John Bevere - God Has Made Your Calling Beyond Your Natural Ability
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Welcome to Gifted Lesson Two. I want to open this one up with a story. I was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a good friend of mine and I were just sitting and talking at dinner one night. He was sharing with me how he had coached the varsity girls' basketball team at a large Christian high school for years. He said, «John, for 18 years we struggled. We would get just before the state tournament, and we’d lose in the final of the regionals, or we’d make it to the state tournament and lose in the first round or just before the finals. I never was able to get to the finals; I never was able to win the state tournament.» He said, «John, it started wearing on me. I worked so hard at it. After 18 years of not winning a state title, I discovered the grace of God. I discovered that grace does more than save us; it empowers us.»
So, I determined that this particular year—the 19th year of my coaching career—I would do it by the grace of God. I began praying and said, «Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do?» The Spirit of God told him, «Hey, Jim, instead of doing 90 minutes on the floor with the girls in practice, I want you to do 45 minutes in the locker room of prayer and Bible study, and then 45 minutes of drills on the floor.» He said, «John, I shared the vision with the team. I was a little leery about it because our girls needed practice.» The girls at first were a little leery; they thought it sounded strange or weird. But after they heard my heart, they bought in.
He said, «John, that year we won the state title. And if that isn’t enough, the next year we won the state title again. We missed every single layup in the championship game and we never should have won that game, but when we reviewed the statistics, we had made a record number of three-point shots.» He said, «John, I know the grace of God does more than forgive our sins; it does more than save us; it empowers us.» And that’s what I want to talk about. This is the secret that many don’t know.
Paul makes a statement—not the Apostle Paul—if you have a red-letter edition of the Bible, these words are in red; this is God speaking directly to Paul. God says this in 2 Corinthians 12:9: «My grace is all you need; my power is greatest when you are weak.» That word «weak» means human inability. So what God is saying to Paul is, «My grace gives you the ability to go beyond your natural ability.»
Now, if you look at the word for grace, it is the Greek word «charis,» which most Christians understand; it means gift, favor, benefit, or gracious liberality. However, the Strong’s Concordance defines it this way: «The divine influence upon the heart with its reflection in the life.» So you can see there is an outward reflection of what’s done in the heart; that is the empowerment of grace. If you look at Acts 11, it says that Barnabas went to the churches in Antioch and saw the grace of God. He didn’t hear about it; he saw the outward evidence of God’s grace working in their lives. That’s so good!
Let me read to you Zondovan’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Words. This grace is a dynamic force that does more than affect our standing with God by crediting us with righteousness. Grace affects our experience as well. Now, listen to what Zondovan says: Grace is always marked by God’s enabling or empowering work within us. So, my definition of grace after years of studying the Word of God is simply this: God’s empowering presence that gives us the ability to go beyond our natural ability.
If you look at Jim, he discovered the grace of God, which gave him the ability to do what he never could do on his own. After 18 years of working hard and trying, he was able to win two state championships back-to-back. If you look at my own personal life, I struggled to live a godly life, a holy life; I couldn’t do it. I failed and failed and failed. I was so discouraged, but when I discovered that grace does more than forgive my sins—it empowers me to do what I wasn’t able to do in my own ability—I began to live a godly life.
So here’s the truth—ready? Write this down; it’s so important. What we can’t do on our own, grace enables us to do. Now, remember, you’ve got to believe this: nothing can be received from God unless it’s received by faith. The Bible says in Romans chapter 5 that we have access to the grace of God through faith. In other words, when we believe, when we have faith, it accesses the grace of God into our lives.
God can have all this grace ready to enable us to go beyond our ability, but if we don’t believe, then we have no access to that grace. Access is denied! Do you understand? This is why so many Christians are living in their own strength; they’re struggling. Statistically, we discovered in a survey about 10 years ago that over 95% of Christians in America do not understand that grace is God’s empowerment. They see it as God’s salvation, His forgiveness; they see it as a free gift, but they don’t see it as God’s empowerment.
If you listen to the Apostle Paul, he makes a statement in 1 Corinthians 15:10. This is amazing! He said, «I have worked harder than any of the other apostles.» Now, wait a minute! He’s talking about James, Peter, and the Apostle John, but yet he writes this in the Scripture: «I have labored more abundantly; I’ve worked harder than any of them.» But listen to what he says; it sounds like he’s bragging, but he’s not. He says, «Although it was not my own doing, but God’s grace working in me.» Did you hear that?
Now, he wouldn’t have been able to do more than all the other apostles if he was doing it in his own strength. In regard to our calling, I’m going to make a statement here; you need to really think this through: God has made your calling beyond your natural ability. Okay, I’m going to say that again: What God has created you to do is impossible to do in your own natural ability. You say, «What?» Oh, yeah! God on purpose made your calling beyond your natural ability so you couldn’t boast in it. See, God says in Isaiah 48:11, «I’m not sharing my glory with anyone.» So if God made your calling within your own natural ability, then you could share the glory with Him, and He said, «Nobody’s going to share the glory with me.»
