John Bevere - How to Know Where to Plant Yourself
- Watch
- Donate
Here we are in lesson six. Are you guys getting something out of this? Now we're getting into the meat and potatoes, right? We're getting into the nuts and bolts of this. There's so much to talk about, and I know I could probably just ramble on and on, but I'm trying to stay focused because my heart's desire isn't for you just to get information; I want to see this transform your life. I want everyone watching these courses to come away equipped with the tools to discover their unique calling that God has placed upon their lives.
The specific question we're asking right now is: how do I discover my calling? Remember, your calling is much bigger than you; it's about the people you're going to impact. You may not see the results of the people you impact. In other words, a mother who raises three children faithfully, because she knows she is called to do it, could see those three children impact millions of lives. Think about the mother of Billy Graham or the mother of Albert Einstein. We don't know how our lives intertwine and influence others, and that's why it's important. I personally believe, although I don't have a verse and chapter for this, that God has given every one of us—no matter what we're called to do—the chance to impact multitudes of lives. I believe He's given us the opportunity, either directly or indirectly, and that's why we should always take our calling seriously, no matter where we're at right now, because our calling is now.
So, how do I discover my calling? Number one: seek God diligently in faith. Number two: be planted in the house of God. If you look at Psalm 92, verse 13, it says, "Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish." I love that word "flourish." The courts of our God would certainly include the judgment seat of Christ. God is saying that if you're planted in the house of the Lord, in a ministry, or in a local church, you're going to flourish.
If I have a handful of seeds—let's say I have a corn seed, an apple seed, a peach seed, and a cotton seed—I may know a couple of them, but I might not know most of them because I'm just not a farmer. Ask my wife; she knows I'm not a big gardener. So, if I have this handful of seeds, I may not know what a lot of those seeds are, but I can tell you how I can find out: put them in the ground, water them, and they're going to grow into their destiny. If I put a banana seed in the ground, it's not going to grow into a peach tree. If I put a cotton seed in the ground, it's not going to grow into a mango tree. So, if we're planted in a local church, whether we're called to ministry or the business world, or government, or education, or science, whatever we're called to, we will flourish into our calling. That, to me, is amazing.
If you look at Philip, he was a minister but was planted in the local church in Jerusalem. One day, there were widows being neglected; they weren't getting their food distribution. So, the apostles said, "Hey, we're doing this job, and we should be giving ourselves to the word of God and to prayer. Choose seven men among you to wait on these widows and serve them their food." They chose several guys; one of them was Stephen, and one of them was Philip. The apostles laid hands on them, and the Bible says after that, the number of the disciples greatly multiplied.
You know what's interesting? In Acts chapters one through five, you see "added, added, added." Peter preached and 3,000 were added to the church, then 5,000 were added to the church. The very first time you see the word "multiplied" is at the end of Acts chapter five, when they did not cease preaching and teaching Jesus as the Christ in every house. Well, Peter couldn't go to every house; they didn't have television or the internet. So, we know that the believers finally got it in gear. "Hey, we're ambassadors—we're supposed to be telling people about Jesus." But then in Acts chapter six, when you have people getting planted into their church and serving in their church, now the church is greatly multiplying.
If you win two people to the Lord and disciple them, and those two each win two people to the Lord the next month, those four each win two people, and those eight the next month, and so on, you can reach the whole world in 3.6 years. Did you know that? That's great multiplication! If I win a thousand people to the Lord, I'll never be able to win the world; I'll never be able to do it alone.
That's how important it is to the overall building of God's house. What is going to happen when we all truly get into our callings? The thing is, God has called us either into vocational ministry or into the business world or into the medical field. How does this apply? Well, we get not only planted in the house of God, but we also get planted in the area we are called to. If I know, and I've sought God, that I'm called into the business world, what do I want to do? I want to get planted in a business.
Jesus said if I'm faithful in that which belongs to another man, then I will be given my own. A good friend of mine named Josh had an uncle who said, "Hey, I'll teach you a work ethic. Do you want to come work for me?" He said, "Sure." On his first day, Josh was supposed to be there at six. He arrived at six, started unwinding the cord of the saw, and plugging it in. His uncle jumped on him: "You don't get here at six and start unrolling the cord. You're here to set up and be ready to work at six." Josh said his uncle treated him that way because he loved him. He served and served and served his uncle, and when he became an adult, he started working for a construction company and eventually became a foreman because he was doing such a good job.
Josh was planted in a local church and was heavily supporting our ministry at that time. When I say "heavily," they were giving substantially relative to their income—giving maybe a $1,000 offering, which was like a million-dollar offering for others. When he was in that church, working for the company, he had been faithful. God showed him and gave him a plan, and he started his own business. It wasn't in competition with the company he left. He resigned and grew his business into a $30 million company in just ten years. He sold it two years ago for $30 million and has since affected pastors and leaders all over the world.
But he's planted in his local church. He serves in his local church and the men's ministry of the church but is also planted in the business world. When you're in vocational ministry, you plant in ministry. When you're called to the medical field, you plant in your church and in the area you're called to; that's the key—planting.
If we look at Philip in Acts 21, verse 8, he's still referred to as "one of the seven" even though he is now an evangelist. He's no longer waiting on tables, but God still refers to him based on where he was planted—serving those widows. Now, we could have a palm seed and an aspen tree seed. If I plant an aspen seed in Florida, what happens? It's not going to do very well; Florida is not the right climate or soil. If I plant a palm tree in Alaska, I guarantee it's not going to make it. There's a specific soil and environment that God places us in.
