Genesis chapter 1
Today we are walking in: Twelve Keys To Discovering Personal Authority
Today we look to the word-LEADER- H5057 nagiyd-- leader, ruler, captain, prince; excellent thing, (chief) governor, leader, noble, prince, (chief) ruler.
The Torah Testifies.............................
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The prophets proclaim...............
Isaiah 55:4 - Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader H5057 and commander to the people.
The writings bear witness.............
2Chronicles 32:21 - And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders H5057 and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword
Twelve Keys to Discovering Personal Authority
To Exercise Personal Authority, You Must Know Yourself
Millions of people use the social networking Web site Facebook. On it, they maintain profiles with details about their lives, as well as photos of family and friends, lists of their favorite books, the results of popular culture quizzes they have taken, and much more. Yet, with all that information, I wonder how many of those millions still do not truly know themselves and the personal authority Yah has placed within them. The world is filled with unauthentic people, doing the unauthorized. They may be sincere and well- meaning in their endeavors, but one can be sincere and unauthentic at the same time.
I encourage you to take the time to make sure you truly know yourself, because it is impossible to exercise personal authority until you do. Since the Creator has placed your authority inside you, to be exercised through the guidance and power of His Spirit who resides within you, you will learn much about yourself by examining your thoughts, ideas, and personal passions.
Your personal authority can be described using various terms, such as your life’s vision or purpose, your realm of leadership, and your gifting. It can be identified through your natural desires and what you sense as your inherent assignment in life. All these words are helpful for understanding the concept of personal authority as it manifests itself in various ways in your life.
Develop a Personal Authority Profile
This teaching includes questions for you to reflect on and answer in what I believe will be a fun and inspiring exercise for you. Thinking about these questions is going to awaken in you some hidden dreams. You will be drawing from your inner desires and passions and imagining possibilities generated from ideas that reside deep within your heart. In this way, you can move from just thinking about personal authority or wishing you could exercise it to actually operating in it.
To summarize your “research,” I suggest that you develop a Personal Authority Profile. This profile should generally be reserved for yourself to help you understand your authority. People can run into problems when they start consulting other people to discover themselves because they may succumb to another person’s opinion instead of pursuing what is truly authentic about them. You have to protect yourself from that. On the other hand, you may want to show your profile to your spouse or one or two close friends because sometimes others who know us well can help us to see aspects of ourselves that we are not able to see, such as gifts, talents, and interests that we may take for granted or abilities we may have forgotten that we exercised in the past. They may say, “Remember when you loved doing __________ as a child?” or “I recall how good you were at __________.” Use discretion and don’t share too much until you have come to many of your own conclusions, so that you won’t be unduly influenced by others. Then, share your findings with two or three others, if you wish.
How Well Do You Know Yourself?
Ask yourself the following twelve key questions, taking time to remember the past, to evaluate your current gifts, abilities, and preferences, and to envision the future. Record your conclusions in a notebook or on a computer file after you use the sample profile form to discover your personal authority. Also consider what might be preventing you from fully realizing your personal authority—or realizing it in the first place—such as fear, complacency, and so forth, and use the suggestions in this book for overcoming them.
Here, then, are twelve keys to discovering your authority. The following questions are meant to help you to hone in on your personal domain. Some of the questions are similar, but their purpose is to confirm what you were designed to do in life. If you give totally different answers to each question, then you will need to continue refining your answers. You also may not have a clear response to every question, but focus on the ones that you do have specific answers to.
Key #1: What Is My Deepest Desire?
Write down what you profoundly feel you would like to do with your life using your gifts, and what you would like to do to impact humanity in your lifetime. These will not be things that you have a general or passing “interest” in but rather a deep yearning or aspiration to do.
