Establish Your Purpose

Episode 2:
Your Purpose in Faith
Taped: 8/16/02
 Welcome to Establish Your
Purpose. The show that helps
you discover the purpose for your
life and achieve it through each
of the five life areas: Faith,
Health, Relationships, Career and
Finances
 Today, I will discuss how to
incorporate your purpose into the
faith area of your life.
 Of each of the five life areas,
Your faith is the foundation.
Your entire outlook on life, what
you believe it is or is not about is
based on what you believe about
who you are and whose you are.
 If you believe God exists then
your thoughts concerning what
life is about is very different from
one who doesn’t believe God
exists.
And even among those who do
believe God exists, viewpoints
about the purpose of life differ
based on who you think God is
and what your relationship to
Him should be if you think you
need one at all.
For the Christian believer, most
of us believe that life is about
serving God. But even
viewpoints differ among
Christians about what serving
God means.
 For the record, let me say that
scripture fully supports the view
that serving God is about
believing that He is all that He
says He is, and doing all that He
instructs you to do.
 If we exist for no more than to
please God, then that is our
purpose. And the Bible says in
Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is
impossible to please Him: for he
that cometh to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
Once you know and are confident
about what you believe, then
your faith will guide you into
making right decisions
concerning your purpose, In
spite of the circumstances that
may surround you.
 It is by your faith that you will
have the strength to stand and
keep doing all that God
commands when you are faced
with opposition. It is through
understanding who God really is
that you can understand what you
are to do and why you are to do
it.
 13. The church is constantly
being challenged by the world.
And if you were to look at it, it
seems to be getting worse. When
you understand your purpose in
God, you will begin to
understand what you see going
on around you.
What you see manifesting in the
physical earth is but a remnant of
what’s going on in the heavenlies.
14. Can I share something with
you? The spiritual battle we are
engaged in is not an individual
one. It involves every human
being on earth.
What we suffer and endure
as individuals, that includes
heartbreaks,
disappointments, rejection,
loss, all of that, doesn’t
come just for the sake of
causing us pain.
15. satan does whatever he can to
not only cause us pain, but to
cause us the type of pain he
thinks will be most effective
against us. But his purpose is not
to see you suffer. He can care
less about that.
What he wants is the outcome of what
he thinks that pain will produce in
you. If you have not heard me say it
yet, let me say it plainly now.
Everything in creation has a purpose,
even your emotions.
 16. I want to tell you what the
enemy wants that pain to
produce. But let me first back-up
to this point.
 17. The spiritual battle that is
being fought is over your soul,
which is your mind, will and
emotions. But, it is specifically
being fought over your mind.
 18. Why? your brain signals the
rest of your soul as well as your
body. Your body does what your
brain tells it to. For example, if
your mind is already transformed
to hearing and knowing the voice
of God,
 then when He speaks your mind
receives it as acceptable and then
your body acts upon it.
19. Your mind is constantly
making decisions. It decides
whether you will speak or listen.
Whether you will go or remain
where you are.
 And it makes those decisions
based on what you have decided
to believe based on what you
have already learned and
experienced. Your mind holds
everything you’ve ever heard in
your lifetime.
 20. satan ultimately wants to
keep as many people out of
relationship with God as he
possibly can. He knows how the
story ends, he doesn’t gain
control of the earth and he will
finally be destroyed.
So why does he keep fighting the
people of the earth? He is jealous
of you and the fact that you have a
chance to live with God and he
doesn’t.
21. So, his entire goal is to keep
you from getting what God said
you should have, but he cannot,
which is life through Christ Jesus
Both here on earth and in heaven
to come.
 22. So the war, is satan against
the people of the earth to keep
them out of relationship with
God. The battle fields are the
minds of every human being. He
doesn’t care if you think he
exists, that is not his goal.
he can care less if you bow
down and worship him, that is
not his goal. satan’s only goal
is to make sure you don’t
believe in God.
A non-believer comes about in
one of three ways: 1) Either you
doubt God exists, you doubt that
you can, or think that you don’t
need a relationship with God or
you are deceived into thinking
you do have a relationship with
Him when you really don’t.
That’s why God will say to many
in the end, depart from Me, I
know you not.
23. So now to the purpose of the
pain you suffer in life. The
enemy’s sole purpose is to get
you to change your thinking
towards God. satan wants to use
pain to make you a non-believer
in one of the three ways I just
described.
But God counts on your using
your painful experiences to
draw even closer to Him. satan
wants you to look at the
harshness of the experiences
you go through. But God wants
you to focus on the fact that you
made it through, and did so with
His help.
 24. Remember Job. The whole
issue had nothing to do with his
losing everything he owned. The
point of his experience was to see
if he would change his mind
concerning God. Causing Job to
lose everything was just the way
that satan thought it could be
accomplished.
