In 1980, I unexpectedly left the business world in Adelaide to join the pastoral team at Blackburn Baptist Church in Melbourne as pastor for youth and young adults. Nine years later, I was to face another radical change.
Sue and I found ourselves packing up our family’s belongings in 8 suitcases and traveling to Los Angeles in America to study at Fuller Theological Seminary. I studied for two years in Fuller’s School of World Mission which was founded by Doctor Donald McGavran who was regarded as the most influential missiologists in the twentieth century.

Dr McGavran was a brilliant multi gifted person whose services were in great demand. However, there came a day when he realised that he was spreading himself so thinly that he was in danger of compromising the calling that God had on his life. God had chosen him to give his life to one calling – the Great Commission of Jesus. Consequently, he became so focussed on God’s calling on his life that it was said of him that he played a “one stringed guitar”. No longer did he say, “these various things I work at” but rather, “this one thing I do.”

Paul spoke of his intentional life when writing to the Philippians, “But this one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ.” Philippians 4:13-14

With encouragement from Doctor McGavran and Paul and the Lord who has intentionally shaped us, I write to encourage you to……
“Live INTENTIONALLY……How to go from a nobody to a somebody so that you wont just be an anybody.”

As I read through my Bible I have come to believe that the world belongs to people who live intentionally. They live their lives focused on God’s calling, the calling for which God shaped them.

A palliative care nurse, Bronnie Ware, wrote a book entitled, The Top Five Regrets of The Dying. Regret number 1 was, “I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself (my calling) and not the life others expected of me.” Their regret had to do with their inability to live intentionally.

Leadership teacher, John Maxwell, said, “The reason we don’t reach our capacity (potential) is that we aren’t intentional. We automatically get older, but we don’t automatically grow. We automatically get older, but we don’t automatically get better. We can’t grow people if we aren’t growing ourselves.”

It has been said that we die with millions of unused brain cells. The place in our cities that has the most buried treasure is our cemeteries. A book I read recently is called The Last Arrow, by Erwin McManus. He explains that we all have been born with a quiver full of arrows that we are to use in our lifetime in order that we can go to heaven with an empty quiver. Erwin McManus writes,
“I am convinced that every human being has a unique calling on his or her life – each of us were created with intention and purpose. And I am equally certain that most of us underestimate how much God wants to do in our lives and through our lives. The Last Arrow is a call never to settle about what God wants to do with your life. You have to know what matters; you have to know who you are; you have to know what your life is to be given to. For in the end, the one thing where you must never settle for less is the calling God has on your life, the purpose for which He has created you, the impact He has designed you to make in the world.”

Paul writing to the Ephesians said, “For we are God’s masterpiece (a work of art). He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do good things He planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10
I wonder if you have ever realised that although God created you for a purpose, you have come to the conclusion that God must have missed you out when He planned good things for you to do. You weren’t important enough to Him?

One day I received a letter from a lady who had met with me to discuss some concerns she had about her son who was in my youth group. She wrote in her follow up letter,
“I came to see you about my son but somehow you sensed I was the one who needed help. You helped me realise that I was worth loving, and that God actually valued me. I came from our talk feeling that I had insulted God for thinking someone He had created was worthless, and I was suddenly convinced God loved me as I am and I wanted to shout it to everyone. It took the rest of my day to calm down. What a lovely feeling. I still have days of self-doubt, but when I am thinking clearly, I remember your words, ‘Do you think God would create junk?’ I often find myself laughing at these words. They stick in my mind and help me when I am down.”

And I continued to meet with this special lady and told her…..

• She was uniquely created by a loving God and He doesn’t make junk.
• She was unconditionally loved by His Son Jesus Christ who saw her at her worst and yet died for her to pay the penalty for her sin.
• She was adopted into God’s forever family when she accepted Jesus’ free gift of forgiveness and trusted Him as her Saviour.
• She received spiritual gifts to discover and use in her Christian service.

Consequently, she started to live intentionally and went from a nobody to a somebody so that she wouldn’t just be an anybody.

She was God’s masterpiece created anew in Christ Jesus to do the good things He planned for her long ago. She was no longer allowing herself to be defined and shaped by the false impressions of others and the negative experiences that she had endured in her early life. Her life was God’s gift to her and what she did with her life was her gift to God.

I went on to explain to her the five alphabetic letters that described her God given SHAPE.

S   in SHAPE – stands for SPIRITUAL GIFTS given by the Holy Spirit that each person receives when they become a Christian. There are more than 20 of them and the Holy Spirit distributes these gifts to each person just as He determines.
1 Corinthians 12:11

H   in SHAPE – stands for HEART. God not only gives us spiritual gifts, but He directs the use of these gifts by putting certain desires and interests and ambitions and hopes in our hearts, like Nehemiah who spoke of what God put in his heart to do. Nehemiah 7:5
One way I have searched out this desire has been to ask people, “If you could do for God whatever you wanted to do, and you knew you wouldn’t fail, what would you do?”
Paul spoke of the different heart that he and Peter had, in spite of the fact that they had the same spiritual gift. “For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.” Galatians 2:8

A   in SHAPE – represents our (natural) ABILITIES that we acquire and develop in life and contribute to the unfolding purposes God has for our lives. In the film Chariots of Fire, the story of Eric Liddell, Olympic runner and missionary to China, Eric explains to his sister Jenny, “I believe God made me for a purpose, for China. But He also made me fast and when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

P   in SHAPE – represents our PERSONALITY which impacts the way we relate to people and serve others. We are each born with a wonderfully complex personality. Researchers have discovered an incredibly large number of personality traits. Some people are extroverts and others are introverts, some like variety and others prefer a routine existence, some are ‘thinking’ people while others are ‘feeling’ people, some are competitive while others are cooperative, and some are comfortable with conflict and change, while others prefer a peaceful existence.

