The Lord Was With Him: The Secret to Doing More with Your God-Given Gifts

One phrase we see used a lot in the Old Testament leadership is “the Lord was with him.” As we go through the Bible stories, what exactly the Holy Spirit gives the person the ability to do changes. With Deborah and King Solomon, they are given wisdom to decide disputes and misunderstandings. With natural fighters like Othniel and Sampson, they are given more anointing to do physical acts. But Sampson gets so used to partnering with God to fight the Philistines, He doesn’t even realize how limited he is on his own (Judges 16:20). And far too often, we take God’s anointing in our work for granted, even if we aren’t fighting 300 men while doing so.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t make a shepherd into an MMA fighter. Rather, He gives each person the confidence, practical options, and God-given ability to be even greater than they would on their own. The kingdom of God isn’t trying to become just like your mentor or sitting back and listening to sermons; rather, it’s allowing God to light a fire in you to use your natural abilities and His anointing to change this world in multiple ways.

What are your God-given strengths? What has God naturally gifted you to do well and accomplish easily and joyously? Are you gifted for easily organizing things? Crafting beauty? Handling arguments between co-workers? Creating financially sustainable products? Do that. That’s not nothing. We are the ones who create hierarchies and declare some things godly and some things unworthy. Just because you’re not curing cancer in your day-to-day work doesn’t mean it doesn’t glorify God. More than that, it doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit can’t anoint it to create an opportunity bigger than what you could do on your own.

God established this plan for working together with man from the very beginning. This plan was designed to lead to multiplication — not just of our work but also multiplication of our success. We see this clearly throughout David’s story in the Bible. David is given victory in battle, renown in the kingdom, leadership positions, and his own city. According to the Bible, all of these successes occurred for one reason: “the Lord was with him” (1 Samuel 18:14). He didn’t become a better leader because he bought the right stocks, made the right deals, or networked with the right people; rather, “David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him” (2 Samuel 5:10). We were designed to work well with God and have that work lead to various types of success in our lives.

I want to partner not with the watered-down God of today, but with the God of the Bible. I want to know the God who stopped the sun so the Israelites could fight and take back the land that was theirs. I want to know the God who used a beauty queen in the right place at the right time to save an entire culture. I want to know the God who saved men from a fiery furnace. I want to know the God who put people in places to seek, redeem, and change things to a completely different possibility. The God who will not let you or me or the places we work every day stay the same, but only if we go with the faith for Him to redeem them. I want to see the God of the Bible every single day (excerpt from Faithful Ambition book).

1 Samuel 10:6-7 (NIV)- “The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”