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When you know your personal mission statement it helps you identify how God has created you to contribute to the world. Moreover, it provides peace around your purpose and gives you clarity and confidence to make a difference in the right way, and in the right places.
EPISODE 7 - Wrapping it all up!
Hello Friend, well here we are to wrap everything up! How do you wrap up the movement of God that happened in Julie’s life? IDK, so I think I’ll just stick to wrapping up my part.
Now that the coaching sessions have ended, what are we going to do here today?
1. For starters we’re going to expand our perspective on mission, vision and purpose by adding the connection between knowing yourself and knowing God.
2. Then, we’ll briefly fill in any of the blanks about the Connect the Dots training that Julie and I might have skipped over in our coaching sessions.
3. For leaders, you’ll learn a smart way to lead your staff and orient your church or organization toward mission and purpose. And if you’re a coach you’ll learn about a resource that will help you use Connect the Dots with your clients.
4. We’ll have a Coaching Corner with some personal questions for you to ponder.
5. And, what I’m most excited about is leading you through a meditation that focus’ on purpose. It’s from a Servant’s Purpose Prayer, by my friend Liz Lassa.
KNOW YOU KNOW GOD
So let’s begin with a conclusion that we arrived at after all these weeks of walking with Julie, and that is; knowing yourself is really critical to knowing how God meant for you to serve him. Supposedly it was Socrates who said an unexamined life is not worth living. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but Scripture does invite God to search our hearts, so I do believe self-exploration is an examination we’re not called to do on our own. And while I am a proponent of self-exploration with God, I also know God invites us to know him better as well. When we know who God is, we can get a better glimpse of what our best true selves look like.
But it can be much more of a challenge to know ourselves than it is to know God. Our churches, Bible studies, spiritual disciplines and personal experiences with God, are wonderful ways to know Him. But unless you know yourself well, you can fumble around with figuring out the details of what that looks like in your life.
Knowing yourself and knowing God works in an intricate way. For example, visualize in your mind’s eye a set of railroad tracks. Can you see the two parallel rails spaced equally apart? Now, picture that one vertical rail represents knowing God, and the other, knowing yourself. The horizontal ties that keep the tracks aligned and connected is the Holy Spirit. It’s gravely important for a train to lock into both steel rails in order to move forward, and if ties are missing, it adversely affects the stability and smoothness of the ride. Union, unison, synchronization and coordination is what makes it work well, and is what makes us look like Christ.
Knowing yourself and knowing God is a dual responsibility in order to experience fulfillment when doing Kingdom business. That’s why I created CTD in the first place. It’s an opportunity to believe and receive whatever God has for you, and the best way to operate in his Spirit as you serve others. And in so doing you experience God and the satisfaction he has for you as you serve him.
NOT A BOX & CTD EXPLANATION
In the event I didn’t clearly lay out all the components of Connect the Dots online training in our coaching sessions, I thought it would be a good place to do a quick recap here.
The training includes various video teachings for each step, along with a downloadable matrix that provides links to an assortment of free assessments, as well as a place to record your results. This makes it convenient to have all your discoveries in one place. The benefit of the downloadable matrix is that you can go through the process as many times as you want in years to come – you simply do a ‘save as’ with your updated results. This makes the Matrix a life-long tool that will conveniently track and retain your history.
If you recall in Step One you determine What You Do Well. This step provides up to 5 free assessments with an option to choose the original ‘for fee’ assessments. It’s important for you to know that while Connect the Dots is heavily centered on self-exploration through assessments – you never want to box yourself, or anyone else, into any limiting categories.
Here's the deal, sanctification is a beautiful part of our spiritual journey. Sanctification, or the process of becoming more like Christ, is our ability to change and to move in whatever ways God leads us.
The guard rails from your mission statement are great to help you stay in your lane - knowing your yes’ and your no’s is liberating, however, when God calls us outside of our preferences we need to be confident in Him and not in our skills, gifts, or inclinations. So, assessments are valuable and great for insights, but they are not the final say – you and God are the final say to the many layers of information you uncover in the training.
