Who you are isn’t defined by the position you find yourself in. I have at times allowed myself and my purpose in life to be defined by what I am doing.
I have looked at the Prophesy’s spoken over my life and have looked at who I believe I am and my role and decided that I will never fulfill them.
I have focused on my position and felt defined and dismayed by this.
I and others have limited ourselves because we don’t see how to step into God’s purpose for our lives in the position we are in. This mind-set can’t be allowed to continue because we will never reach the dream of God for our life if we forget the purpose God has placed over us due to the position we find ourselves in, this is a positive and a negative!
A king who has everything but forgets God’s purpose for his life will not fulfil his dreams as much as the servant at his feet who allowed their position to limit them in pursuing Gods purpose for them.
So what Is God’s purpose for your life? I believe it is to walk with him, to glorify him in all you do and to show Jesus in every circumstance.
Any place you find yourself in is an opportunity to glorify God and show Jesus, in basic terms a barista could hate their role taking orders and making coffee’s however what if that barista showed God’s love by smiling as they took the order and by making the best coffee they possibly could, not because they enjoy their position buy instead they understand that God is glorified by them doing the best possible job in their workplace, and what if the person they’re serving has had an awful day and getting a well-made coffee with a smile is the way that Jesus wants to show them that they are loved?
I led multimillion pound health agency project in the North Coast a few years ago and in that position I led a team of staff and had the opportunity to bring help to people through finical means, while now years later I move chairs from one room to another and set out tables. In human terms my position and career has stalled and even rescinded however I know (more I’m learning) that my purpose in life remains the same, to bring God glory to show the characteristics of Jesus in everything I do. While in my last job I showed Jesus by taking the time to listen to and help others in my current role I show Jesus by ensuring people have a welcoming environment in which to come and do life with others.
In culture my last job and position is much better and more important but in the kingdom of God both are of equal value and Jesus celebrates me doing both in equal measure providing I do them to the best of my ability.
Now let me bring in our dreams to the conversation, we all have dreams of where we want to be in life and what we want to accomplish and do, from the early dreams of being the greatest MI5 agent to have ever lived, learning to surf, to cycling the length of Britain (try to guess which of those are personal ones to me :)) right through to my own current dream to raise a family and provide for them.
Dreams are great things and something we all have, however don’t be worried if your dream isn’t to leave a world changing legacy or to invent something while those are great however not everyone has the same dream, like I said mine at the moment is to have a job which allows me to provide for and raise a family. Dreams change depending on the season we find ourselves in.
I remember the summer before entering final year at university my only focus and dream was to go and do a master’s degree I had everything in my head planned out, then a couple weeks before term started a had a car accident which meant I would miss half the term and wouldn’t be able to do a master’s degree in the next academic year as my dream plan had laid out and to be honest my dream had changed in the months following the accident anyway, the master’s no longer figured in my plans instead I had monthly dreams of walking to the shops, then playing sport and even now I still have dreams that I’ll eventually have a full recovery from my injuries. My dream changed lots of times over the weeks, months, years after my accident however my purpose didn’t it remained the same even though I didn’t know that at the time.
Your dreams are what you push towards – accomplishments, jobs, goals while your purpose is what God is constantly calling you towards.
God is always calling us towards becoming more like Jesus to finding even more ways to bring him glory and to pursue him, the example of Ananias in Acts is a great example.
Ananias was one of the 70 commissioned and sent out ‘like sheep among wolves’ and he lived in a time when this was especially true! Saul was hunting down and brutally killing Christians, he was living a good life according to God’s law when one evening God asked him to meet up with Saul (the brutal murder) and to restore his vision.
The bible doesn’t mention what Ananias dream was during this time but I imagine it was to have a nice peaceful life, Now God has said I see and hear your dream however your purpose so much bigger and more important than you understand. So I would imagine Ananias dream might’ve changed after hearing the voice of God that night, from the peaceful, I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow to a more frantic dream of not being brutally murdered or at least that’s how it would’ve went in my head… just being honest! Ananias by going that evening though allowed me to write this blog today, he freed Saul to become Paul and Paul spread the good news of Jesus in a way that was unheard of before that day.
Paul himself also changed his dreams that evening, he no longer dreamed of jewels and rewards for capturing Christians, his position changed from someone feared throughout the land and high up in the eyes of the government to someone who no longer had a career or a title of any kind, instead he had a purpose which aligned with God’s… of course now we know that Paul’s dreams did in fact come true, his dream as Saul was be to known throughout the world and to be respected however his purpose didn’t align with God’s, once it did his dream started to become a reality, remember we won’t see the dream of God for our life if we forget the purpose God has placed over us due to the position we find ourselves in.
Saul found himself in a great position without God’s purpose and got nowhere, while as soon as he found God’s purpose even though he had no position he began a path towards the dream of God.
Let me encourage you today wherever you find yourself to peruse the purpose God has placed over your life, if you run a company with hundreds of staff treat every one of them as God sees them and bring the love and power of Jesus into every meeting you attend, if you are one of those employees work for God glorifying him in every single task you are set and find ways to show Jesus in every circumstance from receiving praise/criticism with grace to being the worker who doesn’t gossip or mouth off about the company/other employees.
Take time to ask God to bring fresh revelation of how to glorify him in your position, how to be more like Jesus in every circumstance and to have fresh God dreams for your life.