TERRI: You didn't get to choose which country you were
born in, which city you grew up in. You didn't even get to
choose your name. You didn't get to decide how your
story started, but you have everything to do with how your
story ends. I heard someone say, "When you write the
story of your life, don't let anyone else hold the pen."
Let's talk about discovering your gifts, your talents,
and how to write the story of your life.
(Music)
TERRI: Hi. I'm Terri Savelle Foy, and you're watching
Live Your Dreams. I pray that as you invest in yourself
today, you're captivated and you're catapulted to
live your dreams. I want to talk to you about the
story of your life. I believe that my purpose is to help you
discover your purpose, and once you do, you run with it. You
develop the gifts and talents that are on the inside of you
and run with it. Here is the thing. You do have gifts and
talents that are already on the inside of you, but God leaves it
up to us to discover them, stir up the gift, and then develop.
The truth is you didn't get to choose which country you were
born in, whether it was France, or India, or Bangladesh. You
didn't get to choose the city you grew up in if it was Uptown
Manhattan or the farm life of Boyce, Idaho. You didn't get
to choose your name. You didn't even get to choose your
parents or the environment that you grew up in. You didn't get
to decide how your story started, but here's the thing.
You have everything to do with how your story ends. I want to
talk to you today about perhaps changing the story of your life.
I believe that God wants you to discover what were you created
for. What did he put you on this earth to do? In other words, you
get to decide from here on how you want the story to go. I
know. I love learning from people and different people who
just made a decision one day that they were going to change
the story of their lives. In fact, listen to some of these
story-changers. This is a lady named "Georgia Durant." She
said she was a getaway driver for the mafia. She said, "I
could have stayed in that life of crime," but she made a
decision. She made a decision to change the story of her life.
She said she now owns a stunt driving company. She said, "I
was already doing stunts illegally." Now, she's
appeared in more than 100 movies. Why? She made a decision
to change the story of her life from criminal to corporation.
You may have heard of this guy. This was Frank Abagnale. He said
from age 16 to 21, he wrote $2.5 million in fraudulent checks,
and he successfully posed as an airline pilot, a doctor, a
lawyer, and a college professor. Apprehended by the police and
served five years in prison, he now owns a fraud consulting
company. He specialized in fraud, so he turned it into a
company. Of course, his story was turned into a major film
called "Catch Me If You Can" with Leonardo DiCaprio. What am
I saying? Don't let your past mistakes stop you from changing
your story. What about this girl? This girl was struggling
to make it, ran out of money, stayed in homeless shelters. She
said, "It taught me how to take care of myself and that I
could make it through any situation." She drastically
changed the story of her life, and that was Halle Berry. What
am I saying? You don't have to let a lack of money stop you
from changing your story. God can still use you. He can still
develop those gifts, those talents that are on the inside
of you and make something with your life. Then, listen to this
guy. This guy dropped out of high school, lived in a
Volkswagen bus with his family parked in different places
throughout Canada. He eventually moved into a tent on his older
sister's lawn and parked the van in the driveway. That was
Jim Carrey. He didn't let a lack of education or money stop
him from changing his story. I hope that encourages you that it
doesn't matter what you've been through, what's been done
to you, the mistakes you've made. Maybe you didn't grow up
with a silver spoon in your hand or your mouth, but you can still
change the story of your life. In fact, I love this. I heard
someone say the other day to just imagine a local newspaper
coming to write a story about your life. What would they
write? Now, if that bothers you, don't think of what they would
write right now, but what would you like for them to write? If
the local paper came and said, "You're amazing. We just
want to run a story on you and just talk about what you've
done with your life." What would you like for them to
write? Those are some of the ways that you can identify the
dreams, the goals, the vision, the gifts that God has put on
the inside of you, or imagine running to a friend that you
haven't seen in 20 years, 10 years. What stories do you want
to tell them? What do you want to say you've been doing with
your life for the past 10 years? Here is the thing. You get to
decide what you want your story to say. You can change your
story from here on. You may have had a fine beginning, but maybe
you detoured along the way. Maybe you thought you'd be
doing more by now. You thought your life would turn out
different. Maybe you've lost some of your passion or you've
given up on some of your original dreams. Maybe you
don't even know what your dreams are. You don't even
have a dream. That was me a few years ago, but I want you to
know it's not too late. It's not too late. You haven't made
too many mistakes. You haven't wasted too much time. That's
why I close out every broadcast saying, "Don't look at the
years you've lost. Let's look at the years you've got
left because God can still do something with these years." I
believe you're watching by divine appointment. It's not a
coincidence that you turned this on. I believe God is speaking to
you today because he's saying, "I still got something for you
to do." I've mentioned many times how I love to read success
books and just learn from successful people. Something
that amazes me is so many success folks that I happened to
read, within the first few chapters, one of the first keys
to success that they all say is that in order to change, or
grow, or pursue your dreams, go the next level, they all say
this. "You must take 100% responsibility for your life."
