CHAPTER 5: Developing Skills and Talents

c HAP t E r 5

DEVELOPING SKILLS AND TALENTS

“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29

Many of us have been trained to think that a job is about what we get. For this reason, statisticians tell us that most people today—over half—are not satisfied with their jobs. You see, they decided what to do instead of discovering what they are supposed to do. A decision based on how I can get what I need isn’t God’s idea of career placement. He wants us to discover what He has gifted us with that we can give to others. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go…” (Proverbs 22:6). The Amplified version says it this way: “Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent]…” Every one of us has a gift from God. The Bible speaks again of that gift in Proverbs 18:16 which says, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.”

That gift always starts out in seed form. It is a small thing. It is a bent toward a certain something that needs to grow and to be developed. That gift is what God designed to carry you in life. It can bring you before great men; some translations say it can even bring you before kings.

In life, you are rewarded by how helpful you are, not by how selfish you are. You are rewarded for the problems you solve and how well you solve them. This week, my bicycle broke so I had to take it and have some work done on it. I think it cost me about $37.50 for each hour In life, you are rewarded by the mechanic worked on it. However, if I how helpful you are, not by have to call a lawyer, how selfish you are. it is much more expensive. A lawyer will charge me more like $350 dollars an hour. I thank God that I do not need brain surgery, but for those who do, it costs somewhere around $12,000 dollars an hour.

What is the difference between these workers? They solve different problems and they are rewarded for the problems they solve. If you say, “I am not making enough money,” the answer will boil down to this: you either need to solve different problems or do a better job with the ones you currently solve.

When David fought and defeated the giant he was rewarded with a large financial compensation, a lifelong tax exemption, and he was supposed to marry the king’s daughter. You might ask, “Well, why was the pay so high for just going out for a few minutes to fight Goliath?” The answer, of course, is that nobody else could do it. He solved a problem that nobody else could.

God has gifted every person with something. Each of us needs to discover what our gift is, and then we need to sharpen that gift. Make it your life’s pursuit to keep improving the gift God has given you.

I like very much what Martin Luther King Jr. said. “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and Earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.’” It’s your gift; it will make room for you. Sometimes it may be a natural gift, but it is still something God gives you. He always seems to give us our gifts in seed form. No matter how developed you feel your gift is, you can always develop it further through good stewardship.

Today I pastor a church and even write books but it didn’t start like this. Just over 40 years ago, Jeanie and I were living in Dallas while I was finishing Bible school. Jeanie had a job cleaning houses in the afternoon for a little extra money. I would drive her to the home where she needed to clean, and I would spend the time studying. At one particular home, the couple had a son who was thirteen or fourteen years old. They asked me, “Could you do a Bible study with him? He could really use something like that.” I agreed to do it, and that first week I led a Bible study for one person. The next week he invited a friend, and my “congregation” grew by 100%! The third week, the friend’s mother also came—most likely to make sure that I wasn’t teaching heresy. That week, I had 50% growth. My point is simply this: start where you are today. Take what God has given you, and although it is in seed form, develop it, sharpen it, and it will grow.

I remember sitting in a car many years ago with Lester Sumerall. He was trying to impress the importance of learning on Jeanie and me. He said, “If you graduate today, and you learn nothing tomorrow, you are already behind. Keep on learning and keep on growing.” That truth applies both to your spiritual life and to the gift, skill, or craft that God has given you.

Multimillionaire Peter Daniels said, “The average American spends less than $10 per year to improve their skill, their call, or their business.” If that statistic is anywhere close to the truth, what a shame! We need to be intentional about not allowing ourselves to

become comfortable where we are. We need to nurture the desire to keep growing.

Have you ever noticed that often times, instead of us preparing for the next step and then taking it intentionally, our circumstances almost have to force us to grow? When we first entered full-time ministry, we moved to Mexico with a plan to assist a missionary who already had an established church. After we had been there only six weeks the missionary came to me saying, “We are packing our stuff and we are leaving.” Anticipating that he had a plan, I asked, “What about the church?”

He responded, “Well, we are leaving, here are the keys; you can have it.” In my shock, I blurted out, “But, I don’t want it.” To my surprise, he just said, “If you don’t want it, just stay home and let the devil have it. We are leaving!”

So that was my first promotion. The very next night I was preaching. We had only been in the country six weeks, and I still spoke almost no Spanish. To be honest, I was very grateful that I had to speak through an interpreter because that gave me extra time after each sentence to come up with what I was going to say next! I hoped it looked like I was just pausing for him to translate.

I preached that way for seven months, and then one night I arrived at church ready to speak. I looked around and didn’t see my interpreter anywhere. When I asked where he was, someone finally answered that he had been in a motorcycle accident with a bus and that he was in the hospital. Naturally, I asked, “Who is going to translate?” They said, “Nobody.” So once again I was forced to grow.

That was my first sermon in Spanish, and my wife Jeanie can attest to what happened. I was actually doing pretty well until the altar call. I was supposed to tell the people they could find forgiveness for their “pecados” which is the Spanish word for “sin,” instead I said “pescados” which means “fish.” Oh my!

The following week, I was talking about the blood of Jesus. I wanted to say, “Jesus was a special man,” which should have come out as, “Un Hombre especial.” Instead I said, “Un Hombre espacial,”

which means a space-man or astronaut. All through the sermon, I kept referring to Jesus, the astronaut, and I couldn’t figure out why everybody was laughing and smiling.

In Exodus 36:1 (NIV), it says, “So Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.” I want to point out here that this verse disproves a mindset that many Christians have. God doesn’t just anoint people for spiritual or ministerial roles. Here, God had anointed people to do construction work. God can anoint you to run a business or to get sales. God’s anointing and his gifting can be on us for an infinite variety of jobs. He gives the gifts, and he desires that we would take them, grow them and develop them for His glory.