Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous — how well I know it. ¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. ¹⁶ You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed- Ps. 139: 14-16.NLT

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. Jer.1:5 NLT

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. Act 17:26 NIV.

The following texts uniquely reveals that no one is on earth by accident; we’re all here on specific assignment from God. He packaged each of us in our mother’s womb and we were delivered/born to a family He chose, in a place/land He identified as most ideal for the accomplishment of His purpose and to fulfill His agenda for our individual lives. Unless we accomplish the divine agenda for our lives, anything else we do is worthless. Hence you need to really know your own uniqueness, because it is an indicator of the reason for your existence.

What is your Uniqueness?

God prescribed every single detail of our lives to fit the assignment He has in store for each of us. He deliberately chose your race, the color of your skin, your hair and every other feature. He custom-made your body and everything else to help you accomplish your purpose. He also determined the natural talents and abilities each of us, including the uniqueness of our personalities. Scientific study has shown that the likelihood of someone exactly like you i.e. your DNA is 10 to the 2,400,000,000^th power. If you were to write that number out on a paper, the zeros will be 37,000 miles long! That’s how unique you are!! Directly related to your being unique is the ability(ies) that God has given to each of us to distinguish us. The Bible clearly says that… all abilities are from God and he wants you to serve him with the abilities-i.e. use them for him. Your job is to discover those abilities and deploy them in the right way – that is your calling.

Let’s be more practical here. There’s a reason why some folks can crunch numbers and others cannot; or why some folks like to talk, are more empathic or sensitive to the needs of other around them, while some don’t even notice it. Yes still, there’s a reason why some can sing, swim, etc, and others just don’t. When you read the story of Nehemiah, he was already comfortable in the palace, but for the way God wired him, that when he saw Hanani, the welfare of the people of Jerusalem was his concern (Neh 1:1-7). Obviously, Nehemiah wasn’t the only person that could have been used for the rebuilding of the walls. The difference was in Nehemiah’s uniqueness. Your uniqueness is an arena of your greater sensitivity, capability, interest, desire or commitment. Put simply, you just want it more than others and are willing to do anything to accomplish it, thereby fulfilling your life’s calling in so doing.

How to Discover Your Calling

The key to discovering your calling is to examine how God uniquely “wired” you – according to Rich Warren in Purpose Driven Life, this is called your SHAPE.

1. Discovering and using Your Spiritual Gifts – God has given every believer spiritual gifts to be used in ministry. These are special God-empowered abilities for serving him that are given only to believers.
2. Listening to your Heart – The Bible uses the term heart to describe the bundle of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, and affections you have. Your heart represents the source of all your motivations – what you love to do and what you care about most is one of the clearest pointer to your calling.
3. Applying your Abilities (Talents) – Your abilities are the natural talents you were born with. Make no mistakes, as I said earlier, all your abilities came from God – the bible says, “God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well”. Since your natural abilities are from God, they are just as important and as “spiritual” as your spiritual gifts. The only difference is that you were given them at your natural birth.
4. Using your Personality – Remember when God made you, he broke the mold. There never has been, and never will be, anybody exactly like you. It is obvious that God loves variety; just look around you! He created each of us with a unique combination of personality traits. God made “introverts” and those who love “society”. He made people who love “routine” and those who love “variety”. He made some people “thinkers” and others “feelers”. Some people work best when given an individual assignment while others are better with a team. God made you to be you! By copying or trying to be like someone else will never work and you will never become the best God of what wants you to be. You are the best you that can ever be – So work it!
5. Employ your Experiences. You have been shaped by your experiences in life, most of which are beyond your control. God allowed them for his purpose of molding you. In pursuing your calling, you should examine at least six kinds of experiences from your past.
   1. Family Experiences: What did you learn growing up in your family?
   2. Educational Experiences: What were favorite subjects in school?
   3. Vocational Experiences: What jobs have you been most effective in and enjoyed the most?
   4. Spiritual Experiences: What have been your most meaningful times with God?
   5. Ministry Experiences: How have you served God in the past?
   6. Painful Experience: What problems, hurts, thorns, and trials have you learned from?

If you really desire to be used by God, you must understand one powerful truth: “The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life – the ones you’ve wanted to hide and forget – are the experiences God wants to use to help others – They are your ministry – they are your calling.”

Finally, remember that Jesus’s parable of the talents illustrates that God expects us to make the most of what he gave us. We are to cultivate our gifts and abilities, keep our hearts a-flame, grow our character and personality, and broaden our experiences so we will become increasingly more effective in our service to God. Paul told the Philippians to “keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding” and he reminded Timothy, “Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you”.