Through the years, you may find two or three things that you are meant to do in different seasons of your life, but you have to distinguish between what you might like to do and what you feel you must do. It is too easy to spread ourselves thin and then never fulfill our purposes. Remember that although you may experience stages in your life in which you engage in various endeavors, and though you may manifest your personal authority in several ways using one or more gifts, these manifestations will be centered around a particular area or theme that reflects Yah’s specific purposes for you.
Key #2: What Am I Truly Passionate About?
What do you really care about? What gifts and abilities do you especially enjoy using? Once you find the answers to these essential questions, you can tap into your passion to help fulfill your personal authority.
Yah set each one of us apart and said, “You were born for this assignment. You have the authority to be free within this domain of life.” Again, authority is the freedom to be who you are. Authority doesn’t restrict; it releases. Authority doesn’t hinder you; it helps you. Authority doesn’t stop you; it provides momentum and access. Authority is the most awesome experience of freedom anyone can have. It is incredibly satisfying to be doing what you know you were born to do, and to be doing it without limit.
Yahusha stated, “With Yah all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). He was saying, in effect, “With Yah, all things you were called to do are possible.” Nothing is impossible if you were born to do it. It may take twenty, forty, or even sixty years, but you will get it done. Think of Noah, who was born to build the ark so that he and his whole family would be safe when the earth was destroyed by the great flood. No one could build a boat better than Noah did! He built a huge structure that would house him and his family, as well as all the animals they took with them, and that would be completely watertight —and it worked! (See Genesis 6:5–8:22.)
I imagine that people laughed at him, because the ark took him nearly one hundred years to build, and it had never rained on the earth prior to this time.
They probably criticized him, abandoned him as a friend, and talked about him behind his back. If he had built the ark during our times, he would have been the brunt of mockery on all the television talk shows and Internet blogs. Pictures of him and his ark would have been on the front pages of the major newspapers. The media would have said he was crazy, demented, nuts. But despite the immense challenges, Noah kept on building.
When someone is authentic, when he is passionate about his purpose, he can’t be stopped; he won’t be discouraged for long. No matter what people throw at him, he still says the same thing: “I’m going to do it.”
What do you have that kind of passion about?
Key #3: What Makes Me Angry?
There is constructive anger, and there is destructive anger. Most of us think of the destructive kind when the word anger is mentioned. Yet some anger is legitimate, such as anger directed at the wrongs in this world. Paul wrote, “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give HaSatan a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26–27). He was quoting Psalm 4:4, which reads, “In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.”
Anger can be legitimate, but misdirected anger makes us vulnerable to being tripped up by HaSatan and weakens our authority. For example, when Cain became angry because his brother’s offering was accepted by Yah but his was not, Yah told him, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:6–7).
In another example, Moses desired that his people be released from the oppression of slavery in Egypt, but he took matters into his own hands and killed an Egyptian overseer who was abusing an Israelite. As a result, he had to flee the country for forty years until he was ready to follow Yah’s way of setting the people free. (See Exodus 2:11–15, 23–3:22.)
Anger that is selfishly or rashly motivated is destructive, but anger that is based on a desire for people to be treated right, that is based on compassion for others, and that is grieved by injustices is constructive if it leads to positive action to remedy the problems instead of being allowed to fester into resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, or violence against the perpetrators. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody” (Romans 12:17).
What is it in life that makes you angry enough to take action on behalf of those who are mistreated, abused, or oppressed? What plans do you have that could alleviate the suffering of others? What ideas do you have for communicating positive values and mind-sets to people? The answers to these questions will lead to your personal authority.
Key #4: What Ideas Are Persistent in My Heart and Mind?
Is there something specific you would like to accomplish? What recurring dreams do you have for your life? I believe that the thoughts, ideas, plans, and dreams that remain consistent within you were put there by your Creator. We will talk about timing in a later teaching, but you should realize that your consistent thoughts and dreams can come to pass even if they don’t manifest right away.
I often refer to Key #4 as “the idea that never leaves you.” Perhaps you have become preoccupied with other things, but this idea always returns to your thoughts. It is a passion that won’t subside, a persistent desire or tug at your heart.
