CHAPTER 9: The initial miracle
Once you feel the urge to quit your job, your purpose is calling you.
Generally (not all the time) a MIRACLE will happen which will confirm, validate and verify this call for your life. This miracle will be so impactful to the point that it makes you think that things are possible – which they are. As soon as this miracle has done its job in tricking you into quitting, you will then move into the wilderness and then eventual success will occur.
It is easy to talk about “how to quit” or “how to be successful” but no one talks about how to survive or manage the wilderness. For me, this is the most important part to promote and advance because the initial miracle and the success are things that happen quickly, but the wilderness is what you will wake up to almost every day of your journey – hence it is the most important aspect. Although the title of the book is misleading, I am basically going to teach you how to survive the wilderness – which is tough and burdensome.
The initial MIRACLE
I wrote a book to school learners titled “YOUR GIFT IS BIGGER THAN A CAREER” while I was still working in my corporate job. I submitted the book to the Gauteng Department of Education to be included in the libraries section. Surprisingly it was chosen and I became a supplier to the Department of Basic Education.
Just when I thought it wouldn’t get better, a year later I won a pitching den competition where I was pitching the same thing that was in this book but in a computerized form. In the pitch I showed how I would create technology to amplify, sensitize and assist school learners to become more knowledgeable about their abilities, aspirations, and values about work while still at school.
From my miracle you could see that I was “successful” on the short term and it seemed like the stars were lining up – people in industry who were judges on the pitching den competition praised my idea and saw how it would revolutionize education in South Africa and around the world. Also, my book in all the book stores in Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg was selling. So then, after experiencing this favourable outcome, how could I not go full steam and quit my job altogether?
So, in a space of a year I had two miracles which I had never had in my life. Never had I won money before and never had I have my work being read by random strangers. This showed me that I could pursue this path of my life full time. Two months later I handed in my resignation letter at Transnet and succumbed to the miracle.
Other people who had miracles
If you are a big user of YouTube you probably know Mr Beast. He is the biggest Youtuber today with over 300 million subscribers and almost all his videos have been watched 50 million times and over (probably more when you read this book). His MIRACLE was in 2013 when he posted a video on YouTube and it was watched 20 000 times. He saw how successful he was on the short term and then spent the next 5 years skipping school and perfecting his skills on this platform. During this time he caught hell from his mom and the people around him for doing something “so stupid and meaningless”.
Apostle Paul had a miracle that happened on his way to Damascus when he was confronted by Jesus. He later explained in his letters that what made him special is that no one told him about the Gospel – he got it from the Source itself. “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ”. He then spent the next fourteen years planting churches during this time before he was “officially commissioned” by the church.
So, before you quit your job, have you had an insane miracle that you have never seen before which is impactful in your life?
The wilderness
In between every mountain there has always been a valley. In between every beam of light there are always light bands and dark bands. In a 24-hour day there is time for light and darkness. Just before we see the brilliancy of your gift (your success), you have to go through the wilderness.
Like I mentioned in Part B’s introduction, discovering your gift is not the conclusion. The total transformation of growing from the point where you unlock your gift to where you are successfully using it cannot happen in the light, it HAS TO HAPPEN IN A DARK PLACE. If you plant a mango seed, you do not put it on top of the ground. You bury it in the ground. This is because the seed does not grow in the light, it grows in the dark where:
it is under pressure from the weight of the soil
it is buried and not seen by anybody
it is suffocated
it is under tremendous heat
The seed has to go down first before coming up. What does this mean for you? It essentially means that life will hide you first. Nobody will see you (nobody sees a seed growing in the ground). But during this period you will be growing so that you are verifiable, proven and valid.
The dark place can also be likened to a foetus inside a mother’s womb where the baby grows, where it is supported and where it is nurtured. It cannot transform from being an embryo to a full baby outside of the womb. The womb is to the baby what the dark place is for you; It is where you will get developed, advanced, strengthened reinforced, toughened, bolstered, cultivated and fashioned to face the world with the gift you possess.
