We live in a world today where everyone is so consumed by purpose. We are so eager to do something for God and impact our generation. We are constantly asking questions like what is my purpose, what am I called to do, how can I impact the people around me, etc. Others are so focused on doing something for the world to see on social media that they are activists for a particular course to attract followers and they are term it purpose. It is a world where once you scroll down on social media and see the things people are doing, you get worked up, frustrated, asking yourself what am I doing? Why am I not doing stuff too? Immediately, you get into anxiety, then decide to start doing things that you were not even called out to do all in the name of fulfilling purpose. Others know what God has called them to do but they get so focused in not wanting to do any other thing just that one thing and end up being stock for years, missing opportunities that God has placed before them to do some things while journeying to where He wants them to be.
While it is very important to ask questions about why you were created and what God wants you to do to impact your generation, many people have valued purpose over intimacy with God. Hence, purpose becomes an idol that takes the place in your heart over desiring to know God for yourself and following His will per time and season. That’s why we find many people moving from prophet to prophet, to apostle to men of God seeking to know what God is saying about their lives. With the eagerness to hear something from God, some of these people we consult are obliged to say what God is not saying because that’s what moves with the trend of society.
I have a huge burden to remind us to stop searching for purpose and pursue intimacy. We cannot know what we were created to do if we don’t know who the creator is. God really wants to show you who you are and what you are called to do but he cannot speak to us because our minds are crowded about wanting to do things for him. It is good to do things for God but more detrimental to do things for God and miss the very essence of our creation. What is the essence of our creation? Let’s go back to the creation story.
In Genesis 1 & 2, we read of how God created all things and said it was beautiful. Then he looked and saw that they all lay there on earth unattended to without life. They could not speak and God needed someone that He could communicate with to take care of all He had created. So, He decided to create human beings in his own image to be like him and resemble Him. He took soil from the ground, formed man, breathed his breath into his nostrils and man began to live. As soon as the man began to live, God saw that finally, He had someone who was like him that could communicate with Him and take care of all He created, then He planted the garden of Eden, put him there as his habitat and then gave Him purpose (to cater for the garden and name all animals, rule over them like God and have dominion).
We see from this brief narrative that God did not send man to earth immediately to start fulfilling purpose. No. If man did not have a relationship with God, he would not be able to hear God to receive the instructions and the blessings. He first created human beings, male and female, then he “BLESSED THEM AND SAID…” (Genesis 1: 27-28). There can’t be blessing and talking if there is no one to receive the blessings, understand it and act on it. The point I’m trying to make here is that THE BIRTH PLACE OF PURPOSE IS INTIMACY WITH GOD. God called us first to himself and then He sends us out to fulfill “HIS” purpose on earth. Not your own purpose or what you feel like doing because everyone is doing it. There can never be a doing without a receiving and there cannot be a receiving of instructions without a hearing of instructions. If you are the ambassador of a president in another country, you cannot do what you want. You must act on the instructions of the president and to get the instructions of the president to act like him in another country, you must have been with the president to understand his nature and what He requires so that you can do the work effectively.
Dear friends, God is calling us back to Himself. He wants us to come back to the place of intimacy. He is burdened by how many of His children are stock in one place because they are so focused on wanting to fulfill purpose that they miss the little switches in the assignment He wants per time. We focus on not wanting to go out of the will of God for our lives that gradually our will of not wanting to go out of his will becomes our idol and we miss some little things He wants to do along the way. Please! Please! Please! DO NOT CAGE GOD. Spend time building intimacy with Him. God may have ordained you to influence your nation through business and yes you understood your purpose. But along the line, He sees a need for you to do something in education that will meet a need at a particular time, before you eventually get to where He has predestined for you. But you are so caught up in wanting to do things only in business that you miss the little bend in the road that would have opened greater doors for you in business.
Intimacy with God pays. You don’t need to have the full picture about your life. All you need is to build more intimacy with God through his word and in the place of prayer. He will show you the first step. As you take the first step, he shows the 2nd, 3rd etc. till you get to where He wants you to be. REMEMBER NO INTIMACY, NO PURPOSE !!!
Truly, we need to go back to Eden and have that koinonia with God to discover his plans and purpose for our lives.
Thank you so much for inspiring us with this powerful insight.