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Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : Discovering God's Purpose For Our Lives (Part 2)

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KingJimmy
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Joined: 2003/5/8
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Charlotte, NC

 Discovering God's Purpose For Our Lives (Part 2)

In the first part of this series, I talked about discovering God’s purpose for our lives. Looking at Romans 8:28-29, I showed how God’s ultimate purpose for us is that our lives would be so conformed to the image of Christ, and that we would look so much like Jesus, that Christ would ultimately be glorified. As a result, Christ would truly be demonstrated as holding “first” place amongst all of God’s children. In this, we see that God’s purpose for our individual lives isn’t so much about what God has called us to do, rather the purpose of our lives is ultimately centered around who He has called us to become.

To some degree, the first part of this series was mostly just a look at the Divine “theory” behind discovering God’s purpose for our lives. The purpose of this part of the series is to look at the “practical” nature of that theory, and how we can apply it in the real world. What does it mean to be conformed to the image of Christ? What does it mean to look more and more like Jesus every single day? What does it mean to walk, talk, and live like Jesus Christ?

I believe the following text will provide us with a major clue:

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Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2; NASB)
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Before we can discover and embrace God's purpose for our lives, and be conformed to the image of Christ, we must give ourselves wholly unto God. We must offer up the sum of our lives as a living sacrifice unto God. We must hold nothing back, and give Him everything that we are. And so long as we withhold even one part of our heart from God, we make it impossible to truly become conformed to the image of Christ. No doubt, offering up your life as a living sacrifice can be a difficult and painful thing to do. But God wants all of us, and not just some of us.

During the Old Testament, when one offered a sacrifice unto God, one would take an animal, kill it, and then put it upon an altar where the sacrifice was burned up with fire, often until there was nothing left. But here the apostle Paul says we have to offer ourselves to God as a “living” sacrifice. That is, instead of being killed and then placed upon the altar to be burned, Paul says we are just being placed on the altar and set on fire while yet alive. Can you visualize that?

Being set on fire for God, as a living sacrifice, is something that is going to hurt. As we lay ourselves upon the altar of God, our flesh will slowly burn as the flames begin to destroy us, until there is nothing left. We will be tempted to pull ourselves off the altar, and save ourselves from the pain of the flames as they lick our bodies. We will be tempted to go back to our lifestyles of lying, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and the like. Our flesh will cry out for relief from the flames and the temporary pleasures sin brings. But we must not yield to such temptations for even one second, rather, we must give ourselves entirely over to the flames. We must die to ourselves, and allow ourselves to be wholly consumed by God.

Once we have given our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices, it is only at that time that we can begin to become conformed to the image of Christ. How does such happen? It begins by refusing to walk, talk, and live like the world. We must refuse to be conformed to the image of this world. Instead of conforming ourselves to the pattern that is in the world, and living like people who do not know God, we need “to be transformed.” How do we experience this transformation that brings us into conformity with Christ? Through “the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)

Even though we as Christians have been saved and born-again, and have received a new nature in our hearts and minds, we must still learn to think like Jesus. Simply because we were saved doesn’t mean we instantly unlearned everything we had previously learned, and continue to learn, through our exposure to the world and its devilish thought patterns. And these thought patterns that we have learned from the world stand in stark contrast to the word of God. It is important that we get this. For in this world we are taught that certain ways of life are entirely acceptable for us to embrace. But by embracing the thought patterns of this world, God’s purpose for our lives will ultimately go unfulfilled, as we will begin to look more and more like the world, than we will look like Christ.

The essence of discovering God’s purpose for our lives is to learn to stop thinking like this fallen world, and instead start learning to think like Jesus Christ. For how can we discover God’s purpose for our lives if all we do is think worldly thoughts? If all we think about is something sinful filling our heads, how can we ever entertain thoughts about what God wants to do through us? If all we do is think the world’s thoughts, will we not fulfill worldly purposes instead of Christ’s purpose for our lives? We cannot think like Jesus would think, and as a result, walk, talk, and live like Jesus, unless we begin to renew the thoughts of our minds through the word of God.

We must be reprogrammed. We must experience a “brain-washing,” whereby the thoughts that stained our minds are cleansed and purged from our heads. And we will never be freed from such thoughts unless we embrace God’s word by faith, and fill our minds with what the Lord says. When we sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive His instruction as His disciples, only then will we begin to experience the transformation that comes through the renewing of our minds. Only then, as we embrace the word of the Lord and apply it, will our lives begin to become aligned with God’s purpose for us, as we gradually start walking, talking, and living like Jesus.

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My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:8; NASB)
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Through our relationship with Christ, as we yield ourselves to Him, something will be produced in our lives. Like a tree, we will “produce” an abundant crop of fruit. A tree naturally produces fruit because of the life inside of it. Likewise, we as Christians should produce fruit because of the word of God that is living inside of our hearts and minds. As we conform our thoughts to the mind of Christ, we should naturally start producing out of our lives whatever Christ Himself would produce.

When we are not where we need to be in our relationship to God, and subject ourselves to the world and its thoughts, the apostle Paul said we will produce the following “fruit” in our lives:

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Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these… (Galatians 5:19-21)
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But when we stand in right relationship with God, and are renewing our minds, and are being conformed to the image of Christ, we will produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives:

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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; ... (Galatians 5:22-23)
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If indeed God’s ultimate purpose for all of our lives is to bring us into conformity to the image of Christ, which I believe it is, then if we wish to discover if we are fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives, we must simply ask, “What is being produced in my life?” Are you producing the deeds of the flesh, or the fruit of the Spirit? When you or others observe your life, do they see you as being sexually immoral, full of strife, lashing out at others in outbursts of anger, and as being a drunk? Or do you and others see your life as characterized by love, joy, and peace? In other words, does the produce of your life leave you and others to believe you live like the world, or live like Jesus?

People who are not being conformed to the image of Christ will produce the deeds of the flesh, and live like the world. But those who are fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives will ultimately produce the fruit of the Spirit, as they grow day by day, looking to be more and more like Jesus Christ, laying down their lives, and renewing their minds. Such people will walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, and live like Jesus. Why? Because they have learned to think like Jesus. Because they have ultimately discovered God’s purpose for their lives: to cause them to become like Jesus Christ. And such they pursue with all their heart.

So what are you doing? Have you laid your life down and sought to be conformed to the image of Christ through the renewing of your mind? Or are you still holding out on God, and not being a living sacrifice?


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Jimmy H

 2010/5/17 11:38Profile





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