E   in SHAPE – stands for the EXPERIENCES in our lives including people we have met. God never wastes any experiences that come to us, even the painful ones. After suffering unjustly at the hands of his brothers, and then the Egyptians to whom he was sold into slavery, Joseph could ultimately say of his subsequent experiences when speaking to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20

We are all uniquely SHAPED and God calls us and uses us according to our SHAPE and when that happens, we are like round pegs in round holes, and when we all work together Paul says we are The Body of Christ.
“Just as a body though one, has many parts, but all its parts form one body…… God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be…… Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”  1 Corinthians 12:12, 16, 27
“Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:15

Paul declares that when we live together in unity, exercising our spiritual gifts, something amazing happens. We become the living body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world in which we live, and He is the head of the body.

Paul appeared on the scene when the Great Commission of Jesus was advancing throughout the Roman Empire. Paul had set out with a vengeance and murderous intent to persecute the church to try and destroy it. And one day on the road to Damascus he was converted by Jesus who said, “Why do you persecute me?” He was blinded and led into Damascus where he met a man called Ananias who spoke of a purpose that God had for his life – just as God has a purpose for each of us. Ananias said to Paul, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will…..You will be His witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.” Acts 22:14-15

As we follow Paul’s story we see how God SHAPED him for this intentional ministry.
Paul’s SHAPE :

S    SPIRITUAL GIFTS. Paul said to Timothy, “Of this Gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.” 2 Timothy 1:11

H    HEART. Paul said to the Romans, “It has always been my ambition (my intention) to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” Romans 15:20
“So from Jerusalem all the way around Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.” Romans 15:19
We not only see Paul’s spiritual gifts at work but we see the passion of his heart that gave direction to the use of his gifts.

A    ABILITIES Paul had developed that would help to support him in his ministry. We read in Acts 18:2-4, “Paul went to see them in Corinth and because he was a tent maker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every sabbath He reasoned in the synagogue trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.”
That is where we get the term ‘tent making missionaries’ who use their abilities to financially support themselves in their calling.

When I was pastoring my previous church, I was so thankful for our church administrator who God called to join our ministry team. He had spiritual gifts of leadership and administration and faith, and to compliment that, he had acquired wonderful natural abilities in computer technology and security alarm systems, and finance and building maintenance. He was SHAPED by God perfectly for his role and God led him to our church at just the right time.

Albert Einstein said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Everyone is shaped by God to be a genius in some intentional way”

P    Paul’s PERSONALITY was unique just like each of us. God chose Paul for this pioneering ministry because he would need to be strong and courageous and visionary and uncompromising in all he did. He was a gifted leader and was able to influence situations in the most difficult circumstances.
Paul’s personality contrasted with his three friends – Barnabus, a great encourager who believed the best in people. Luke, a doctor and a man with a mind for great detail and recorder of history, and Timothy, a young gentle pastor who benefitted from Paul’s encouragement and mentoring. With each of these men we can see how God “had placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.”
They were shaped differently to be able to live out God’s purposes for their lives. God planned for them to live intentionally – to go from a nobody to a somebody so that they wouldn’t just be an anybody.

E    EXPERIENCES, both good and bad, shaped Paul’s life He was impacted by the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1), his conversion on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1), his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians12:7) and the teaching of his mentor Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), to mention a few.

I am thankful to Pastor Rick Warren for the way he devised the SHAPE resource based on the Lord’s words to Jeremiah, “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you.” Jeremiah 1:5 MSG
Rick Warren wrote, “No matter what, you can rest in the truth that God is working in your life and that He shaped you to succeed. He shaped you in advance for these plans. God’s plans for your life didn’t start the moment you were born. These plans started before your birth, when the Bible says God shaped you in your mother’s womb.”

Understanding my own SHAPE led me to a breakthrough in my life and resulted in me starting to live an INTENTIONAL life.

Rod’s SHAPE :

S    SPIRITUAL GIFTS
Leadership, Teaching, Wisdom

H    HEART
To equip the next generation.
At a strategic time in my life, the Lord impressed upon me the following scripture,
“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously
contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” Colossians 1:28-29

A    ABILITIES
Cross cultural, perspective, mathematics, sporting, creativity, organisational.

P    PERSONALITY
Deep thinker, competitive, compassionate, motivator, purposeful, disciplined.

E    EXPERIENCES
Military service, business management, married to Sue, study at Fuller Seminary,
long term illness of family member, teaching in cross cultural settings, living with
cancer, significant mentoring experiences.

As I have developed a growing understanding of the unique way the Lord has SHAPED me, I have been able to minister with an increased level of intentionality.

This has helped me to…….

• more and more live a focused life.
• recruit to my weaknesses by developing a supportive ministry team.
• be free of the agendas that others desire to impose on me.
• maximise my potential for which God created me.
• Live with the goal of finishing my life with no arrows left in my quiver.
• know that one day I could stand before my Lord and say, “I have brought you glory on earth by FINISHING THE WORK YOU GAVE (SHAPED) me to do.” John 17:4

With this increased level of intentionality, I was led by the Lord in 2008 to take a step of faith to start a ministry called Equipping the Next Generation which is now serving Christian leaders across the nations.

Erwin McManus in his book, The Last Arrow concludes, “When you come to the end of your days, you will not measure your life based on successes and failures. All of those will eventually blur together into a single memory called ‘life’. What will give you solace is a life with nothing left undone. One that’s been lived with relentless ambition, a heart on fire, and with no regrets.”

What Erwin McManus is exhorting us to do is to LIVE INTENTIONALLY so that we can go from a nobody to a somebody so that we won’t be just an anybody.

• SHAPE is used with permission from Rick Warren
• The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus is available in bookstores.

Note  : All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation