God Desires to Use You

God has an occupational plan for your life.  You may be walking in that plan already.  You may be beginning that plan.  You may still be wondering what occupational plan is for you.  You might even find yourself in the middle of an occupational change.  After all, life is ever changing.  
However, there is one thing that doesn’t change and that is God’s desire to use you in His ministry.  God desires to use you in your workplace.  God desires to use you in your family.  God desires to use you in the body of Christ.

I love the Message version of this passage from Ephesians 4.
7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
God has climbed down from heaven, handed out gifts to you, and filled the earth with His gifts.  We are not all to look and act and speak the same.  Each of us is given our own gifts.  But no matter what, God desires for us to use our gifts in ministry.  Ministry in our jobs, in our families and in our church body.
Life is ever changing so our life experiences may lead us to serve today in ways we weren’t able to serve years ago.  I used to be a top notch organizer.  I organized large events and kept up with details so well.  Because of the situations in my life, my organization skills now have something to be desired.  I can’t keep my head tied on most of the time much less spending hours in organizing details.  So although in one season of my life God allowed me to organize, He has used my experiences in life to give me more of a heart of passion for others now and less of organizing!  God is still infusing His gifts in me, but He is using my abilities, my personality, my experiences, and my heart to help me better minister in the places and seasons I find myself in now.
SHAPE stands for spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experiences!  I love that approach to allowing God to use me in ministry.  What is my shape?  How do I figure out my shape?  
--Those that are older and wiser can give you insight.  They can sometimes see where you are gifted and how life experiences have prepared you to serve in certain ways.
--Another way to determine where God has for you to serve is to get busy serving.  Try out different ministries and see which one appeals to you.  Which area uses your spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality, and your experiences?
--Another way is by assessing your spiritual gifts. Today we have a spiritual gifts assessment you can take that will provide insight into where some of your gifting might be.  Your scores will be sent to your email so you can see some of your natural gifting that God has given you to use in serving Him.
How are you serving God today in your workplace, in your family, and in the body of Christ?  If you happen to be sitting on the sidelines watching, maybe today you can ask God to help you develop a plan for serving Him in your workplace, family, and body of Christ.  God desires to use you!!  

Karen Smith

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