Prepare On Purpose... FOR PURPOSE!!!
Mark 13:33
"Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come."
Lord, I thank you for this opportune time that we have to come together and hear from you. Lord I ask that whoever reads this post on " Prepare on Purpose", that you will continue to bless and speak to them even after they have read this. Lord, if there is anyone who is currently wanting to be used for your Kingdom but has lost their fire, has let doubt, defeat, the feeling of not being good enough, fear, timid, confusion to creep in or is not sure what exactly they should be doing as far as serving goes. I ask you to direct and order their footsteps, prick their hearts and show them what you have called them to do. Soften hard hearts Lord, and remove all hindrances that are in our life. Let our ears and hearts be open to hear from you on today. I give you the Glory, the Honor and the Praise in Jesus name I prayAmen!
We must prepare on Purpose for our Purpose. You never know when your time is going to come. When preparing for your purpose you must always keep in mind the tests that come your way. The tests are not here to distract you or throw you off course. The tests come to show YOU.... YOU. Show you areas that you need more grooming and maturing. When God decides its time for you to walk fully in your purpose you want to be as ready as possible for whatever may come your way. On my journey to finding and fulfilling my purpose I learned 4 Major keys on how to walk into my purpose and own it. I would like to share with you some reminders that I have for myself while I am continuing on my journey of Purpose:
One purpose in life is to get close to God, One purpose in life is to glorify God, One purpose in life is to grow in character, One purpose in life is to tell others about Jesus’ love for them, One purpose in life is to develop your gifts, Do not minimize your role, Do not downplay the value of what you do, What counts is that you are faithful.
Always Be Ready!
1 Peter 3:15 ; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.
One thing that I have learned over these past few years in my walk with the Lord is to ALWAYS... ALWAYS BE READY! When you have a heart after God and you want to serve,honor,bless others and just be a vessel that God uses to changes lives, you must always be ready. You never know when God is going to bring someone in your path that has been appointed to YOU to minister to, pray for, encourage, tell them about God, or even mentor, you never know who God will bring in your path.Of course you will have days where your on fire for God and ready for God to move and just beaming in his presence. Then you have days where your mind is cluttered with the distractions of life and your focus is off, to the point where the last thing your focused on are kingdom things.I can vouch for this!!! There would be weeks where I'm just soaking in the presence of God and just happy and content. Then I'll have a moment where a situation arises and takes all my attention, and I lose focus on my purpose and start focusing on my problems. I would always blame the devil, and say things like " this ain't nothing but the enemy, I was doing good, focused, happy, loving on God and now this or that wants to happen.". I soon came to realize that sometimes you need a good old pop quiz. We tell God I want you, I want to work in the ministry, I want to be used by you and when a wrench is thrown into your life its almost like God is saying " let me see what my child is going to do if I let this or that happen. Do they really mean what they say?"Even our Character needs to be checked at times because when God uses you in a mighty way and uses you as a mouth piece for Him, He needs to make sure that when mayhem breaks, or things that should break you and /or would cause people to lose their identity, it wont have that effect on you. Are you going to break character or continue to have that soft, quiet, faithful, humble spirit, and go with the flow? Even though you're stressed, upset, anxious?!? When walking in your kingdom purpose you will face many hiccups and rough patches, but you have to remember that the picture is ALWAYS bigger than you.(Matthew 15:8 ; This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.)
"There is always a ram in the bush so be ready!!"
One bonus key that I have learned is when seeking God about what it is that HE has put you on this earth to do, it's important to keep your spirit fed with the Word of God and PRAYER!. You need to be filled with more Word & Prayer than anything else. They go hand in hand and are powerful tools. Take time out of your day, find a quiet place and spend time with God. If the only time you can spare is time at work find a room (car, bathroom, closet, lunchroom ect) and just spend a few minuets. The more word the more revelation. God wants to download so much inside of us.
Do Not Compare!
Galatians 6:4-6 ; Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours , Whoever is being taught God’s word should share the good things they have with the one who is teaching them.I know I have had my struggles in the area of comparing. I have found myself sizing up to people who have impacted lives and/ or are movers and shakers for the Kingdom. I get that " I wish I had that calling or anointing" feeling. Feelings like that are common but we need to be careful. I say that because you can see something and want it but its the motives behind it or the heart behind it that counts. If your not careful the spirit of covetousness can slither its way into your heart and taint your calling. Exodus 20:17; You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."Whatever your passion is I am sure that there are people who you admire/ admonish and would like to be in their position. It's ok to admire someone but when you start feeling jealous/ covetous, or even start to idolize them and try to live like them, that's when you need to step back, re-evaluate your motives and heart, talk to God, repent, and then regroup. One thing that we ( including myself) have to stop doing is comparing where we are currently to where someone else is. You do not know what they had to go through to get there, you don't even know if they are walking in a true calling or walking in disobedience and self. In other words just " STAY IN YOUR LANE and BE CONTENT".God knew your purpose before you were even thought of. Trust the process and enjoy the journey to your destiny. Everyone's process is different. If its for you God will position you for it. It will all make sense in the end.
Be Content!
Philippians 4:11 “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.Yeah so what if they have more followers than you and more comments under their posts. If God wanted you to be Instagram famous, Facebook famous, snap chat famous then you would be. I'm embarrassed to say this but tell the truth and shame the devil. I have even entertained the idea of buying followers ( I can laugh and see how silly that is) but God dealt with my heart and had me checking my motives. God even had to check me and asked me are you doing this for fame & money? or for souls and my Kingdom? I will never forget how I felt when I heard that. I felt like I let God down. Purpose to me means sacrifice, but not the sacrifice as in my life is over but more of a joyful sacrifice knowing that because of my sacrificed more people can be effected for the kingdom.Be content with where you are right now. God may have you hidden because the world is not ready for what he is about to do, or maybe your not ready, some people need to be dismissed from your company or even because its not the right time. Be Patient and just work on your growth and relationship with Christ. When the time comes God is going to BLOW YOUR SOCKS OFF!!!!
STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR PURPOSE.
It is important that we do not go ahead of God. Yes, its exciting when you see your purpose coming together and you see the impact that you are having on others, but stay in your lane and do not jump the gun. I literally have this conversation with myself daily because I get excited easily, and there is so much that I want to do and so much that i envision, but I always have to take a step back and ask God if this is something that HE wants me to do. If you do not take anything from this today take this.... Before doing anything that you are not sure of concerning your purpose RUN IT BY GOD! GET THAT CONFIRMATION AND APPROVAL before doing anything that could be out of the will of God.I pray you got something out of this!!!!!xoxo Z.M.