Knowing God’s purpose for your life is one of the best things you could ever find out. Further to that, living a life that fulfills God’s purpose is even better. Everybody in the body of Christ has the call of God upon their life. Unfortunately we often reserve this “call” just for the ministry. But God has called all of us “into the kingdom for such a time as this”. God has a unique plan and purpose for our life. When we are filled with his Spirit, we have everything we need to see God do great things through our life!
I have met a lot of people with tremendous potential. I have met people who are fulfilling their potential and I have met those who are yet to fulfil their potential. Sadly, I’ve been around long enough to have seen people who once had great potential. The ditches on the sides of the road of life are full of people with potential. It is my passion to see young people realising their God-ordained potential.
I don’t care how much potential that you’ve got, because potential alone is not enough. It is about realising our potential, it is about our potential becoming an actuality.
Jesus paid the price for our salvation – we will pay the price for our effectiveness. There are a lot of people “speaking in tongues” – but not effective, not living in the realm of their God-ordained potential. There are a lot of people that “mean well” – but they aren’t effective. The parable about the man who buried his talent is a case in point – he “meant well” – but he wasn’t effective.
We need some people to step up. We need young people to step up and show the world that Jesus can make a major difference in our life – but not just that! We need young people to step up and show the world that Jesus can make a major difference through our life. God did not make a mistake when he matched us with this day!
This may shock some people, but we must realise that we are either helping people get to heaven, or we are helping them go to hell. We must come to grips with this – this is the bottom line. There is no neutral. The worst advertisement for Christianity is a lukewarm Christian. When a non-Christian sees a lukewarm Christian they cannot help but see that it is a boring life. Sitting on the fence offers nothing except splinters!
So we have two choices – it’s easy!
Live for Jesus – an abundant life and an eternity in heaven.
Live for Satan – enjoy the pleasures of this world for a season (there is pleasure out there – but just for a season).
I’m not going to pretend that people aren’t having fun out there. They are! But in the end, they will not be happy. The “fun” is short lived – it is just for a season. When the season is over, the song by U2 rings true – “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for!”
I want to emphasise again that there is no such thing as redemptive neutral – being in this world and effecting no-one. We are all effecting someone – it just depend on what way we are effecting them. We must stop and do a self assessment of our life. We need to take time to examine ourselves. We need to take the Bible and do a diagnosis on our Christian walk and our effectiveness. If your truly connected to the vine there will be fruit – fruit of the Spirit. Secondly, picture yourself laying at the front of the church in a wooden box!
It may sound a bit morbid, but start by writing your eulogy. Put yourself in the box and ask yourself – “What is the preacher going to be able to say with integrity!” We must live it not so that they can say it then!
That’s my five minutes!
I have met a lot of people with tremendous potential. I have met people who are fulfilling their potential and I have met those who are yet to fulfil their potential. Sadly, I’ve been around long enough to have seen people who once had great potential. The ditches on the sides of the road of life are full of people with potential. It is my passion to see young people realising their God-ordained potential.
I don’t care how much potential that you’ve got, because potential alone is not enough. It is about realising our potential, it is about our potential becoming an actuality.
Jesus paid the price for our salvation – we will pay the price for our effectiveness. There are a lot of people “speaking in tongues” – but not effective, not living in the realm of their God-ordained potential. There are a lot of people that “mean well” – but they aren’t effective. The parable about the man who buried his talent is a case in point – he “meant well” – but he wasn’t effective.
We need some people to step up. We need young people to step up and show the world that Jesus can make a major difference in our life – but not just that! We need young people to step up and show the world that Jesus can make a major difference through our life. God did not make a mistake when he matched us with this day!
This may shock some people, but we must realise that we are either helping people get to heaven, or we are helping them go to hell. We must come to grips with this – this is the bottom line. There is no neutral. The worst advertisement for Christianity is a lukewarm Christian. When a non-Christian sees a lukewarm Christian they cannot help but see that it is a boring life. Sitting on the fence offers nothing except splinters!
So we have two choices – it’s easy!
Live for Jesus – an abundant life and an eternity in heaven.
Live for Satan – enjoy the pleasures of this world for a season (there is pleasure out there – but just for a season).
I’m not going to pretend that people aren’t having fun out there. They are! But in the end, they will not be happy. The “fun” is short lived – it is just for a season. When the season is over, the song by U2 rings true – “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for!”
I want to emphasise again that there is no such thing as redemptive neutral – being in this world and effecting no-one. We are all effecting someone – it just depend on what way we are effecting them. We must stop and do a self assessment of our life. We need to take time to examine ourselves. We need to take the Bible and do a diagnosis on our Christian walk and our effectiveness. If your truly connected to the vine there will be fruit – fruit of the Spirit. Secondly, picture yourself laying at the front of the church in a wooden box!
It may sound a bit morbid, but start by writing your eulogy. Put yourself in the box and ask yourself – “What is the preacher going to be able to say with integrity!” We must live it not so that they can say it then!
That’s my five minutes!
1 comment:
The other day I read in Daniel 1:8 "But Daniel purposed in his heart ..." - something I've glossed over before but this phrase has really played on my mind, especially in light of Daniel's situation, and I realised that purpose causes us to move out of our comfort zone to something far greater then where we're currently at. Purpose gives direction and focus.
Thanks for a great post, Jonathan. I was wondering if you would mind if I read it to my Sunday School class this Sunday (29/3)? ... especially since it really fits in with our theme of "Choices".
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