One of the big questions in life is determining what we are here to do. This one question causes identity crises for many of our youth. Some don’t really get over that, because they never find their true calling. Those people can spend their whole lives going from one thing to the next, without ever finding satisfaction.
For those who consider themselves believers, the challenge becomes even greater, as the question isn’t just “Why am I here?” but rather becomes “What’s God’s purpose for my life?” The true believer is more concerned with this than what they want out of life, even if they already have a family, home and career. But figuring out just what God’s plan is for your life can be challenging, especially for the new believer.
There are actually several stages to this, as God’s plan for any of our lives is multi-faceted. He is not only concerned with what we do with our lives, but who we are in life as well. Our lives need to glorify Him in some way; but that doesn’t necessarily mean by the career or vocation that we have. We glorify Him more by who we are, than what we do. What we do often gives us a platform to show who we are.
First, God Wants Our Love
God created us to be in relationship with Him. The Bible tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and love needs a recipient. Without a recipient, love has no way of being used. It serves no purpose. So, God created us, because He needed us to love, just as a woman might feel a need to have a baby to love.
Love wants a response. When one loves, they want to be loved in return. We know that God is no different in this, because we are created in His image (Genesis 1:26). That can’t be talking about His physical image, because he doesn’t have a body. It has to be talking about other characteristics, like love. Our natural marriage relationships are a parallel with our relationship with Him and are intended to teach us about being in that relationship with Him. Paul makes this clear, when he wrote to the church of Ephesus about marriage. Right in the middle of that passage, he wrote:
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. – Ephesians 5:32
We all know that marriage is supposed to be about love. People get married because they love one another. As their relationship grows, so should their love for one another. When things work as they should, the love that they each receive is multiplied and given back to the other. Likewise, our relationship with God should be based on love. He shows us His love and we respond with our own.
We love Him because He first loved us. – 1 John 4:19
Love and Obedience
Yet, just as people “fall out of love” or stop loving their spouse, some people stop loving God as well. They reach a point in their lives, where they believe what God is asking of them is too much and won’t take that next step. Instead of loving Him, they allow their love for themselves and their sin to take over. Yet Jesus said “If you love me, keep my commandments.” – John 14:15. This makes it pretty clear that we show our love for God and for Jesus by obedience, more than by anything else we can do.
Of course, His ability to do anything else in our lives is largely dependent on our obedience. We can ask God what His plan for our life is all day long, but if we’re not going to obey, it really doesn’t matter how He answers.
Obedience doesn’t just mean obedience in those things we want to obey Him in either. It’s easy to obey something that we want to do anyway. But true love is shown by doing what we don’t want to or not doing what we want to, because He has told us to. That’s much harder; but for Him to use us in the plan He has for us, it is essential.
Love and Salvation
God’s love is manifest towards us in a myriad of ways; but the greatest of them is Jesus dying on the cross, in payment for our sins. We are all unable to pay the price for the sins that we commit, so God took care of that for us, showing His love for us, as is stated in the most famous verse of the Bible.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. – John 3:16
God did the hard part for us, leaving us only needing to accept what He did and that we need what He did for us. Doing so eliminates our need to pay the price for our own sins, as Jesus paid the price for us. We are “saved” from our sins in that we are saved from the need to pay the price for them ourselves. At the same time, being forgiven from our sins puts us into the right relationship with God, so that we can receive His love and give Him our love in return.
Second, God Wants Us Transformed
God is actually not satisfied that we are saved; He has more for us and wants to give us more. That doesn’t necessarily mean that He wants to give us the things that we might ask for. We tend to ask for material things, while God desires to give us spiritual ones. Ultimately, those spiritual things are of much more value.
The biggest thing that God wants to give us, is the character of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only perfect man ever born and to be remade into His image allows us to do what He did, in the way that He did it. We won’t have to go to the cross, as He did that once for all; but the more we can become like Him, the more we can do to minister to others.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren. – Romans 8:29
So, just what does “conformed to His image” mean? We don’t actually have pictures of Jesus, although many artists have tried to paint what they thought He looked like. But that doesn’t mean that Jesus actually looked like they think He did. Besides, it is doubtful that God is talking about conforming us to the physical image of Jesus Christ. He is talking about conforming us to His spiritual image; His character. That’s a horse of a different color entirely. But where do we find that image, without taking the whole of the Bible as describing it?
Probably the simplest way to understand the image of Christ and His character is explained to us by Paul, in what we call “the fruit of the Spirit.” Just being able to manifest those character traits on a consistent basis will eliminate most of our own character failings, making us much more like Him.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23
Sadly, we generally ignore these two verses, other than to use them as a teaching in children’s Sunday School classes, where they make mobiles with fruit hanging on them. But this could very well be the most profound teaching in the New Testament, as it shows us how to be Christ-like. It is especially powerful when we compare and contrast it to the fruit of the flesh, which Paul also talks about.
Now the worlds of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissentions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. – Galatians 5:19-21
Everyone struggles with these things, which we refer to as our “flesh nature.” As believers, many try to avoid them, working in their own strength to remove them from their lives, thinking that it is God’s will. But we do not have the strength in and of ourselves to do that. We need God’s help. Which is why Romans 8:29 is so important. But allow me to give you something that will help. That is, if you concentrate on making the fruit of the Spirit manifest in your life, that will drive the fruit of the flesh out, as there isn’t room for them both.
This is the transformation that God wants to see in our lives. It is a major part of His plan for each and every one of us. In fact, our ability to complete any other thing He has for us to do, is largely dependent on our ability to become more like Jesus Christ.
