What is your purpose?

Why is it that the threads that are started to bring our attention back to the ONE WHO redeemed us and desires to be with us alway's die?

SnuP said:

Because most here are not really here to grow, but rather to prove that they are already mature. If its not a debate then no one wants to perticipate. Its all pride.

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Quaffer, I hear crickets on this thread, what happend? Was it something I said? LOL.

Trish1947 said:

Quaffer, I hear crickets on this thread, what happend? Was it something I said? LOL.

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No. . .it was nothing you said.

Talking about relationship with Jesus is so much fun. . .but people seem to lose interest so quickly

He is so awesome. . .His presense in my life and just the little things He does to let me know He loves me and He's watching over me. The times alone with Him. Meditating on Him and His Word are so revealing of His nature and how much He longs for us and yearns for us to spend more time with Him.

No. . .it was nothing you said.

Talking about relationship with Jesus is so much fun. . .but people seem to lose interest so quickly

He is so awesome. . .His presense in my life and just the little things He does to let me know He loves me and He's watching over me. The times alone with Him. Meditating on Him and His Word are so revealing of His nature and how much He longs for us and yearns for us to spend more time with Him.

Today 04:31 PM

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There are no words for me to even express how much I love Him. There really isn't. But, to realize how much He loves us, and wants us to spend time with Him. I had a great opportunity for 6 years of my life living on a mountian, just Jesus, myself, and my husband, now I'm down in the valley trying to tell people about His love, and I cant explain what I feel. I feel helpless sometimes. It dont seem to come across. I miss those times in the mountains with Him. It was like there was no one else on the planet, But I got to know Him and am still learning. It just seems like alot of people are wanting to serve Him leagalisticly. I want to scream, "you can know Him in a personal relationship, then they leave.

I’ve been following this post intently, and have been blessed and also amused by the responses. I’ve held back responding until now as the discussion has somewhat digressed from the original topic: ‘What is your purpose?’ At the very least I owe Snup a response to that original topic.

From my earlier post to Snup, we are both cognizant and in agreement that we are not here to ‘win’ this discussion, nor to show how much we know, nor to judge or criticize anyone. If you read my earlier post in this thread, my heart’s intent here is to try and discover with others the issues of purpose because this has been what I have been dealing with this past year. And admittedly, to check and balance my own perspective in this issue to give some validity and assurance that my thoughts are ‘correct’ or worse, may be they're way off base! So to any of you who may not agree with me, please don’t take offense.

So in my humble opinion, and my 2 cents worth into this discussion, I do not believe that the question of ‘What is our purpose?’ has been adequately addressed for me. I’ll try to choose my words carefully, and this won’t be a Rick Warren / Saddleback Church answer (that’s a different topic altogether!).

The issues about dying to self, glorifying God, that this is a serious business of relationship, etc et al, are valid, and backed up with Scripture. Those are very important things that we need to do in life, the essence of transforming from where we are to where we need to be. But we’ve still missed the purpose. What is all that for, without purpose? Because that is not the purpose.

Probably the greatest revelation in my life was to understand how great God is. Probably the second greatest revelation was to appreciate how great God thinks I am. And the reason God sent His Son to earth was not so that he could get one over on the devil. The reason Jesus went to the cross was not to defeat the powers of darkness. The reason Jesus went to the cross was because God so loved me, that He gave His son. It just so happened that the powers of darkness got in the way, and therefore they got dealt with in the process, but you need to understand that the cross was not about God dealing with the powers of darkness or the devil - the cross was all about God getting to you and helping you to get to Him. It was all about you.

So we have to appreciate that there is great value in our lives. I was raised to believe that I was just a filthy unworthy sinner. Fact is, I’m not a filthy unworthy sinner, I’m a righteous holy redeemed child of the living God who was in Christ before I was ever in Adam, and that the real nature inside of me is not the human nature it’s the God nature. And when I come to Christ it releases a nature that is already within me so that we can be all that we need to be for God.

Read Gen 2:4-15
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created….etc.

Let me give you an appraisal of what we have here: God makes the earth, and in the earth he makes a Garden, in the garden he causes trees to grow, he makes it a fruitful, wonderful place, but outside of the boundaries of the garden (and we know there were boundaries because when Adam and Eve sinned and refused to repent, it says God put them out of the Garden and guarded the entrance with a flaming sword) we have a place of incredible barreness, for no shrub of the field had yet sprung up, and no plant of the field had yet grown, because of two things: 1) Rain had not come on the land, and; 2) there was no man to work the ground. So we have a different situation outside the Garden than we have inside the Garden.

So here’s what we’ve got. When God finished creating the earth, the outside of the Garden was not the same as the inside. But in verse 5 God gives us insight into the purpose of Adam’s life. There was no man to till the ground. And without that man, the ground outside of the Garden was still barren. Read verse 15 …. “the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” And God’s heart has never changed from this original purpose.

Your purpose in life, is to partner with God, to reproduce the fruitfulness of the Garden in the bareness of the earth.