Be sure to work with God on your results and as you move through the training lean into him and pray to be used in ways that bring joy and blessing through you to others; as you, yourself receive joy and blessing in the process. That’s really the most exciting part of this!
Step Two explores “Where and who you would serve”. This step doesn’t have any online assessments, rather it’s time spent in your own self-exploration about what brings you joy or what breaks your heart. You will also sit with God and explore people groups that he may have impressed upon your heart.
Step Three covers your Motivation. Here you take an assessment that prioritizes your values. Through a series of choices this online exercise determines the pecking order of your values. The training provides information about the effect in which that order has on your decision-making and its impact in your life.
Step Four is your Mission Statement. The training provides templates to help you wordsmith your summaries from all the previous steps. Getting it to the shortest and most succinct language is the goal, but there’s no rush. Take the time to live in it and enjoy the new lens and new opportunities God provides.
Step Five is staying filled and fulfilled. What good is having direction and purpose if you wear yourself out? This step helps you avoid burn out as you explore how YOU stay filled, how YOU stay connected to God, and most of all remembering that YOU are a vessel that God works through, not a working vessel.
This step provides links to a love languages and a spiritual pathways assessment. It also includes an exercise called The Kingdom impact Statement. Here you select words associated with your body, mind, heart and soul. You then create an identity statement that is either a confirmation of who you are in Christ or sort of a prayer in process of who you want to become. This statement becomes your true North as it grounds you in who you are in Christ.
If you recall, while we started with all the what’s, we end with the who – who you are in Christ. And friend, that is the most important thing about this entire endeavor. You heard how moved Julie was by the truth of her identity in Christ. You heard that she didn’t have to be confident in her skills – all she had to be was confident in who God made her to be. This revelation freed her from what was holding her back.
You are God’s child and he has a mission for you. You actually don’t need to formally know what your exact mission is to glorify God – we saw that Julie had been living out her mission without realizing it, because she was connected to God in a healthy relationship. But, what a relief when you do know!
Now that Julie knows what her mission is, she is more freed up to run with it and has the peace she was seeking all along. Be sure to check out the show notes to see how Julie has been living out her “Something More” life. Now that she knows her mission, she has taken steps with Jesus to be very intentional about glorifying God in the most fulfilling ways.
FRIEND/COACH/TRAINER
I want to take a minute to remind you that my relationship with Julie is as a friend first. It’s through that friendship that I then became her coach and trainer. As I reviewed each episode I could hear every aspect of those relationship pieces because we became so comfortable with one another. I mention this because I don’t want you to think that a coach who isn’t your friend wouldn’t work out well for you. One of the most important things about coaching is the coaching partnership – as long as you click and connect with your coach the partnership will be great.
Julie was really generous in laying herself out for this process. I also laid myself out – that is, I laid my professional self out. As I’ve reviewed and edited these sessions I’ve been quite critical of myself. I was disappointed to have caught some coaching misses and oversights. I leaned into God about this and the perspective he gave me was that the series was not about me…it was about Him and how he showed up for Julie. He impressed upon me that this was not about my coaching expertise – in fact I was a tertiary party to the process. So, I’ve had to get over myself and remember that I was just being obedient. I hope this helps you too if you ever get too critical of yourself while serving God. Perspective is everything and remembering that He is with us as we serve, has brought me comfort – He’s got me and he’s got you too!
ORGANIZATIONALLY
I mentioned this because I know you may be a leader who leads or coaches others as well, and something in my spirit wants to tell you to go easy on yourself. Lean in to God and remember what’s really important. I hope you can receive that and that you’ll utilize self-compassion much like Julie did.
If you are a leader and have a team, I wanted you to see how CTD could be used organizationally to level up your leadership and improve your organizational approach to staffing toward mission.
