There are many people who have no sense of mission. Individuals who walk every day on a path that leads to nowhere. People who have no sense of what their purpose is on planet earth. People who are just existing from day to day whose whole purpose in life is getting to the weekend. Can this be corrected? Can we find a sense of mission in life? Yes, thank God, we can.

Ephesians 6:5–6 (ESV)
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

• The will of God is another way of saying God’s purpose for your life.

The Will of God is an Inside Job: Spirit life is to be Lived from the Inside Out

• Notice what Paul said, doing the will of God from the heart.
• The word ‘heart’ here is a noun not an adjective so do not think of the phrase as ‘do the will of God by putting your heart into it’.
• The word ‘heart’ here means location. In other words, do the will of God from your spirit. Do the will of God out of your heart.
• Which strongly implies that you have to know it in your heart to begin with.
• Mark Twain said this:

The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.

• So, you live life out of the knowledge of purpose that comes into your spirit.
• Saying this another way.
• The will of God ties you to your purpose.
• Your purpose ties you to your gift set (your talents and your abilities).
• Your gift set ties you to your effectiveness for Jesus.
• Effectiveness ties you to joy.
• Or saying this on the opposite side:
• A minister, speaking by the Spirit of God, said this

If you are out of your place, you are out of your grace and if you are out of your grace you will fall on your face. – Keith Moore

Practical Purpose Principles: Effectiveness

Effectiveness is success as God sees it

Matthew 11:20–24 (ESV)
20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

• Look at these three cities Jesus talks about.
• In fact, look at them on a map and you will see something.
• The map shows a cluster of four cities all within a couple of miles of each other.
  • Bethsaida
  • Capernaum
  • Chorazin
  • Genneseret
• But Jesus only condemns three of them.
• Here is a Bible study assignment for you.
• Find out why Genneseret did not make the ‘Woe’ list?
• Let’s zero in on Capernaum.
• It was Jesus home.
• Three of Jesus disciples had homes there.
• There was more ministry in Capernaum than all the other cities put together.
  • Here is a list.
    Jesus moves to Capernaum – Mt 4:13–16
    Jesus says he is the bread of life Jn 6:22–59
    Jesus heals many in Capernaum Mt 8:16–17, Mk 1:32–34, Lk 4:40–41
    Jesus teaches about greatness and temptation Mt 18:1–20, Mk 9:33–37, 42–50, Lk 9:46–48, 17:1–2
    Jesus prays alone Mk 1:35–38, Lk 4:42–43
    Disciples desert Jesus Jn 6:60–71
    Jesus calls Matthew Mt 9:9, Mk 2:13–14, Lk 5:27–28
    Jesus stays in Capernaum Jn 2:12
    Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law Mt 8:14–15, Mk 1:29–31, Lk 4:38–39
    Jesus heals a centurion’s servant Mt 8:5–13, Lk 7:1–10
    Jesus heals a paralyzed man Mt 9:1–8, Mk 2:1–12, Lk 5:17–26
    Jesus teaches about forgiveness Mt 18:21–35, Lk 17:3–4
    Jesus teaches with authority in Capernaum Mk 1:21–28, Lk 4:31–37
    Jesus defends his disciples for not fasting Mt 9:14–17, Mk 2:18–22, Lk 5:33–39
    Jesus eats at Matthew’s house Mt 9:10–13, Mk 2:15–17, Lk 5:29–32
    Jesus heals an official’s son Jn 4:46–54
    Peter finds a coin in a fish’s mouth Mt 17:24–27
• So, Jesus did all of God’s purpose in Capernaum.
• He did the Father’s will there but yet that city received a woe.
• You see a plethora of teaching and preaching and miracles there.
• But, 300 years after Jesus goes back to heaven, there are no Christian churches there.
• “About AD 335, a Jew of Tiberias, the Christian convert Joseph, informed Constantine that only Jews inhabited Tiberias, Sepphoris, Nazareth and Capernaum rigorously excluding Gentiles from their settlements. Joseph secured ready permission from the emperor to build ‘churches for Christ’ (ekklēsiai) in these places…”(Wood and Marshall, 175)
• Three hundred years later in the city where Jesus did the most, He had the least results.
• That has to be a clue to us about purpose.
• It has to be a clue to us about effectiveness.
• Did Jesus not do the will of God in Capernaum?
• Did He not do God’s will there?
• Of course He did.
• So then what is success?
• What is effectiveness?
• It is not necessarily numerical results.
• Success is doing God’s will.
• Success is obeying the will of God period!
• Or as the Nike commercial says, “Just Do It”.

