Influencers Weekly Devotional 5/23/2014
Purpose to Passion to Urgency to Steps = Realization
by
Rocky Fleming
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
Proverbs 19:21 (ESV)
I will tell anyone up front that I feel that I live in a prime time of life, and I grasp this time of life with passion, even though I am sixty-nine years old. There is no slowing down or waning in my pursuit of those things that matter the most to me, for that is what passion will do for a man. It energizes him. But, it is purpose that gets him up and out of the bed and gives him a reason for investing his life selflessly into things that usually do more for others than himself, even though it might require great personal sacrifice. Instead of ending his life to play golf or fish every day, or other self-centered activities which eventually lead to a recliner and death, a man with a Divine purpose reinvests himself for God’s work. If he has this purpose, he prioritizes his life around values that are not as fickle as getting on a green in regulation or having to clean a bunch of stinking fish. Not that he doesn’t enjoy those hobbies and others, for a man needs healthy outlets to remain balanced. He knows how to balanced them in his life, for having a purpose greater than those things makes him feel that he is part of something that is special and eternal, which many of our activities of life do not provide. This happens in a man when he has discovered God’s purpose for his life. This is the key: He has discovered God’s purpose for his life. It is the same for a man not yet in those mature years of life, men who are still working to make a living to provide for their families, or even those young men just starting out. The benefit for a man in discovering God’s purpose for his life is just as important across all ages of men and not just for the retired man. It is not limited to age or generation or culture. It is part of our design as a man to be passionate about something that our life is involved with, but especially when this passion flows out of the purpose God has for our life. So here’s my question, for I know you know it is coming. Do you know God’s purpose for your life? Are you living it out? It is true that passion in a man is very important for it awakens aspects in him that are subdued by a life of just going through motions and drudgery. For example, many wives complain and observe that their husbands have lost their passion for them, and life in general. Their employer or their pastor could also say this. Is it because these men have lost their passion for their wife, their work, or God, or is it because these men do not have a sense of a bigger purpose for their life? Doesn’t that need to be considered? You see, there is a cause and effect with purpose and passion, and many people do not realize that they might have lost their passion for life and for doing things they love because they have come to see these things as empty of real purpose. I have learned that living without a Devine purpose will eventually take from a man his passion for life, and especially when his life begins to slow down in later years. A man is never more alive than when his passion for life, and especially a passion for certain things in his life that are of greatest value to him, are being pursued. This is healthy for a man and it bleeds into other aspects of our life. But there is something key that a man must understand, or else his “man-passion” will lead him astray and away from his priorities. His passion must be attached to his purpose, and his purpose must be attached to God’s purpose for him, if he hopes to find what he is most deeply longing for. I see a lot of men because of my ministry to men of all ages, different cultures, and different circumstances. Most of the time when I see a man who has lost passion for life, it is because he generally doesn’t know what God’s purpose is for his life nor is he pursuing it. He is simply going through the motions … one day after another, seeking empty pursuits to fill his void, and eventually concluding that they fall short. Are you hung up in a life like that? If so, you do not have to be. But to break out of it, you must find God’s purpose for your life. In the title of this devotional, you will note I have listed progressive steps that lead to awakening passion in God’s man, and that passion then directs him to succeed in realizing his purpose. But the type of success I speak of is not how the world defines it. It is not limited to what we own, achieve, our status, or our net worth. Those things, at best, only last for a lifetime. The success in the realization of our purpose that I speak of has eternal value, has eternal significance, and goes with us beyond this lifetime. It is eternal. It is the “fruit that remains” that Jesus speaks of in John 15:16. So that we can get on the same page, let’s get a clear picture of what each of these steps would look like in your life.- Purpose - Many people have asked me, “How can I know God’s purpose for me?” I answer by asking if they deep down know God’s heart. Do they know what God values? Do they understand that God knows them and loves them, and that He has a plan for them to join in His work? I ask if they know their spiritual giftedness, for when we know and use our spiritual gifts for building up God’s Kingdom, we make a major contribution to God’s purpose in our life. When we use those gifts, we are doing that which we are designed for. Most importantly of all, I ask men if their walk with Christ is intimate and unobstructed, for it is through this means we are able to hear God’s still, small voice telling us our purpose. These things are needed to understand our unique purpose that God has for us, for each of us are unique, and we make a unique contribution when we are engaged in that which God has uniquely designed and prepared us for. This is the way we begin to understand our purpose.
- Passion - Passion verses Purpose could be likened to icing on a cake. The cake itself is our purpose in that it is the foundation of what we do. It is the heart of what we do. Our purpose can be generic and similar to many other people’s purpose, much like many cakes that have the same batter, but can be changed into a different taste by the different icings. Icing, on the other hand, is the flavor on a cake that makes it unique. Likewise our passion flavors the way we live out our purpose. It is the way we carry out our purpose. It is seen and tasted by those people around us who are somehow involved with our purpose to them, or with them. It ministers to them or with them uniquely. But, the passion also comes back to us. As a result of discovering and living out our purpose, we feel alive and energized with our passion. It blesses us back. We know that what we are doing is something that God has created us for, and we feel His pleasure while we are doing it. That is the passion that God gives to His man, for He wants us to enjoy serving Him in the way He has created us.
- Urgency - Once we have discovered our purpose and passion, it is essential that we are urgent about engaging our life in it. There is a simple reason. If we live with urgency and do not take prioritized steps to live it out, we will live frustrated lives. We will be like a rocket ship blasting off the pad, but is held down by its restraints and goes nowhere. Something must give or it will burn out without fulfilling its purpose. Likewise, we will also burn out before we launch if we do not take steps to engage in God’s purpose for our life. When we have discovered our purpose, we must live with urgency to express it.
- Steps - I ask people all the time if they are seeking, asking and listening to God to find an answer to what they need to do since they now know their purpose. The good thing is, provided we have an unhindered communication line with God, He will break through and give us direction for He will join with us in expressing His purpose through our life. But, we must make it our first priority to have this unhindered fellowship with Him through abiding with Him and seeking His direction for living out the purpose He has given to us or else we could be busy doing things, but not the right things.
- Realization - At the end of the process is the reason for the process. God wants us to realize the life He has prepared us for. To make this complete, the process has been working in another out of sight area that we do not realize. Deep down within us is a heart that has been reformed so that it can receive another gift. That gift is to realize the “desires of our heart.” This is when our passion really kicks in. Read it for yourself, for we can see that God really does want His purpose for our life to meet our deepest desire. What a deal!