Joseph had Yah-given dreams of being put in a position of authority over his family. Not understanding at first that this position was for the purpose of helping his family survive rather than for feeding his ego, he went through a series of extremely humbling experiences—including being sold into slavery and being imprisoned because of a wrongful accusation—before he was ready to fulfill his personal authority in life. He eventually became the second most powerful ruler of Egypt under the pharaoh and saved the lives of his family during a time of severe famine. (See Genesis 37, 39–47.)
What long-standing aspiration do you have? What vision, idea, or dream is tugging at your heart today? Is your motivation for doing it positive or selfish? Are you willing to do it to honor Yah and build up others?
Key #5: What Do I Constantly Imagine Myself Doing?
What do you imagine yourself becoming? What do you really want to do that you may not have told anyone else about?
It may be something you think about while you’re at your workplace and wish you could be doing instead of your current job. It may be something you see others doing, and you say to yourself, I’d like to do something like that! Only I would do it in this way.... Perhaps it is something you lie awake at night and imagine yourself building, writing, drawing, constructing, or performing. You may have dreamed about doing this thing ever since you were a child.
Ask yourself, “What would I prefer to be or to do? What gifts or skills would I use and develop in order to be or do this?
Key #6: What Do I Want to Do for Humanity?
What do you wish you could accomplish for humanity? Is it the creation of a new invention or a groundbreaking medicine? Do you want to fix a specific problem or bring about a certain reform in society? Do you want to provide a haven where people can obtain much-needed rest and relaxation in the midst of their busy lives? You might not desire to build a physical structure, such as an architect or building contractor would, but you may want to build up the social structures of your nation, and that may be the gifting and area of your personal domain.
Key #6 could also take the form of these questions: “What kind of impact would I like to have on my community?” or “What do I want to pass along to the next generation?” or even “What would I like to be remembered for?”
What positive thing do you have a passion to leave as a heritage to those who will come after you in life?
Key #7: What Would Bring Me the Greatest Fulfillment?
To answer this question, begin by thinking about your activities and accomplishments in the past—at your school, at your job, with your favorite hobby, or with any other involvements. Pinpoint three endeavors or achievements that have given you the greatest satisfaction and fulfillment in life so far. What is it about these things that gave you satisfaction and fulfillment? Are you currently involved in these activities? Why or why not? Would similar activities, projects, or endeavors bring you the same measure of personal pleasure? If so, what might they be?
Try to evaluate what motivates and gratifies you the most in life, and then imagine the possibilities of how you could incorporate it into your life as your vocation or life focus.
Key #8: What Would I Do for No Money or Other Compensation?
Is there something you would find so rewarding that you would do it even if you weren’t paid for it and received no other type of compensation, even the thanks or praise of others?
Perhaps you are already doing something like it on a volunteer basis at a nonprofit organization, at your church, or as your hobby. What is it, and what is the nature of it? For example, does it involve working with children? Teens? Adults? Helping people recover from addictions? Spending time with elderly people in nursing homes? Fund-raising for medical research? Teaching people to read? Visiting veterans in the hospital? Does it involve community projects, such as planting gardens, recycling, cleaning up graffiti, and so forth? Do you like to volunteer at your local library or a nearby historic site? Or, do you enjoy music or another art form?
Your answers to the above questions may well determine your area of authority, especially since we have seen that many people are much happier working at their hobbies than at their jobs, so that their hobbies reflect their true purposes in life.
The Key #8 question leads to a paradox, however. The very thing that you could do for no money usually becomes the endeavor that will pay you. You do it so naturally and become so good at it that it attracts compensation from people who recognize its value. Or, you are so fulfilled in doing it that you would be infinitely happier taking a job related to that area than you would be at your current job, even though the current job pays more.
