Pursuing God’s purpose for life

12 Jun, 2016 - 00:06 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Pastor Tinashe Zinyemba Christian Youth
MANY people have abandoned their purpose in life because their needs seem to outweigh their purpose. You become a slave to your own needs and your purpose suffers.

Below is an article that I have paraphrased to help you move from being motivated by needs to being motivated by purpose.

There is a difference between needs motivation and purpose motivation. Needs motivation is all about man chasing after his needs — food, clothing, family, relationships and career. With this, man has to make it happen. With purpose motivation, God makes our needs happen.

All you have to do is focus on the purpose that He has given you. God handles the details of meeting your needs. Matthew 6 v 33, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you”.

You have to understand that before God can really show you your specific purpose in life, you have to be totally committed to Him. The truth is that every man, woman and child was placed on earth to advance God’s purpose and each person was endowed with a natural gift in doing so.

It’s man’s rebellion that throws life into confusion. For example, what would you think of a lion that rebelled against its nature? Could it ever be satisfied living like a mouse? The same is true for you. If you live against your nature, will you ever be satisfied?

Below are the ten simple guidelines you can take to advance God’s Kingdom and find your specific purpose in life.

1. Die to self, advance God’s purpose rather than your own. Matthew 16 v 24-25, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

2. Decide you are going to trust God to meet the needs of your life. Making this decision is the tipping point to finding your specific purpose in life. God can begin to show you what you were designed for. Trust can be tricky though because we have been conditioned for so long to think that we have to meet our own needs.

Even the Christian church gets confused today and tries to secure its needs through “faith”. When our “faith” is simply predicated to the level of our need, then we have missed the point. “Faith” simply becomes a religious metaphor for what everyone else in the world is doing.

True faith trusts God. It focuses on the Kingdom purpose. When your heart has reached this level of understanding and preparedness, you are ready to discover your specific purpose. Look no further than the desires of your heart.

3. Look inside yourself and ask, “What are my deepest desires and most persistent thoughts?”

These thoughts don’t just come to you by chance. God has placed them in you. The reason why they excite you and give you passion is because they are the seeds of the work prepared in advance by God for you.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” Ephesians 2:10.

4. Align your desires with your natural gift. God has given several natural gifts to man, (Romans 12:6-8). But which gift is yours?

5. Determine your gift by understanding the effect it has in someone’s life. Different gifts cause different “effects” in people. By identifying which “effect” brings you the most joy, you can understand your gift.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

Are you a big picture guy? Do you like getting people excited about a cause? Can you speak well? Are you comfortable in front of a crowd and enjoy the spotlight? Do you want your actions to speak louder than your words? Do you like to help people? Do you have a knack for making money? Does everything you touch turn into gold? Do you have a desire to see worthwhile efforts get off the ground? Are you organised? Are you detail oriented? Are you able to understand the process of making something work? Are you able to inspire others to follow your lead?

The “effect” that brings you joy is in your ability to make things run smoothly through your organising skills, or to rally people to a common cause or maybe make someone’s life easier by what you do for them, even to bring someone’s vision to life though your financial support. Once you find your gift(s), determine what vehicle you will use to express it.

6. Determine what vehicle you will use to express your gift — is your style. What is your style? Perhaps God has given you a creative way to express your gift. An insight into your gift provides a foundation from which to build your life. Self discovery is “fanning into flame” the gift that is already in you. “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands,” 2 Timothy 1:6.

7. Get moving on your dreams. God wants you to get moving on your dreams. He wants you to take a step of faith so He can fulfil His purpose in you, (Matthew 7:7-8)

8. Follow a logical path in fulfilling your dreams. Getting where you want to go is like climbing a ladder. Take it one rung at a time. Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to make my dreams happen today?” or, “What’s keeping me from advancing my dreams today?” When you can answer these questions, you will have the next step to fulfilling your dreams.

9. Overcome obstacles that keep you from moving forward. Sometimes it can be as simple as taking a class. Sometimes we get in our own way, we don’t listen to God. This is His master design, give God the time to perform His work. Psalm 27:13-14

10. As confidence grows, opportunity finds you. People are drawn to confidence. The confidence that God brings isn’t conceited. After all, this isn’t about you. God put it in you, God gets the glory. People begin to recognise the gift that God has placed in you. Remember your gift has been foreseen since the beginning of time. God prepared you for it. The whole earth has been waiting for you to appear.

“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed,” (Romans 8:19).

The authority you weld in your given gift is God’s authority. You become the tip of the spear in advancing His truth into your world because you are doing what He designed you to do.

Till next time, God bless.

  • Tinashe Zinyemba is a pastor with New Life Covenant Church. Email feedback to [email protected]

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