The wilderness is just transportation to get the best out of you
Anytime you get to the promise (your success) without the process (the wilderness)) failure will result. If you miss the process (the wilderness) you will not stand for the promise because the process makes you bare the weight of the promise. And usually, the more downtime you spend in the wilderness, the more powerful you will arise. Just ask Nelson Mandela.
If you are not willing to go through the wilderness; being misunderstood, being criticized, being judged, being laughed at, being unrecognized, being lonely, being rejected, and possibly losing everything – then you are not ready to move from knowing your gift to applying it.
Your belief is tested
I believe that your purpose is designed in such a way that it will test whether you believe it or not. This is why you find that all true people who are using their gifts with full effect always seem to have a dark story behind them that tested their belief. In fact I don’t know anyone in a big position in any area of life that was not propelled by the wilderness into the highest expression of who they were meant to be. This is because life doesn’t just allow you to go to the top; you have to swim there and sometimes you will be swimming against the current! It is almost like dreams become a nightmare first before they manifest. Below is picture of my wife and I at probably our worst – nothing happening, no hope, no more clothes to wear and two small children. This was my wilderness where I was tested.
There are some “ordained” struggles that are tailormade for you that are waiting for you in the wilderness. These struggles are specifically for you – designed and premeditated to fit the contours of what your purpose requires. My purpose requires communication with people who want to better themselves and achieve in life. In order for me to do this, I had to go through a wilderness where I am not achieving. Do you see the oxymoron in this? The best person to counsel rape victims is a person who was raped themselves. The best person to teach on mental health is a person who had mental health issues. The best person coach on fatherhood is a person who never had a father. The best product or service to sell to people is something you once wished you had. So I couldn’t just write to you and tell you to find your gift and use it for your purpose – I had to be lost and not find my gift first!
“The presence of pain is God’s best work”
The word “graduation” is rooted in the word “gradual”. I believe that if you stick to your purpose and hold on during the dark mediocre times in the wilderness, you will eventually graduate. Going back to the seed example; the purpose of the seed is to grow into a tree, and once it is a tree nothing will stand in its way including tar or concrete. This is why you readily see trees breaking through roads and concrete pavements. If such a soft substance (the root of the tree) can gradually push and force its way through the road, imagine the all the things you can push through to reach your end destination or purpose.
The lesson
Initially the reason for pursuing your purpose will be due to ambition. But the more time you spend in the wilderness, your motives are tweaked, fashioned and aligned with your purpose. Firstly, this will enable you to eradicate and eliminate a lot of confusion and unnecessary detours that you will likely be tempted to take when things seem to not be working out. Secondly, this will result in the discernment of bigger reasons for you possessing your gift rather than having a big car and a big house. Thirdly, the wilderness will teach you humility. You will not be in people’s faces telling them who you are or how good you are in a particular area. If you study the successful individuals of this world, you will quickly recognize how much humility they possess. This, I believe, is due to the dark place that has taught them to act this way.
Nothing else will get out of you the hidden treasure that you possess besides the wilderness. Nothing will make sense and probably the best thing to do is to not try and understand anything – just fixate yourself of the outcome and surviving. Grapes is one of the fruits that were born to be crushed in order to get the best out of them – can you relate to this? In order to get the best out of you, you have to be pulped and mashed into what you are supposed to be. REMEMBER: the crushing, pulping and mashing is not the final destination.
“Temp-tation is temp-orary. Just survive.”
Never forget the miracle
It is an offence to forget your miracle. At times, it is the only thing that will keep you going. Throughout the journey from Egypt to the promise land, God repeatedly told the Israelites to not forget the miracles He did for them. Well, they did forget and they suffered the consequences by not going into the land and wondered around the wilderness for 40 years. What does this teach you?
It dawned on me after almost four years in the wilderness that there is nothing I can do – I am in the wilderness. There is nothing wrong with my product or service that I am trying to give to the world. In fact, whatever success you seem to get you will lose because you are not supposed to possess anything in the wilderness – you only endure and live by “grace”.
Excerpt from the book HOW TO QUIT YOUR JOB AND PURSUE PURPOSE, soon to be available…