I read that in so many books, I'm starting to catch on. In
other words, you're responsible for where you are.
In fact, I've heard Zig Ziglar say that when he was just a
young aspiring speaker, he said he went to a conference, and he
heard this motivational speaker make this statement. He said,
"You are where you are because that's exactly where you chose
to be." He said, "I was broke, in debt, and down in the
dumps," but he said, "It came through loud and clear that
I was where I was and what I was because of me," but Zig Ziglar
started making decisions to turn his life around. He changed the
story of his life. Like I said, I believe God is speaking to you
today. He's saying, "Come on. It's time to get up. Get
moving. I have so much more for your life." In fact, do you
remember the story in John chapter five of the guy who was
laying by the pool of Bethesda? You may have heard that story. I
know Joyce Meyer loves that story, and she shares it many
times, but I want to point out something different. The Bible
says that here, a great number of disabled people used to lie,
the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had
been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there
and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time,
he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the
invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool
when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone
always goes ahead of me." Then, Jesus said to him, "Get
up. Pick up your sleeping bag and walk." At once, the man
was cured. He picked up his mat, and he walked, but think about
this. 38 years, he just sat there waiting. Waiting on what?
Somebody to help him. He waited so long that Jesus had to ask
him, "Are you sure you want to get well?" In fact, one
translation said, "Are you in earnest about getting well?"
Why would Jesus need to ask that? Why would he need to ask a
man who's clearly sick, "Do you even want to get well?"
Because nothing had changed in 38 years. We read a story like
that, and we think, "38 years? What's wrong with him?" But
when you really put that in perspective, you think, "What
could Jesus be saying to us today?" "Are you sure you
want to get out of debt?" "Why?" "Because nothing
changed in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years." "Are you sure you
want to lose weight because you've been complaining about
it and talking about it for 17 years?" "Are you sure you
want to get that degree or start that business, or write that
book?" "Why?" "Because you've been talking about it
for seven years, 12 years, 38 years." What is it that Jesus
could be saying to you and me because nothing changed in the
past 3 years, 5 years, 17 years? When I read that story and I
just begin thinking about my own life, I just begin to wonder,
"What could Jesus be saying to us?" Just like he told that
invalid, he gave him three commands. He said, number one,
"Get up," number two, "Pick up your bed, that mess
you've lying around in. Get it cleaned up," and number three,
"Walk." What could God be saying to you today? He could be
saying, "Get up. Pick up your music and sing." "Get up.