Third, He Wants Us to Minister to Others
The more like Christ we become, the better we are able to represent Him to others. That includes presenting the gospel message to them. That gospel message isn’t as much preached to them, as it is lived before them. One of the greatest quotes of Christian history says:
Preach the gospel in all the world…
and if necessary, use words. – St. Frances of Assisi
When we move outside ourselves and what God desires to do within us, God’s will for our lives is all about what we can do for others. That starts with helping others find a relationship with Him, through the sacrificial work that His Son did on the cross. According to Saint Frances of Assisi, we do that more by how we live, demonstrating what He has done in our lives, than anything else.
That doesn’t mean that it ends there though. While salvation is important, the Great Commission isn’t just about salvation; it’s about making disciples.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. – Matthew 28:18-20
A key word in that commission is the word “disciple.” A disciple is one who is under discipline; not in the sense of punishment for wrong acts, as in the sense of disciplining them to make them into a better person. A good image of that is boot camp, which has the purpose of turning civilians into soldiers.
Once again, we’re back to the Fruit of the Spirit. The difference is that here it’s about helping others manifest that fruit in their lives, whereas before it was about manifesting it in our lives. We must manifest it in ourselves first, so that we can have the ability to show others how to follow suit. Just as we are being led along a journey of becoming more Christlike, we are all responsible for leading others.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to be a perfect man, to have the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. – Ephesians 4:11-13
This is where Paul wrote about what we call the five-fold ministry. Not everyone is called to be part of this group of full-time ministers; but we are all called to help accomplish the goal of the five-fold ministry in some way. Verse 12 tells us the purpose of the five-fold ministry is to equip or prepare the saints (all of the Body of Christ) for the work of the ministry. Then, verse 13 tells us that the purpose of the work of the ministry is to help us all to have unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God and how to reach the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” In other words, how to become like Him.
Ultimately, this is the work of us all; to help one another become more like Christ. We won’t do it all the same way; but it will all be working towards that goal, regardless of the particular part each of us plays. Looking at the five-fold ministry, who are mentioned in the first part of that passage, we can see that they don’t all do the same thing. Most evangelists make very poor pastors; and so do most prophets. But a pastor can’t necessarily move in the ministry of the prophet either. Each has their role to play in our lives and we need all five.
Somehow, everything else we might do, is going to fit into that framework, either supporting those five ministry offices in some way or augmenting them. Someone who builds churches on the mission field can be seen to be supporting the work of the evangelist and the pastor, raising up churches for the people in that country. Someone who runs a food pantry in the church, giving food to the poor, may not be able to evangelize well, but their work can tie in to that of the evangelist, opening people’s hearts to hear the gospel message. It all works together.
Finding Your Particular Niche
This brings us to how we find God’s particular plan or niche for each of our lives, what most people consider the hard part. But it’s actually not as hard as it might seem. For most of us, the things we are interested in and naturally good at doing give us an indication of what God has created us, individually, to do. God gave us those interests and abilities for His purposes, not for our own.
This does not necessarily mean that we are born with the capacity to do these things, but rather the natural inclination towards them. As we go through life, our experiences give us the opportunity to learn the skills we need, so that we can do what God has called us to do.
As an example, one could have an interest in writing, even from a young age; but that doesn’t mean they know how to write. They will probably learn a little about writing in school, but not enough to write a book. Once they get into the workforce, they might find themselves in a job that requires a lot of writing, even though that wasn’t what they expected. Nevertheless, by writing for that job, they improve their writing skills. Then, when God tells them He wants them to write for Him, they are prepared, even though they didn’t realize that’s what they were preparing for.
God uses everything that happens in our lives to prepare us for His work, even things that don’t look like they have anything to do with any sort of ministry. There’s a lot more to the ministry than standing behind the pulpit, preaching. How well one does those other things ends up having a huge impact on what we normally think of as “ministry.”
There are some specific steps that one should take, when they are looking to find God’s will for their lives:
- Pray – Many people say that prayer is communicating with God, but forget to take time to listen. God will often answer us in prayer. It won’t be an audible answer, but He will impress something upon our hearts.
- Study – The idea of reading the Bible isn’t enough. It’s not a story book. We need to take the time to study it, searching out the hidden riches in scripture and seeking answers to our questions.
- Write – Whatever you feel that God is telling you, write it down, even if you are unsure or it doesn’t make sense. Often it will make sense after further reflection or after studying something further in scripture.
- Counsel – Seek godly counsel that you can bounce things off of. Take care that they aren’t the kind which will just say “No” or “Yes” to whatever you feel God is saying; but will seek God on your behalf.
- Follow – Do whatever you feel God is telling you to do. Don’t wait for the big steps; take the little ones. Big steps are made up of a lot of little ones put together.
God isn’t going to give you or anyone else His entire plan for their lives. You can expect Him to give you two things. One will be His vision for you. He will show you what it is that He expects you to accomplish. This will be a snapshot view of how things will look, once you’ve done everything. So, for a ministry, it will be that ministry at its peak. You won’t see everything in-between, just where you’re going; like the destination for a trip. The other thing He’s shown you is the first step to take. You’ve got to take that one, before He will show you the next.
This is a walk of faith and God expects us to take every step by faith. Besides, if he showed us all the steps between where we are and where He’s taking us, we would probably run away in fear. We can’t count on everything going smoothly the entire way. But we can count on Him being with us, no matter what we go through.