I have a question I’d like to ask: After finding your purpose, how do you get to the starting point?
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Hey @alexis,
That’s a beautiful question.
I think the most important step to finding your starting point is to write down your purpose as clearly as possible.
Let me illustrate; perhaps this example will help you find your way forward.
Life Purpose: “My purpose in life is to live my life with God and help others to do the same.”
Now I could identify each part:
- What habits do I need to practice to live my life with God?
I would want to practice the presence of God.
How can I do that?
I could learn from Brother Lawrence’s book The Practice of the Presence of God.
Problem: I read the book, then forget about it.
Solution: I could turn the book into a daily prayer guide.
Now I’m learning to live my life with God.
- How can I help others live their life with God?
I could have this daily prayer guide turned into a series of emails.
Problem: People don’t want a daily email.
Solution: I could have these emails turned into a workbook, and have it professionally designed.
Now I’m giving Together away for free as a PDF.
My point is that working out our life purpose is an iterative process that develops over time.
What do you think your life purpose is?
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HE took me to Luke 1:17. Let me give you a bit of background. When I was saved in 2000 the Bible opened up and I went skipping through asking for other people’s stuff…Like the compassion of YESHUA, the faith of Abraham…now Im to Elijah the Tishbite and ordinary man, with extraordinary power who just happened to be a prayer warrior, funny was about the time HE was ordaining me to the Prayer Warriors Hall of Fame…I finished with Elijah and out of my mouth flew “I want to be just like Elijah” the whirlwind out of heaven was what I was asking for, as I did not want to be a prophet. Needless to say, when HIMSELF would not let me be what I want to be, I have accepted that whole prophet thing.Years later I asked what is my purpose, what did YOU send me down here to do…Luke 1:17 and Malachi 4-6 immediately popped up. He will go forth in the spirit of Elijah…so I do know how I’m leaving…laughing so hard tears are rolling
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Hey @alexis , great question! I can see you have a heart to serve God and enthusiasm to preach the Gospel, which is wonderful. I will pray that God uses you to change lives.
As I was thinking about finding one’s purpose, it struck me that there are probably more than one purpose to our lives. For example, I really like how the Westminster Catechism states that the main purpose of man is to love God and enjoy him forever. So to that end, how do I go about loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength? How do I go about enjoying him? I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you said that you turned to the Bible as this will help you get to know Him more and love Him more.
After that, we may have earthly callings on our lives that God has given us. Maybe it’s to serve others through a ministry, preach the gospel, or intercede for others, for example. It sounds like you have a heart for prayer, which is great. Keep praying. You’ve been asking for the compassion of Jesus and the faith of Abraham. These are both qualities that would be considered fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) which comes from living life of faith in God, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
You want to be just like Elijah. What did Elijah do? He pointed people to God. He also brought warnings to Israel for disobedience. How can you live out your life that points to Christ? How can you model a life of spiritual discipline and love for God to others who don’t know what this looks like? In Luke 1:17 , the prophecy over John the Baptist is that he’d be like Elijah in the way he’d point to the Messiah. Obviously this was a one-off prophecy specifically just for John the Baptist who opened the way for the Messiah to bring the Kingdom of Heaven and salvation to mankind. Whilst we can’t apply that directly to ourselves in exactly the same way, I really like how you want to imitate the way he pointed others to Christ and I’d encourage you to keep asking God to equip you and embolden you to share the gospel.
You mentioned Malachi 4:4-6 which speaks of God’s judgement, and interestingly ends the whole of the Old Testament on a curse. How wonderful that the New Testament opens with the arrival of the Messiah to redeem the world from the curse. This is another great purpose of every believer: to fulfil the commission that Jesus gave to make disciples. baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:18-20).
Would you say that you consider yourself to have a gift of prophecy? This is certainly one of the gifts that Paul exhorted the Corinthian church to eagerly desire (1 Cor 14:1). Are you part of a church well grounded in scripture that can nurture this gift safely and within the confines of scripture? I ask this because if you feel that this is one of the purposes or gifts that God has given you, it needs to be carefully encouraged with others who teach on spiritual gifts according to how the New Testament models. 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14 is worth spending some time studying if you want to understand and practice spiritual gifts more. I have personally found it very helpful.
As I consider your question, I’m not sure there’s one single starting point for fulfilling the purpose God has over your life. I think there are multiple ways which will include meeting with a body of believers, studying the word of God, praying constantly, being open to the Holy Spirit’s leading, listening to sound Bible-based teaching, and being faithful in the small things (Matt 25:14-30). I love how Acts 4:32-35 models the hearts of faithful followers of Christ who impacted the people around them with the love of God, the truth of the Word, and the power of the Spirit. I hope that these examples can be an encouragement for you as you seek God to serve Him more.
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Thank you Allison, thank you so very much for answering that it gave me a starting point and a different perspective, It’s amazing how great it is to know I am walking in the right direction. I will study 1st Cor 12-14.
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