Daniel Dessinger

Month: March 2016

  • Everyone Has a Why. Not Everyone Is Proud of Theirs.

    I’ve seen enough tv shows to be influenced by the passionate workaholic worldview of police officers, detectives, firemen, lawyers, and doctors portrayed on the screen. These people work late into the night, rarely seeing family, if they even have one left. They are career-obsessed, often believing they are obligated to save every last possible person to absolve themselves of some sort of past guilt.

    It’s a bit formulaic, I admit. That should cause the formula to lose its potency, but it doesn’t. The idea of being passionately engaged in one’s career still grips many of us as a moral imperative.

    There’s no reason to begrudge a person pride in their vocation. To love what one does with one’s time is a gift to be treasured.

    But when our “why” is based on an uhealed wound, driving and compelling us to “do”, we enter dangerous territory.

    For example, all I ever wanted was to be famous. First, I wanted to be a famous singer. Then it was writing books. Then I wanted to be a world famous revivalist. Then a blogger.

    There’s certainly nothing wrong with being a famous writer, musician, or preacher. You get into a fuzzy area when your goal is the fame rather than the work. That’s not loving what you do. That’s craving attention.

    I doubt many of us would feel proud of that impulse. It’s seen as a sign of weakness. Call it stunted personal growth. Or an obstacle to overcome. For it is only when we find something we love enough to give ourselves to that we find the means to conquer self.

  • God’s Promise Means Prayer Time Is Over

    You can’t Be The Change until you can be yourself. And you can’t be yourself until you see yourself as God sees you. As you pursue Him within the context of a social group, you start to receive words of knowledge and prophecies from other believers. And much of the time, God’s words about you sound like He’s talking about someone else.

    God sees you outside of Time.

    God himself is not subject to Time, so he knows you both as you were, as you are, and as you will be – all at the same time. So when God speaks to you, He speaks to the you who stands before the throne at the end of it all, full of glory and His righteousness.

    He talks to us as though we are already the finished product. As though we’ve already completed all the trials and been purified. And in so doing, He prophesies to us who we are becoming. Who we will become in Time.

    Each promise He gives is done.

    It’s given. If we hear His promises from a perspective that cognitively steps outside of Time and sees that things “just are”, then we realize that outside the timeline the fulfillment of the promise already exists. But within the timeline we have not experienced it yet. But it’s there nonetheless. So we know that the promise realized already is and we cease petitioning God for that thing and we begin thanking him for that thing.

    This is a critical step I missed for years and I don’t want you to suffer the same fate. You don’t HAVE to sit around and resent the fact that what God says isn’t happening. You don’t have to be miserable and depressed because you don’t know how to make what God says come true. 

    Graham Cooke fleshes this out a little in his series, Living Your Truest Identity. ,

    The importance of knowing how you are known in heaven. God loves to give us inheritance words. The whole language of heaven is the language of promise. Everything God does and says has promise attached to it.

    The law of life in Christ Jesus – When God grants you something, he expects you to take him for granted. If you read Isaiah 61, the mission statement of Jesus, he’s granting us things in the context of change and transition. When God gives you something, it’s the end of prayer. When God makes you a promise, what he’s saying is, You no longer need to pray about this anymore. It’s the end of prayer and it’s the beginning of proclamation.

    So when you go through your inheritance words and your prophecies, you understand that God is saying that you are released from supplication about these areas because you have a promise. So now I’m expecting you to stand on the promise and declare to me. I’m expecting you to rejoice. To give thanks. And to praise. Now I want you to stand before me and say, “Thank you that you have given me this. I rejoice in your promise. I rejoice in your intentionality. I rejoice in your faithfulness. And I’m grateful to You that you have now called me into a partnership with you that will enable me to grow in this area outrageously.

    When God gives you a promise, it’s the end of prayer. It’s the beginning of declaration and confession. We are proclaiming to the heavenly host, “I have permission in this area!”

    This changes everything.

    What if those things you’ve been begging God for that He’s already promised would come much faster to you if you just stopped asking and began declaring and thanking? This is what it means to “stand on the promises.” It’s so simple. So profound. And yet it’s not being taught most places. We’re taught to beg and plead for a drop of God’s goodness and to cover up our disappointments when it seems He’s no longer listening.

    Rather than beg like a pauper, let’s proclaim like entitled sons and daughters.

  • Self-Named Domains Are Hit Or Miss

    I’ve owned DanielDessinger.com for many years now. At first it was going to be a supplemental personal blog. Then it was going to be a professional show-off-my-skills blog. Then it became a simple business card with links to other sites.

    Now it’s the archive of articles I’ve written across a dozen or more web properties, most of which I’ve since closed.

    Think of all the people who actually publish on their name domain, and who do something significant with that space. MattCutts.com, SethGodin.Typepad.com, GaryVaynerchuk.com… There are more but I can’t recall them. So it’s easy to look at the idea of a firstnamelastname.com blog and think it’s doomed to fail, and it actually most likely will.

    But then I have this picture in my mind. It’s not attached to a particular blogger, but I see someone who barely scraped together the cash to buy a single domain and some cheap HostGator hosting, and puts their heart and soul into their self-named blog. Whether they’re writing about real estate or the Addams Family really doesn’t matter. They’re writing quality, in-depth articles and evoking obvious passion in the process. Sure, it might have been easier to remember a nice brand name or any name that doesn’t come off as egocentric. But they’re putting in the work and reaping the rewards.

    I am NOT that person. At least, not yet. I’ve struggled for years sharing my actual opinions and ideas in real-time on this site because of the permanent identity connection. While personal branding is a great thing for 21st century digital professionals, I’m not actually looking for work or clients or followers, but never say never. The prospect of someday getting dinged for something I wrote here is a hard pill to swallow… Theoretically.

    I still have two other blogs out there in the blogosphere, but this one won’t go away simply because I’m not peddling any wares.

    The Way I Prefer To Use Social

    Think of this blog as an extension of my Facebook profile. If we’re FB friends, you’d know that means I share random tidbits, sarcastic self-deprecating humor, perspectives on current events, and questions on things we all share somewhat in common.

    I don’t do it from my Facebook Page, because I don’t want to. That doesn’t feel authentic to who I am. I don’t need my friends and long-term acquaintances subscribing to my personal brand page so they can hear the sage wisdom and sharp wit of a guy they never cared about in high school.

    Nah. I’m just me. Sharing what I share. Just in case anyone out there is curious or asks the same questions.

    If so, I hope you’ll drop a comment down below and let me know.