Practical Purpose Principles: Harmony

• Let us look at the will of God from a married perspective.
• What about the dynamic of finding out God’s purpose for your life when there are two people involved or two people that are affected by it?
• Now, let us assume that you understand the fact that God is not going to call people to do diametrically opposite things in completely opposite places.
• The will of God is going to be complementary for husband and wives and not contrary.
• God is not into splitting homes in Jesus Name.
• So, in speaking to the married here, understand that all kinds of problems can crop up when two people are involved in ascertaining God’s will.

The Problem of Timing

• There is an extremely strong probability that husbands and wives will not get specific direction at the same time!
• The dynamic occurs when one person has the next piece of the plan while the other has no clue.
• What do you do when one person gets it and the other has not?
• How does a couple walk this out?
• There are multiple scenarios along this line.
• But one of the main things that has a tendency to occur is that one person, one spouse, gets direction and starts pushing for the will of God because they love the Lord and they don’t want to miss it or be out of God’s will.
• The other spouse does not have direction but they also love the Lord and don’t want to miss it by stepping out into an area that they are not sure is God’s will yet.
• The problems that come from this are like any other normal areas where husbands and wives don’t agree on something.
• One is pushing; the other one is saying ‘hold up.’
• One of the things that we learned is that it is not a ‘spirituality’ matter.
• In other words, the spouse that gets the direction is not more spiritual than the spouse that hasn’t gotten it yet.
• You may have a conversation that goes like this, “Why don’t you get this? I got it.”
• It cannot be a spirituality issue when God has the ability to speak to a prophet through a donkey! A prophet who had no real clue about the path he was on!
• For some reason, it seems to be a rare thing if both husband and the wife get direction at the same time.
• Often times it seems as if it is the wife that gets the direction first and then the husband.
• Why is it that way? There is no clue for this.
• Many prominent ministers say the same thing.
• This problem scenario can be rephrased like this, “The Lord gives direction to one person but not the other.”
• What do you do, when there is a timing issue on the will of God?
• The answer is wrapped up in one word – wait!
• Understanding what you are waiting for.
• Understand that you are not waiting on your spouse to get it.
• You are waiting on the Lord to give it to your spouse!
• This distinction is very important.
• Once you get that distinction, you will stop pressuring your spouse unnecessarily.
• Trust this, if you have ever have one of these scenarios to walk through, you will learn all kinds of things about the Lord.
• You will learn all kinds of things about your spouse.
• And, you will learn all kinds of things about yourself along the way.
• Why doesn’t He drop the will of God into both hearts at the same time? He can do that He is God.
• One possible explanation is that it may be a test.
• God does give tests! They are of the open book variety.
• And you have to pass the test before you can move on.
• So let’s get back to it.
• Let’s get back to living life out of the knowledge of purpose that comes into your spirit.

Romans 1:9 (ESV)
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you

• While we are over here in Romans, let’s look at a verse that is going to help shed light on what is means to do the will of God from your heart.

Conforming and Transforming: Two Big Bible Words that Help You with the Will of God for Your Life

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

• Verse one, admonishes us to present our bodies – to the Most High God, the God of the Universe!
• Verse two tells us how to do it!
• There are two main verbs in this verse – conformed & transformed.
• Verbs are action words.
• These verbs are particular types of Greek verbs called imperatives.

