In the late 1990’s, a survey conducted among 1,600 active Christians in German-speaking Europe came up with a shocking finding.
Over 80% of those surveyed could not identify their God-given giftings[1].
Well I guess we shouldn‘t be too surprised. I doubt very much whether time nor distance have changed anything much at all. Certainly the majority of Christians I speak with, have little or no idea of their specific, God-given gifting.
For all too long, the whole idea of “Personality Types” has belonged in the secular discipline of psychology. Talk to most people and they yawn – Oh yes, I’ve done the Myers Briggs thing … it’s all pretty old hat really.
But go and ask those same people:
- So – are you truly satisfied in what you’re doing?
- Do you really know who God made you to be?
- Do you feel as though you’re really living out the plan that God has for your life?
… and more often than not, what follows is a long, embarrassed silence.
So What Does God’s Word Say?
Would it surprise you to know that God is absolutely and utterly passionate for us to discover who He made us to be and what He made us to do?
Psalm 139 – arguably the most wondrous of all the psalms – tells us both that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (v 14) and that all the days formed for us were written in God’s book before any of them as yet existed (v 16).
So as God beheld our unformed substance and handcrafted every strand of our DNA in our mother’s womb – defining both our physical attributes and our human nature (our personalities if you will) – He also had in mind what our life would look like!
Who we were to become and what we were to do!
And unless God made some terrible mistake, unless He managed to get things badly wrong, then who we are and what we were made to do should fit like hand-in-glove, shouldn’t they?
And just in case there should be any mistaking the perfect, hand-in-glove fit of our nature and our purpose, the Apostle Paul picks up this very same theme:
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (NASB Ephesians 2:10)
And if 80% of God’s children have no idea who God made them to be and what He made them to do, is it any wonder that so many are doing things they were never meant to do? That they’re miserable in jobs they were never cut out to fulfill? That they’re grinding away at “dead works” which were never part of God’s plan?
Well? Is it any wonder?!
That’s why God’s Word commands us to figure out who He made us to be and then to go and do what He made us to do.
I’ve chosen that word – commands – very carefully and deliberately. I haven’t used “encourages” or “advises”– because God’s Word commands us to go figure it out and then to go live it! Let’s take a look:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. (NRSV Romans 12:2-8)
In other words – don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould. Instead – let God change your mind, let God show you His fantastic will for your life. And how are we meant to do that?
By working out with sober judgement who we are. And if you’re a prophet, go do that. If you’re a teacher … do that. If you’re a leader … do that. If you’re a …
What’s the Matter with Us?
What’s the matter with us that we should want to live the rest of our lives squeezed into something that doesn’t fit? Why would we not figure this out for ourselves?
I recently had the privilege of working with a man – Keith Henry – who, having almost died in a surfing accident in 1988, has spent the last two decades researching our motivational giftings (that’s what the gifts in Romans 12 are generally referred to – although these day’s we’d probably use the term ‘personality types’).
And not from some selfish, worldly perspective. But from God’s perspective.
I interviewed one of each of these personality types on my radio program recently – asking each of them exactly the same questions. And here’s what absolutely blew me away. Their answers to those same questions were completely and utterly different!
And so, Keith and I put their stories together in our latest book – my Personality GPS – to bring to life what we discovered in God’s Word about who we are and what He made us to do.
The whole point of that book, is to help you discover who you are – so that you can live your life … to the full.
Click here to download your FREE copy of Chapter 1 of my Personality GPS.
[1] Schwarz CA, Natural Church Development Emmelsbül, 1996, p 24
