Where Purpose Begins
Where should I begin my search for life’s purpose?
Our Original Purpose
1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
The Lord’s name is the only name that is not out of place anywhere on earth, even if it is despised for it is the name of the One who made the earth. (Read Colossians 1:16).
It excels any name on earth; including Lao-tze, Mohammed, Buddha, Zoroaster, or any pope.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Read Isaiah 28:9. God’s purpose in choosing babes and sucklings is to make a fool out of all the high and mighty elitists who think they’re smarter than all of you and even smarter than God. (Read Isaiah 29:12-16 & 1 Corinthians 1:17-31; Luke 10:21; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20).
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
Read Psalm 19:1-4. Those fingers wrote on tablets of stone in Deuteronomy 10:4; on a wall in Daniel 5:5; and in the dirt in John 8:6
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Read Psalm 144:3. God is mindful of man, God visits man, God takes knowledge of man, and God brings him into account. This should terrify most people. Are we ready for the “day of our visitation” as the Jews were not in Jesus day. I refer you to Isaiah 10:3 & Luke 19:44.
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
“a little lower than the angels” and getting a little lower ever since. But, man was created for a purpose and that purpose was not to be a drunken, sexually perverted, murderer or someone whose greatest ambition in life is to be able to watch more than one TV show at the same time.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
Read Genesis 1:26 & 28. Think about that for a couple of million years.
Our Restored Purpose
8b For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
This was the commission given to Adam and restated again to Noah in Genesis 9:1-2. Our sin, Adam’s sin put a stumbling block in front of that purpose.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
That’s all we need to see, is Jesus. Read John 12:21. He was made like Adam which is why he is compared with Adam as head of a race of people. See Romans 5:14-20.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
See Colossians 1:15-17. John 1:12 is the right we have because of Christ. And as it says in 2 Timothy 2:12 & Philippians 3:10 that we may join him.
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14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
The reason Jesus was revealed was 1 John 3:8 and see Matthew 28:18.
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Read Satan’s view of the matter before Christ in Job 2:4. Fear of death is one of the greatest fears mankind has and a man will do almost anything to escape it momentarily.
The question is, are you living the life that God wants for you? Christ has done everything that must be done for you to be everything that God wants you to be. Does Satan have your heart, body, and mind even though he can’t have your soul?
Some additional thoughts
Your purpose is not to serve Satan;
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4:10
Your purpose is not to serve the economic system;
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13
Your purpose is not to serve yourself;
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24
Your purpose is not to serve the world system;
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16:15
So, since your purpose is none of the above;
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2: 15-17
This is in keeping with the exact three things that Eve was tempted with by Satan as Adam stood silently by.
As Peter said in Acts 5:29 we are to obey God rather than men, we were part of the creation made for God’s pleasure as stated in Revelation 4:11; we are to love God more than anything, including ourselves, and our families, and our material possessions in Mark 12:30 and Luke 14:26, and to be a true Christian we must put Christ first in importance in our hearts and minds in Luke 14:33 and Acts 11:26, to spread the gospel in Matthew 28:19, and to be compassionate and merciful in a real, tangible way, and to be unspotted by the world in James 1:27 & 1 John 3:18.
Nowhere in there do I see a call to “self-esteem” or “self-justification” or “self-glorification”. With regard to ruling over creation, no man is fit to lead who is not also a servant as in Luke 22:26.
Our purpose in life is to be about Jesus Christ, to reflect Him to an unsaved world, to be part of His body on earth, and it is not about you, it is about Him. Period.