God’s Imperative: Do Not Conform to this World

• The words ‘conform’ or ‘transform’ are imperatives.
• There is a form of ‘the imperative’ that act as commandment verbs. They are verbs that tell you to do things in a commandment tone.
• Imperatives in the Bible are on a completely different level because God is the author of the Bible and also the author of the imperative.
• Depending on the context, you might think of imperatives then, as direct orders from the Head of the Church.
• Imperatives from God are commandments; they are not Sunday school suggestions.
• If you want to understand what ‘conformed’ means, look at these translations of Romans 12:2.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) 
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:2 (J.B. Phillips )
“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold,
but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed.”

• Conforming means doing things according to convention; doing things according to the world.
• Let us expand this idea of convention by defining what the term ‘world’ means in the phrase “be not conformed according to this world.”

 What In the World Is The World?

• The world is a belief system.
• It consists of:
  • Ideas
  • Opinions
  • Maxims
  • Standards
  • Conclusions
  • Thoughts
  • Patterns
  • Mannerisms
  • Speech
  • Expressions
  • Styles
  • Habits
•  The world propagates its belief system on this fundamental principle: ‘A lie told often enough eventually becomes the truth’.
• QUESTION: Do you know who coined this thought into words?
• ANSWER: Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, who was Adolf Hitler’s Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany.
• This is how this works. The devil puts an idea in a person mind, he puts an opinion in a person’s mind, he puts a maxim in a person’s mind, he puts a pattern in a person’s mind and they repeat it often enough until it becomes the truth to people.
• The entire world is drowning in these wrong thoughts about God, about life, about heaven and hell.
• The danger in ‘conforming’ lies in the area were we allow this stuff from the world to change the way we are supposed to think.
• We are supposed to think a certain way.
• We are supposed to be God thinkers.
• We are supposed to think as God thinks.
• We are supposed to think about ‘our purpose’ the way God thinks about it.
• And so that is why ‘transforming’ your thinking is so important.
• That is the reason why the Bible is so important.
• The Bible shows us the correct way to think.
• Make no mistake about it; it is a job to separate the two.
• When your thinking is not aligned with God’s thinking, you end up not following in life correctly.
• We end up not proving the will of God for our lives.
• How should we think about purpose?

Purpose to Fulfill Your Purpose

1 John 3:8 (NKJV)
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

• Notice the two words, ‘purpose’ and ‘manifested’.
• Can you see that purpose comes first, then comes manifestation?
• Purpose comes first manifestation comes after.
• Jesus was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.
• Jesus was considered slain by the Father God before the world was ever created.

Eph. 1:4 (NLT)
4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

• Even before the world was made you were chosen to be holy.
• Even before the world was made you were chosen to be an example.

Eph. 1:11 (NKJV)
11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

• Before you were born,
• You were already set apart.
• That’s before anybody influenced you against God.
• That’s before anybody mistreated you.
• That’s before anybody abused you.
• Before anyone hung a label on you, God ordained you.

1 Cor. 12:18 (NKJV)
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

• Find out your purpose!
• Find your place and fill it.

Call to Action:

Did you ever hear someone say “I don’t do that– ‘It’s not my calling. It’s not my cross to bear?”

The world’s a better place because Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do Pharaohs or mass migrations or wilderness marches.”
The world’s a better place because Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks and animals.”
The world’s a better place because Rahab didn’t say, “I don’t do enemy spies.”
The world’s a better place because Ruth didn’t say, “I don’t do mothers-in-law.”
The world’s a better place because David didn’t say, “I don’t do giants.”
The world’s a better place because Peter didn’t say, “I don’t do Gentiles.”
The world’s a better place because John the Baptist didn’t say, “I don’t do deserts.”
The world’s a better place because Mary didn’t say, “I don’t do virgin births.”
The world’s a better place because Paul didn’t say, “I don’t do correspondence (writing).”
The world’s a better place because Mary Magdalene didn’t say, “I don’t do feet.”
The world’s a better place because Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

And the world will be a better place only if you and I don’t say, “I don’t do …” and just get up and do what we’ve been gifted to do.¹

Question: What dedications have you made in this area? How are you particularly showing respect to God in your everyday life? Would you please leave your remarks in the comments section below?

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References

Wood, D. R. W., and I. Howard Marshall. New Bible Dictionary. 3rd ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.