How many times have you pondered on your reason for living? What you should be doing with your life, who you have in your life, what job to take, and which decision is best on the road you're on... all these are questions many people spend so much time deliberating on.
We each have a purpose. One single specific purpose. But what priority does that one purpose have in our life? No, it's not the job we work so hard through college to obtain. It's not the choices we make in rearing our children. It has nothing to do with the neighborhood we pick to live in to establish our social status within a community. Our specific purpose is our high calling... our individual assignment to build God's Kingdom here on earth.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:14)
Paul knew his calling. He knew his purpose. Not only did he press toward it, but achieving that purpose was his ultimate blessing... it, in itself, was his PRIZE. It wasn't about the blessings he received in return for being obedient to his calling, instead he found honor in being chosen for the purpose God had for him, and he worked specifically to fulfill that position.
Are you a greeter at your church because it allows you to catch up on what everyone is doing as you greet them as though it's just a social function, or because God has you in a place to reach out and make others in your life feel welcomed despite their circumstance? Are you collecting canned food out of your pantry because there's a local food drive and you don't want to be the only heel in the community that forgot to contribute, or has God given you a passion for those in need? Are you tending the nursery during service because your name appears in the bulletin for helping out, or because there's a young mother in the congregation that needs spiritually fed during the sermon and cannot be with a crying toddler by her side in the pew? Are you writing a blog for the comments and website traffic it's bringing you, or because you know God has someone out there, somewhere, that needs to hear exactly what you're typing for them to read?
There are MANY purposes, those above don't even touch the surface and may just be something extra you do just because you want to do more for God in addition to the sole purpose He has you here for... but there is one specific purpose set aside just for you. The object is to discover which one was designed with your name on it. If we live our lives like Paul did, and press toward the prize, which is, in itself, our calling... our lives can then be lived abundantly. We will no longer be going through the motions of life, but living it the way we were designed to!
We are not here on earth to get the best possible job, obtain the house that everyone else we know envies, have the nicest wardrobe, or brag on the stuff we've collected. We're here to deliver God's word and establish ourselves for Him... not self. It's when we forget about our circumstances and concentrate on our Kingdom Assignment that we have begun to fully live. Many are still seeking God for His purpose in their lives. We each have, and should be embracing, a relationship assignment, a prophetic assignment, and a Kingdom assignment.
Your relationship assignment is your daily, weekly, and yearly role of drawing closer to God your Father, Jesus your Lord, and the Holy Spirit your friend. Your prophetic assignment is allowing God to touch your mouth so that through your voice His will can be manifested in the earth. Unless you declare, proclaim, and prophesy, what’s in heaven will remain in heaven, and what hell has loosed in the earth and in the lives of people will stay loosed. Your Kingdom assignment is your active part in the advancement of God's Kingdom right here on the earth while we are here on it.
The part God has called you to play was determined before you were born, just as your eyes were determined by God to be the organs that were chosen to see. Life is to be lived in the hot pursuit of that assignment. The Holy Spirit knows your assignment, and praying in the Spirit stirs your assignment. When you lose sight of your assignment, your spiritual life WILL slide.
Your assignment can be found in His presence, not from the conveniences of your circumstances. You are either advancing towards the fulfillment of your assignment or you are sliding back into your circumstances. When your Kingdom assignment becomes subject to your circumstances, your circumstances are strengthened and the Kingdom of God is weakened. When you make your circumstances subject to your Kingdom assignment there will be breakthrough and the Kingdom is propelled forward. Your assignment has a bulls eye on it that can be seen by the enemy. He may not know what it is, but he is more committed to you not knowing than you are to knowing.
There are six general questions you can ask yourself to help determine your calling... or "Kingdom Assignment". The answers to these six questions are clues to aid you in figuring out what your Kingdom Assignment is, based on how God has designed YOU, as an individual. Ultimately the Holy Spirit is our guide in confirming our assignment within our heart, but these six questions can assist in getting us started on the quest. When the desire to discover your purpose is in place, these can help you see exactly who God has created you to be for HIS purpose!
