John Bevere - Embrace Your Unique Talents and Flourish
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Hey everyone, welcome to Lesson Four of Gifted. I’m going to open this one up with a lot of scripture from what Paul writes to the Roman Church. Listen to this: Romans 12:3-6. «Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning.» So, what he’s about to say is a warning: don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body.
We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. We are to operate in these gifts with as much faith as God has given us. The New King James Version says it like this: we are to operate in these gifts in proportion to our faith. Now, notice there’s a lot here. He opens up with a warning: the warning is this—not to assess your gifting above where you really are. What he is saying is that it is important to do an honest self-evaluation of the gifts God has placed in our lives in real time. Why do I say real time? Because at that moment, you don’t assess yourself by the gifts that God has said you are going to one day operate in; you assess it in real time.
Let me give you an example. When Saul was a young man before he met Samuel, his honest assessment of his life was, «I can’t prophesy; that’s not a gift in my life.» After he met Samuel and Samuel imparted that gift, his honest assessment became, «I have the gift to prophesy.» In my serving days, I will never forget that I left an engineering position with Rockwell International when I was 22 years old, and I was asked to serve my pastor and his wife, taking care of their personal needs and the guests that came into our church, which had about 400 employees—well over 400 paid employees. My gift was serving. I remember my pastor and his wife used to say, «We are in awe of how you get things done.» It would seem as if I could think on my feet and accomplish things they didn’t even think I could do. I was always so excited to go beyond their expectations.
During that time, I knew I was called to preach the gospel. I was birthing—well, birthing is a terrible word; I was birthing an Ishmael. What is an Ishmael? God said to Abraham and Sarah, «You’re going to have a child.» After 10 years of waiting, Sarah said, «Hey, faith without works is dead; take my maid so that we can have this promised child through my maid, Hagar,» and they birthed an Ishmael. That was their human attempt to bring forth the promise of God. Yes, there was a promise on my life; I knew I was called to preach, but I was trying to do it myself. I actually started a 501©(3) organization; I called it B Ministries. Our tagline was «Reaching the world with His marvelous light.» The message I shared with you that put Lisa to sleep was one of the three messages of our first series, and people actually gave money to me to do this. But I remember the day when I realized this is not my gifting, this is not where I’m at in real time; I am not called to preach. I remember I scrapped the ministry, and the peace of God and the joy of the Lord entered my life in a profound way.
I remember the morning I woke up; I thought, «Oh my goodness! I have a beautiful wife, a beautiful son, the sky is blue, and there is a swimming pool 20 steps from our apartment.» I never could notice that because I was so stressed out trying to birth what I believed God had called me to do, which was frustrating and kept me from enjoying life because I wasn’t assessing my gift in real time. Later on, when I became a youth pastor, I stood up to speak. I was such a terrible speaker that I put my wife to sleep. I’ll never forget one of my heroes was TL Osborn. TL Osborn was a master communicator, and I remember when he was at our church while I was in my serving position. He told us about the great crusades he and his wife did in Africa, where they won over 50 million people to the Lord. We were all on the edge of our seats, and I remember he said, «Wow,» talking about what God had done—how a crippled person who had never walked started walking.
He said, «That word is so amazing, I’m going to say it backwards—wow!» The place roared with laughter. He did it as only he could. But when I was birthing my Ishmael Ministries, I was up preaching and putting people to sleep. I desperately tried to get them awake and said, «I’m going to say that word backwards—wow!» Nobody laughed. I just didn’t get it. I wasn’t gifted. I put my wife to sleep; I put the crowds and the 20 people I preached to asleep. But you know when the gift of God came on my life? When I crossed the Florida state line. My wife still says it to this day, «You turned into a different man, John.»
