also concurs with this assessment. Pastor Floyd also teaches that the Kings have the resources for the ministers to get the work done for the kingdom. It is not the duty of the apostle, preacher, teacher, evangelist, prophet, etc., to raise capital for the work of the Lord. We are out of order in this area. Why are we robbing the widow of her few mites when the guy with the multimillion dollar business is waiting to exercise their calling and give to the work in which the Lord has allowed him to have means for. He gives us the example found in the entire book of; Nehemiah (Nehemiah is right after the book of Ezra and right before the book of Esther).

So Saint; as you do an inventory of the passions and desires in your life (provided they are not motivated by the flesh), you will undoubtedly start to identify with the countless opportunities out here to exercise your Holy calling.

My next manual will explain in detail the offices of ministry as well as the gifts and callings of the Holy Spirit. It would be somewhat burdensome to try to pack it all in this manual since the focus is to get you healed and delivered in the areas of your life that Satan has stolen from you!
Many of you are already operating in your calling and gifting but now have more fire power to advance the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior. I pray that this is the case for most of you. There is just too much world out here for little ol’ me.

The last section of this manual is very special to me, since I have a greater understanding of its relevance thanks to my pastor and fellow apostle, Harvey Hampton. His teaching on this subject is absolutely awesome and I will do my best to do it justice but only Apostle Harvey can teach this subject with the passion he was given by the Holy Spirit.