Come Alive and Find your Destiny
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Event: The Awakening
Purpose: Igniting a Generation
Last week I, and every other World Racer on the field, met in Dublin, Ireland for the second annual Awakening conference. Man was it a trip. We heard great speakers, caught up with old friends, worshipped like David, and enjoyed the quaint and fun atmosphere that Dublin offers. However, the main thing I left Ireland with is an insatiable desire for the Kingdom of Heaven. Allow me to explain…
One common thread of humanity is the desire for purpose. Whether Christian or not, every person wants to know their life counted for something. We want to know that the time and effort we put into life matters. We want to know that the 70 some years (if God chooses) we get on earth meant something. Some people find their worth in building businesses, some in humanitarian work, some in their families, some in research, some in search of knowledge…and others drift through life without real purpose wishing they could find some.
So my question is what is your purpose? What are you living for?
Let’s take a walk down the path of my life for a second…For the majority of my life, all I wanted was the “American Dream.” I wanted a family, a nice house in the suburbs, a good job to provide for the family, and a nice church to fellowship with. That’s what I thought life was about. Then I went to college and shared my faith for the first time. All of a sudden I realized that people, even my friends, did not know Jesus and were going to die separated from God forever. My life began to have a high calling, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. I am called by the Most High God to fulfill the Great Commission, making disciples of all nations. A purpose began to form…which, brings me to the World Race.
When I signed up for the World Race I had one reservation…it seemed to focus on service to people, rather than evangelism. Service is good, don’t get me wrong, but I was fully entrenched in the belief that we can feed and clothe a ton of people, but we will just be sending them to Hell clothed and well fed if our focus isn’t the Gospel. It’s funny though, God always seems to marry everything that I try to compartmentalize. The Christian life is a seamless transition, speaking truth, sharing the Gospel, serving and loving people…in short, making earth look like Heaven. The mandate from God, to Adam (and thus to all mankind), was to make the whole earth look like the Garden of Eden. We are to represent God, execute His will, and manifest His character over the whole world. Which, A) is only possible if his people are filled and empowered by His Spirit (evangelism/discipleship), and B) We live filled by the Spirit to make the earth look like Heaven (feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, setting the oppressed free, etc.) So in fact, the two do work perfectly together. However, it also means that we has God’s children do have incredible purpose!
You Son of God, you Daughter of God, have a calling on your life. God chose you to make earth look like Heaven “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” God uniquely designed you, gave you unique passions and gifts so that you might use them to fulfill your high calling. Inside of every son and daughter is a passion that can be utilized for the Kingdom. What are your passions? What makes you come alive? Now how can you take that to transform the earth?
You have a destiny. You have a purpose. Do you believe this? What are you living for? Listen to King Solomon in Ecclesiasties when he says, “meaningless meaningless, all things are meaningless…Fear God and keep His commandments that is all that is required of man.” If there is one thing I’ve learned on the race is that nothing, no NOTHING, will ever satisfy you except the Lord our God. Because of society, media, culture, we believe that life will be complete when ______ happens. Some fill in the blank with marriage, a family, financial success, reaching that hump in maturity…But the truth is if those things become our purpose, our hope, they will fail us. And then marriages break, families fall apart, midlife crisis happen…hope belongs nowhere but the Rock of our salvation.
What are you putting your hope in? What are you looking to that will finally allow you to say; “Now I am happy. Now I am where I am supposed to be.” If your hope is in God, that is right now! Every second of everyday, if our hope is in God, we are exactly where we should be. The exciting part is the adventures He takes you on to bust out some Kingdom! God has incredible adventures awaiting you. He has purpose and meaning for your life. There are unacceptable things happening in the world: children dying of hunger, death due to preventable diseases, boys and girls being sold into sex slavery, boys growing up without fathers, rape, murder, and the like. This should not overwhelm us, we have the Spirit of the Living God inside of us! God declares us more than conquerors, “Christ always leads us in the triumphal procession!” ~ 2 Corinthians 2:14. God has chosen us to heal the land, to rebuild the wall, to break the yoke of bondage and to set the oppressed free. Now that is something that should make us come alive!
We are…
“a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light!” ~ 1 Peter 2:9
This is who you are. Destiny is yours. Purpose is yours. Life eternal is yours. It starts now. What is your calling? We, the Body of Christ, can change the world together. Forsake the temporal, embrace the eternal. Live for eternity. Step into your destiny.
How are we going to change the world? Well, let’s go dream together…
