Every person in scripture had a purpose from God to fulfill. Just like each of us have a purpose to fulfill. Each persons life took different turns and twists on the way to achieving that purpose, and Each person had a different approach to his destiny and which either qualified him, or disqualified him. Everyone had similar difficulties to overcome – 1Corinthians 10:13 “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.”
Each one had things happen TO them,
So that things could happen IN them,
So that things could happen THROUGH them.
Discovering God’s purposes for us leads us through 4 stages. Now before this process can begin in our lives we need God to give us insight into what He wants to do and become We call this receiving a Revelation. In this stage God sets our sights on what can be. The possibilities of what He wants to do. Receiving a revelation brings an increased expectancy and faith that challenges us to reach for the impossible. Which means that hearing God personally is extremely important in our lives. Without input and direction from God we will each go our own way and do our own thing. Jesus said “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.” Matthew 4:4 Message. We really need to know the heart of God personally and hear from Him regularly. This starts us on the journey and is the easiest part. God speaks, and we listen. How we respond to what God does next determines if we begin to fulfill the purpose of God for us. Immediately after we receive a revelation from God He moves us into the second stage.
Now this is an exceptionally important stage and one that cannot be passed over.
This is the stage of Confrontation. It is where God begins to deal with our character. And it is the stage where we feel the most uncomfortable because it is where God begins to show us ourselves. God begins to confront us with the changes that need to happen in our lives so we can fulfil His destiny for our lives. This is where things begin to happen TO us. In order for us to fulfill what God has planned for us we require change
God isn’t going to change His mind about us, but there are things in our lives that are standing in the way of His plans. It is here at this stage that God begins to reveal the changes that are necessary. But it is also at this stage that much of what God is doing in our lives can go misunderstood and as a result go unresponded to.
As a result of our misunderstanding what God is doing at this stage we can often fall into resentment, bitterness and complaining. Some people have so misunderstood what God was doing that they have completely given up on their future. God’s desire is for us to be like Jesus. And so God begins to squeeze us so that just like toothpaste, what is really on the inside of us comes out. God has to confront us with ourselves. We need to honestly see ourselves as God sees us so we can change. We have to face the reality of who we really are, and not the rationalization. If we simply keep justifying ourselves and our lives we won’t change. And if we don’t change we will miss fulfilling our purpose.
We have to understand this process and take heart that even though it may be difficult there is a reward at the end worth all of this hardship.
Things happen TO me,
So that things can happen IN me,
So that things can happen THROUGH me.
We cannot become who God wants us to be to in a day. Just take one step at a time as God leads. Things happen TO us to reveal in us what God wants us to deal with. We have to choose to respond to or ignore God.
The Blog of Tom Sanders 