That’s why Jesus said that we were to pray ‘and may Your Kingdom come, and may Your will be done, here on earth – in the bareness of the earth, the same as it is in heaven – in the fruitfulness of heaven.’ So our role was to take the fruitfulness of heaven, and apply that fruitfulness into the bareness of the earth, so that the earth becomes the same as the heaven.

The Bible is not a book primarily about getting you to heaven. If it was, it would only be one verse long, and you would carry it on a little laminated card, with your credit cards in your wallet or your purse. Because all you would need to know is this, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

How many of you would agree you have everything there that you need to know to get you to heaven. But everything that you were saved for is of absolutely no use whatsoever to you or your world when you are in heaven. Absolutely of no use, whatsoever, because there’s no sick people, there’s no dying people, there’s no offended people, there’s no problems, no giants. It is of no use to you in heaven. Your salvation is of no use to you in heaven. So our purpose has got to be something that is more outwardly than inwardly (dying to self, having relationship with God, loving and worshipping God, etc. are all still very important). That it’s something that we need to do outside of us, more than what we need to do inside for ourselves.

You have to understand that the Bible is not primarily about getting you to heaven. It is about getting heaven to you. It is not a book primarily about how to die successfully, it is a book about how to live successfully. It is not a problem for God to get you to heaven. All you need for God to get you to heaven is the forgiveness of sins, we shoot you with a shotgun, and you’re in heaven. But for God to get heaven to you He has to get past a load of stuff, history, and belief, all the stuff that comes in our offenses and our judgments, and all that garbage that gets in the way because we have corrupted our nature with sin to stop heaven coming to us. So the Bible is not primarily about getting you to heaven – although I want you to go there and God wants you to go there – but it is about getting heaven to you right where you are right now so that what is happening in heaven can be manifested in the earth, and God gave the pattern right back in Genesis when He says, (my paraphrase) ‘Adam your role is this: take a good long look at the Garden. Do some work in the Garden. Get some experience of the supernatural nature of this place, and then you go out into the bareness of the earth and turn all that into your inheritance. Take Eden beyond its boundaries.’

Which is the same thing as saying ‘May your kingdom come and may your will be done here on earth LIKE it is in heaven. In that Scripture both heaven and earth are co-existing at the same time. This is not a Scripture about the end of time. It’s about now, because heaven and earth are co-existing at the same time. Your will be done, Your kingdom come, here on earth just like it is in heaven.

And the trouble is the church has believed its own publicity for too long, and wasted its time singing ‘I’ll fly away O glory,’ and not spending enough time saying, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth, like it is in heaven.’

Adam’s purpose was to bring change, real change, to the bareness of his environment. And the wonderful thing is God had empowered him, equipped him, designed him, and created him to be able to do it. And we have to start to get back to a belief system that allows us to understand that God also has empowered us and equipped us and designed us to take our partnership and reproduce what we see in the heavens in the bareness of the earth. Which is why all the other stuff about dying to self, and having relationship with him are all very important. It allows us to be equipped, to be empowered, to complete our purpose.

And our purpose of bringing the fruitfulness of the garden can be in any area of our lives that is barren – our work, our church, our families, or imagine this, even out in the mission field!

What do you think?

What is your purpose?

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Love my wife and kids, annoy everyone else.
tulc(content in his ministry )

I understood the question to be not so much as "what is your purpose on earth?" as "what is your purpose?"

Without the relationship with God (which is not just being born again), it is impossible to do all the stuff without our flesh getting in the way. Works done in our own effort.

I did not understand the question or the answers proposed by SnuP as a put down of us as God's creation and the one's He gave His life for. In God's opinion, we are the greatest of His creations.

It is my thinking that it is impossible to do anything without Him. I am not empowered without the intense relationship. Bride and Groom. Father and daughter. Brother and sister. It was all about us, but now it's all about Him. That in no way diminishes my value in His sight.

Having relationship with God is where the empowerment comes from. Without the inward there is nothing to go outward. In other words, if nothing is being poured into the vessel, nothing is coming out of the vessel. This relationship that I'm thinking about is one of overflowing onto everyone and everything I come in contact with every moment of every day. This type of relationship does not hide itself away singing "I'll fly away old Glory". Quite the contrary.

Without the intense relationship where He is increasing and I am decreasing, I am not able to reach out to the sick, or the dying, or the offended in the way that it would be done in heaven instead of on earth. Without that relationship I am unable to overcome the problems and the giants according to the way it is in heaven instead of on earth. I am His greatest creation, but without Him I am nothing and can do nothing of any lasting value. My righteousness is as filthy rags.

If the relationship ain't happening on the inside it's NOT going to happen on the outside.

Here's a thought. . .and it's just a thought, not a proclamation, but could it be, that anything done in our own efforts, and done without that intamate relationship with Him is considered iniquity? There will be many that stand before Him and say "we did this in Your name, we did that in Your name" and He will answer, "I never "KNEW" you. Depart from Me, you who work iniquity". KNEW. . . I never knew you intamately. Just something to think about maybe.

Quaffer posted

Here's a thought. . .and it's just a thought, not a proclamation, but could it be, that anything done in our own efforts, and done without that intamate relationship with Him is considered iniquity? There will be many that stand before Him and say "we did this in Your name, we did that in Your name" and He will answer, "I never "KNEW" you. Depart from Me, you who work iniquity". KNEW. . . I never knew you intamately. Just something to think about maybe.

