Article by Heidi Piersall
As church leaders, our primary goal is to help develop people. The foundational component needed in development is the identification of their God-given destiny. Their personal mandate is just as important as the organizational mandate. When there is church health leaders value the personal mandates of their people, they feel appreciated and invested in, rather than exploited for the good of the christian leadership or organization.
Ministry coaching can help our people discover their personal mandate is to identify the roles and situations in their life when they have felt the most fulfilled. Fulfillment is a key indicator of destiny. Our personal destiny was knit deep within the core fabric of each of us before we were even born, just as with the prophet Jeremiah. The Lord knew Jeremiah “before He formed him in his mother’s womb” and “appointed him a prophet to the nations” before Jeremiah was even born (Jeremiah 1:5). When we experience fulfillment, we are actually tapping in to our destiny.
I discovered this a few years ago as I was searching out my own destiny. I had been looking outside of myself for what seemed like the better part of a decade, straining to bring my destiny in to view, when a conversation with a friend changed my life. I had been sharing with her how I didn’t know what my destiny was, but that I wanted to live up to the greatness I was created for. I just needed to know what I was created for. At some point within the conversation I made the statement that I felt something inside of me, it felt small, but it felt significant. As our conversation continued over the next hour or so, she brought that statement back up. She said, “remember when you said you could feel something small inside of you? You are pregnant with destiny!” The moment she said the words the Spirit fell on me and I realized that I didn’t need to look outside of myself any longer, that my destiny had been within me all along.
The Lord led me into a season of discovering my destiny. He told me that fulfillment is a key indicator of our destiny, so I began looking back over my life and the times I had felt most fulfilled. I thought of how much I enjoyed playing volleyball in high school. Convinced I wasn’t destined to be a professional athlete at 37 years of age, I asked Him what part of playing volleyball had tapped in to my destiny. He told me that I love to work as a team and lead people. I then thought about the years I had spent as a worship leader. Worshiping Him was the ultimate experience of fulfillment for me. It’s what I was created to do, but again He had me ask specifically what brought me fulfillment in this role. He showed me I’m a connector-I love connecting with God and leading others into that connection. I was finally starting to get it. I had felt fulfillment in all of these areas because they were tapping into my destiny. As we continued, He showed me when I was a wedding planner. I knew I loved being a wedding planner, but it wasn’t what I was put on earth to do. He then began to show me that being a wedding planner was actually symbolic of what I was going to do in the kingdom and He gave me the phrase “I am called to prepare the bride for intimacy and connection.” I kept repeating this phrase over and over and realized He had just given me my personal mission statement. I can’t say at the time that I knew exactly what that would look like, but all I knew was when I said it my heart felt fully alive, and as leaders isn’t that what we want; people with hearts that are fully alive, pursuing the purposes of the Lord for their lives here on this earth.
We have the great privilege as leaders to help those who God has entrusted us with to discover the personal mandate for their life and how their personal mandate can help serve the organizational mandate God has given us. Discovering roles and situations that brought about feelings of fulfillment can help in the discovery of their personal destiny and aid us in doing the best job we can to see them developed and matured. As the church at large begins helping people step in to their personal destiny, the body of Christ will be built up and we will begin accurately representing Jesus to the world.