I remember when my pastor asked me to come up and share with his Sunday morning congregation—there were 2,800 people in the building. Unbeknownst to me, he asked me to share from my heart for five minutes. My wife was dreading what was about to happen; she thought, «Oh no, don’t let him say 'wow' backwards! Oh my gosh, don’t let him put people to sleep!» Literally, that’s what was running through her mind while I was walking up to the platform. The pastor handed me the mic, I started speaking, and God fell on the building. 2,800 people were on their feet, screaming for four minutes. I turned and looked at the pastor; I went back to my seat shaking like a leaf from probably adrenaline and anointing—maybe both.
I’ll never forget what my wife told me after the service; she said, «John, I just looked at you and thought, who just possessed my husband’s body?» She said, «John, you became a different man.» Now I’m gifted to speak—something God had promised me years earlier. I knew it was coming; it was now time. So now I’m assessing my gift in real time. How I wish when I was in the serving position I could have enjoyed just serving and been a better husband and father instead of wasting time trying to develop B Ministries.
It’s so important; Paul says, «I’m warning you about this. I don’t want you wasting time.» If we look at Romans 12:4, it says, «Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body.» Every single part of my body serves different functions. There are things my fingers can do that my nose can’t do. My nose has capabilities my toes can’t fulfill. My toes can do things my liver can’t do, and my liver can do things my elbows can’t do. A happy man or woman knows their gift and operates in it; a miserable man or woman tries to operate in someone else’s gift or something meant for the future. That person is miserable; I know firsthand because I was miserable.
But my question to all of us is, why do we put a premium on just platform gifts? What I mean by platform is the worship leader on the platform, the teacher on the platform, the evangelist on the platform, the pastor on the platform. Why do we place such a premium on these roles? It’s almost like when you hear someone say, «Oh, he’s got a call on his life,» we immediately think of someone who will sing or preach. But if you look at 1 Corinthians 12:22, it says some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
Let me say this: legs get attention, right? Ever heard someone say, «She’s got a great set of legs,» or «He’s got great legs?» But you know a person can live without a leg. I know a guy who was in a car wreck and lost his leg, but he was still able to play golf. I know a young man who had one arm yet was the number two player on his high school golf team. He literally swung the club with one hand. You can live without an arm or a leg, but you can’t live without a liver. Nobody walks up to someone and says, «Dude, that is a gorgeous liver you’ve got, wow!» Legs get attention, livers don’t, but a liver is actually more important.
Why have we put a premium on the platform gifts? Why is it that when we hear someone say, «He’s got a call on his life,» we automatically think of someone on a platform—a worship leader, a pastor, or someone similar? What about Stan? Remember Stan from the first chapter? Stan was not able to connect the dots because of the way we think. We need a paradigm shift. It’s really sad; God put these gifts in the church, but when we think of church, we think of it as just the four walls of a conference center. No, no, no, no. Church—let me give you the definition of church—is the Greek word «Ecclesia,» which means the called people. You’re a part of the church when you’re inside the four walls of a building, but equally so when you’re in the marketplace, in classrooms, in government offices, and in your calling.
It’s sad, but when we think of church as just being the congregation in a building, we act differently outside those walls, separating the sacred from the secular. I’ve got news for you; it’s all sacred. God is in you and with you 24/7—not just when you’re in church. This paradigm must shift.
Let’s ask honest questions: Are we only the church when gathered in a building? This paradigm causes people to act one way in that setting and a different way where they’re really called to operate. Let me give you an example. I was at a conference in Dallas; it was a big conference. I remember the guy who was conducting the conference asked me to speak. He said, «John, I have a friend who is a multi-billionaire. Once a year, he does his 'God Tour, ' flying around the United States to meet certain ministers. He wants to meet with you.» I said, «Sure!»
We arranged a lunch that ended up lasting three hours, and I felt like I needed to meet with him more for my sake than he needed me for his. I’ll never forget what he said. He was from New Zealand and mentioned how he was once a floundering businessman who wasn’t doing well. One day while sitting in church, he had a revelation: «Wait a minute! I’m called to the marketplace. Why does my pastor depend on the Holy Spirit to preach, but I go into the marketplace and operate in secular mode?»