The issue is attaining quality of life and fulfilling your true contribution to your generation. Would you rather be paid a little more and experience lifelong frustration and dissatisfaction, leading to mental and physical stress and nagging feelings that your life isn’t counting for anything? Or, would you rather accomplish your purpose, serve others, and live a happier, healthier, and more balanced life? I believe that by living in their personal authority, many people would solve their mental health, physical, or relational problems.
Therefore, ask yourself what activities you are currently receiving satisfaction from that you aren’t being paid for, what you are so dedicated to that you would continue to do it even if you stopped receiving money for it, and what you would do for no compensation at all.
Key #9: What Would I Rather Be Doing?
Are you are always thinking about something else you’d rather be doing than what you are currently involved in? That “something else” is probably your area of authority. As long as you continue to think you would rather be doing something else, then you shouldn’t be doing what you’re presently doing. It’s not a difficult thing to figure out.
Another way to look at this question is based on our earlier discussion about our personal authority being our true home, habitation, or abode. Ask yourself, “What would I feel ‘at home’ doing? What seems natural and comfortable to me?”
When you find your authority, you don’t really go to a job; you go “home.” In fact, many people who are functioning in their authority physically work at home because their authority is connected with who they are and their entire lifestyles. If people are happy to leave their jobs, they’re not at home in them. And when they don’t feel at home, they end up being competitive with others. They fight for resources they perceive to be scarce, thinking there are not enough positions, assets, or praise to go around. In contrast, a person who knows and exercises his own authority compares himself only with himself and knows that everything he needs will be provided. He periodically reviews his life by asking himself, “Am I doing what I should be doing to fulfill my authority?”
People who are causing problems on their jobs perhaps need to be relocated to a different department or area of their companies that they are better suited for. Or, perhaps they need a totally different environment. If you are not functioning in your true position of authority, you can destroy an organization through complaining and conflict. Finding and living in your authority protects you and others because, as we have seen, authority brings order and peace.
You are at home when you are working in your authority and gifting. What would you rather be doing with your life? What makes you feel most at home when you are doing it?
Key #10: What Would I Do If I Knew I Could Not Fail?
If you could do anything in the world and know that it would succeed, what would you do?
First, eliminate superficial answers to this question! Some of those would be winning the lottery, getting back at everyone who has ever insulted you, and so forth. Instead, this question is designed to help you to eliminate the fear and doubt that can crowd into your mind and block your thoughts when you begin to think about what you would really like to do in life. Forget the fear and doubt and consider nothing to be impossible.
What endeavor, enterprise, creative work, project, or plan would you engage in if it were risk-free? If it would be a success, no matter what obstacles tried to prevent it? If money were no object? If you didn’t worry that you had the wrong background, the wrong looks, the wrong job experiences, or whatever else you would normally think of as a roadblock?
I encourage you to take extra time on this question. Fear can be a powerful inhibitor to thinking clearly, and it may take you a little while to get past any feelings of fear so that you can think and dream without hindrance. Then, when you are able to write down your answer, evaluate it in light of your other answers and what you are beginning to learn about your personal authority.
Key #11: What Is the Most Important Thing I Could Do with My Life?
Discovering personal authority usually comes when we evaluate what is most important to us in life. This is often not what is most pressing on our calendars or what would make us look the most successful in the eyes of others, but what is truly the most significant contribution we could make, along with the best choice of lifestyle that is prioritized to reflect our foundational values and beliefs.
Another way of putting this key question is, “What will I wish I had done when I look back on my life?” or “What will I regret not having done when it comes time for me to die and meet my Creator?”
You therefore have to consider what, above all other things, is the most significant thing you could do with your life, what you want to occur in your life, and how you want to live your life.
Key #12: What Endeavor or Activity Would Best Connect Me to My Creator?
An essential final question to ask yourself is what vocation would keep you connected to the Creator and faithful to His authority, laws, and life principles. Personal authority comes from Yah and would never involve any activity that is contrary to His nature and ways.
