Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
You have heard young aspiring athletes say, “I want to be like Mike”, speaking of Michael Jordan. In my early days as a believer, my dream was to be like Apollos.
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man 
had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught the things of the Lord accurately… (Acts 18:24-25).
Why did I want this? Because I was blessed to sit under a man, who like Apollos, had an eloquent manner of speech and taught the Scriptures with much insight and anointing. It gave me a love, hunger and awe of the Scriptures. I wanted to be able to give that to others.
Well, it didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped. The truth is I am not an eloquent man on my best days and I certainly am not an eloquent speaker. I love the Scriptures and aspire to be more mighty in them. I am passionate and work to communicate the things of the Lord accurately.
I had to come to the reality that an Apollos, I am not. What I discovered about myself was the thing that really moved me was not so much the eloquent manner of teaching or even the skill in Scripture, but the revelation that was being released. The revelation of the Word gave me the love, hunger and awe of the Scriptures.
I had to discover who I am, my distinctiveness and what I do best. To be authentic and minister with authority, you must step into your unique purpose and make it the heartbeat of all that you do. For me, I found revelation of the Scripture and the things of the Spirit causes my heart to beat with excitement and vision.
The truth is if you don’t understand who you are and your distinctiveness, you will not build your life or ministry correctly and what you have built will burn when the fire comes to test it (1 Cor. 3:9-15).
So how do we discover who we really are, our unique distinctiveness and what we do best? Don’t start by looking outside, comparing yourself to others or even seeing what others are doing. Let the Holy Spirit lead you to looking inside, at your heart.
Rick Warren captured this so well.
“The Bible uses the term “heart” to represent the center of your motivation, desires, interests and inclinations. Your heart determines why you say the things you do (Matt. 12:34), why you feel the way you do (Ps. 34:7), and why you act the way you do (Prov. 4:23).
Physiologically, each of us has a unique heartbeat. Each person has a slightly different pattern. Likewise, God has given each of us a unique emotional “heartbeat” that races when we encounter activities, subjects or circumstances that interest us.
Another word for heart is passion. There are certain subjects that you feel passionate about and others that you couldn’t care less about.
God had a purpose in giving you your inborn interests. Your emotional heartbeat reveals a very important key to understanding his intentions for your life. Don’t ignore your natural interests. People rarely excel at tasks they don’t enjoy doing. High achievers enjoy what they do.”
I encourage you to identify your distinctive talents, skills and where you move in strength. Ask yourself, what life experiences make me unique? What activities, subjects or circumstance makes your “heartbeat” speed up when you encounter them?
Be thankful in who God made you. Then God will direct your paths (Ps. 37:4) and the desires of your heart (the real and unique you) will rise up and meet you.
Many Blessings, BW