Barka de Sallah, even if in arrears, to all our Muslim readers. May the spirit of sacrifice that the season represents stamp on all of us that going up in life entails giving up something. There is no free lunch even in Freetown. A community or nation is built when citizens are willing to give up some things for the collective good. Now to our discourse.
Within the template of the generic mandate that we saw in the edition of this column titled “DEPLOYING YOUR PERSONAL MANDATE”, is your own SPECIFIC assignment. But the process of manifestation follows the same pattern. To summarise it for the sake of those who missed it, it was taken from Genesis 1:26-28 in the Bible account of creation and it can be broken down into the following headings, viz; CONCEPTION of a specific inspired idea, seed, CREATION, which speaks of productivity or fruitfulness through the translation of the inspired idea into tangible reality, COMMUNICATION, which is about giving a voice to the idea and multiplying it through amplification, CONNECTION speaks about strategies for creating buy-in through emotional connections that your idea may have with its market, thus creating a spread or multiplied patronage that scales significantly, CONTROL is about mastery over the process through evaluation via feedbacks, consolidation and correction as necessary. Finally, we have COLLECTION, where the degree of your dominion is determined by the size of market share and consequent reward.
Your specific assignment or purpose is the WHY or “ikigai” of your life. In contemporary parlance, it is referred to as DESTINY. No matter how old you are, the day you find it is the day your life truly begins. Your answer to the question “WHY” is what supplies motivation and the drive to pursue your dream to a logical conclusion or to abandon it midway. It helps to sustain enthusiasm even when you feel unworthy of the great dreams you have or you encounter disheartening circumstances.
Your assignment was designed to solve a problem or at best some problems, but not all problems. Your assignment answers certain questions for somebody you may never meet until you embrace your calling. If your life has not deliberately solved a problem for anyone in the last six months but you have been praying that your own problems be solved, that is a clear sign that you are yet to find a reason for living. A man without a mission of adding value to creation is no better than another expendable parasite on the rest of society. Ouch!
There are ten things on what I call the destiny checklist.
Purpose inspires dreams. Great visions come from great burdens. When you ask questions about life, God answers by pointing you to His original intention for you.
In your assignment is your power. What God commissions, He empowers. Zeal without purpose leads to activity without productivity. Boldness and passion don’t come from braggadocio or empty grandstanding but from knowing without a shadow of doubt WHOSE and WHO you are, as well as WHY you are doing what you are doing.
Purpose endears you to or alienates you from your world. You cannot be indifferent to a man on a mission. You will either love him passionately or hate him passionately. No man of purpose is everyone’s darling. Some will detest you because you remind them of their own inadequacies. Your assignment will attract some things into your life. It will attract attention.
Secondly, it will attract opposition. Third, it will attract envy. You have no enemy until you have a destination you are moving towards. In the Bible, Satan showed up after Adam embraced and was doing what he was called to do. To every new level, there›s a new devil. Challenges grow to the magnitude of your pursuit. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. Nothing stands against you until you stand for something. Fourth, it will attract your “Eves”. Eve is not just female, it is the principle of HELP. Only those who are busy with a task need help.
Your assignment defines and attracts your REWARD. Rewards are not given to your looks but to your contribution. You can hate a rich man as much as you like; if his wealth comes from solving significant problems, you and haters like you who have the problems that he solves will always be his money mint! Rewards are not limited to money. The satisfaction that comes from making life better for someone else by solving a problem is itself a reward money cannot buy. If you doubt it, recall how you feel when you succeed in putting a smile on someone else’s face.
Purpose announces you and determines the platforms you will stand on to function. Your assignment is the key that unlocks certain doors or that makes some doors open to you of their own accord. Properly pursued, your assignment will take you to platforms
Your assignment is the ID card that points to your real identity and the CONTRIBUTION that determines your relevance in any space on earth. It is the «coat of many colours» that distinguishes you from everyone else. Life hardly rewards you significantly for what you do like everyone else but for what you do in a significantly unique way.
Your assignment defines your capacity and the limits of your function. Fulfillment in life is not just in recognizing and embracing your strengths and what you have capacity to do. It is also in recognising what you are not equipped to handle. Peace comes from knowing that no matter how versatile or kind-hearted you are you cannot solve the problems of the whole world.
Your assignment is your fortress because it guarantees divine backup that protects and preserves you from premature death. It delivers you from danger, the storms of life and every attack from people who hate your very existence
A strong sense of mission is the guarantee of victory over the fear of death. Those who, in the pursuit of a mission, declare, “If I perish, I perish,” hardly ever perish. The day you find a cause to die for is the day you find a reason to live for.
Your assignment dictates the environment of nurture. A man of vision is DELIBERATE about creating enabling environments IN and around him. He INTENTIONALLY guards his heart, cultivates relevant relationships and defines the limits and purpose of each one, chooses his words, chooses what he hears, watches or reads, who he follows on social media, what he eats, etc. The destiny journey is sometimes a lonely road because not everyone around you can be your fellow traveler. It is what it is. Purpose sets boundaries. Period.
Your temptation is tailored to the magnitude of your assignment and pursuit. You cannot tempt Bill Gates or Dangote with one million dollars. Yet, that is far more than what many would kill for! The limits of your passion are defined by whatever it takes to distract you.
The adversary never fights your PERSON. He fights the PROMISE of God IN and TO you. Once he gets that, game over, you are no longer a threat to his agenda.
Do whatever lies in your power to protect that PROMISE!
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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