Living a Significant Life
When you go back to the origin of a thing, in it lies the strength and purity of purpose. Genesis 1:28 not only defines our original purpose, but also the design of God's kingdom and reveals the nature and character of God:
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
In Jeremiah 29:11, God thoughts towards are revealed further:
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
In knowing your foundational purpose – having been blessed and empowered to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion – there is also a specific purpose which you have been especially designed for. In order to find your devine purpose, you must spend time with God and cultivate an intimate relationship with Him. The path and destiny God has for you is intentional and purposeful.
As children of God, we can so easily find that we live on our own strength, trying to make things happen, living at the mercy of our day-to-day and the circumstances we encounter. This isn't the life we were called to live. This is a result of the fall and the separation that we experienced from God. But because of Jesus through salvation, we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Now that we have been translated, we must also navigate and transform our lives. There are three stages of transformation:
The first stage is survival - having come up and out of a hard time in your life, being able to say, "I survived!" My needs are being met.
The second stage is success - having experienced a time in life that is good and abundant. My desires are being met.
The third stage is significance - you are blessed to be a blessing, where it's not just about you, but about discipleship. You are meeting the needs of others.
We often allow the the temporary circumstances of where we find ourselves today to block us from seeing the possibilties.
Gideon saw himself by nature of what was going on around him, where people were doing what was right in their sight. This is Baal worship - relying on yourself to get things done, instead of trusting and relying on God. Gideon's experiences stopped him from the ability to see his significance and therefore to be significant. We tend to get bogged down by the limitations of life, weaknesses within ourselves, and pressures that surround us. Our experiences are stopping us from seeing what God is seeing in us.
Everyone is significant in God. Your choice to see your significance is done so by an encounter with Him. Just as with Gideon, he saw himself as insignificant and everyone else as significant. God called him as He saw him, a mighty man of valour!
Let's trust God, knowing that He's called us to a significant life, where we can do the works of God living out our purpose and destiny discipling and meeting the needs of others.