Listen to this, from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 18: "But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleases, not as we please." So, that tells me we have a responsibility to seek God regarding where we plant ourselves. If it's in the business world, I believe that since God is concerned about every detail of our lives, He will be concerned about which company I work for. If we're called to ministry, He will be concerned about which church we are part of.
Sometimes I think Americans see churches like a cafeteria. They think, "Well, I've been to this one for a few weeks; I think I'll change and eat at this one now." That's transplanting. The Bible doesn't say, "Those that are transplanted in the house of the Lord shall flourish." It says, "Those who are planted." You know what happens if you transplant a plant? If you do it too many times, it diminishes the root system. If I keep transplanting it, it will kill the bush or plant. God didn't say, "Those that are transplanted every year in the house of God shall flourish." He said, "Those that are planted." Many times, what we run into when we are planted is adversity.
I remember when God planted me in a church. I knew He put me there, but I ran into all kinds of adversity and hardship. At one point, I thought, "Oh, I would love to leave," but a friend of mine said, "John, we had to call a plumbing company out the other day because we couldn't get our plumbing system to work; the water was barely trickling through." He said the plumber looked at their pipes and everything was fine. Finally, the plumber said, "You know, this reminds me of one other time this happened. Let's dig around the tree by your main water line."
They discovered that the tree's root system was growing toward the water supply because it was a drought year. Adversity builds resilience and tenacity in us. I remember that same friend said to me one day when I wanted to leave, "If you leave, John, you'll run the rest of your life." That firm root system has gone deep with me.
If you look at what Jesus said in Mark's Gospel, remember the sower who sows the word? The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. "Wow, what a great teaching! I love my pastor's preaching! Oh, I love working for this company! Man, this is amazing! I got my dream job in this hospital!" They immediately receive it with joy, but since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long; they fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word.
If you look at David, he wasn't a minister; he was in government. We always think of David as a minister because he wrote the Psalms and loved God deeply. God put him under Saul—not the devil—yet Saul tried to destroy him. Isn't it interesting that David didn't say, "Okay, I'm done with this; I'm going to rebel"? He had opportunities to kill Saul but kept his respect and honor for him. He said, "Let God raise me up. If I'm really called to be the leader of this nation, let God do this." He stayed planted.
These are the things that develop character in us, and we will talk about this in a future lesson. It doesn't say in Psalm 92 that "those who attend the house of God shall flourish in the courts of our God." When I look at churches, when I look at people who work for companies or in education systems, government, or whatever, there are people that are planted and people that attend. People that attend are always looking for something better, how they can get out and have more recognition and opportunity. Don't get me wrong; God wants us to have opportunity, but He wants to lead us.
One day, I was going through a lot of hardship in my church, and I was like, "God, how do I know when I'm supposed to leave?" The Lord spoke to me out of Isaiah 55, verse 12. He said, "You shall go out with joy." He said, "Son, right now if you leave, you'll leave offended. You're going to go out with joy. You'll be led out with peace, and the mountains and hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." He said, "Son, you may have to leave because of tragedy if it occurs, but you'll still have inner joy and peace because you know you're obeying Him."
I believe many people don't fulfill their callings because they abort where they were planted or transplant themselves, or they just attend. When you attend, you don't give yourself fully. When I look at my friend Colin, when he finally got into the place he was supposed to be—not just attending a good local church but working for this man—he said, "For three years, I had the Midas touch for this man. I made so much money for him." He was making money for that company as if it were his own.
I remember God dealing with me about serving my pastor; He said, "Serve him the way you want people to serve you one day." That's so important because ultimately, I'm really not serving him; I'm serving God. The Bible says we shouldn't work for our bosses as men-pleasers but as unto the Lord. I remember playing golf with a guy who managed a personal golf course. There were no members at this $200 million golf course on the ocean, and his job was to take care of the grounds. I said to him, "You need to take care of this golf course as if Jesus owns it, not Mr. H." He said, "Oh, John, where do you get that from? The Bible says that you serve your employers not as men-pleasers but as unto the Lord."
He said that changed his attitude completely; he was going to take care of the golf course like Jesus is the owner. By the way, I beat him that day; it was a good day for golf!
Look at what Jesus says in Luke 16:12: "If you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?" There are people who start companies that don't flourish, and people who start ministries that don't flourish because they weren't faithful in that which belonged to another man or woman. It's so crucial that we're planted in a local church.
If your specific calling is outside of ministry, you're going to have two places to plant: your church ministry—whether it's evangelistic ministry or something else God has called you to serve—and also out there in your field of work. Take, for example, Governor Huckabee. He's a godly man and one of my dearest friends and board members. He's a member of his church, and he works in the parking lot. He's had two positions in the 10 years I've known him. Even though he flies to Washington, D.C. weekly for a nationally televised program, he's serving in the parking lot of his church.
He's flourishing because he's planted in his church and in his position outside. So, if you're called to the medical field, go serve someone in that field but also make sure you're serving in your church as well. We know sometimes people in positions outside of the church can't give a lot of time, but there's always something they can do. They can work in a parking lot or greet people; they can visit a prison once a month and help bring the word of God to those incarcerated. I guarantee they can do something like that, and they'll flourish in their calling in the medical field or business world, if they do just that.
Now, this leads us to a question: How do we discover our calling? What's going to keep us from fulfilling it? We will talk about that in the next lesson.