Your destiny can be found at the convergence point of three fundamental components: your design, your desire, and your development.
The challenge is to get these three to line up properly. Here are three keys for aligning these components in a way that moves you out of ruts that keep you from your destiny.
First, you’ve got to understand your design. Your design is simply the way God made you. Your design is a combination of your strengths (skills/gifts/talents) and your personality. I like to call this component your nature, because it is what comes naturally to you.
Whatever your design is, you don’t have to work for it. It’s who you are right now. And in fact, you’ve always been this way.
If you have a negative view of your design, you’ve got to change that. Perhaps all you can see are your flaws. If so, just remember that a flaw is nothing more than a gift misapplied. Every one of your weaknesses is simply a misapplication of one of your strengths.
I see this most clearly in marriage counseling. Whenever I ask a woman what she loves most about her husband, she’ll typically say something like, “He is such a go-getter! He doesn’t give up! Whatever he sets his mind to, he does.” Then, later in the session, I’ll ask the same woman what she hates most about her husband. The answer typically goes something like this: “He is so stubborn! When he gets something stuck in his mind, there is no moving him from it!!!” What she couldn’t see is that her husband’s greatest weakness is actually his greatest strength, just being exercised in the wrong context.
There are so many ways to learn about your design. Ask your friends to tell you what you are like. Ask your family members to tell you what you’re good at. Take a Meyers-Briggs personality assessment, or a Strength’s Finder 2.0 assessment. All of this will contribute to your understanding of the way God designed you. And as you discover more about yourself, stop to give God thanks for all that he has given you!
Second, you’ve got to embrace your design. Too many people waste time wishing they had other gifts, or that their personality was different. Don’t waste your time wanting what you don’t have; spend your time appreciating what you do have!
If God gave you a gift of singing, don’t waste your time wishing you could draw. I use this example because I always wished I had the ability to draw, but I just can’t. It doesn’t make sense to me. But I can sing and play the piano!
If you really embrace the gifts that God has given to you, you won’t waste any time wishing you had others. God was more than generous in giving you what he gave you. Don’t be greedy! Love the gifts you have.
And set your desires on the gifts that you have.
If you feel stuck. If you desire to move forward, but you just can’t seem to figure out how, the problem is very likely to be found in the realm of your desire. You want so badly to do something that you were never designed to do, and you are working hard to make it happen. It may happen for you in time, and that’s fine. But what’s better is discovering your design and maximizing that.
Embrace your design. Identify your gifts and like them. Then share them!
Finally, you’ve got to cultivate your design. Having a gift and a desire are not enough; you’ve got to add some rigor to the mix! Tiger Woods discovered that he had a gift for golf before the age of five. But having that gift and that desire was not enough. He had to work at it day and night until he developed the skill of a professional.
Many highly gifted people never amount to anything because they think they can ride on the power of their natural ability. History has hosted a sparse few individuals who actually can get away with that. But the rest of us must be intentional about developing our talents until they become skills.
A talent is raw potential; a skill is a honed ability. Don’t settle for talents; develop some skills, and hone them to perfection.
You need the second key to do the third key, because if you are going to maximize the capacity latent within your design, you’re going to have to want it . . . bad.
If you feel that you are missing out on your destiny, don’t just sit and wait for God to drop it in your lap! God will make a way for you, but you’re going to have to walk it out!
Come into agreement with God by embracing your gifts, forsaking your foolishness, and working hard to excel in them.
Did this entry help you? Which one of these keys do you need to work on right now? Let me know in the comments below.
