God Has Assessed Your Ability

So today I decided to sit out on my balcony and blog!  This is the absolute perfect weather for writing.....a nice breeze and just the right amount of sun.  The clouds have a little overcast, but there are no complaints from me!

Yesterday I woke up for early morning prayer and could not go back to sleep, so I turned on Bishop Jakes and began watching the series on "Transformational  Instincts" again.  I started out watching "Transformational Creativity" and got stuck on "Instinct to Increase."  Now this was not the first time that I had heard this message, but it was the first time that I received the revelation on opposition being viewed as opportunity!  That word ignited something in me, and I have been chewing and pondering on it since.

Bishop Jakes began to talk about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, and how the master distributed the talents to each of his servants based on their ability.

  The distribution of the talents was not personal or based on preference, but it was based on the assessment the master made of his servants and their individual ability.  He had taken inventory, gauged, surveyed, weighed their ability, and knew what they would be able to handle, and to one he gave five talents, to another he gave two talents, and to another he gave one talent.
I like how Bishop Jakes began to break down the fact that in the scripture it indicates that the talents were given to each servant based on ability; however, what the scripture doesn't clearly state, but implies, is that they were all given the same opportunity.  Now opportunity in the dictionary means an appropriate time or occasion!!  Whew I am getting excited because when I looked up the greek meaning of opportunity it is kairos, which is occasion, the set or proper time, due season.  So we see, the master didn't just give them a talent(s), but he also gave them time to work their talent(s).

As I was reading Matthew 25 again I was drawn to the fact that after the master gave the servants their talents, he immediately went on a journey, which was their window of opportunity, their set time and occasion to work their measure and to reproduce!

I had to go back and look at that word talent again because I think that we have gotten the meaning confused, and we may need to have it redefined.  Talent is an innate natural ability or gift.  It is the thing that you were born with, the gift that God placed inside of you when he fashioned and designed you.  We are all born with a gift or talent of some sort; however, it is truly up to us to search inwardly and discover what it is.

There are a couple more points that I want to bring out and then I'm going to try and wrap this up!  I wasn't sure where Bishop Jakes was going when he said that "opportunity is not only invisible, but can also come to you in the form of opposition.

  If you don't see it or perceive it correctly, you will miss that up under the suit of opposition is opportunity!"  That right there stopped me in my tracks! I said alright Bishop, I don't know about that, but then the Holy Spirit began to make it personal for me, and this is how I got it!

"Jodi, before you were ever diagnosed with liver cancer, I weighed you and assessed your ability to handle what was coming your way.  I knew that it would be one of the greatest and most difficult things that you would have to walk through, but I knew you were the woman for the job.  I knew what I had placed inside of you and the grace that was on your life to face this great opposition.  I knew that you would take every opportunity to take the lemons of your diagnosis, every negative prognosis, every surgery, and make lemonade.  I knew that you would take the grace gifting on your life and your talents, along with seizing the occasion of time, and reproduce life that would not only sustain you, but all those that are around you! I knew that you would come to a place where you would see the benefit of the Experience for my Glory!"

I tell you, I had never looked at it that way until yesterday.....truly another level of revelation!  I have said many days that I have absolutely no regrets for my journey, but it wasn't until yesterday that I could articulate it from the perspective that my hard place had become my set time, my due season, my kairos moment!  I think more importantly, what I have come to understand isthat I had to seize the time and opportunity that God was giving me, and to make the most of every moment.  I made up in my mind that despite the diagnosis I would not be like the wicked servant that made excuses for his situation and took his Lords money (talent), the thing that would bring him increase, and bury it in the earth.   

Listen, I don't know what you are facing in your life that you are perceiving as opposition, but I encourage you to look again!

 Look again to see if it is opposition or opportunity! 

 If you perceive it as opportunity, know that God has assessed your life and has given you the amount of talent, or innate natural ability to succeed and be excellent on your level.

My prayer is that you will take all that God has counted you worthy to handle, and give it back to him multiplied with interest.

I pray that this song blesses you~