Personally, for you, it makes leading much easier when you know each of your team members mission statement and details. Leading them one on one is simpler when you know their passion, people, personality and values, in addition to aligning their mission statement to their role.
We know that CTD can reveal individuals’ God-given missions, but when you take a group or a team’s results and codify them, you can gain more insight into your church or organization as a whole. You’d be able to see if you have the right people on the right seat of the right bus. By extrapolating individual results into an organizational review you’re able to see if you are staffed properly to meet your greater mission.
When your staff undergoes this self-exploration it enhances your organization’s Kingdom Impact. Connect the Dots makes it more convenient to do so, and allows you to lead better, both one on one and organizationally. I lead organizations though this, so if this piques your interest, just reach out to me.
If you happen to be a coach – Connect the Dots is a great tool to coach your clients to their mission. I offer a Coaches Guide on my website that is packed with coaching questions and tactics for individual and group coaching – so be sure to check that out.
MEANING/GROUP COACHING
Julie’s verse Habakkuk 2:14 is a beautiful focal point for our last episode, it says: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
We’ve talked about knowing yourself, knowing God, knowing your staff and knowing that a mission statement doesn’t give you an excuse if God is calling you outside of it. My greatest hope is that the result of this series will provide more knowledge of the glory of the Lord as we all live out our missions in wonderfully fulfilling and impactful ways.
My mission is to make a difference in the difference makers and it has been my prayer that the time you spent listening to Julie’s journey has made a difference. The reason I encourage and equip leaders is because my vision is to see emotionally smart and spiritually strong ministry leaders who are an irresistible witness of Christ. Take a second to envision that!
This is what led me to coaching and to the content development we’ve been working through. Depending on when you hear this, I will be offering an opportunity to experience CTD in a Group Coaching setting. Group coaching is a way to move through the training with a small group of others who are pursuing the same thing. If you’re interested in participating, you can reach out to me via the LET’S CONNECT page on my website karynhumphries.com.
Whether you take this journey alone, in a group or with a coach, I know you will glean valuable information that can help you serve in your giftedness and experience the clarity, peace and purpose you’re looking for. This process has made a difference for Julie and it made a difference for me. Believing and receiving are the legs that walk us into whatever God has for us.
Whether you’re unaware that you may already be serving God in your mission, or you desire to know exactly what that road looks like, it all means nothing if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. The meaning you’re looking for in your life begins with him. I am confident that he will enlighten who you are in him and show you the way. Isaiah 30:21 Whether you turn to the right or the left your ears will hear a voice behind you saying ‘this is the way, walk in it.’ That was my experience and I think Julie would agree that it was hers as well.
And I believe if you are still listening you are wanting something more than just a life of spiritual observation. I believe you, like Julie and I, want to participate in the divine, because when we do, we feel most fully alive!
Mission is HOW you participate, vision is WHAT the outcome of that participation looks like, and Christian purpose, your WHY, is what happens when you do that…what happens is that God gets the glory. In Isaiah 43:7 God says Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.’”
We know this deep in our souls and so consequently, not knowing HOW we’re supposed to glorify God is what keeps us stuck, unfulfilled and confused because we also know as Ephesians 2:8-10 says 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
And
1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Our purpose is to bring glory to our Heavenly Father. That looks different for each of us, but the result is the same. When we do it wisely it brings glory to God and fulfillment to ourselves.
C.S. Lewis so beautifully reminds us that, “In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
That’s why it doesn’t feel good when you don’t know your mission. So, if you’re discontent and searching for it – I commend you! But, don’t despair because God knows your mission and He wants you to know it too! And with the knowledge of your mission, you can begin to enjoy God even more.
God gets glory when we conform to the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 8:29-30 shows us that:
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[n] among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
We are image bearers of his glory – filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. That is a powerful picture to take in!
That picture takes some work – the work of self-exploration and the knowledge of God. Julie did that work and it led her to great revelations. In our sessions she experienced more than conversation – she experienced Christian coaching which brought her to deeper, contemplative spaces that held the answers she was looking for.