 What saved Job and what
brought restoration back in his
life was a decision he made in his
mind. That decision was to yet
trust God in spite of all he went
through and to still do God’s will
in spite of the fact that it looked
like he had nothing to work with.
When Job took what he did have,
which was a believing and
submitted heart towards God, and
used it to pray for his friends in
obedience to the will of God, not
only what he lost was restored
but he gained twice as much as
he had.
 For most of us, the enemy
doesn’t have to do anything to
you. All he has to do is speak to
your mind.
the enemy is always looking for
a way to get in your ear. He
understands that if a bad seed is
planted in soil that accepts and
nurtures it, it will produce bad
fruit.
Since you were born, he was
looking for opportunities to plant
seeds in you. The mind is fertile
ground and one seed can produce
much. If you accept the first, he
will continue to plant in you, One
carefully-constructed, strategically-
planned lie after another.
Up to this point, he has deceived
many to the point that they don’t
believe anything really good can
happen in their life, and happen
consistently. Keep in mind that
our purpose in God is to believe
in Him and do what He wants us
to do.
In return, He promises to bless us
beyond what we can even
imagine. Your purpose and your
promise go hand-in-hand.
If you don’t believe that good
things could and, actually, should
happen for you, they won’t. This
is not because God can’t perform
them. But it’s because He can’t
perform them through you.
 Let me use this example to
demonstrate why things can’t be
performed for people with little
or no faith. If the telephone rings
and you hear it, your brain is
trained to accept that there must
be someone on the other end.
 If someone in your household
answers the phone and tells you
that a certain friend of yours is on
the other end, Then assuming
you trust the one who answered
the phone, you will pick it up
with the anticipation of speaking
to the person you were told was
on the other end of that line.
A person with little or no faith
would hear the phone ring and
then wonder what the phone
ringing might really mean.
Then when they were told that a
certain friend was on the other line,
they would either just sit and stare
at the one who informed them of
the call, or they would go back to
doing what they were doing before
the phone rang without ever
picking it up.
 People with little or no faith
refuse to act on the revelation of
God’s word in their life.
Everyone acts on what they
believe to be true. Understand
what I am saying here.
 There are people who have good
information, accept that it is good
information but still do
something different than what the
information indicates they should
do. At the surface, it looks like
they are not doing according to
what they believe.
 But in actuality, they have a
deeper rooted belief, for example
a lack of confidence, that keeps
them from acting on what they
know to be true.
 Too many of us have become
paralyzed, emotionally and
physically, simply through the
thoughts we have accepted over
time. If God says you’re healed
but you don’t start walking in the
wisdom of that healing, it will
not manifest.
If God says you’re delivered but
you don’t change and start living
a delivered lifestyle, Your
deliverance won’t take root. If
God says He’s going to give you
the relationship you desire.
But you don’t walk in patience
and prepare yourself for the type
of relationship you want. You
may never get it. And if You get
it, you won’t keep it, and if you
keep it you will regret ever
wanting it.
James 2:20 proclaims that
faith without works is dead.
What is dead has no life. And
if there is no life, God is not
in it.
This is what walking in faith is
all about. Acting on what it is
you say you believe. The first
and most important part of your
faith, and actually the core of
your faith is trust in God.
 Trusting that God first of all
loves you and will love you
forever without ceasing and
without condition, then trusting
Him to care for your needs as
you focus on
His needs through you.
 If over time, you have come to
doubt your abilities or think that
God doesn’t care for you, you
will not respond properly when
God says go do this or do that.
As a matter of fact, you may
totally miss Him speaking to you
all together.
But God is the ultimate strategist.
He is always many steps ahead
of the enemy and God can
accomplish His purpose by
turning the results of the enemy’s
tactics against you to His
advantage.
God knows how to break through
years of garbage in order for you
to hear. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God.
Romans 10:17. But you still
must decide to believe Him when
He speaks.
 Your faith in God provides you
with continuous encouragement
towards accomplishing your
purpose. It gives you strength to
stand and keep pursuing it even
when your circumstances would
say give up.
Your faith in God and accepting
His will for your life will grant
you great favor with Him and
with man. That favor comes to
make it easier for you to fulfill
your purpose.
Your faith in God will give you
wisdom for every decision and
step you must make in order to
achieve your purpose.
 Finally, you will gain peace
because God fully supports those
that have a heart for what He
desires. And as you focus on
Him, He will keep you in the
midst of perfect peace, where
trouble can’t throw you off your
course.
 Faith is the very foundation of
your purpose. Through your
faith in God, you will come to
know and understand what your
purpose is and how it fits into the
other areas of your life, and how
it is intended to impact the world.
We offer this audio series
What Does your Produce
Look like as an effective and
easy way to discover and
begin pursuing your purpose.
 Join me next time when I will
discuss how to incorporate
purpose into your health. Until
then, may you prosper in all good
things according to your purpose.