1) Who or what touches your heart, unlocking a compassion that overwhelms you beyond all else?
This will be something that moves you like nothing else. It stirs you up, motivates you, and melts your heart. Some people have a passion for children, the elderly, the homeless, the incarcerated, the disabled, the lost, the abandoned... the list is endless and these only name a few, and every heart is, and will be different. So what stirs your heart may not stir mine. This doesn't mean I lack compassion, it just means God designed you to reach out within an area different from what He designed me for.
2) What do you hate?
Often times, if you hate it, then it’s likely that whatever touches your heart is the opposite! Yes, hate is a strong word... but we all hate something! Do you hate clutter? Than you more than likely have a very organized home. Do you hate peas? Then you probably don't cook them very often for dinner. When you hate something, your instincts direct you to do something about it to change it. If you hate it, what are you doing to change it? And if it isn't motivating you enough to make a change, then maybe the hatred of it isn't installing a burning desire deep enough for it to be something you're meant to help change.
3) What do you see as the biggest problem within the church (as a whole)?
I'm not asking you to sit around and pick apart the church you specifically attend. I'm speaking about the church, the body of Christ, in general. It’s likely the ministry you see as lacking, as the very one that is relevant to what you hate, or what touches your heart. Should there be a larger emphasis on seniors, for children, for funding buildings, for the prison ministry, for mission trips, for keeping the church clean, stocking the food pantry, home visits, tent revivals... what YOU see as a general problem in the church and what it should be doing more of could very well be the area that the Lord is telling you to make a difference in! We can't all work with kids, we don't all feel led to witness within prison walls, we don't all have the personality it takes to run fund raisers for a building fund, and we're not all neat and organized being able to polish and dust every corner of the church... but there ARE people out there with those capabilities... and guess what... they ALL make up the body of Christ!
4) At the fullest potential of the church, what does that church look like to you?
What you see the most of in that vision is likely to be something relevant to your calling. Are there more people getting saved? Is the church bigger? Are there more mission trips going on? Are there community outreaches? Is it filled with more youth? Are there more couples attending? Perhaps senior citizens or homeless people are being bused in to attend. When YOU close YOUR eyes, what "improvements" are made when YOU step back and see the church doing more for the Lord?
5) What has God always blessed in your life?
If there is a certain something you find yourself doing when finding favor with the Lord, do more of it!! He’s blessing it because it pleases Him! When things stop going smoothly for you in your walk with God and in your life in general... it's time to evaluate what you changed in your life. If you feel closer to God while doing something specific, doesn't it make sense to surround yourself in those actions?
6) If you could not fail, what would you want to do to build the Kingdom?
With no lack of funds, without pressure for time, if you had all the volunteers in the world to lend a hand, and no limit on space, if there was no possible chance of failure whatsoever, no limits to the possibilities... what would you choose to do for God? You see, with God, ALL things are possible (Matthew 19:26), so what's the issue? If you would be willing to do it under the circumstances of no limit to money, space, help, or chance of failure... then why not embrace it now? God will see it through when your heart is in it for Him! You will be provided for. God always supplies that which He has ordained. If you are outside of His purpose, you have to take care of yourself. But if you are walking in His purpose, He will meet all your needs without failure.
I encourage you to find your purpose! No Kingdom assignment is too big or too small or out of reach when it's done with the sole purpose of pressing toward what God has for YOU to do! The greeter at the church door is just as precious to God as the evangelist that is holding crusades with thousands kneeling at an alter. The person playing the piano for the church can hold more anointing than the most current Christian music artist on the charts. The dinner you made for the family that just moved in down the street may be the first real meal they've had in weeks, and that outreach is no different than the truckloads of food missionaries are delivering to countries going without.
It's your calling, your Kingdom assignment... your PURPOSE. Make it count, make it an honor, and press toward it... your creator is depending on you.
Regardless how bad we think we have it, how awful and uncontrollable our circumstances may seem, regardless of how distraught we feel inside, there is always an answer.