COACHING CORNER
So let me bring you to the coaching corner where you can personally walk through a few coaching questions, yourself. Sit in these questions and press pause wherever you’d like to spend more time:
1. Where are you at right now?
2. Where do you want to be?
3. Where do you think God wants you to be?
4. How would your life be different?
5. Why is this important to you?
6. What small next step could get you closer to what you and God want?
7. What gets in the way?
8. What will you do about that?
9. How can you lean into God?
10. How will others be blessed through you when you accomplish it?
11. How will you celebrate when you achieve it?
I think it’s worth repeating that living a life of meaning and purpose, through our own personal vision and mission is one of life’s greatest satisfactions. When you experience the gratification of contributing and investing in the world in the very specific way you were built to, you make a positive Kingdom impact.
Living with the confidence in who you are in Christ and your specific way to glorify him brings a peace that surpasses understanding. It is also what musters resilience when you’re serving in hard places and during hard times.
We were made with a purpose, and for a purpose, in order to glorify the God that created us with that purpose in the first place. He knows how that looks for you and he wants you to know it too!
MEDITATION
Let’s end with a meditation that brings our hearts fully to God with our desires to serve him. I will be reading “A Servant’s Purpose Prayer” by Liz Lassa – my friend and creator of the Spiritual Circle Journal. This prayer references 27 Scripture verses and is available as a prayer card for purchase on her website. See the show notes for details.
For now – find a quiet spot with no distractions. Get comfortable. Relax, close your eyes, and breath.
Inhale through your nose /Exhale through your mouth.
Inhale: Bring all your senses into the presence of God.
Exhale: any stress and tension.
Inhale and soften your muscles.
Exhale any stiffness (shake anything out).
Inhale, and quiet your mind.
Exhale all the worries of the day.
Inhale: Summon a spirit of gratitude and expectancy.
Exhale, and throw off any attitude that would interfere.
Fix your Body, mind heart and soul on Jesus. Imagine him with you. Be open to whatever God does during this time. Sit in any phrase or moment that captivates you – press pause if necessary. Let’s begin the Servant’s Purpose Prayer ~
(Go to www.spiritualcirclejournal.com to purchasethe prayer.)
With eyes still closed, let’s slowly return from the prayer by inhaling/exhaling, by believing and receiving, by trusting and obeying, by sitting in your desire to glorify God.
Depend on Him alone to bring you to the answers you seek. In this moment see yourself letting go of everything you don’t want to carry and all that Jesus has not burdened you with. Release it.
Inhale: who you are in Christ
Exhale: anything that tells you otherwise.
Sit in that freedom for a moment. Your mission is a freedom, not a burden. You mission fulfills the deepest parts of yourself because it comes from God. Your mission is yours, and no one else’s. Yet as we all live out our mission and glorify God the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the LORD. Praise the Lord!
Open your eyes and receive whatever God has for you this very moment.
Thank you for taking this journey with us. I have confidence in God that if he has brought you down this road, he will meet you on it. He holds the answers you are looking for and you can depend on Him. I encourage you to pray Psalm 57:2 that says, I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
So, as we close here, my sincerest hope is that you’ve had an intimate experience with God as He led you through this. I hope you will continue to take time and savor the experience.
Once you know your mission, know that it is unique to YOU. That God’s Spirit in YOU is working specifically to use your authentic self to make a difference in this world. Know that I am praying that your revelations will change your life in wonderful ways. I’m also praying for clarity, peace, and confidence in the work that God has begun in you, because He is faithful to complete it.
Friend, I hope you are leaving a little less stuck, or confused. I hope you’ve been able to glimpse your God-given mission. And, I hope you’ve found the direction and peace you’ve been looking for, in Jesus’ name.
If you’ve benefited from this journey please take a moment to subscribe and rate the show, so others can get value from it as well.
And as always…, live on purpose and glorify God!