PURPOSE AND PASSION

Genesis chapter 1




Today we are walking in: Purpose And Passion






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




CHAPTER TEN
Attitude#1 Purpose and Passion


Man possesses the capacity to lead but has lost the will to lead.


The attitude of purpose is the first attribute that separates followers from leaders. True leadership cannot be born or exist without a sense of purpose. Purpose is the discovery of a reason for your existence and is defined as the original intent for the creation of a thing. Every human being was created for a specific purpose, and when that purpose is discovered, then a leader is born.


Purpose creates a leader because it provides an assignment for life and signals a sense of significance. You must discover your purpose and the specific contribution you were destined to make to your generation. Your leadership is hidden in your purpose, and your purpose is the key to your passion. No matter what position you may hold in life or in an organization, you must relate it to your sense of purpose and approach it with passion.


The attitude of passion is the second most indispensable attribute of leadership and serves as the driving force of motivation that sustains the focus of the leader.
Without passion, one lacks energy, and boredom infects one’s mind and life. To become the leader that you were created to be, you must find a purpose for your life that produces a passion for living.


Every great man or woman became great because he or she possessed the spirit of passion. Yet I believe that this attitude is missing in 99 percent of the people of the world. This is why many are followers rather than leaders. Passion is rare in human experience.


PURPOSE IS THE FIRST ATTRIBUTE THAT SEPARATES FOLLOWERS FROM LEADERS.


Why is passion so important? In the Psalms, we read, “May he [Yah] give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Your plans will be successful if you truly desire to accomplish them. The word desire denotes not a casual interest in life, but a deep, possessed drive for a desired end—a passion for a purpose. If you don’t have a passion for something, you won’t receive it. It’s only when we have a passion for what we want to do that things start happening to enable us to fulfill it.


Every true leader is passionate. Consider the following questions: How badly do you want something? Are you just existing, or are you pursuing a reason for living? Leaders don’t just do, but they feel what they’re doing. Their passion continually motivates and inspires them. The average person just has a job. He puts in his time and goes home at 5:00. His work is a role he plays, not a contribution he makes to the world. Yet true leaders don’t have jobs; they have lifetime assignments.


A COMPELLING DESTINATION FOR YOUR LIFE


Leadership is not the accomplishment of a list of goals because goals are temporary. True leadership is manifested when you discover a destination for your life that is so compelling that you will have completed your purpose for living once you accomplish it.


Passion is a key to leadership because your desire is meant to be your destiny. David, the great Israelite king, wrote in one of his psalms, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Our purposes and passions are the perpetual ideas, dreams, thoughts, and visions that fill our hearts or subconscious minds.


PASSION IS KEY TO LEADERSHIP BECAUSE YOUR DESIRE IS MEANT TO BE YOUR DESTINY.


When we delight in our relationship with our Creator, he will give us the desires that preoccupy our subconscious minds every day. This is because he has “hidden” his will inside each of us. If you want to discover Yah’s will for your life, then look at what you desire to accomplish—the hopes and dreams that never seem to leave you. The Creator places his desires in our hearts or subconscious minds and then promises to fulfill them. Your passion is supposed to come from that hidden treasure of desire that he has put within you. You know that you have tapped into your leadership potential when you are actively involved in the things you want to do so much that you can’t stop thinking about them.


Sometimes, it’s not easy for us to recognize the source of our life’s passion because our desires are often bigger than our pocketbooks, the level of our educations, our natural abilities, our cultures, or our race, and we figure that someone else is meant to accomplish them. Yet one of the signs of a true passion is that it is much bigger than we are. Let’s look more closely at the nature of passion.


WHAT IS PASSION?


Passion may be defined as:


1. A DEEP DESIRE


Passion is stamina that says, “I’m going to go after this, no matter what happens. If I have to wait ten years, I’m going to get it.” If you want to go all the way to your dream, you can’t sit back and expect everything to be easy. True leaders possess a deep desire that produces the passion to proceed with their dreams.


2. A CRAVING


Passionate people are “possessed” people. In other words, you can’t be successful as a leader unless you have a real inner need to accomplish something in particular.


3. AN OBLIGATION


When you are passionate about something, you feel compelled to do it. Leadership is born when one discovers a divine obligation to his community, world, and generation.


4. A DEEP COMMITMENT


Many people are “interested” in doing certain things, but they aren’t really committed to accomplishing them. Some people say that they will get a better job, lose weight, or change their lives in other ways—some day. The world is filled with people who are merely interested, but not passionate. Commitment is the guy who jumps out of an airplane, trusting that the parachute will open. It’s not talk, but action. Passion makes you jump in, no matter what. Leaders are committed, not just interested. They are willing to put their whole selves into accomplishing their purposes. True leadership is not finding something to live for, but something to die for.