First, of course, anything illegal or immoral would not be a legitimate domain for personal authority.
Second, personal authority won’t be found in endeavors that are pursued selfishly or for the purpose of boosting one’s ego or showing off.
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of HaSatan. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. (James 3:13– 17)
Working in your personal domain will promote the “fruit of the Spirit” in your life: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Yah- given authority is always a positive force; it helps or builds up humanity in some way.
Third, there are certain activities and areas of life that you will know are not the domain of your personal authority because they consistently get you into some kind of trouble—whether that trouble is overt or involves bad attitudes or an unhealthy or unproductive lifestyle. We must seriously ask ourselves, “What types of activities and areas present unhealthy temptations to me? In contrast, what activities and endeavors draw me closest to Yah and His ways when I engage in them?” The answers to these questions will not be the same for every person. We all need to adhere to the clear principles of Scripture. Yet each person also has his own areas of weakness about which he must be on guard. There may not be anything intrinsically wrong with a certain activity, but if you always feel pulled away from Yah because of it, then something about it isn’t right for you. “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14–15).
Your personal authority will be positive and uplifting to you. Through it, you will be able to honor the Creator who made you and reflect aspects of His character and purposes.
Summarize Your Findings
The above twelve questions are worth taking the time to think about and answer for yourself so that you can move forward with your authority. When you have fully answered the above questions, asking Yah to guide you in them, and you feel that your answers have revealed your personal authority, write a summary statement of what you believe you were put on this earth to do.
Then, answer the questions for each of the following headings:
Documenting Your Personal Authority: In what specific ways have I exercised this authority in the past? How can I build on this in the future?
Exercising and Refining Your Personal Authority: In what ways will I develop and apply my personal authority now that I know what it is?
Releasing Your Personal Authority: Who has the knowledge, skills, and commitment to help me to release my authority?
Print your summary statement and/or your full profile, as well as a list of the benefits to living in your personal authority, and tape them where you will see them often to help you to focus on living in your personal domain on a daily basis.
Yah wants all of us to be active participants in His purposes on earth through our personal authority. The Scriptures are the only book that says Yah created us to have dominion over and to rule the earth. They are the only book that says about Yahusha, “You...have redeemed us to Yah by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our Yah; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9–10 nkjv).
A king is someone who is authorized to rule. There is a domain of life in which you were born to rule. You’ll never be fulfilled until you discover that area, and you’ll always be trying hard and struggling in some way until you find it. But when you do find it, working in it will seem like operating a well- oiled machine. All of a sudden, you’ll connect with life. That ability is what Yahusha came to reclaim for you.
Will you determine to be authentic? Will you seek to discover, by the help of Yah’s Ruach HaQadesh, who you truly are? I am excited at what you will find when you answer the twelve key questions in this teaching.
IN the beginning Elohiym created את the heavens and את the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohiym moved upon the face of the waters. And Elohiym said, Let there be light: and there was light. And Elohiym saw the light, that it was good: and Elohiym divided the light from the darkness. And Elohiym called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And Elohiym said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And Elohiym made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse: and it was so. And Elohiym called the expanse Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And Elohiym said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And Elohiym called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and Elohiym saw that it was good. And Elohiym said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and Elohiym saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And Elohiym said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for appointed feasts, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And Elohiym made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And Elohiym set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohiym saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And Elohiym said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open expanse of heaven. And Elohiym created great dragons, and את every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and את every winged fowl after his kind: and Elohiym saw that it was good. And Elohiym blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And Elohiym said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And Elohiym made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and את everything that creeps upon the earth after his kind: and Elohiym saw that it was good. And Elohiym said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So Elohiym created man in his own image, in the image of Elohiym created he him; male and female created he them. And Elohiym blessed them, and Elohiym said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And Elohiym said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and את every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given את every green herb for food: and it was so. And Elohiym saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. BERE'SHIYTH (GENESIS) 1:1-31 את CEPHER
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