VIDEO + WHAT THEY SAID + MY NOTES
Hey family, I sat with this teaching and I want to share it with you, along with my notes. Watch first. Read what Dr. Dharius Daniels said. Then read MY NOTES so you know what is his and what is mine.
HEY FAMILY, I SAT WITH THIS TEACHING
I want to share it with you, along with my notes.
Dr. Dharius Daniels sat down with Clee The Visionary on Build Your Vision, episode 137. The conversation is one of the most misunderstood topics in the faith: what God has called you to do with your life. That is his teaching. I am curating it. I am not claiming it as my original teaching.
Mentorship is obedience with a witness. Watch the video. Read the official article. Then sit with MY NOTES. You will see the same order on this page every time I do this. The source. What they said. My notes.
Live PDF: guides.rickpina.cloud/3-mistakes-finding-your-calling-premium-guide.pdf.
THE VIDEO
Build Your Vision E137. Clee The Visionary with Dr. Dharius Daniels. Official public episode. Watch it before you read the rest.
Print source. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnzyZs6svaw. Article: https://www.buildyourvisionpodcast.com/blog/3-mistakes-when-finding-your-calling-dharius-daniels/
Three things to listen for. Write them down while he talks.
THE BIG IDEA
Calling is not a destination. It is an invitation. Faithfulness now prepares you for the next assignment.
Dr. Dharius Daniels • The frame he used
He names three words people mix up. Purpose is the reason for the creation or existence of a person. Calling is God's invitation for participation in that purpose. Role is the set of responsibilities assigned to a person in different seasons.
You accomplish purpose when you keep saying yes to the invitations God extends, across different roles, over a lifetime. You are only as faithful as your last yes. The first call is often a call to preparation.
MISTAKE 1: CLARITY AND CERTAINTY
Not recognizing the difference between clarity and certainty.
WHAT THEY SAID • Dr. Dharius Daniels
- He rejects the question. "How do you know if it is really your calling?" He rejects the premise. The question assumes clarity and certainty are fixed and absolute.
- Clarity is relative. You can be clear in a season and still need more light later. Clarity is ever-evolving. It is not a one-time stamp from heaven that never moves.
- 51 percent can be enough. He says embracing the idea that clarity can be 51 percent rather than 100 percent lets you take a step and trust discernment. You do not wait in the water of decision until you feel certain.
- The boat picture. He walks through Peter. About 90 percent when he stepped out. About 53 percent when the wind picked up. About 45 percent when it felt like drowning. About 80 percent after Jesus picked him up and put him back in the boat. The percentage moved. The invitation was still God.
- Two yeses. Two numbers. Seminary was about 95 percent clear. Planting the church was about 55 percent clear. He said both were God. The size of the leap can change how much clarity you need. It does not change whether God is in it.
Rick Pina • Year of Discovery
This is Rick. I sat with his talk. This is my mindset for this family. Do not confuse this with Daniels.
This is the Year of Discovery. Discovery is not a ceremony where God hands you a laminated job description. Discovery is walking with the light you have. If you wait for 100 percent certainty, you will call delay wisdom and stay stuck.
- Obey the 51 percent. If the invitation is clean, and you have enough light to take the next faithful step, take it. Mentorship is obedience with a witness. A private conviction with no step is a hobby.
- Your feelings will swing. 90. 53. 45. 80. That is not proof you missed God. That is proof you are in the water. Do not baptize panic as a closed door.
- Identity first. You are a son or a daughter. That does not move when the percentage moves. Roles change. The Father does not.
- Greater is coming. Faithfulness in this season prepares you for the next assignment. The next assignment is often hidden inside today's ordinary yes.
The demand for 100 percent certainty is often an imagination you have to take captive. You prove the will of God by walking, not by waiting for a feeling that never flickers.
MISTAKE 2: CALLING AND MONEY
Making incorrect assumptions about your calling and your money.
WHAT THEY SAID • Dr. Dharius Daniels
- He planned to be a lawyer. Political science. Law school was the track. In college he got a clear sense that God wanted him to serve others through ministry.
- Not a wasted-gifts story. The switch was not because he thought his gifts would be wasted in law. He still believes he would have gone hard in law. The work ethic was in him as a person. It was not attached to a particular role.
- The assumption he had to kill. He thought saying yes to ministry meant saying yes to poverty. He names the economic cost, and he names the emotional trauma of poverty. That trauma can produce a fear of ever going back.
- He did not "get over" fear. He said he does not know how to overcome certain fears. He knows how to replace an inferior fear with a superior fear. He was still scared. He was more scared not to obey God.
- The fruit of the yes. By embracing the calling and saying yes, he stepped into a path that led to service and to financial security. The point is not that every calling pays the same. The point is that your assumption about money can keep you from the invitation.
Rick Pina • Stewardship, not superstition
This is Rick. Hear me. Poverty is not proof you are holy. A fat invoice is not proof you are called. Both stories will lie to you.
- Count the cost. Then obey. Luke 14 is not an excuse to stay. It is stewardship. Name the money fear. Name the backup plan you keep in your pocket. Then decide if the invitation is God.
- Do not marry the paycheck to your name. Roles are clothes. The title, the P&L, the church size, the client list. Useful. Not your identity. You are a son or a daughter.
