Part 4: The Foundation to Living Out Your God-Given Purpose

I hope the first three parts of this series have helped you understand the what, the why, and how to discover your God-given purpose in a practical way.

I did not intend this to be a four-part series. Neither was a post about how to live out your purpose on my mind when I started this series. But writing about it seemed to be the next obvious step and without it, I think this series will remain incomplete. So, here we are, in Part 4, to talk about exactly that.

Before we move forward, I want to acknowledge something.

Even in my wildest of dreams, I didn’t think that I would be able to write something like this. Considering how every step of this journey felt so hard and so obscure. Plus all that fear I had to wrestle with. I had no idea where I was going or what I was supposed to do. It still feels that way a lot of times.

I feel so highly unqualified to even address this topic because I have nothing but my brokenness to bring to the table.

But, by the grace of the Lord, all things are possible and even someone like me can be and will be used by God, if we let Him!

Anywhooo, back to the topic of practical ways to live out your God-given purpose…

After the Lord revealed my purpose to me (which, by the way, took about 12–18 months), I found myself at another critical juncture in the journey. With a whole new set of questions.

What do I actually do now?
What does walking in my purpose look like in real, tangible ways? How do I know if I am truly walking in my purpose and doing what God called me to do? What if I am not qualified to do this? What if I take the wrong step and mess it all up? What if I disappoint God?

Truth be told, this is still a road of discovery for me. But along the way, the Lord has shown me a few key areas that deeply impact how we walk in our purpose.

And I believe there are four critical areas, outlined in the infographic below, to focus on if we want to effectively live out our purpose.

I think the more we grow in these areas, the more we can be intentional, focused, and consistent in walking in our purpose.

When I first started writing this blog, I intended to cover all of these aspects in one post. However, as I continued writing, I realized that this needed to be split into two parts. So, we have a Part 5 y’all!

In this post, I want to focus on the foundational role of our relationship with the Lord and how various aspects of that relationship impact our ability to walk in our purpose.

Then, in the next post, I will discuss the remaining practical aspects of our day-to-day lives that help us effectively live out that purpose.

Let’s start with the foundational role of our relationship with the Lord!

1. Relationship with the Lord

This is obvious, but I cannot stress enough how much our relationship with the Lord impacts our ability to walk in our purpose.

Everything we do toward our purpose must flow from Him.

Anything we try to do in our own strength becomes an act of the flesh rooted in sin, which ultimately hinders our walk in purpose, even if it looks right on the outside.

We can convince ourselves all day long that we are doing something for God, while not being fully yielded to His will or surrendered to Him.

On the outside, it may look like a “God thing.”
But if our heart has drifted and becomes unaligned with the Spirit…
If doing for God becomes more important than being with Him…

Then “our efforts” no longer become the best ground for the Holy Spirit to move freely through us.

So, what aspects of our relationship with the Lord impact our effectiveness in fulfilling our purpose greatly? Or rather, what about not having our relationship right with the Lord could cause us from not being effective towards our purpose?

Let’s walk through a couple!

Rest

If you are a Christian, I am pretty sure you have heard a sermon or two about Sabbath or resting in the Lord.

Although the world teaches us to “earn” rest or “work enough” to justify rest, the Word of God teaches something completely different:

We don’t work for rest.
We work from rest.

Since the beginning, the enemy has constantly used the two simple tactics of spiritual division (i.e., multiple gods) and distraction (not enough time for God) to deter each of us from having a fulfilling relationship with the Lord and hence, have a weak walk toward our purpose.

It is so important to not let ourselves run ragged by filling every space in our calendar with something, resulting in not having enough margin to actually do what God has called us to do!

More importantly, if we never take the time to regularly reflect on various aspects of life and cast our burdens onto the Lord, we would be carrying things that we were never meant to carry and will end up with little to no capacity to do anything toward our purpose!

Even before I ever knew or understood the concept of Sabbath, I never thought busyness was a badge badge of honor. But now that know about Sabbath, I really hate telling people that I am busy. Yes, hate is the word.

I would rather say:

I am rested in the Lord, and am full of peace, joy, stillness, and the capacity to do what He has called me to do.

Because I’ve seen the other side.

Seasons without rest left me distracted, overwhelmed, and directionless. Busyness quietly disconnects us from the very source of our strength. And that is not the life God has called us to live.

This is the exact reason why, I think:

Rest is the absolute starting point to be effective towards our purpose.

When we cast our burdens on Jesus, abide in Him, stay connected to the Vine, and drink from the living waters, our yoke surely becomes light!

And from that place,
a place of rest, surrender, and connection,
we are best positioned to walk in our purpose with clarity, freedom, and authority as sons and daughters of the King!