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Then how do we know for sure what he thinks about us other than having that communion with Him through the Spirit. And His word tell us He loves us? These people he says to depart from me ye workers of iniquity, had power in thier lives to do the works of God. But what was it that Jesus see's in these peoples lives, that they aren't accounted worthy? This is a whole new subject for sure.. And makes you apprehensive.. Well, at least it does me! I know him intimatly, I have worked very hard to have it. He's worked very hard to have me I should say..

But is it intimate enough..??

Trish1947 said:

Quaffer posted
Then how do we know for sure what he thinks about us other than having that communion with Him through the Spirit. And His word tell us He loves us? These people he says to depart from me ye workers of iniquity, had power in thier lives to do the works of God. But what was it that Jesus see's in these peoples lives, that they aren't accounted worthy? This is a whole new subject for sure.. And makes you apprehensive.. Well, at least it does me! I know him intimatly, I have worked very hard to have it. He's worked very hard to have me I should say..

But is it intimate enough..??

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Enough I don't think is the issue. . .are we intimate at all?

What He thinks of us is everlasting love and only through that intimacy can we even throughly be convinced of that. I don't know that it's even a matter of what He thinks, but what do we think He thinks? I personally have stood my ground in faith due to what the Word said, but becoming convinced of it to the point of my emotions not being in control, has come only from the intimacy.

I don't believe the sign of our intimacy is seen in the "power" we exude but in the life that live's "not my will but Your's". I believe we can only do what we see the Father doing. If in our intimacy with Him we see Him doing the things that we see ourselves doing then we can be assured that we are indeed following in His footsteps.

I'm reminded of a story that was a twist on the Footprints story:

Imagine you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord's footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures and returns.

For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually your footprints come more in line with the Lord's, soon paralleling His consistently. You and Jesus are walking as true friends!

This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: Your footprints, that once etched the sand next to Jesus', are now walking precisely in His steps. Inside His larger footprints are your smaller ones, safely you and Jesus are becoming one.

This goes on for many miles, but gradually you notice another change. The footprints inside the large footprints seem to grow larger. Eventually they disappear altogether. There is only one set of footprints; they have become one.

This goes on for a long time, but suddenly the second set of footprints is back. This time it seems even worse! Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Deep gashes in the sand. A veritable mess of prints. You are amazed and shocked. Your dream ends. Now you pray:

"Lord, I understand the first scene with zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning. But you walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with you."

"That is correct."

"... and when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps; followed you very closely."

"Very good. You have understood everything so far."

"... when the smaller footprints grew and filled in Yours, I suppose that I was becoming like you in every way."

"Precisely."

"So, Lord, was there a regression or something? The footprints separated, and this time it was worse than at first."

There is a pause as the Lord answers with a smile in his voice. "You didn't know? That was when we danced."

Quaffer;

That was a beautiful sentiment to describe the Christians walk with the Lord. But I'm always worried and asking God "how am I doing"? That I'm not doing enough, or the right thing, or spending enough time with Him, I know in my Heart and feel His love towards me, He's the only one I want to please. Sometimes that gets me in trouble with others. I guess if I'm going to be concerned so much about how I'm doing, he will see that I don't stumble to much, I dont trust myself.LOL. I feel like I'm doing a juggeling act between our relationship, family, I'm raising my grandchildren, its hard, but He is always there waiting.

Trish1947 said:

Quaffer;

That was a beautiful sentiment to describe the Christians walk with the Lord. But I'm always worried and asking God "how am I doing"? That I'm not doing enough, or the right thing, or spending enough time with Him, I know in my Heart and feel His love towards me, He's the only one I want to please. Sometimes that gets me in trouble with others. I guess if I'm going to be concerned so much about how I'm doing, he will see that I don't stumble to much, I dont trust myself.LOL. I feel like I'm doing a juggeling act between our relationship, family, I'm raising my grandchildren, its hard, but He is always there waiting.

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I don't think the Lord is measuring us the same way we measure ourselves and/or each other. He love's us unconditionally. He see's the heart and it's a heart that is longing and running after Him that is pleasing to Him. In my own walk with Him, I have found that the more I run after Him, the more of Him I catch. The more of Him that I catch, the more I am filled with Him (He must increase, I must decrease). The more I am filled, the more He overflows out of me and on to others. . .whatever or wherever their need is.

our purpose is to love God with all our heart mind and spirit. Above that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives if only we are obedient and walk in it.

He certainly has a purpose for the life I have now...

SnuP said:

yes but do you think that God has a purpose for the life we have now?

I don't

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Let me ask you something, have you ever encouraged anyone? What do you do in the church? How many lives have you touched with a word, your example? Yes you have a purpose in this life and if you dont know it then press in to hear what the spirit is saying, He may not reveal your purpose but I am sure He will use a willing vessel

SnuP said:

I think that our life has no value at all. No point. And that God real desire is to snuf out our life. I think that He wants to kill us.

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