Let's talk about our purpose

Preface

Does a Christian have a purpose? Absolutely! Not only that, but each person in following their decision to become a Christian should find themselves in a labor of love to find out exactly what that purpose is. Who they are in Christ. What will be required of them. How they should live their life as a believer. How their life and lifestyle may need to change. What they are capable of doing because of Christ's death on the cross. What God would want of them in the way of ministering to others, shaping peoples lives and quickening Jesus return. etc.

Will every Christian enter into this purpose seeking journey and come to walk in the fullness of what God intends for them? It all depends on: 1 - How much sincerity one had in making their decision for the Lord. 2 - How much of themselves they are willing to surrender unto God and are open to receive from Him. 3 - How eager they are to learn of the things of God and to apply this new found knowledge to their life as they receive it. 4 - How much of God's truths and good teaching they are receiving, and 5 - Whether, or not someone has taught them the importance of knowing God on a personal level and the importance to diligently seek God, not man, for their every need.

Unless one was raised in a blessed Spirit led home and already has a good foundation in Christ on which to build, they will probably have a lot to learn starting with the basics and are probably going to learn more about God and what their purpose is by trial and error.

Trial and error means a person will learn each day and through their every experience, through good times and bad, through spiritual attack and spiritual blessing, through church lessons and life lessons, at church, from Christian friends, through Holy Spirit revelations and personal studies etc.

Note: That is if one will commit themselves to understand the things of God and in every way it is taught, or shown to them. Those who seek will find something, but those who diligently seek will find more.

There is no one single method one can follow that could help lead a Christian to walk in their fullest potential of purpose. Yes, there are conventional ways by which one can learn of what the bible proclaims for a believer's life, but there are many paths and influences out there, good and bad, that will lend themselves to the shaping of our lives and what we will come to believe as a Christian.

The one thing we as a Christian need to realize for getting our compass steered in the right direction, is that not every teacher, church building, or teaching of the Word of God out there is of God and is teaching a Christian how to live a purpose filled life with God. Which is the purpose of this writing.

Why are more Christians not walking in their purpose, or in God's purpose for them? 1- Usually because not enough Christians are going to the Word of God for themselves and seeking the help of the Holy Spirit to understand that Word. 2- because of bad, inaccurate, or ineffective teachings, 3- bad teachers and mentors in a Christian's life, (those who have a false, understanding of who Christ is and what He taught and wanted, etc,) and 4- because a lot of Christians are not committed, motivated, or encouraged enough to seek to understand the things of God and apply it to their life, even though they want to call themself a Christian, a "follower" of Christ.

The beginning of our walk as a Christian is like that of a young child on their first day of school, not knowing quite what to expect, or what will be expected of them upon walking into their classroom for the first time. Yes they will know what their parents, or other people have told them about school, but being so young they will not be able to fathom what they will learn, how they will learn it, what will be expected of them, in what ways it will change them and what personal challenges may arise for them along the way, until they actually go to school and experience it for themselves.

In school students learn at their own pace and will excel to different levels of learning according to their ability, or handicap to learn. The same applies to a Christian's life. As was in the story Jesus told of the servants and the talents, Matthew 25:14-30. Each servant was held in high esteem and ranked a high position in their Master's house. When assigning tasks to his servants the Master being fair would take into consideration what each servant was capable of doing and assigned their tasks accordingly so as not to give to one more than they could handle and so as not to hinder them from succeeding.

Matthew 25:14-15 NIV 14 "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.

Each servant ranked a high position in the Master's house that is until one of the servants disqualified himself from receiving His Master's esteem. Even though he was capable to perform the task his Master had given him, this servant buried his coin, (hid his lantern under the table) and gave several lame excuses as to why he didn't do anything with that coin for the Master's house.

It is the same as in any school, if a person no matter how smart they are does not apply themselves to the task of learning they will not learn and therefore will not benefit from that knowledge they were supposed to learn. It is a shame when a person who is able to learn becomes a Christian, but will not apply themselves to the fullest of their ability to learn the things of Christ and apply that knowledge to their lives. They shame themselves for not putting forth a sincere effort.

Jesus said that the truth (the knowledge of what God would want for every situation of a person's life) would set a person free from what darkness and ignorance can do to destroy a person and so is a good reason why a person would want to seek after that truth on a daily basis and cover themselves in it. The more one will seek to learn and will commit themselves to the task of learning, the better one will usually do, unless they get misled by unqualified teachers, false teachings, or bad learning habits. Which unfortunately is a possibility for there are many snares and pitfalls out there.

I had said that one of the greatest ways a new Christian would come to realize their purpose would come by trial and error. Let me explain. In a new Christian's pursuit to understand what is of God, what isn't, what part of their life and lifestyle will need to change, what will be expected of them, how they are to represent themselves as a Christian in this world and apply their new found knowledge of Christ to their lives etc, they will find themselves making decisions for the first time based on what they themselves have come to learn about Christ and from what others had taught them.

In these new faith based decisions a person will be able to gauge whether, or not they are understanding Christ's teachings accurately, or if they have good mentors in their life by the results and outcome of what these decisions bring to them. Did it bear the fruit they had expected? Did it benefit in drawing them closer to God? Did it bring God's peace for what they were looking to receive? Did it bring the required change for their life that their teachings, or mentors had said they would receive? Etc.

Also as a note and worth mentioning, in gauging where we are at in a situation we can't always go by feelings for "the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways" Jeremiah 17:9

As a new Christian seeking to grow in the Lord many of us need our hearts mended and our minds renewed and so we can't always go on what we feel, for until satan has been completely evicted from every aspect of our life and our minds have been completely renewed in Christ our feelings cannot always be trusted.

What is God's purpose for us and why are more Christians not walking in their purpose, or in God's purpose for them? This is what we will attempt to explain in this writing. We are going to sift through the many types of teachings and beliefs, many of our Christian resources offer us and clarify what resonates God's truths and what doesn't, what is of God and what isn't and why, in that a Christian can better understand their purpose and walk in it.

A good place to start in coming to terms with understanding who we are in Christ (what our purpose is as a Christian) is by looking at the place many of us Christians have come to rely on for the bulk of our Christian education. Our church.

                                     Back