Pick up your Bible and preach." "Get up. Pick up
your resume and go get that job," or, "Get up. Pick up
that manuscript and start writing that bestselling
book." "Get up. Pick up that realtors license and sell those
houses," or maybe even, "Get up. Pick up your bottom and get
to the gym." I'm not trying to be hard today, but I'm just
saying. When I begin to read that story and start thinking,
that's an illustration to us. What could God be telling us
that it's time to get serious? It's time to stop lying
around, year after year, waiting for somebody else to come along,
pick us up. In other words, quit talking about it. Quit waiting
for someone to encourage you. Quit waiting for somebody to
outline your plan for you. Quit waiting for one day. Clearly,
the Lord is telling us, "You pick yourself up, you clean up
your mess, and you start putting one foot in front of the other
and get moving." I believe that God has given you certain
gifts, certain talents that are already on the inside of you. In
fact, it shows us in the Word of God in First Corinthians 7:7,
"Each man has his own gift from God." It doesn't say
some men or most men. It says each of us have a gift from
God," so there's something in you that God wants you to
stir up. He said, "Stir up the gift of God that's in you,"
and then we see in Proverbs, once you discover that gift, God
said in his Word he will not only make room for you and bring
you before great men, but he will use your gift to prosper
you, so your gift is supposed to bring financial increase in your
life. You might say, "Well, Terri, I don't have any
gifts." You do. You just have to discover them. In fact, one
of the ways that you can locate your gift is things that just
come natural to you. Think about the times that someone has said
to you, "You are so good at that," and you thought,
"Anybody can do this," but the truth is not just anybody
can do what you do the way you do it. It could be baking
cookies. It could be cleaning house. It could be organizing,
administration. It could be finances. It could be dance, or
sewing, or selling, negotiating. Whatever it is, those are gifts
that God specifically put on the inside of you, and he's
expecting you to stir it up and run with it. In fact, I heard
Rick Warren say, "When we get to heaven, God is going to ask
us two questions. Number one, "What did you do with my son,
Jesus?' and number two, "What did you do with the
gifts I gave you?" That's how important it is to the Lord
that you not just wait around another year, another year with
no change. God is speaking to you today. Get up, pick up your
bed, and walk. Now, I want you to think about what that means
to you specifically, and when we come back, I'm going to share
with you a few ways or I want to break this apart and show you
what God is saying when he says, "Get up, pick up your
bed, and walk." Watch this, and I'll be right back.
ANNOUNCER: Your talents and abilities are a gift from
God, and discovering and developing those gifts
can dramatically change your life. That's why Terri
is offering you her three-part teaching called
"Your Gift" today. In this motivational series,
you'll be inspired as you discover how to unlock, develop,
and increase your gifts, how your personality compliments
your purpose, how your capability support your calling,
and much more. It's never too early or too late to know what
God wants to do with your life. Plus, for a limited time, when
you request Your Gift, we'll also send you The Story of Your
Life bonus CD. You didn't have a choice on how your story
started, but you have everything to do with how it progresses, so
don't delay. Call toll-free 800-795-5597 or visit
us online at terri.com to request your copy of
Your Gift along with The Story of Your Life.
TERRI: So we're talking about changing the story of
your life, discovering your gifts, your talents, that
uniqueness that God has given you. It may not be
a talent like singing, or writing music, or playing
instruments. It may be a gift that you never recognized as a
gift because it comes so natural to you that you didn't think
it was a gift, but God is saying to you today those are gifts he
gave you. Those are talents that he is fully expecting you to not
only discover, but develop in your life. In fact, I heard
somebody say the wealthiest place in the world, it's not
the diamond mines of South Africa or the oil fields of the
Middle East. They said it's the graveyards. It's the
cemeteries. In the grave, there's books that were never
written, churches that were never planted, businesses that
were never started. Don't go to the grave with your dream
still in you. Here's the thing. It's not too late to
discover your gifts, and develop them, and change the story of
your life. That's exactly what I did. In 2006, I just sat
quietly and wrote what would I want someone to say about my
life. How would I want people to describe me? I really began to
think about it. In essence, I was writing my dreams, which
became like a GPS to drive me to what I'm doing today. When you
just get alone with God and you just say, "What is it that I
feel like God is speaking to me?" he's going to answer
you. The Bible says, "My sheep know my voice," so God wants
you to hear his voice, and he wants you to know his will or it
wouldn't be called his will, right? The will of God.
Sometimes, we just have to shut everything down, get away by
ourselves, and just listen, and start locating those gifts. Of
course, in this series, I've given you five questions to
ask yourself to even help you identify your gifts, your
talents, and what God wants you to do. I was talking about this
story in John chapter five about how Jesus gave very clear
direction to the invalid who had been waiting by the pool for 38
years, waiting for somebody to come and help him. Jesus could
have said, "Bless your heart. You've been through so much.
Here, let me help you up." No. He gave him three commands in
his heart of compassion. He said, number one, "Get up,"
number two, "Pick up your bed," and number three,
"Walk." I want to break apart those three points because
this is how God speaks to us today. I believe, number one,
he's saying, "Get up." What does that mean? That
basically means nobody else can do this for you. You have to
pick yourself up. You have to make the decision to not wallow
around another year, complaining about the conditions, waiting
for somebody to pick you up. We have to take responsibility for
our lives. Even with my dad being Jerry Savelle, I
couldn't just sit around year after year waiting for my dad to
say, "Terri, come on. Let me help you up. Let me show you
what God wants you to do with your life." No. I had wasted
enough years of my life. I finally had to get to the point
where I said, "Get up. Nobody is going to tell me what to do
with my life." I had to take 100% responsibility and so do
you. One of the things that drives me is judgment day. When
I heard someone say that that when judgment day comes and
it's going to come, when we all stand before God and give an
account for our lives, God is going to hold us accountable for
what he called us to do on earth. Now, think about that.
