Your calling is not subject to economic limitations and neither is it subject to the challenges of life. The truth is, limitations and challenges of life exist to reveal someone or people who are destined and wired to be the right solutions. In situations where the economy of a nation is unstable, a society where things don’t seem to be moving right, the only way you can soar above the ground level of survival and mediocrity and rise above the storms of the present times to living life in excellence, bringing forth quality results, maintaining relevance and impacting more value is to first discover your calling and do all you can to excellently manifest it. When you are in the right place God called you to be, you will be divinely protected against the storms of life, you’ll be like a house planted on a rock that the rain, the flood and the storms beat upon, yet it stands strong.
No matter the economic condition, people will definitely feed, they will definitely communicate, they will move from place to place, people will always seek good health, information and knowledge will be sort after, people will be clothed, they will worship their God, they will go for personal development, they will seek comfort and relaxation, refreshment and entertainment, the list goes on and on because human needs are insatiable and human needs must be met regardless of the situation or condition of the economy. In an unstable economy where organisations, companies and other cooperate establishments operate in such a way as to increase production and value at a very minimized cost and with little available resources, and in an economy where individuals try to get the very best value for any amount of their money spent, excellence and continuous excellence is the only justifiable reason for being and staying relevant. This is because excellence can be achieved for a while but continuous excellence achieved on a larger scale irrespective of challenges and limitations in an area, has so much in connection to do with you functioning in full capacity in the area of your strength, the place of your calling.
Most often, the challenges around creates opportunity to make life much better, it opens up our mind to possibilities and gives us the enablement to generate ways to solve existing problems. The truth is, until you are continuously bringing forth solutions, generating new ideas and creating answers to challenges, until you are consistent in delivering significant contributions to your world, you’ll likely to experience a decline in your worth and value and if nothing is done, you’ll become useless and relegated. The only solution to your relevance in a highly competitive society is to discover and be the best in the place of your calling. Your calling holds your competitive advantage, in your calling is your difference and the uniqueness of your value. When you deliver so well in your assignment, you’ll always experience a demand for your offering and the significance and demand for what you’re offering is what establishes your relevance.
Considering Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (1Kings 17:7-16),
This two, thrived and flourished in a city called Zarephat at a period of famine simply by being of value to themselves, using their gift to be a blessing to each other.
In our world today, what you do with the gifts, opportunities or resources that God gives to you is what determines your future. To sustain Prophet Elijah in a period of famine, God gave the Prophet a message for a widow at Zarephath, a widow whose future and destiny needed the message from the prophet to survive the famine. God deposited in your hands that which is capable of providing solutions to others while also providing for your needs. The message the prophet delivered to the widow did not only cause the widow to be resourceful and fruitful in a period of famine, it was also the seed Elijah sowed that brought about the harvest that sustained him all through the famine.
“Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Then the word of the lord came to him: Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there, I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” So he
went to Zarephath, when he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering
sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a
piece of bread.”
“As surely as the lord your God lives, she replied, “I don’t have any bread-only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son to eat it-and die.”
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the lord, the God of Israel, says: The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the lord sends rain on the land.
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for
Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. (1Kings17:7-16)
You are called by God to serve people. God sent you to people because you carry what they need to solve their problems. The truth is, God will never demand from you what he never deposited in you and God will not command you to carry out a task he did not give you the abilities to perform. For every assignment God gives, God makes available the necessary provision. God will not send you on an assignment to produce something or render a service you lack potentials to deliver.
Notice that in this particular instance, the present situation was tough, if viewed in the light of our present day society, it would be regarded as a period of serious economic meltdown, a period where absolutely nothing seem to be working and people everywhere are dying of hunger because of the scarcity of food. It was that bad and for God to save Elijah and the widow of Zarephath in that period of severe hunger, God had to do a miracle using what they both had. As a prophet, Elijah had a message (a word), given to him by God for the widow and the widow had a little provision for food. While the message of God from Elijah caused the widow to prosper in food business in a period of food scarcity, Elijah on the other hand received adequate provision for his prophecy from the prosperity of the widow. If you can see value in what you have, then you’ll see the opportunity and the need to serve it as a blessing to someone. While Elijah was given a message because he was born to prophesy, the widow was given oil and flour because she was made to prepare good food. The supply or provision of God is for the purpose of your assignment. I don’t know what God has given you, and it doesn’t matter what it is. The question is, what can you do with what God has given you in ways that it will benefit and add value to others around you? This is the secret of your increase and prosperity in life. Until you start doing something with what you have, God will have nothing to prosper and to bless. The seed in your hand is what God will use to bring about the growth and increase in your life, until you plant your seed (serve it), it will not germinate and bring forth abundant fruits. Elijah would have died of hunger if he did not share the message given to him by God and the widow would have died also with what she had if she had not used what she had to be of value or a blessing to someone. If she had consumed her possession alone, she would have died of starvation. One secret of enjoying abundance in time of scarcity is to recognize the present need for what you have, your abilities, skills and gifts, and serve it as value to those in need of it.
Having the ability for making good food, God provided for the widow, flour, oil and fire woods. And having the ability to prophesy, God provided a message for Elijah. You must understand that the provisions of God is for the purpose of your assignment and the guarantee for your success in life. In that little oil and flour was hidden a potential bakery or a restaurant business. It was the calling (assignment) of the widow to serve food at such a time of food scarcity but being blinded by ignorance, she was unable to see the Oil and Flour in her possession as seeds to be prepared /processed into finished products/fruits (ready food), which will be made available to serve the population of people who are hungry and willing to pay very well for her supply. In periods of scarcity in any area, God has deposited answers to problems in the hands of his children. You are called to fix problems that are possible with you, God gave Elijah a message to solve a problem he knew how to solve, and he gave the widow provisions for food because she could cook. Whatever God gives to you is for what you can do. God cannot assign you to do what he thinks you cannot succeed in doing.
Never concentrate your energy doing things you are not wired to do, if you’ve not been called to an assignment, God will not be responsible for your supply. God will only answer to you when you are working to deliver his purpose. Regardless of the state of the economy, the truly called are always in demand for their work. In every sphere of life, if you are doing well in your calling, there will always be a need for what you serve. God creates opportunities for you to serve as solutions. This is why when you are always serving as a solution, you never run out of opportunities and God always supplies his ideas, and provisions to further advance the good work you are doing.
When you come into your calling, you start seeing situations and challenges just the way God sees them. You start to see through your mind the true pictures and potentials of things. This is where you have the capacity of seeing an orchard in an orange seed, you see a great future in a small beginning. This is where you walk with God by faith, this is where your hope is activated and your strength is renewed like that of an eagle. In your calling, nothing is impossible with God. In your calling, you see beyond the word “small” or “little”. The word small or little is a function of the mind. Every big tree first started as a seed, every creation you can see, no matter how big it may be, started as something small, they all started as an idea. What you have is enough for you to start with. What you have is enough to deliver you. God has given you all you need to make all your dreams come true. Never look down on your gift, never feel inferior with your ability. Try improving on yourself, get better on what you can do and when God sees your effort and determination towards selfimprovement, he crowns your efforts with fruitfulness.
When you see value in what you have, you give attention to it. The same provision the widow had and called little, was the same God used, to bring about an increase that fed them with lots of food for three years. Because her perception and attitude over her possessions changed, her condition and status changed equally.