Repentance

Walking in our purpose is a holy assignment. And being holy is integral to fulfilling that assignment and doing our part of the job as the body of Christ.

Sin causes us to inherently deter from the purpose God has for us.

That is why, I think, it is important to understand the eternal significance of our everyday decisions to truly not entertain sin in any form in our lives. We need to be ruthless in eliminating sin from our lives by the Sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A lot of times, even if the Lord delivers us from the sin, we still tend to desire the sin. Just like the Israelites who longed for Egypt even after God miraculously delivered them from it.

And my pastor says, deliverance is not complete until our desires change! How true!

Sometimes that may feel impossible. Especially when we find ourselves in the thick of wrestling with sin that has become so hard to overcome. For some, that could have been for years!

However, the truth is, our desires can truly change through constant repentance, being transformed by the Holy Spirit, taking every thought captive and submitting it to Jesus. As we renew our minds daily, choose prayer in moments of temptation, and build practical, life-giving habits, we begin to turn away from sin and grow into new desires.

To me, this is an active practical spiritual workout. Something we cannot skip, take lightly, or act like we can do it on our own.

I am not implying that we should become sin-free or be perfect. But it does mean we must make every effort to eliminate sin and truly repent from past sins in order to not allow sin to deter us from our holy assignment.

To live in this manner, repentance is not something we do when we “think” we sinned but, it’s how we live. It becomes a way of life. A lifestyle.

Repentance is the posture of a believer, through which he or she humbly enters God’s presence while fully being cognizant of the ramifications of their sins but also recognizing the power of blood of Christ to ultimately cleanse, restore, and ultimately free us from sin.

Repentance tears down the wall our sin builds between us and God.
A believer that is effective in their purpose dwells in the posture of repentance continually!

Contentment

Contentment is another huge aspect of our relationship with the Lord that impacts how we walk in our purpose.

When I say contentment, I don’t just mean being at peace and satisfied with where God placed you. I also don’t simply mean trusting God’s faithfulness and sovereignty over your circumstances.

I think being truly content, by the power of the Holy Spirit, results in certain fruits and behaviors in a believer’s life. Practically. Without these fruits, I think it becomes that much harder to be effective in our God-given purpose!

So, what does that look like?

Contentment is the fruit of a believer who actively and consistently surrenders to the Holy Spirit. It is formed as we lay down idols, turn from fleshly desires, and trust God with our past, present, and future.

It’s found in truly allowing Jesus to be Lord over every area of our lives.

This means that a believer that is content is

• Consistently yielding their finances to the Lord.
• Surrendering their desires when life doesn’t look the way they imagined.
• Choosing forgiveness again and again toward those who have wronged them.
• Being intentional not to long for their “Egypt,” but instead fixing their eyes on how God is refining them in their current season and preparing them for their Promised Land.
• Keeping their focus on Jesus, believing that He is better than their Egypt.
• Letting go of striving and releasing self-manufactured outcomes.
• Refusing to manipulate circumstances or people to shape reality into what they desire.

Being content allows a believer to be free and hence, be faithful where God placed them at, regardless of how close that reality is to their desire or vision of their life.

It allows them to not constantly chase the next thing, the next opportunity, or the next season, believing that their purpose exists where God placed them at.

By trusting God and allowing His love, faithfulness, and sovereignty to accomplish and provide far more than we could ever ask or imagine.

So, why is this posture important?

Walking in our purpose is not limited to a season, a week, a day, or a certain time of the day.

It’s something we live out daily, through faithfulness, obedience, and surrender. It is something we do no matter what because it is what we were intentionally created by God to do.

Our purpose is God’s dream for our lives.

To walk in our purpose requires not just a ton of faith but also, a lot of practical decisions that will not contaminate our desire and ability to fulfill our purpose not become obstacles to living our purpose.

When we learn to be content, we become more attentive to what God is doing in the present. We become more faithful in the small things. And in that faithfulness, we are gradually prepared to walk into greater responsibility and clarity in our purpose.

And this is how contentment in the Lord becomes a foundation for living out our purpose.

I’ve intentionally left stewardship out of this section because it connects deeply to the next three discussion points but I do think its incredibly critical to faithfully walking out our God-given purpose!

To close out this blog, I would like to highlight how our foundational relationship with the Lord cultivates the qualities we need to walk in our purpose:

Rest → Capacity
Repentance → Purity
Contentment → Freedom & Faithfulness
Stewardship → Multiplication & Responsibility

In Part 5, we’ll connect these foundations to the practical rhythms of our everyday lives and what it looks like to actively live out our God-given purpose.