Staying true to your purpose

How important it is that we fulfill the purpose God has ordained for us! All things have been created by God for His good pleasure. It is so easy to fashion our lives according to man's opinions or even our own whims. The devil would like nothing more than to distract the church from the center of God's will. If the church is led from the Shepherd, we cannot fulfill God's purposes.

If we would be honest, even Bible-teaching churches can fall prey to focusing on social issues rather than spiritual regeneration. Instead of making disciples of all nations, we can neglect discipleship even among our congregations. Vance Havner had this to say in his book, Moments of Decision: "The meaning of the church is that Christians are God's called-out ones. The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to make, baptize, and teach disciples. The message of the church is the Gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose for our justification. The ministry of the church is to observe all things he commanded, and the commandments are summed up in believing on Jesus Christ and loving one another (see 1 John 3:23)...The major issue is not even evangelism or missions; the top item on the agenda is repentance and revival in the church...It is a skillful maneuver of Satan to lead us into majoring on secondary matters to the neglect of major concerns" (page 77).

God forbid that the Great Commission should become the church's great omission! Repentance and remission of sins is to be preached in all the nations, starting right where we find ourselves. Of course we cannot preach on these matters until the Spirit has done this work in our hearts! How sober and vigilant we must be not to miss the point! As followers of Christ we have in our hearts a desire to do good and the devil would use this to his advantage. He would like for us to be so busy in doing good that we neglect to watch our own hearts, to seek God's counsel and guidance in ministry, and become drunk with outward success. He would deceive us to believe that sacrifice is better than obedience.

We forget that God will hold us accountable for our actions on earth, even as believers. I read a great poem that quickens my soul to remain ever loyal to Christ:

"Jesus is standing in Pilate's hall,
Friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all.
Hearken! what meaneth the sudden call?
What will you do with Jesus?

What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Some day you will be asking,
"What will He do with Me?"
- Albert Simpson (Moments of Decision, Havner, pg. 127)

God wants to do something now in your life, empowered by His life in you. I do not want God to say of me, "What am I going to do with this guy?" but rather "See what He has done with what I have given him." I can do nothing of myself, but only what God has granted. I am incapable to do anything for God. I used to see myself as a sort of catalyst for God's work. He made my error very clear: "You are only a hindrance to Me." We only can hinder God's work, but His desire is that we would submit ourselves body, mind, and soul to His guidance and leading. Only then will revival fire fall upon the flock.