He realized he was floundering because he thought of his work as separate from his faith. That day, he made a commitment: «Holy Spirit, you are the senior partner in my business. I will seek you every morning for instructions.» He said the Holy Spirit began telling him to do crazy things. He shared one instance that sounded ridiculous, where he ended up buying 20 hospitals in Vietnam. He said that if he had done what God told him to do 30 times, he would’ve ended up with 30 hospitals.
He realized that his value is billions because of listening to the Holy Spirit. The gift of God in his life is meant for the marketplace to build the kingdom of God, not what his pastor does on the platform. What if everybody adopted that mentality?
When Jesus said to go into all the world and make disciples, He didn’t say «Make disciples of church people.» He said «Make disciples of all nations.» Now, I want to challenge your paradigm. When we think of nations, we often think of countries like India, China, and Russia, and that’s correct. But the Greek word for nations is «ethnos,» which means a body of persons united by kinship, culture, or common traditions. So a nation is not just a geographical boundary; it could be groups like bodybuilders, tennis players, pilots, or teachers.
Let’s take this a step further: Jesus doesn’t say to make disciples of the people of all nations; He says to make disciples of all nations. Think about it—pilots, bodybuilders, tennis players, golfers—all these are nations.
Let me give you an example: Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector of the whole region—not just the city. Tax collectors did things the worldly way; they intimidated, manipulated, and took more money than was actually due. They built their wealth through deception. When Jesus came into the city, He looked up at Zacchaeus in the tree—this short guy who wanted to see Jesus. Jesus simply said, «Zacchaeus, come down; I must have dinner at your house.»
Jesus didn’t preach a message or give him five steps to becoming a more effective tax collector. He just said, «Zacchaeus, I need to come to your house.» After meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus declared he would restore what he had cheated back 400% and give half his goods to feed the poor. What happened? The way Zacchaeus operated changed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God.
Now, let me ask you: What happened to all the other tax collectors in the region? If this guy starts operating under kingdom principles, what do you think will happen to the rest? I have been to nations where government leaders and officials must give money under the table. It funnels all the way down to immigration. My international director tells me, «John, if you don’t slip him a $20 bill, he won’t stamp your passport.»
I know of a friend who went to a nation, and the immigration officer let his wife and kids go through but stopped him until he bribed him. Where does this start? It comes from the top. All the people in that nation are doing things this way. But now you have Zacchaeus, who was operating through deception; everyone underneath him was doing the same. One encounter with Jesus transformed him, and now he operated under the principles of the kingdom.
What will happen to the whole nation of tax collectors? Are you seeing this? I have a friend—a former NFL player with around 70,000 followers on Instagram, all made up of bodybuilders. This guy is enormous—I’m amazed he likes me. I’m just a skinny tennis player! He’s a man of God, yet his passion is to disciple the nation of bodybuilders. He teaches them kingdom principles without preaching directly. He models this by how he treats his daughters, treats women, and treats the men in the gym—discipling his nation of bodybuilders. This is what Jesus means.
When you go to church thinking your gifts only operate in the four walls, you will act like everyone else when you leave. But you’re called to disciple that nation of bodybuilders. This is what God has equipped us to do. When we stop viewing secular and see everything as sacred, this is what happens: no matter where you are—whether in a hospital room, a classroom as a teacher, or a factory as a machinist—you’ve been gifted to bring the sacred into that atmosphere and disciple it in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You have their backing—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— and authority to bring Heaven to Earth, just like Jesus did with Zacchaeus and others. You are called to multiply the kingdom’s mode of operation through your arena of influence. This makes going to the office one of the greatest adventures!
When you understand this, you will take your calling seriously, just like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa did. You won’t think, «Well, I’m just setting up for the conference, and this is my one week to serve God.» That doctor needs to see himself as a kingdom man bringing the kingdom into the arena of the medical field. Boy, I tell you, I preach myself so happy when I talk about this! I hope you got something out of this, and I hope you realize you’ve been brought into the kingdom for such a time as this. You have gifts and a calling on your life that will change your arena.