Bible for Business Seminar#4 Personal Mission & Journey

#4 Your Personal Mission Statement & Life Journey
The following main points were discussed at yesterday meeting.

• Identity of Man – Purpose of Creation of Man
• Your Unique Calling – Discovery of
  
• Your Life Journey – Importance of
• Your Helps & Hindrances – The How of Victory
• Your Rewards

Identity of Man
Eph 1:4-5 tells us Man is created to be Sons/Daughters of God through Jesus Christ to be Holy and Blameless(Righteous). God did not create many men to be his children. God begets us and want to father us as his children. The whole universe is created for His children(Us!) for our living.

Your Unique Calling – Discovery of

• By Name & Direct Calling
  Abram Gen 12:1-3, Moses Exo 3:10, Paul Act 9:3-6
• By placing an unquenchable desire in a heart
  Nehemiah ; Isaiah 6:8, ..Writer, Dancer, Musician, Businessman.
• By arranging a clear path (Pray for Opportunities – Opened Doors)
  Daniel, Josiah 2 King 22
• By preparing an attractive option
  Elisha by Elijah. Stephen as Deacon.
• By your talents & gifts.

Our ability to hear requires a desire and devotion to God… spend time in His presence to recognize His voice from the noise. Calling is Progressive…need to get your feet wet first.
Your assignment may change but the calling is fixed. (Story of Joseph). Calling is the Key to Contentment in your vocation/business. Lots of Noises --- from family, friends, colleagues, commerce and community and you need to stay your path.

Your Life Journey – Importance of
The journey is important. Else, we all will go straight to heaven upon conversion.
In this journey, we can truly learn to experience the love and relationship with God.
No matter what, God is there for us, in joy and sorrows (2Co 1:4). Jesus is Lord.
Knowing more stimulates the desire to know more …. That is growing in love with Christ. Php 1:9, 3:10.

The How of Victory - The Unified Model of Transformation
This is an updated chart 1st appeared in Christian Transformation & Growth -The Unified Model.

Kent gave some very good illustrations. We can compare the above chart as driving a car - moving forward. But after a while, we find that we are not moving as forward as fast as we should. We then discovered that we did not release the handbrake - the load. Another picture is sailing a boat. We started off fine and then we just some how got stuck - unable to move forward any more. We then discover that we have not pull up the anchor. The anchor - the load, need to be lifted for the boat to go forward. The recommendation is that we use the resources given to move forward and when we find we are immobilized, we should examine the loads and resistances that are holding us back. We may need to seek counseling and healing before we can go forward again.

Work of Flesh vs Work of Faith
We also pointed out that some Grace-Based teachings ignore the journey to a destination and just want the final good outcomes. Some have mistakenly assume all effort is work of the flesh. Whether work is of the flesh or of faith depends on the underlying motivation. Below is table to show the differences.

Flesh	Faith
Justify Self	Glorify God
Self-Initiated	Response of Faith, Obedience to God’s Calling
Self-Capability	Grace-Empowered & Capability (Greater Results)
Have-Do-Be	Be-Do-Have

About 23 people attended the seminar with overall rating of 84%. Below are some of the comments:

• My identity is not defined by a vocation. My journey may take me through different vocations to arrive at destination. Personality and Environment is the key to contentment in our vocation. Why? Because I struggled for years with all that and tonight I am getting some clear directions.
• Disover my calling through God's word
• Examples of Joseph's Identity to know God's callings. Be-Do-Have (process) vs Have-Do-Be
• Disover my calling.
• Discernment between works of the flesh and faith driven works. Clear Dictinction.
  Content is clear.
• Chart, map very good.
• Use skills + knowledge to guide people of God in the market place; not so much spiritual talk but can somewhat relate Bible scriptures to work related or investments.
• Christians Growth Chart. Summary of the Drive/Force.
• Discover your own strength.
• talk too fast, can slow down a little.
• Many Gems in 1 hour. Some speaker has 1 gem in hour. The key is balance - some points need to elaborate.
• I thought this was one of the best sessions yet. Everything that was shared was fresh insight and hence refreshing to learn.
• The part about the importance of the journey also resonates with something that God taught me some years back about the fact that (borrowing from one of Singapore Airline’s marketing slogans) the “Journey is the Destination” and that our God is one who focuses so much more on who we BEcome (human BEINGS) rather than necessarily what we achieve ( not human DOings).
• The clarification of the underlying motivation of work (flesh vs. faith) was important in qualifying the grace message very succinctly for me personally. Thanks!
• The “How” of Victory was also fresh and instructional.
• Have-Do-Be v.s Be-Do-Have was also insightful and follows on from the fact that while the devil works from the outside-in, God works opposite to that – from the inside-out.