Monday 28 November 2016

Reconciling our Purpose with our Profession and our Calling with our Career

My definition of fulfilling purpose, is using in the most effective, efficient way possible every resource that God has entrusted us with.
It is good to have a good job, a good career. It is good to have a flourishing business. It is good to acquire wealth and prosper but it is best to fulfill purpose.
If you want to live a fulfilled life, you have to be bold enough to follow your purpose and calling, your dreams and passion and it doesn't matter what people think because at the end of the day, you will be held accountable by God.
Sadly, we have reduced life to going to school for a degree to getting a job to getting money to buying a car and building a house, getting married and having kids then retire. But God didn't create us for just that. He didn't breathe His spirit into us to live such normal lives.
We all here have these as our life major goals and hence plan for them. In as much as these things are not bad on their own, we have to have at the back of our mind that our plans are not his plans and our ways are not his ways.
We need to understand that God created us for a purpose and until what we do with our daily lives work towards fulfilling this purpose; we will find ourselves living a life full of frustration and void of joy.
So in reconciling purpose with profession and passion with our career we have to know that purpose is God given and passion is derived from purpose. In this vein our profession and career that we choose is function of our purpose and passion not the other way round. We cannot change our purpose to suit our profession; what has to change is rather our career to suit our purpose.
You might be asking oh how that can be possible since I have already finished school and am working building my career. Well let me tell you this "your life does not evolve around you and it is not all about you. Your life revolves around God and your life is all about God. Why? Because he created you. Why? To give him glory and worship him by doing His will. God's will for your life comes first and God disrupts our plans and profession in order to fulfill this will. He takes us out of our comfort zones.
Moses was comfortable as a shepherd till God appeared to Him. He tried giving excuses but God Will not have any of that. God appeared to Gideon and He gave excuses, to Jeremiah who also gave excuses but God wouldn't have any of those. Maybe you are also giving many excuses of why you can't do what God is calling you to do. But let me tell you that you have everything you need. How do i know? God breathed His spirit into you. In you you have the life of God. It would be very unfortunate to live and not use that life, that power.
How then do we know our purpose? If purpose is given by God then we have to go to God himself by building a very close relationship with Him through reading His word, praying and fellowshipping with Him. It is then that God reveals his plans for us to us. 

Secondly we need to discover ourselves. God has deposited in each and every one of us unique combinations of skills, talents, gifts, abilities and just as the king came back and asked his servants what they did with the talents in the same way God will ask us what we did with all that He endowed us with. And we can never know what we are really capable of doing until we allow God to move in us. Did Moses know that the rod he was using to guide sheep could actually perform signs and wonders? Not until he met God. Did Gideon know he could be such a great warrior? Not until he met God. Did Peter know that God could use that impulsive nature of his to bring over 3000 souls in one single day to Christ? Not until he allowed Christ to refine him. Until we have an encounter with Christ and surrender our everything to him which includes our profession and career we will keep on performing below capacity.
Finally, we need to understand timing. It took Abraham 75 years, Joseph 13 years as a slave and prisoner, Moses 40 years in exile David from a shepherd boy to 17 years and Jesus 30 years.
But what did they do during these years? Did they stay idle? No, they prepared. This is what I call self development. Joseph sharpened his skills as an administrator and became a better dream interpreter. Moses used his rod to tender his father in laws sheep for 40 good years, he ended up using that rod to lead the children of Israel for 40 good years. David killed lions and bears, no wonder Goliath was a small deal for him and he never lost a single battle.  And the Bible gives account of Jesus going to the synagogues and discussing with the religious teachers and the Bible says that the boy grew in wisdom and in stature.
Whatever you do with your lives, whatever profession and career that you choose remember that you are the light and salt of the world. Remember that the whole creation awaits the manifestation of the sons of God so please do not disappoint.