What you did and what you were called to do, it could be two
different things. Hopefully, not. When I began to think of
that, "God is going to hold me accountable for ministering to
people, for impacting the nation of France for helping teenage
girls. I better get with it." Now, I heard Brian Tracy say
there are three essential conditions for change. Number
one, you must sincerely want to change. That has to do with your
desire. You got to have a desire to want to change to say, "I
don't want to live like this anymore." Number two, you must
be willing to change. There's nothing more powerful than a
person's will, and then number three is you must be willing to
make effort. You have to make the effort. The Bible says that
faith without works is dead. One translation says, "Faith
without corresponding action is useless." I love one of the
statements I heard Joyce Meyer say. She said when she had been
wallowing around in self-pity and complaining about her life,
she said one day, the Lord spoke to her, and he said, "Joyce,
you can be pitiful or you can be powerful, but you're not going
to be both." That's a powerful statement, isn't it?
See, one thing that separates winners from losers more than
anything else is winners take action. What I mean by that?
They get up. They say, "I'm not living another year in this
condition. I'm going to get up." Number two, Jesus told
the man, "Pick up your bed." I think it's funny that he
said that because to me, that means pick up that mess you've
been lying around in physically and mentally. Now, let me
explain this because you might be like, "What? Come again."
I heard somebody define the word "mess." It means a lot of
things, but the definition of mess is any disagreement with
the way you desire things to be in the way they actually are.
When you think about a mess being defined like that, your
finances could be a mess. You desire them to be one way, but
this is how they really are. Your house could be a mess. Your
weight could be a mess. Your marriage could be a mess. Your
career could be a mess. What is a mess? It's any disagreement
between the way you desire it to be with the way it actually is.
I believe God is telling us, "Get things in order. Get
things straightened out. Put together. Pick up the mess
physically and mentally." Now, I'll explain this because when
I began turning my life around, one of the first words I ever
heard the Lord say, he didn't say, "Terri, you're going to
have a television ministry." If he had, I probably would have
freaked out. Do you know? One of the first directives I ever
received from the Lord was this, "Clean up and clean out,"
and I seriously thought, "Is that the voice of God or the
voice of my mom?" because surely, the Lord is not telling
me to clean my house, but I didn't know. Is this God or
me? Am I making this up? I took it literally, and I started
cleaning my house one room, one section, one day at a time. I
just went to one room and started cleaning the house, but
that's not all I did. I took with me a CD player and a CD,
and I pushed "Play." Now, I thought that I was just cleaning
the outside, cleaning the refrigerator, cleaning the sock
drawer, but God was cleaning me on the inside. As I began
listening to faith-building messages...The Bible says,
"Faith comes by hearing." I never dreamed that this two
things, a CD player and a CD, would be destiny decisions that
would alter the rest of my life. This is how I changed my life.
As I'm cleaning things out, I began to hear things like,
"Forgive," that there's consequences to unforgiveness.
During that time in my life, I was separated from my husband.
I'm falling apart. I was depressed. I had no vision for
my life. I'm cleaning out my sock drawer hearing, "You
better forgive. There's consequences. Number one, God
can't forgive you." As if that isn't bad enough. Matthew
6 tells us, "But if you do not forgive men their sins, your
father will not forgive your sins." That's pretty
serious. Then, I began to hear things like, "Your faith
won't work," or, "Satan gets advantage over you."