- Fear will not vanish. I like his honesty. You may still be scared. Replace the smaller fear with the bigger one: I will not disobey the invitation I already have.
- Greater is coming, and Greater has a cost. This Year of Discovery will expose the money story you attached to calling. Bring that story into the light. Do not let it run the house from the basement.
MISTAKE 3: PURPOSE, ROLE, CALLING
Confusing your purpose with your role or calling.
WHAT THEY SAID • Dr. Dharius Daniels
- Three words. Three jobs. Purpose is why a person exists. Calling is God's invitation to participate in that purpose. Role is the set of responsibilities in a season.
- You are only as faithful as your last yes. Saying yes to leave law school and go to seminary was one invitation. Seminary was preparation. Then he had to keep saying yes to other invitations, including the marketplace. If he had stopped saying yes in New Jersey, he could not claim he was being faithful.
- People fall in love with a role. They think the role is the calling. God may call you to leave a role, redefine it, or expand it. If you are in love with the expression, you will miss the next invitation.
- Passion, talent, purpose. Passion is what you like to do. Talent is what you are capable of doing. Purpose is what you were born to do. Just because you can does not mean you should. Demand and aptitude can all be present and the answer can still be no.
- Success is faithfulness. If your vision is only success by cultural standards, that is your vision, not God's. A large following is not spiritual success. A big church is a big church. He said he will be held accountable for how he stewarded the vision God put in his heart, not how he compared to the average pastor.
Rick Pina • Roles are clothes
This is Rick. I have been saying this to this family. Roles are clothes. Identity is a son or a daughter. You can take the jacket off and still be you. You cannot take the sonship off.
- Do not fuse the job to your name. Pastor. Founder. Manager. Coach. Spouse. Parent. Those are assignments. They are not the core. When the season shifts, the clothes change. You do not die with the old jacket.
- Faithfulness now is the training ground. The lion and the bear happen when nobody is looking. The next assignment is often the fruit of today's hidden yes. Greater is coming. You will not carry it if you refuse the small role in front of you.
- Your last yes is the one that counts today. I agree with him there. You do not get to retire on a yes from 1997, or 2014, or last year. This is the Year of Discovery. What is the invitation this week?
- The vision may tarry. He said what he saw with the eyes of his heart in 2005 he still did not fully see with the eyes in his head in 2023. That is not failure. That is a vision that is still becoming. Stay.
REALIGN AND REST FOR CLARITY
When you are overworked, overwhelmed, or unfocused, his practical answer is rest.
WHAT THEY SAID • Dr. Dharius Daniels
- Rest is the move. If he feels overworked, he pulls out. He rests. He refuels. He replenishes. Pulling away and getting quiet time to think can keep you from mistakes made in haste and fatigue.
- Steward yourself. Spiritual leaders are responsible for stewarding their own well-being, the same way they are responsible for the house. Other people will not do that for you on your timeline.
- Integrity is the foundation. He said everything he has built is built on the back of integrity. It all goes away if he loses that. Keeping that intact is part of the job.
- Be proactive. He watched leaders get a counselor and talk about rest after they crashed. After his own burnout in 2014, he decided to get in front of it.
- His billboard. "There's more in you." He does not want fear and insecurity to rob the world of what people have and what other people need. The timing of a pivot in you often matches a deficit in someone else.
Rick Pina • Rest is not quitting
This is Rick. Rest is not you walking away from the calling. Rest is you refusing to make a tired decision and call it faith. You cannot carry Greater if you are empty.
- Fatigue lies. When you are fried, every door looks like a trap or a throne. Neither read is clean. Step back. Sleep. Sit with the Word. Then look again.
- Yesterday ended last night. New mercies are for people who will receive them. Do not drag last week's exhaustion into this week's invitation and pretend that is discernment.
- Integrity is part of the assignment. I agree with him. Character is the thing that blows stuff up. Competence is not the usual implosion. Steward you.
THIS WEEK FOR THIS FAMILY
Pick ONE mistake. Name the invitation in front of you. Take the next faithful step, or rest if you are fried. Bring a witness.
YOUR CALLING CHECKLIST
- I watched the video or read the official article. Open E137
- I downloaded the PDF. 3-mistakes-finding-your-calling-premium-guide.pdf
- I read WHAT THEY SAID as his teaching, not mine.
- I read MY NOTES and I know the difference.
- I named ONE mistake I have been making. Not all three as a theory.
- I named the invitation in front of me this week.
- I will not wait for 100 percent certainty if I already have enough light to take a faithful step.
- I will rest if I am overwhelmed before I make a tired decision and call it faith.
- I brought a witness to the 1:1 or the comments.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Write. Do not skim. Bring one answer to the comments or the 1:1.
- Which of the three mistakes have you been making, and how is it showing up this month?
- What invitation is in front of you right now? Say it in one sentence. Not a ten-year title. This season.
- What percentage of clarity do you actually have, and what would a faithful 51 percent step look like this week?
- What money story did you attach to saying yes? Poverty, payday, or both?
- Which role have you fused to your name? What would it mean to treat that role as clothes?
- Are you deciding tired? What rest would help you hear the invitation instead of the noise?
DECLARATION OF THE INVITATION
PDF AND ASSETS
Take the assets. Do the work. Do not leave this as a nice read.
Live PDF: https://guides.rickpina.cloud/3-mistakes-finding-your-calling-premium-guide.pdf