Once you’ve found your purpose, how do you actually do it?
In my last post, we learned that finding God’s will is not a mystery, it’s relational. Over the last several posts, I’ve been sharing my own personal journey of finding purpose through a season where it seemed foggy and unclear. You can access those posts at the end.
Seeing the BIG PICTURE
Today I want to drop the fourth and final MACRO question when it comes to finding and fulfilling your purpose. MACRO questions deal with the BIG PICTURE. After this, we will begin exploring your unique micro purpose or God’s unique will and purpose for you.
MACRO vs. Micro
- “MACRO” Purpose is not God’s will and purpose for you but rather His Will and Purpose period. I call them “BIG W” and “BIG P”. These are determined by BIG PICTURE questions.
- Your “micro” purpose is God’s will and purpose for you. I call them “little w” and “little p”. These have to do with your spiritual gifts as well as your natural gifts, talents, strengths/abilities, passions, experiences, and sphere of influence.
Knowing vs. Doing
Knowing and doing are two different things. Just like understanding God’s will and purpose isn’t a mystery, how to do His will isn’t a mystery either. The Bible lays it out very clearly for us. I summarize it like this:
Prayer. Presence. Obedience.
Prayer: Getting to Know God
According to Jesus, God’s kingdom is to be our primary pursuit, but He also made it clear – that is impossible without prayer!
This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10 NIV)
It’s hard to get somewhere if you don’t know where you’re going, and you don’t know how to get there. The kingdom of God is the outcome and prayer is the process. The destination is heaven on earth and one of the vehicles that gets us there is prayer.
May I suggest something? Maybe the reason we aren’t experiencing more of God’s kingdom is our lack of prayer.
If you’re like most, your prayer life is severely lacking. Many use the excuse, “I don’t know how to pray.” Jesus gave us a model in Matthew 6. All you have to do is read it and begin. Let’s be real. It’s not that we don’t know how to pray; it’s that we haven’t prioritized prayer. The best way to learn how to pray is to start doing it!
Why not start today?
Knowing and doing God’s will also means knowing and praying the written Word of God – the Bible. The Bible gives us clear and explicit instructions on how to pray and what to pray for. If you’re not sure how to pray, start by praying the promises of God in the Bible. Just pick one and start! There are over 8000 of them!
Jesus doesn’t dictate how much we should pray, but He does tell us prayer is a vital part of our relationship with Him, and he tells us how to pray. I want to encourage you to do a fresh re-read of that prayer in Matthew 6:1-16.
Presence: Where Transformation Happens
Prayer is more than just asking God for things. It also helps us cultivate God’s Presence in our lives. There are three types of God’s presence:
- Omnipresence – God is everywhere all the time.
- Indwelling Presence – God’s presence dwells inside of us (we are the temple of the Holy Spirit). He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
- Manifest Presence – This is His glory or His “made known” presence. This is the tangible presence of God. Though we can never lose the indwelling presence of God, when the Holy Spirit is grieved, His manifest presence isn’t apparent. When He shows up in this way we can sense it and this is when miracles usually happen.
Let’s focus on numbers 2 and 3 for a moment. In order to walk in God’s purpose, we need to grow in communication with Him and foster the ability to recognize what He is doing at any given moment. The Holy Spirit within us must be cultivated to recognize what He is also doing around us.
As you get more comfortable and familiar with His indwelling presence, you are able to recognize more of His made-known presence or His presence around you.
Start by cultivating your relationship with Him, then you will notice an increased ability to recognize what He is doing around you. We see this operating in Jesus’ own life:
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)
“Wait a minute, Jesus was/is God! This was easy for Him” You might say. He was also fully man and came to show us how to have a relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit. It’s my belief that Jesus was able to recognize what the Holy Spirit was doing around Him because He had cultivated a deep relationship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. What do you think He was doing all those times that He drew away to the mountain by Himself to pray? Why do you think the disciples asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray?” They saw something in His prayer life they wanted to emulate.
Prayer is not an end in itself, it’s a means to an end. The end result of prayer is a deeper relationship with God, more prayer, answered prayer, transformation, and yes, even God Himself! And when God Himself shows up, everything else becomes irrelevant.
Moses gave us a powerful example of what this might look like:
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, The Message)
The thing about Moses was he did not even have God’s indwelling presence! As New Testament believers, we have a better covenant than Moses – Christ in us the hope of glory! As we learn to pray and cultivate God’s indwelling and made-known presence in our lives, there is often some sort of response required. That leads me to my next point.
Obedience: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Most Westerners don’t like the word obedience. It speaks of kings and queens and times gone by. It conjures pictures of a dictator or a demagogue. And in our hyper-individualistic society, we don’t like being told what to do. While Jesus is the King of kings; He’s also our friend, and while God is the Almighty and judge; He’s also our Father. As I shared in part 3, relationship with God always comes before obedience, and without relationship, obedience doesn’t last.
Truth without relationship leads to rejection, rules without relationship lead to rebellion, discipline without relationship leads to bitterness, anger, and resentment. (Joshua McDowell)
Though this quote is in reference to parenting, the same applies to our relationship with God.
His commands are not burdensome because they flow from love and relationship.
God is Good
If you believe that God is good, and God is always working for your good (see Romans 8:28) then following His commands is easy.
It’s when you don’t believe that God has your best at heart that obedience becomes hard.
A revelation of God’s goodness is only cultivated when we know His character, and this only comes through time spent in with Him. This is especially true when we go through difficult things in life.
It’s impossible to know Christ deeply and believe He can do or be anything but good. As the Scripture says, every good and perfect gift comes from Him (see James 4:16).
Presence. Prayer. Obedience. This is how we do God’s will. It’s the same for every believer. Maybe it’s not what you thought, but it is the way of the kingdom.
(MACRO) Purpose Question #4
How do I walk in God’s will and purpose? (read Exodus 33:14, Matthew 6:9-10, John 14:15 and answer the question)
Now write a concise statement and add it to your answers from MACRO questions 1, 2, and 3.
The Purpose Roadmap
You can access the whole purpose roadmap here:
- Purpose Quest Intro: When Your Purpose Seems Foggy and Unclear
- Purpose Quest 1: Dealing with Your Daddy Issues
- Purpose Quest 2: You Are Not a Waste of Space
- Purpose Quest 3: Your Purpose Is Not a Mystery
- Purpose Quest 5: Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts
- Purpose Quest 6: Passion Inspires Purpose
- Purpose Quest 7: You Are Great at Something
- Purpose Quest 8: You Are One-of-a-kind. Don’t Waste It!
- Purpose Quest 9: There Is Purpose In Your Pain
- Purpose Quest 10: Finding Your People
