PURPOSE IS DISCOVERED, IT IS NOT DETERMINED BY YOU
No product determines its own purpose. The purpose of a product is determined by the producer of that product. If it is determined then by the producer, then the product user must consult the producer or manufacturer if the product will be used efficiently. You are God’s product. He created you and He has a reason for your creation. He had an intention when He created you. This has to be discovered. You cannot fulfil purpose by setting out a course of life for yourself. It is not about setting a goal and achieving it. It is not about what you want to become in life or your ambition, it is about what He created you to be which you need to find out and discover. You must explore with your Producer what this product – your life – is meant to do. You must discover what the Producer intended for you when He created you. Listen to what the Bible says; 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
Life is about discovery. People who have made it in life are people who made discoveries; they is covered something that was already there which no man has ever seen. God has prepared for you in advance, ever before you were born, good works that He expects you to live and do them. Hence, you need to discover what that work is and do it. Begin to explore and you will discover that your life itself is a discovery that you have not discovered. Why die a repetition of another man when God has placed inside you something unique which is lying fallow. You do not by yourself determine your purpose, you discover it. Virtually, every man who ended up fulfilling purpose was at first pursuing a wrong course. Take the following examples.
JEREMIAH
He was a priest in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. He led a quiet life and he must have been enjoying his priesthood profession until God’s word came to him saying; Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Jeremiah 1:5.
Jeremiah’s destiny was global but by his efforts, all he could be was a local priest in Anathoth and he thought he had arrived. God took him from being a priest in Anathoth to a prophet to the nations. The case of Jeremiah confirmed to us that doing one kind of God’s work in the church does not necessarily mean you are fulfilling purpose. Jeremiah was a priest serving in the temple, God’s house yet he was abusing his own life for he was meant to be a prophet to the nations. The word of God that came to Him also revealed the truth that God has determined the purpose of the creation of every man before they were created. God saw Jeremiah ever before he was born. Jeremiah eventually discovered that he ought not to have been a priest in Anathoth but a prophet to the nations.
ELISHA
Elisha was a successful business tycoon. His case made it clear that success is not equivalent to fulfilment; you may be successful and not fulfilled. In his company, he had at least 11 paid employees and he was the MD/CEO of the Agro Allied Company. But suddenly God’s word came to Elijah that Elisha was going to succeed him and that was what led to the emergence of a man who carried the double portion of the anointing of Elijah.
So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant. 1 Kings 19:19-21 NIV
Elisha’s life was an abuse although he was successful until the mantle of Elijah fell on him. Who would have known Elisha if he continued his agricultural business. He came to a point where he discovered his true identity and he pursued it.
AMOS
…I was no prophet, neither was I prophet’s son; but I was an herd man, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: and the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel”. Amos 7:15-16.
Amos also came to a point where he discovered that he was to be prophet although he was not from the lineage of a prophet neither did he have any training in prophecy. He was a herd man and a gatherer of sycamore fruit until his purpose was revealed to him.
PETER AND THE OTHER DISCIPLES
Peter was a fisherman including James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Mathew was a tax collector. They were doing something else before all of them discovered purpose when they were called by the Lord Jesus. They were meant to be apostles for the kingdom of God. They were doing those jobs but they were never fulfilled, something in them was looking for expression which was only possible in Jesus Christ. The Scriptures records that some of them were already looking for Jesus even before they were appointed as disciples. John 1:37-51 recorded two distinct stories of how four disciples came across Jesus. In each of the stories, one brother found his own brother and told him about Jesus. Andrew told Peter his own brother, “we have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ” (verse 41) Phillip also told Nathaniel,
…we have found him, of whom, Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Verse 45
The word “found” connotes a search. They were engaged in the jobs but they were never fulfilled but as they searched, they found their purposes when they found Jesus. There cannot be discovery of purpose except there is a search. We find when we seek.
PAUL, THE APOSTLE
My manner of life from my youth, which was at firstamong mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning…..that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. Acts 36:4-5
Paul was a Pharisee but that was an abuse of His life. He persecuted the church, shut the saints up in prison and killed many of God’s people until that fateful day on the road of Damascus when he met Jesus. Thereafter, Paul discovered that God ….separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his son in me that I might preach, him among the heathen… Galatians 1:15-16.
The Lord Jesus told him his purpose right on that road of Damascus. He said to him,
“I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things that thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me”. Acts 26:16-18
Time and space will not permit me to show to you how men who were already engaged in something got interrupted when they discovered their life’s purpose. Then they left all they were doing and began to pursue that purpose. You cannot pursue what you have not clearly seen; you will lack the will power and drive when there is nothing in view. You must discover what God created you to do. This is where you will find fulfilment in life. While it is not wrong to set goals and be ambitious in life, it is better though to be ambitious in the purpose of God. It is better that our time, energy and resources are channeled early enough to the fulfilment of God’s original plans for us. It is better that we take some time out and find out whether what we are pursuing presently is in line with His original plan for us. Why don’t you stop that rat race and ask your creator what He will have you do like Paul did? Remember, there is a way that looks right to a man but the end is destruction. You may be successful in the course of life you have chosen for yourself but it is only in His course that you will both succeed and be fulfilled. Your true prosperity is located in pursuing the purpose of God for your life.
Stay tuned for the next post on how to discover purpose