As I have written last week, understanding your purpose to answer the call of God in your life could be the greatest cure to the church’s spurious and superficial life in the spirit. True spiritual regeneration brings with it genuine changes and fruit of eternity that could only be counted once we graduate in heaven. There are general purposes which the Christian life follows and fulfills on this earth. Only the naïve thinks that this is all there is, however. Following the Lamb must be the greatest single devotion that we should have in this world.

People only become confused when they do not know what is their vision, goal or ambition in this life. To continue to dwell in confusion is the work of the devil because it is darkness. To be in the dark means to be disturbed, confused and in chaos. The path of the righteous is supposed to shine like the dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the noon day sun. This is what having a vision and purpose in life can do for you.

Outside influence

Observations of how human beings are delivered using the method of painless delivery through drugging the mother and tagging the baby versus normal delivery shows that it can affect the outlook of that whole generation. Apparently, what we think as normal intervention in delivery had actual negative effect in the lives of the children when they grew up. That generation rose up to become the drug crazed and rebellious generation in most communities. What this tells us about is our whole outlook in life can be easily set in order once we are born. The way we are born does affect it and it has something to do with transformation. Most followed up experiments on kids who were able to delay their gratifications early in life reveals that these were the ones who also topped their classes. Those who grabbed the candy bars early on without thinking of tomorrow were also the ones who were undisciplined, misbehaved and problematic children. Thus, there are pretty dumbed things we simply can’t get away without getting burned. The lack of goals beyond the selfish motive not only deprecates the dignity of a person but keeps him in bondage.

The place of discipline

It takes discipline to know your purpose and you need to double your effort in order to follow and fulfill that purpose. As Francis Frangipane puts it strongly, “stop dreaming, wake up and establish your dreams.” Be awakened from your blissful sleep, let those teary eyes open up and begin coordinating with the hands and feet. One time, a student pilot approached Rick Joyner who was teaching a class of students about flying an airplane. Understanding that he was a Christian teacher, the student asked him to lay his hands on him so that he could fly the airplane smoothly. Unbeknownst to the student, the murky eyed teacher replied, “What? Is this the way to fly an airplane?” Likewise, one does not become an expert overnight nor Rome was built in a day.

All dreams take time to be fulfilled. It involves planning, visioneering, coordinating, pioneering, innovating and doing. Some have asked me to lay my hands on their head so that they can write like the way I do. But looking at them with perplexed eyes, I would always say, “Be mature, grow up!” One does not have to get into the school of mechanics to become a mechanical engineer if he really loves the craft. Love empowers us to explore, learn, innovate and do more. Without love, you can get a U.P. degree but you will end up shallower than others who learned because they love the craft. Practice makes perfect, anointing or inspiration smoothens the flow.

Cultivating your garden

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed… Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” Genesis 2:7-8, 15

God formed man. This truth shall ring stronger than the lies of the devil these days. It is a fact of life that when the Lord formed man, He did not leave him naked, alone and unwanted. He also provided the garden where he can work and keep it. The word translated as formed in these verses, yatsar, means to mold, frame, fashion as a potter does to a clay. Just after molding man in His image, the Lord planted a garden and placed the man to cultivate and keep it. Does this ring something to your ears? God first trains and equips a person before He brings him to his ultimate destiny, that is to a place of authority and fruitfulness. God prepares the person He will send to a particular place; simply, there is no coincidence in the life of faith. Each person is chosen by God to go and bear fruit. There could be no faster way to do it, you have to draw close to God and let God imprint His image on you. Take the formless mass of a chicken yolk, the more time the mother hen spends resting on it, the better its success of hatching.

This is paralleled in the New Testament by the discipleship process that the apostles have gone through. He took up twelve unlearned men who have no form, image or even figure that we should desire to be with them. But for three and half years that He was with them, teaching and demonstrating the life in the Kingdom, Jesus forever changed the institutions of this world! Even Paul the Apostle walked through this process by being schooled by Gamaliel, the venerable teacher of the Pharisees in Jerusalem. After that, it was the Lord’s task to mold him in His ways by capturing His servant through a blinding light. And for more than 15 years, he studied the Scriptures again in the light of understanding of that voice that spoke to him at the road to Damascus. There is no short-cut in this process, discipleship is a continuing journey and each church must have a discipleship program, or otherwise they are only playing the spectator Christianity, the worst form a church can get.

We are therefore admonished clearly to not take the discipline of the Lord lightly, but that we should focus our eyes on Jesus, strengthen the feeble knees and hands.

“and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:5-13

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:5-8