Tag Archives: calling

12.07.15
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Are You a “Profess”-ional?

Nicole Headshot in blue shirt

Nicole D. Hayes, Founder, Voices Against the Grain

Are you good at what you do? Most likely, you’ll answer “yes” to this question, particularly if you consider yourself a professional. Professional…the word in itself indicates a level of expertise beyond amateur. It suggests years of study, investment, implementation, tweaking, marketing and perhaps instructing others. It’s what helps you “bring home the bacon.” It’s the reason you have a LinkedIn page, business cards, résumé, website, storefront, etc., so others can know what skills you offer. It’s the reason you attend certain networking events to connect with other professionals in your field and similar fields. Whether you’re a professional dancer, driver, event planner, photographer, singer, writer or occupy another profession, you are good at displaying what you do.

Professionals

But for all that we’ve assumed the word “professional” to mean and imply, what if we’ve only viewed it from a worldly context and not a spiritual context?

During a recent bible study I participated, we discussed the word “professional” and its origin. Per Merriam-Webster, “profession” is defined as “relating to a job that requires special education, training or skill” or “participating in for gain or livelihood.” Yet the etymology, or origin of “profession” comes from the root word “profess.” It means to “declare openly.” In the Latin, “profess,” “profession” and “to call” has been combined to create “professional.”

As Believers, we are to publicly profess God’s call on our lives. This is our “profession.” People have likened “professional” to careers, but it originally meant our calling in the Kingdom of God. A beautiful tapestry that God has created in giving you and me a purpose! God told the prophet Jeremiah, who was preordained to declare the word of the Lord, that “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). 

jeremiah 1;5 white

God has created you to boldly, unapologetically, unabashedly and confidently walk in your calling. God has intentionally created, elected, equipped, glorified, justified, predestined (Romans 8:30) and qualified you for your calling. The enemy and this world seeks to derail it and cause you to question it. Your gifts (Proverbs 18:16) and passions are part of your calling. Indeed, you are a called professional and you are good at what you’ve been called to do. If you are still seeking to understand your calling, ask God to reveal it to you.

-Nicole

Nicole D. Hayes is the founder of Voices Against the Grain, a bold teaching ministry launched in May 2013. Nicole’s purpose in creating Voices Against the Grain is to be light in darkness, to boldly instruct truth amid confusion so as to bring clarity and restoration.

Learn more about Nicole D. Hayes here.

 

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03.14.14
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To Learn Your Purpose, Give Yourself Away to God

Nicole D. Hayes, Creator of Voices Against the Grain

Nicole D. Hayes, Creator of Voices Against the Grain

During our March 12 radio show, we enjoyed a purposeful conversation with Prophetess Ruth Miranda of Ruth Miranda Ministries and Women With Divine Purpose. Our topic, “Ladies: Are You Living Your Purpose?”  Prophetess Miranda, of Hollywood, Fla., (she says where “the real stars shine”), believes everyone has a purpose and helps other women walk in their God-given callings. The episode continues our series “March with Us, March with Her,” as we showcase great women every Wednesday in March (Women’s History Month) who are equipping other women to live out their God-given purposes.

The oldest of seven born to Puerto Rican parents and raised in Brooklyn, New York, God brought Ruth L. Miranda to Puerto Rico to begin her ministry. Comparing her arrival to the television series “Green Acres” (very rural) she was uncertain of God’s intentions for bringing a city girl to the countryside. She began a radio show ministry that served as the vessel that would prevent a woman’s suicide and would bring another to Christ. Her purpose was being developed.

Pastor Ruth MirandaToday, at 58 and with most of her life committed to ministry alongside her husband of nearly 40 years, this wife, mother, grandmother and faithful woman of God has seen His hand carry her and her family through victorious and painful situations. As a child she began to understand the divine calling on her life as the Spirit of the Lord has anointed her “to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound…” as stated in Isaiah 61:1.

How do you ensure you are walking in your purpose? Here are some nuggets that came from our conversation to help you:

  • Give yourself away to God so HE may reveal His desires for you (Click to hear the song “I Give Myself Away” by William McDowell)–He wants you!
  • Get in His Word so He may reveal to you who He is, and help you better understand your identity in Christ
  • Get in His presence, commune with Him daily, hourly, what have you, to develop your relationship with Him; you can’t know someone without talking with them
  • God’s purpose is unique to you; don’t compare your path to everybody else
  • Realize you’ll go through “seasons” while in your purpose, to undergo further development, growth, refining, instruction to prepare for the next level in your journey (He may begin you in one area to advance you into another)
  • You won’t regret His plans, for He is able to do “exceedingly and abundantly more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20)

Want to learn more? Listen to our conversation here! If you have a pulse, you have a purpose! (Thank you Pastor Kimberly Jones-Pothier)