Cornerstone Magazine
Living Life On Purpose
You can weather any storm if you have a life purpose. Find something worth dying for, and you'll have something worth living for.
I want to help you live out your purpose in this world. I also want you to help me and others do the same
thing. I want to show you what that purpose is, how to achieve it and how to find the power in your life to do
it. When you have a life goal and purpose and when you know how to get there, and when you know how to
overcome the obstacles, you will truly be living a victorious life.
Many people live a “whatever happens happens” type of a life. Beyond that they are so disillusioned with
trying to achieve realistic life goals that their existence has degenerated into having some comfort, some
enjoyment, enough to get by, and get to heaven when they die.
By accomplishment through application as disciples in life together...
Now, going to heaven is no small thing, but the life we live here is intended to be a very specific journey,
with a purpose and the ability to carry out that purpose. Jesus called people to be disciples and to make disciples.
As you look in the gospels, you will see that the first paragraph of this article describes His message to all of us.
He wants you to live a life of accomplishment through the application of His Word. To carry that out He wants
you and me to be disciples in life together. He wants to call us to Himself and then to send us out together.
Discipleship is God’s way of developing our purpose to help people...
A while back we talked about who we were called to reach, what their needs would be, and how we
would meet them. We’re going to reach what people, with what needs, and by what means. The above
paragraphs are my beginning at identifying that mission. My goal is to see that you can carry out this mission.
A big part of Jesus’ mission was meeting people’s needs. In fact, one of those needs is the need to be a
part of something, to accomplish something and to live with purpose. We were created to bear fruit. That’s why
part of this mission statement calls people to not only find out how to live with purpose, but it also calls others
to help us with that same purpose.
meet the need for spiritual, emotional, social and physical freedom...
Digging just a bit deeper, all people need help with freedom from sin and guilt. Further they need a deep
sense of dignity, value, honor and esteem. They also need to have freedom from fear, hurt, anger and frustration
- the four major negative emotions. In other words, they need emotional control as well as spiritual and physical
well being.
What means did Jesus use and give us to use to live out our purpose in helping people live a
victorious life on their journey to heaven? He said, “Make disciples.” He gave us the resources of His Word, His
Spirit, and His people in fellowship, instruction and in worship. The call we now have is that we want you to help
us and others live a victorious life of accomplishment by the application of God’s Word through discipleship.
Remember, we aren’t called to do it alone. We are called to bring people together so we can do it together. That’s
one reason we have the Church! It’s one of our greatest resources. Faithfulness to Church is faithfulness to people
and to accomplishing God’s purposes in us.
The key to accomplishment is application...
What we want to accomplish in these areas is going to take the application of the Word of God. We’ve
basically been information oriented in America, and the Church has gotten caught up in it. But information on diets,
finances, marriage and parenting, education, ethics and religion has not satisfied our need for change. The reason
is that we have not learned the secret of application. Furthermore, we are going to have to be more than those who
can apply the Word of God to our own lives. We are now called upon to bring other people to that place.
Give people what God has given you...
We must be able to say, “If you follow us as we follow Christ you will have a happy life of purpose,
well being, accomplishment and fulfillment.” This may sound challenging, and it should be. The small
groups that we are about to break into in ministry will challenge the leaders to be disciples first if we are
to make disciples. This means several things for all of us.
It is not so much the content that we have prepared as who we have become in Christ that counts.
It is about being filled and able conduits of the Holy Spirit. We are to give what God has, not merely what
we have of ourselves or what we have understood.
It’s about helping other people become released into their potential and purpose by the power of
God. If we are being called to multiply ourselves, would people want to be who we are and do what do?
Is calling people to be Christlike also a call for people to be like us? If you have peace, people will want
it. If you have purpose, friendship, emotional control, dignity, and freedom, people will want that.
By coming in touch with how God made you who you are...
We really can’t pass on what we don’t have. If we don’t have it then the best that we can do is give
people information, and then we’re stuck trying to find new information everyday. We really have to ask
ourselves, “Am I really just looking for more information in my own life, or am I in the hot pursuit of life
changing experience? What is it that has truly touched and changed me, and am I living that change
today?” If we’ve looked for and found more than just information, what do we have that we can pass on?
We really need to take stock in what God has given us and done for us and how He has done it.
There can be no doubt. We must be able to say, “If you follow us as we follow Christ you will have a
happy life of purpose, well being, accomplishment and fulfillment.” The secret of receiving what God has
intended for us is discipleship. It is also the key to the lasting deliverance that life changing moments bring
to us.
