1 Peter 4:10-11
Here are 4 signs that often mean God is saying, “Stop asking permission to fulfill your passion.”
1. If You Are Waiting for Others to Allow You to Use Your Gifts, God Is Saying, “Stop Asking Permission”
We live in a world where “gatekeepers” are vanishing more and more. In the past, if you wanted people to hear your music, you had to get a concert venue to book you or a talent agent to notice you. Now you can just upload a video on YouTube and let the market decide if you have musical talent or not. If you have art to share, a book to write, a ministry to make, or something to say, you used to need others to allow you to share this with an audience. Now, with the internet, you don’t need to ask. You can just post it and the people will decide if your content is helpful or not.
This is the mindset Christians should have. For too long, we have given our power away to big churches, to book publishers, to music labels, and to corporations. This is not the mindset of the early disciples. They didn’t go to the pharisees to ask permission. They felt convicted by the Holy Spirit to speak the truth, and so they spoke the truth.
When Peter and John were told to stop by the religious gatekeepers of their time, they said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard,” (Acts 4:19-20)
If you are asking others to let you use your gift, stop asking permission. Just do it.
I’m not saying you should rush the stage or have a hostile takeover. Just look for other ways to do what you feel called to do instead of asking other people to let you do what you want to do. You are commanded by God to use your gift to serve others for God’s glory. As 1 Peter 4:10-11 states:
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
2. If Others Are Doubting Your Dreams and This Is Making You Quit, God Is Saying, “Stop Asking for Permission”
If you stop when others doubt you, you will stop quickly because many will doubt you. In fact, almost everyone will doubt you until you’ve already done it. Even those who love you most rarely believe you will accomplish your dreams. At best, those who love you will simply support you and encourage you even when they don’t understand what you are doing and working towards.
But here’s the thing, you don’t need everyone in your life to understand and believe in your dream. It’s your dream. Not theirs. God gave it to you. They will understand it once you manifest it. Almost everyone will doubt your dream until you have fulfilled your dream. People’s support often only comes after you don’t really need it anymore.
And I’m not saying this in a bitter or mean way. Everyone has their own dreams. Why should they be expected to understand your dream? God gave you that dream. He didn’t give it to them. They will only see what you see once you manifest it by God’s grace and power working through you.
The only person who sees the vision before it happens is the person God has chosen to fulfill it. Prepare yourself to work when no one praises you or understands you. Working alone always comes before people wanting your work. As 1 Peter 4:14-16, 19 explains:
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name . . . Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
3. If You Believe You Need Money to Follow Your Passion, God Is Saying, “Stop Asking Permission”
Stop letting a lack of money be your excuse. Paul served Christ whether he had plenty or much (Philippians 4:12-13). Sometimes people gave him money so he could focus on ministry (Philippians 4:10, 14-20) and sometimes he had to work and make his own money so he could still do ministry (Acts 20:33-35).
Here’s a general observation I have found to be true: If you don’t work weekends, you haven’t found your passion. As I heard one clever Instagram reel put it, “Use the weekend to build the life you want instead of trying to escape the life you have.”
Of course I’m not saying it’s wrong to take a break. But generally speaking, you have to work weekends when you are truly pursuing your passion. Either your passion will be so consuming you need the weekends for more time, or you will be working other jobs on the weekend to supply the resources so you can fulfill your passion.
4. Stop Asking People for Permission Because People Are Not the Gatekeepers. God Is
Here’s the point I’m really trying to make: If you are always waiting for people’s permission, you will always be waiting.
No one is coming to cut you a check so you can do what you feel led to do. No one is going to see your undeveloped potential and then develop it for you. They will see your potential after you’ve already developed it with the Lord.
And even if you never make a penny pursuing your passion or you never develop into what you wanted, you should still pursue it. Through trying and failing, our dreams and passions are refined by the Lord. When one door closes, God will lead you through a different door.
So in closing, I’m not saying if you try to follow your dreams this will guarantee that you will get the results you want. But I am promising you that if you never follow your dreams, you will never get the results you want.
May the Lord lead you as you stop asking other people for permission and you start follow the Lord into to the passions he has given you (Psalm 37:3-4).