5. A DEEP RESOLUTION


We make New Year’s resolutions every year and quickly forget them. How determined are you? Do you act on what you’ve committed yourself to do? Are you are willing to pay the price to obtain your desire? True leaders are resolved in their decisions to pursue their goals and purposes.


6. A DEEP MOTIVATION


Passion is the juice for living. For many people, life is a drudgery. They have no motivation in regard to their jobs, spouses, education, or personal development. Someone once said that the thing about life is that it is so daily. Passion helps us to rise above our daily routines.


If you’re not motivated, then you will become a weight or burden to others. You will pull on their energy. Passion is a source of motivation. When you have passion, you don’t need the right conditions to move forward because passion is internally generated and is not affected by external conditions. True leaders do not need outside stimuli in order to take action. They are self-motivated.


WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF PASSION?


A Sense of Purpose


Where does passion come from? First, it comes from a sense of purpose. You are pursuing something that gives your life meaning. If you become distracted or opposition stands in your way, your destiny still pulls you in the direction of your desire because you can’t imagine not fulfilling it.


A Sense of Destiny


Passion comes from something outside this world and is connected to it. As long as you’re living for something on earth, your passion won’t last. It has to be connected to something that is bigger than your own existence. If you get your passion from something on earth, then when it stops, you will stop. Yet if you capture a sense of destiny that existed before you and will continue to exist after you, if you feel you’re involved in something that is larger than yourself, then you’re on your way to leadership. Passion is born when you connect to both the past and the future.


A Deep Conviction


Some people have no conviction about what they’re doing, but a leader is a person of strong conviction.


Passion is a deep certainty that you need to do something. Your convictions have to do with your beliefs. If you believe that you have discovered what you’re supposed to do, this creates passion. It makes you stand against and overcome opposition, resistance, criticism, and all other obstacles.


A LEADER IS A PERSON OF STRONG CONVICTION.


A Revelation of the Future


Passion is ignited from a revelation of where you want to go with your life. The Creator’s vision for you is so vivid that you can see it in your mind’s eye, and this picture creates a passion to arrive there. Most people will criticize your passion because they don’t see what you see. A leader usually moves toward things that can’t yet be seen but will be manifested in the future.


An Understanding of Providence


When you understand that the Creator’s providential hand is on your life, then you know that you are not just an experiment but part of a larger program, orchestrated by Yah, and that you have a role to play. This causes your passion to come alive. You’re not living just for yourself anymore but for all those in the past and future to whom you’re tied through a common purpose. Again, a true leader always thinks in terms of both yesterday and tomorrow—he builds on the past, and he builds for the future.


A Deep Resolution


A person with passion is determined to accomplish what he was born to do. This is not for his own sake alone, but also for the sake of others who will be blessed through the fulfillment of his purpose.


LEADERSHIP AND PASSION


Leadership is born when purpose is discovered and destiny is understood. Passion is the driving force of leadership and energizes leadership motivation. Yah likes people who are passionate. In Revelation, we read of his distaste for those who are lukewarm: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” People who are satisfied with a lesser existence will never go where they need to be.


In contrast, a person with passion takes chances. He is not afraid to fail because of his sense of destiny. He knows that failure is an incident but that destiny is permanent. Leaders know that purpose is much bigger than one incident or several incidents. Instead, they keep on moving toward the fulfillment of their purposes, no matter what.


QUALITIES OF PASSION


Leaders are those who have discovered something more important than life itself, and therefore—


• their passion produces resilience.


• their passion overcomes resistance and pain.


• their passion is a source of determination.


• their passion is an incubator of courage.


• their passion is stronger than opposition and even death.


The first-century writer Paul is a great example of a leader who was passionate. In his second letter to Corinth, we find a unique passage that shows the passion he had for his vision. Some people had challenged Paul’s right to be an apostle. They said that he was not really called by Yah and that he was not worthy of the respect he was getting. They themselves were false apostles, yet they attacked Paul’s credibility and spiritual qualifications and drew people away from the truth. Paul responded by addressing the Corinthian believers who were being led astray by these false apostles. He wrote that, even if what he was about to say sounded ridiculous and foolish, he would say it anyway so that they would return to the true gospel.


LEADERS ARE THOSE WHO HAVE DISCOVERED SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN LIFE ITSELF.


Are [these other men] Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Hamachiach? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the ministries.


Why did Paul give a list of problems and tribulations as part of the proof that he was a genuine apostle? He was saying, in effect, “If the vision and assignment I received wasn’t real, do you think I’d go through all those hardships?”


Paul paid a price for his purpose, but his passion enabled him to do it. You are passionate and you are real if you stay steady under pressure. You know your vision is from Yah when you are still at it once the storm clears.


Leadership is born when one discovers his purpose for being and commits to pursue it at all costs. If you find that you are bored, then you have not yet discovered your purpose because passion is the driving force in life.


Sow a thought, reap a belief. Sow a belief, reap an attitude, Sow an attitude, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.