So this is why it’s important to understand your gifting because you cannot accomplish this calling without your gifting. You’re going to find out in a minute that gifting is equally supernatural as grace is. Okay, let’s return now to talking about this. If God has called you to do something, He’s going to give you the tools—spiritually—the tools to do what you’re called to do.
Let’s talk about the natural. Would we ever have known that Roger Federer is the best tennis player in the history of tennis if there was no tennis racket? Think about it: no tennis racket, no tennis balls—how would we ever know Federer was the greatest tennis player ever? Think about it! If Michelangelo never had a pen, a pencil, a paintbrush, or paint, we never would have known about Michelangelo. If you look at your own city or town, how would you know who the best woodworking craftsman is if he didn’t have any tools to create his woodwork?
We need tools to accomplish what we’ve been called to do. Now the big question is this: Do all of us get these tools, these gifts? Okay, so gifts and tools—I’m using those synonymously here in this course. Do every single Christian get supernatural gifts from God, or do only pastors, missionaries, and worship leaders? This is a very important question because, to be quite honest with you, I wouldn’t want you sitting through this course if it was just for pastors, missionaries, and worship leaders.
So I think you already know where I’m going, but I’m going to give you a scriptural answer so you can understand that you have been supernaturally gifted to accomplish your mission. First of all, let me set it up. Romans 12:6 makes this statement: «In His grace» (the Greek word is «charis,» which is the word for grace that I just shared with you) «God has given us different gifts.»
Now, if you take that Greek word «charis» and you add an «m» and an «a» to it, you get «charisma.» So, in His grace, God has given us certain charisma gifts. Now listen to why He gave us these gifts: «For doing certain things well.» I love it! Okay, just like a tennis racket can’t fix a plumbing problem, but it sure can win the United States Open, even so, God has given you and me specific gifts, and those specific gifts are really good at certain things.
Okay, you got it! This is really good! I’m loving this! I’m preaching myself happy right now, to be really honest with you! Okay, so the Greek word «charisma"—remember, «charis» is grace; you put an «m» and an «a» on it, you get «charisma.» The Greek word is defined as this, and this is kind of my adaptation of several lexicons: «A specific endowment of grace that empowers an individual with special ability.» Okay, I’m going to say it again: «A specific endowment of grace that empowers an individual with special ability.» This ability is actually a divine capability that He entrusts to individuals, and it always exceeds mainstream natural ability.
So some gifts are clearly supernatural. All right! On the other hand, others seem natural, but in reality, they’re extraordinary. Some gifts are given at birth; other gifts are given at specific times through the Word of the Lord, and we’re going to discuss all this. Okay, again, some are given right from birth; others are given at specific times through the Word of the Lord, or what I’d like to call an impartation.
For my personal illustration, some of the giftings in my life are speaking. I remember the very first time Lisa heard me speak after we were married. She was sitting in the front row; five minutes into my message, she fell sound asleep. Her best friend, named Amy, was sitting right next to her, and within five minutes, I’m watching drool come out of the side of her mouth. What was going on? I hadn’t yet been gifted to communicate publicly! I was trying. I knew there was a call on my life, and I was trying to bring it forth in my own ability, but I’m putting people to sleep!
But then I remember when I accepted that God spoke to me to do the youth pastor position. I remember crossing the state of Florida, and I got up; when I got up and shared just for four or five minutes, 2,800 people were on their feet screaming! One of my worst subjects in high school was English and creative writing, but then God spoke to me in 1991 and said, «Son, I want you to write.» And now the books are in the millions. I’ll tell you more about that in-depth later.
So the Scripture—because what I want to do now is go to the Scripture that answers the big question. Are you ready for this? That’s 1 Peter 4:10. Listen to what Peter says: «As each one"—now I want you to stop right there—he doesn’t say as each pastor, as each five-fold minister, as each worship leader, as each missionary—whatever you want to call it. He says, «As each born-again believer has received a gift.» The Greek word there is «charisma.» «Minister it one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.»
«Manifold» means many-sided. There are so many different endowments of grace that are specifically called «charisma» that each of us possess, and we must discover what that gift is, and we must develop that gift. And that’s why you’re watching this course.
So everyone, if you are born again, if you are filled with God’s Spirit, you have a gift or gifts on your life, and those gifts give you the ability to rise above your natural ability. I distinctly remember that my worst subject in high school—a lot of you don’t know this—was English creative writing. It was foreign language; I was horrible! And yet one day, God spoke to me and said, «Son, I want you to write.» I’ll never forget laughing and thinking, «God, You have so many kids on the earth. You’re just getting us mixed up with one another. You don’t want me to write; talk to my English teachers!»
But now I look today, and I’ll share more about that story in another lesson. The books are in the tens of millions; they’re in over a hundred languages. What it does for me is it shows me who it really is that does this work. I was able to write what I couldn’t do in my natural ability. I was able to go beyond my natural ability. You have gifts in you like that—God has placed them in you.
This is what we are drawing out by hearing the Word of the Lord. Faith is stirring in your heart to locate these gifts and to develop them, to operate in them. And believe me, this is all coming in future lessons. So we need to discuss how gifts are given, and that’s what we’re going to go into in the very next lesson.