Then, I heard this, "Forgiveness doesn't make
them right. It makes you free." As I began to hear
things like that as I'm cleaning out the kitchen pantry,
I thought I'm just cleaning this mess in my house, but God
was cleaning the mess in my heart. I believe that's what
God is saying when he says, "Pick up your bed. Get this
stuff cleaned up and cleaned out." "The only way to move
into the future is to let go of the past." I love that scripture
or that quote from Robert Kriegel. Number one, God is
saying, "Get up. Pick up your bed." Number three,
"Walk." Walking is a part of body language. I discovered that
in college that body language, we communicate through body
language more than ever speaking a word. When you walk, your feet
tell a story. When we walk, when we have vision, we actually
walk a different way. We have a little pep in our step when we
have a vision for our lives. I believe God is telling you today
that when you have vision, you have purpose, you're going to
start walking into your destiny, but you got to get a vision
before your eyes, and I'm not going to go into much of that,
but I want you to think about what you need to walk towards.
If God has put a desire in your heart to be a missionary or to
go on a trip somewhere overseas, go get your passport. Keep it
before your eyes and start walking towards it. If God has
put in your heart it's time to go back to school and get your
degree, get a diploma. Put your name on that. Put it somewhere
in sight because you move towards what you consistently
see, but you got to see something. You got to see
something to move towards, so I want you to keep something in
front of you that reminds you of your dream, that keeps you
focused. Like I said before, I believe God has you watching on
purpose. It's not a coincidence. I believe he wants
you to stir up the gift that's on the inside of you. I want you
to get this special package that we're offering, Your Gift and
The Story of Your Life, and you're going to identify.
I'm going to help you locate the gifts, the talents that God
has put in your heart that maybe you never saw as gifts. I've
listed five questions that I discovered just from research
how to locate your uniqueness. What is it that God wants you to
do? These questions will help you identify. That's how I
identified the outreach of this ministry and the mission field
of this ministry. I thought I just love the French language. I
had no idea that was a gift God gave me to impact the nation of
France. I believe this is going to help you. There's a
personality summary in here to help you discover your type of
personality. You're going to have fun with this no matter
what age you are. If you're 50 years old and you're still
saying, "I don't know what I want to do when I grow up," I
understand. I'm not quite 50, but it took me a while to
finally realize I do have strengths. I just didn't know
it was a strength, but I believe you're going to have fun
listening to this. Start making note, answer the questions, and
then listen to The Story of Your Life. It doesn't matter how
old you are. It doesn't matter how many mistakes you've made.
God still says you can change your story. In fact, I heard
Jack Canfield. He said, "Quit waiting for permission,
reassurance, someone to change, the right person to come along,
the kids to leave home, someone to discover you, a clear set of
instructions." He said, "It's time to get moving."
This is one of the reasons it's so important.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to
do, do it with all your might for in the grave, where you're
going, there's neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor
wisdom." What is the Lord saying with that scripture?
He's saying, "Don't take your gifts to the grave." He
puts you on this earth to use that gift. It may be a gift for
baking, for decorating, for cleaning, for organizing, for
negotiating, for filing taxes. God has given you a gift, but
you have to discover it and develop it, and this is what God
promised. When you discover your gift, two things. He will make
room for you and bring you before great men, and your gift
will prosper you, but like Timothy says, you have to stir
up the gift of God, which is in you. I want to challenge you. I
hope the Lord is speaking to you today. I'm believing in
Jesus' name. You're going to hear his voice like never
before. No more confusion. You're going to know, "This
is what God has put me on this earth to do." I believe
you're going to enjoy this package, and I want you to know
that we pray for you. We love you. We appreciate you more than
I could ever say, so let me just remind you. Don't look at all
the years you've lost. Let's look at the years you've got
left and start developing those gifts, those talents, that
uniqueness. It's only inside of you, and stand before God and
say, "Lord, I did exactly what you put me on earth to do."
Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time.
ANNOUNCER: Your talents and abilities are a gift
from God, and discovering and developing those gifts
can dramatically change your life. That's why Terri
is offering you her three-part teaching called "Your Gift"
today. In this motivational series, you'll be inspired as
you discover how to unlock, develop, and increase
your gifts, how your personality complements your purpose,
how your capabilities support your calling, and
much more. It's never too early or too late to know
what God wants to do with your life. Plus, for a limited
time, when you request Your Gift, we'll also send you The
Story of Your Life bonus CD. You didn't have a choice on how
your story started, but you have everything to do with how it
progresses, so don't delay. Call toll-free 800-795-5597
or visit us online at terri.com to request your copy
of Your Gift along with The Story of Your Life.
TERRI: Icing means something added to
something good that makes it even better.
(Music)
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