Life is not necessarily about finding your purpose, it is about knowing The One who has purpose for you. This is why Saul said firstly, “Who are You, LORD?” and then secondly, “What do You want me to do?”. The divine order of things as written in Scripture is GOD first and then purpose, meaning that the LORD must first reveal Himself to you before He can reveal His purpose for you to you [Acts 9:5-6]. Many get stuck in a rut trying to find their purpose when we should be seeking to know who GOD is, because – How do you find your purpose unless The One who made you reveals it to you? How do you even begin to find your purpose if you do not know The One who created you? Your purpose is with The One who made you. The general perception is that serving GOD in whatever capacity is, by natural progression, a fulfillment of His purpose for your life, but this may not be the case.
Of necessity, you must know Whom you serve, with specificity (particularity) to you, to serve Him appropriately. Of necessity, GOD has to reveal Himself to you because you cannot serve someone that you do not know; If the LORD has not revealed Himself to you, you essentially do not know Him. If you do not know whom you are serving then how are you to serve Him? How do you know what to do and if you are doing it right? The LORD revealed Himself to Saul before Saul started serving Him (and became Paul); And this is the picture not just for Saul, but for all of us as believers and children of the living GOD. There is a divinely orchestrated purpose as to why we are born into the world. Jesus knew what His purpose was for being on earth [John 18:37] – since the Father knew Jesus and Jesus knew the Father [John 10:15], Jesus knew the purpose of the Father for His life, and Jesus spoke with the confidence of One who knows The Giver of the purpose upon His life.
Like Christ Jesus, any purpose that you seek to serve requires you to know with clear certainty The One whose purpose you are serving, what His instructions to you are, and what the conditions (for serving) are. Every purpose, assignment, calling, or cause from GOD has a condition (a promise) attached to it, and to show that He has truly revealed His purpose to you, the LORD will tell you what He is going to do when you serve Him. To know GOD is to know your purpose, to know your purpose is to know GOD; And GOD always fulfills His part of any promise that He makes to His good and faithful servants. Scripture tells us that GOD has a methodology that He follows before He reveals His purpose to any person. First Acts 9:5-6 and now Luke 5:5-11 tell us how the revelation of who GOD is comes before He reveals the assignment or purpose. Christ had to first reveal His Lordship to Simon Peter, Andrew, John, and James before He could give them their assignment (and they became His disciples), and these disciples knew The One whose purpose they were called to serve.
True discipleship in the living church requires the same of us as modern-day Christians. May we not follow a Jesus we do not know; May we not follow a GOD we do not know; May we not follow a Holy Spirit that we do not know! The summary of life, from birth to death, is knowing GOD and what He wants us to do, what He created us for. This is the only thing that you and I will be judged on and measured against on the day of reckoning. And notice, that we are not created to serve GOD as we please, according to our ability, skill, or talent, but that we are to serve GOD according to and because of what GOD says and what He reveals to us. Revelation is progressive because as you mature and grow in your spiritual walk, the revelations from GOD promote you from glory to glory [Matthew 16:13-18]. The Jesus you knew when you first entered the Kingdom will not and cannot be the same Jesus you know today; You are supposed to progressively grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The revelation precedes purpose, purpose follows revelation.
Be warned not to assume anything when the LORD has not revealed Himself to you, dear child of GOD, because if you run on assumptions you could possibly serve a purpose that has not come from GOD; You will toil and wait on GOD to come through for you and He will not because GOD does not, will not, and cannot support a calling, a purpose, or an assignment that did not come from Him. Look at what happens to the disciples in John 21:1-6 in this regard, where, after the revelation of His purpose to Simon Peter (after Jesus specifically telling Simon Peter what his purpose was), he decides to go back to fishing. This happened after Jesus’ resurrection, and Simon Peter inadvertently takes six other disciples (namely Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two other disciples) with him into this state of regression (being backslidden). On this day, Simon Peter says to the other disciples, “I go a fishing” / “I am going out to fish” [John 21:3a KJV/NIV], and the other disciples respond by saying, “We also go with thee” / “We’ll go with you” [John 21:3b KJV/NIV]. What happened thereafter was a total disaster: They caught zero fish; And worse yet, they could not recognize Jesus when He appeared on the shore [John 21:4-6].
The disciples failed at catching fish because any business they had fishing ended the day the LORD called them out to their assigned purpose – the mercy of GOD closed up everything of their old lives so that they could not slip even further into their backslidden state. Know that you will not hear the voice or the Word of GOD calling to you and that you will not have the discernment to realize places that do not have the presence of GOD for what they are when you are backslidden. GOD pulled you out of that old state, thing, place, or relationship when He called to give you purpose; You taking yourself back there will never lead to prosperity, as that is not GOD’s purpose for you (for your life). We would do well to remember that we were never created to be independent of GOD and that this is why we cannot do anything without Him. Seeking autonomy and independence in the Kingdom of GOD is high treason. Attempting independence is trying to overthrow GOD, to overthrow the government of GOD, to oust GOD from your life. When you choose for yourself what you want to do outside of the will and the purpose of GOD, you commit a spiritual coup d’état to overthrow the Lordship, authority, and sovereignty of GOD in your life.
Life is much deeper than it seems. GOD is rightfully entitled to assign purpose unto our lives because every person was spirit before we were flesh and GOD knew us before we were conceived and became flesh [Jeremiah 1:4-5]; Before conception, we were with GOD and we were in GOD. Every human being comes from GOD, and it was while we were in that unformed state that GOD predestined and predetermined the purpose for our lives. GOD created the purpose first, then He created each of us to fulfill a specific purpose. We struggle in life because we are forcing issues that GOD has not predetermined for us. For us to live a Godly, righteous, peaceful, and prosperous life according to GOD’s purpose, the answers to the two questions, ‘Who are you LORD?’ and ‘What do You want me to do?’ are crucial for us to know. In Romans 8:29-30 and in Jeremiah 1:4-5, Scripture clearly lays out that GOD has predestined our life paths, that He made us exactly as He intended, in accordance with the purpose that He created us to fulfill, and that He finished our lives before we even lived a single second of it.
The primary and foremost purpose for every single human being on this green earth is to be conformed to the image of Christ, to seek GOD, and leave the rest, as He will take care of the rest. The Bible tells us to grow up into the full measure of Christ in all areas of our lives and ensure that who we are in the world resembles Christ [Ephesians 4:13,15]. GOD made us, He determined our lifespan, He determined our purpose [Psalms 139:13-17]. We are on this earth on GOD’s assignment to fulfill the purpose of GOD in our lifetimes. It is written that the thoughts GOD has for us are amazingly wonderful and innumerable [Psalms 139:17-18a NIV/TPT]. The propaganda narrative that satan pushes, infiltrates our minds with ungodly thoughts (ideas) because he knows that everything begins with a thought, that thoughts drive us, and that the world is run by thoughts. Satan means to stop us from having a pleasing, successful, victorious life in Christ. However, GOD first put the end (the purpose) in place before HE made us, HE does what pleases Him, and will not change HIS mind [Isaiah 46:10 NKJV]. So take great comfort in knowing that anything that does not fit the amazingly wonderful innumerable description of GOD’s thoughts for us, is neither the will nor the purpose of GOD for us.
We are on this earth on GOD’s assignment to fulfill the purpose of GOD in our lifetimes. It is written that the thoughts GOD has for us are amazingly wonderful and innumerable. So take great comfort in knowing that anything that does not fit the amazingly wonderful innumerable description of GOD’s thoughts for us, is neither the will nor the purpose of GOD for us
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