Disappoint, Appoint, Anoint (Monday Bible Study)

August 11th Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 1:5 & John 15:2

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." — Jeremiah 1:5 (NABRE)

There is a moment in the story of almost every leader I have ever talked to where they were absolutely convinced they had missed it.

The business fell apart.
The partnership dissolved.
The role they thought was theirs got taken away.
The income dried up.
The health broke down.
The marriage got hard.

And they looked at all of it and said, "I must have misunderstood what God was calling me to do."

I know this moment because I lived it.

I was 37 years old, suddenly ill with a debilitating, "unclear" autoimmune disorder.

Three beautiful kids who needed more from their mom than she had to give in the moment.

A husband I loved more than anyone who felt more distant than ever.

A business that had been making $25,000 to $30,000 a month, that was barely paying our bills.

A business team who I thought were "ride or dies", that were suddenly no longer speaking to me.

One fateful day I hit my knees in my bedroom and cried out to Jesus, saying, "My way is not working. I cannot do this anymore. I NEED YOU."

I thought I had failed- but in reality, I was simply in the middle of the preparation process.

God was humbling me, taking away all the idols and priorities I had placed before him, leading me through the process of preparation for my divine calling.

Here's what I learned from that moment forward about that Process:

God takes those that decide to surrender and align their will with His through 3 clear steps of refinement and sanctification.

And most entrepreneurs QUIT before they ever reach step 2.

1. Accept the Assignment (and the Disappointment)

Your divine assignment was given before you were formed in the womb.

God did not issue a general call to the masses and hope someone would pick it up, but rather called you by name for a specific purpose.

Accepting the assignment means you stop arguing with the fact that you have one, and you stop minimizing the gift He gave you to carry it.

For many of us, this is where the friction begins- because we have spent years adding things on top of our actual gift.

We've spent countless hours and immeasurable effort trying to to make our gifts and talents more practical, more provable, or more acceptable to the world.

But accepting the assignment requires surrendering our own constructs and stepping into the identity God designed.

However, accepting the assignment immediately ushers us into the mirror part of this 1st step: being dis-appointed.

As Jesus notes in John 15:2, "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

This is the step where most people quit, not because they are weak, but because they do not know it is a fundamental part of the process.

When the pruning starts, it looks like loss, failure, or silence from God.

But dis-appointment simply means being removed from an appointment that was never yours to claim in the first place.

The partnership that dissolved, the business that closed, the performance trap you were caught in—that had to go.

Your idols need torn off their pedestals.
Your priorities need re-ordered.
Your gaze needs re-centered on Jesus.

The disappointment you feel is not punishment... it's preparation for what comes next.

2. Accepting the Appointment

Once the clearing happens, there is space.

This is where a lot of people get stuck in a different way.

The loss is over and the pruning is done, but they are so used to the grief of the clearing that they do not recognize the open door right in front of them.

People also "miss out" on their divine appointments, because they expect it to come BEFORE God prunes them. But the fact is this: the appointment comes after the disappointment, never before.

While God may give you a vision of where he wants to appoint you, He won't put you there before you're truly ready for it - He's not cruel, nor unscrupulous.

AND- You won't be divinely appointed to a role you do not have the space to steward.

You cannot carry a new assignment while you are still white-knuckling the old one.

In my own journey, the breakthrough came when I stopped trying to fix the business I had built in my own strength and started asking God what He actually wanted me to build.

The appointment is not always dramatic; sometimes it is simply the next obedient step.

It is the podcast you have not recorded, the offer you have not launched, or the conversation you have not started because you made it more complicated than God intended.

God tells us to take the step, not to manufacture the outcome.

When we stop adding things on and ask, "What do you want me to do with what you gave me?" the open door appears.

3. Accepting the Anointing

Anointing is functional, not emotional.

Something that surprises many about their anointing is how "nonchalant" it ends up feeling.

How "easy" it feels to do something in divine obedience that blesses others in such supernatural ways.

Your anointing comes as you fill up with the Fruits of the Spirit.

Because when you are doing the thing you were made to do, from the identity God gave you, in the power of the Holy Spirit, you're acting in the MOST natural way possible.

You cannot manufacture it, hustle your way into it, or perform your way into it.

And you can only receive it if you have gone through the first 2 steps of being cleared, and being appointed.

This is why so many leaders feel like they are working incredibly hard and still feel empty.

They skipped the clearing and went straight to building in their own strength, asking God to bless what they constructed rather than building what God designed.

The anointing comes when you accept the assignment, survive the clearing, step into the appointed role, and get out of your own way long enough to let God work through you.

That is where time disappears, grace takes over, and the results exceed anything you could manufacture on your own- and it feels like the easiest and most enjoyable thing you could have chosen, even on the hardest of days.

And on those tough days, you keep your focus and comittment that you made in Step 1 & 2.

You remember that you're able to do all that you do NOT because of your hustle, but because of your obedience and HIS mercy, provision, and protection.

You aren't striving, you're surrendering to His sustaining grace.

And you're not overscheduling and operating from overwhelm.

Instead, you're settling into Divine Providence, and allowing Him to refine you into person who He uses to do supernatural things BECAUSE of your faith.

That context?

It changes EVERYTHING about how we step into our calling.

(Haven't identified your Primary Gift yet? Discover it today at growinyourgifts.com)