40 Days of Purpose: Shaped for Ministry

We are uniquely designed by God to serve Him. This is our purpose, to serve Him by serving others. He gave us a role in the church and the wider world for this reason. He had this planned before we were born. We may have shared purposes but because we were all crafted differently it also makes our purpose unique. One person’s ministry cannot be like someone else’s.

KEY VERSE

“God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves his purposes through them all.” 1 Corinthians 12:6 PH

Every day of our life has been designed to shape us for the unique purpose God made us for. He gave us talents so we could use them for ministry and bring Him glory.

HOW GOD SHAPES US FOR MINISTRY

God always equips to be able to accomplish His plans. He does this by shaping us.

Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experience

God uses everything to shape us, every experience and skill is all intentional.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Every believer has a spiritual gift. It cannot be earned and we cannot choose what it is. But it is given for the benefit of others, to be used in ministry.

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NIV

God designed us this way so we would depend on each other and learn to love each other as He loves us. Spiritual gifts are just one piece of the puzzle God uses to shape us for service. And it is a puzzle because until all the pieces are in place we don’t see clearly.

HEART

The heart is what drives us. It is where our passions and dreams begin. All our love, motivation and hope flows from the heart. It represents what we care about most. Our hearts reveal our true selves, it determines our feelings and actions (Proverbs 27:19).

The things we instinctively care about are a sign. A sign of where we should be serving. God gave us passions and interests so we could use them.

“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 11:13 NIV

We know we are serving from the heart when we do it willingly and joyfully. We know when we don’t need to be motivated to do it. Another sign is how well we do it. When we care about something we want to do it well. If we didn’t our effort would be minimal.

We ought to figure out what we love to do and do it for His glory.

ABILITIES

Our abilities are gift from God (Romans 12:6). They are just as important as spiritual gifts but we were born with them.

Every ability can and should be used for God’s glory. God has given us a place, a role in His church to use these abilities for good, we just have to find it.

God always equips us with what we need to do His will. We already have what we need to fulfil it. We just need to look at what we’re good at to figure it out. God never wastes an ability.

PERSONALITY

No one is exactly like us. Our differences are intentional and that includes our personalities.

Consider the apostles: Judas was greedy, Peter was a natural leader, John was loyal and Thomas was a logical thinker which made him a bit of a sceptic. These are just four types of personalities out of all the apostles and they are very different. This shows us there is no specific type of personality designed for ministry. Everyone is designed for it.

Our personalities affect how we use our gifts and where we use them. An introverted evangelist will not serve in quite the same way as an extroverted one. Every one has a different personality and we all serve in different ways.

EXPERIENCES

We are shaped by what happens to us. Trauma, challenges, opportunities and good times even the mundane. All of it was intentional to make us who we are. The slightest difference, a different choice and we would be different people.

God uses pain the most to prepare us for ministry. This is because our greatest ministry will often come from our deepest hurts. He equips us through pain so we can help others who go through similar experiences. Usually the experiences we want to forget or hide from others is exactly what God wants to use.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

We must be willing to share our experiences so God can use them. It’s in our weakness that God moves the most, it is where He strengthens us. It is also what He uses to encourage others so they know that just because they are in that situation now it won’t be where they end up.

Paul suffered with depression and over the years countless people have found comfort in his honesty (2 Corinthians 1:8-10). If he hadn’t shared his experience many might have turned away from God. Many would have missed out on the comfort they received from his words.

Our pain was designed to help others, we shouldn’t waste what God has given us, even if it makes us uncomfortable.

Our SHAPE is the key to success in ministry. It unlocks fulfilment. We are most effective in our ministry when we use our gifts to express our experiences and personality but only if it comes from the heart.

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