Know your goal or you’ll never accomplish it...
If we’re going to minister in small group, or one on one, what will our goal be? In other words, how
will we know when we have reached it? We can just use Bible verses to answer the question, but the
answer is not to be found in our words. It is to be found in the lives of people, in the application of truth,
and in knowing how to be honest, and then daring to do it.
If we’ve done our job, some people will be faithful. They will be friends. They will be more free
than they were before they met us. They will own a sense of purpose, accomplishment, well being and
fulfillment. They will have more emotional control and spiritual fulness...if we have it. They will be
growing more stable in life’s challenges, and have more happiness. They won’t always be up, but they will
know more about what to do and what is wrong when they are down. The “down times” won’t be as deep
or last as long.
God will use you to change people...
Now we may be tempted to say that such results are the work of God and not of us. But not so,
entirely. You are the work of God! He will use you to touch others. He will come through you and others.
And you will also meet God through those you minister to.
The key for us being disciplers is accomplishment through application. 2009 was the Year of Accomplishment for Cornerstone, and it will continue by our able application of the Word of God inwardly and outwardly.
So I want you and I to help each other help others live a victorious life of accomplishment by the
application of God’s Word through discipleship. We won’t be satisfied with anything less than
changed lives as people discover how to live life on purpose by the power of God.
So how do you find your purpose?
It's been said for hundreds of years that our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In that is a key to knowing your purpose. Just as it is God's purpose for everyone to become a disciple, so is it everyone's purpose to glorify God. This means that what you do with your life purpose is something that God gives you, something that He does, and something that He gets the credit for.
You see, I don't think it's your job to find your purpose. It's God's job. His purpose will find you. It's simply your job to recognize it when it comes along. The disciples weren't looking for their life purpose. It found them. Jesus found them and called them. Their discipleship was all about learning to follow Jesus and learning how to get out of the way and let God come through them as Spirit filled men of God.
When you learn to let go of self and let God's Spirit come through you as you live in Him the fruit of your purpose will begin to happen. That way God will be seen as your source, your strength, your life, and He will be glorified as God.
Your purpose is not your occupation, career or calling...
My purpose is not to be a pastor. It is to glorify God - to show those around me that everything good that comes from me is God's power, His doing, and His love. The way that I work out my purpose happens to be as a pastor, but that is not the purpose God has given me. Lots of pastors never accomplish their purpose even though they have an office in the five fold ministry. They are living their own accomplishments and their own failures too. A lot of people don't feel that they know their purpose in life because they don't have a title or an identified gift that they can call their own. They think that they should be able to say, "I'm a healer, a worship leader, a prayer warrior, a prophet."
Too many people feel unfulfilled in their lives because they haven't identified their gift, what they are called to do, or what their title should be. But I don't believe our purpose is about what we do. It's about who we are. It's an identity issue that has come from God. To feel bad about not knowing your purpose is missing the mark. Knowing your purpose is not intended to make you feel good about yourself. It's about feeling good about God. The feelings about self then begin to take care of themselves.
How do you recognize God's purpose when it finds you?
When you become the disciple that God has intended you to be then you will be in a position to recognize God's purpose when it finds you. God reveals things to us as we are ready to receive and handle them. He didn't explain the parables to the average person because their hearts weren't right. Jacob's name wasn't changed to Israel until he had been changed by the years of self discovery and had learned to let God's will be done God's way instead of his own way. Peter didn't own his purpose until he had betrayed Jesus, been converted again, and then was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Recognizing our purpose in part comes through God taking us through life's storms and then proving himself faithful. Too many attempt to walk out their purpose without having learned how to suffer well, and then they eventually wash out. Jesus had His season in the wilderness as did Old Testament Israel. The disciples were sifted by Satan with God's permission. See Luke 22. When you have seen the hand of God in your storms you will want to live your life by God's provision. You will have your own personal testimony of what God did for you. It won't come cheap and easy, but it will see you through every life challenge.
When Israel was caught up against the Red Sea God was showing them that their trial was merely learning to lead their enemies to their defeat. He was preparing them to glorify Him in life's challenges. Oftentimes you too will find God's purpose for you when you are coming through a storm. Learn to look for Him, and when you have found Him, pass it on to someone else. From the cross, to Peter's prison cell, to Saul getting knocked off of his donkey, God was and is in the hard places of our lives to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.
