Purpose Fuels Destiny

By Kelly Cilano

Enoch wasn’t that special. Not really. Enoch simply walked and talked with God.

He didn’t do really great exploits for God like Abraham, David, and Moses did in the Old Testament or like Peter, John, and Paul did in the New Testament.

But the more he talked with God (which is what we call prayer) and walked with God (spending time with Him), the closer he and God became. Enoch walked in faith and spoke with God, and from this came Enoch’s complete trust in God.

Legend has it that one day God and Enoch were walking along and were so absorbed talking that God looked around and said, “You are closer to My home than yours, Enoch, why not come home with Me tonight?”

And just like that, Enoch was no more for this earth (Genesis 5:24).

The words destiny, purpose, and calling all carry with them the idea that we can make a difference for God. Yet how we measure that impact is important.

Too often we see “super saints” in the limelight and we hold them in awe.

Immediately we don’t feel like we measure up, let alone have any impact.

But God doesn’t measure impact in limelight degrees. He measures making a difference for Him in terms of our trust and faithfulness.

Saul (later to become Paul) was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and he was on a mission: to passionately defend the Jewish way of life.

He believed Christians were heretics worthy of death, and he acted on that conviction, delivering them to execution.

Yet Jesus saw another side of Saul, one that Saul himself didn’t know existed.

In his History of the Christian Church, Phillip Schaff writes: “Paul was of strictly Jewish parentage, born a few years after Christ in the renowned Grecian commercial and literary city of Tarsus in the province of Cilicia, and inherited the rights of a Roman citizen.

“He received a learned Jewish education at Jerusalem in the school of the Pharisean Rabbi, Gamaliel, a grandson of Hillel, not remaining an entire stranger to Greek literature, as his style, his dialectic method, his allusions to heathen religion and philosophy, and his occasional quotations from heathen poets show.

“Thus, a ‘Hebrew of the Hebrews,’ yet at the same time a native Hellenist and a Roman citizen, he combined in himself, so to speak, the three great nationalities of the ancient world, and was endowed with all the natural qualifications for a universal apostleship. He could argue with the Pharisees as a son of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, and as a disciple of the renowned Gamaliel, surnamed ‘The Glory of the Law.’

“He could address the Greeks in their own beautiful tongue and with the convincing force of their logic.

“Clothed with the dignity and majesty of the Roman people, he could travel safely over the whole empire with the proud watchword: Civis Romanus Sum. This providential outfit for his future work made him for a while the most dangerous enemy of Christianity, but after his conversion, its most useful promoter.

“The weapons of destruction were turned into weapons of construction. The engine was reversed, and the direction changed; but it remained the same engine, and its power was increased under the new inspiration.

“Peter and John had natural genius, but no scholastic education; Paul had both, and thus became the founder of Christian theology and philosophy.”

Now if that doesn’t sound like the perfect fit for a man of destiny, what does?

He was the one that God Himself chose to be the twelfth apostle, the Apostle to the Gentiles.

All at once, the Gospel message became his purpose for living, and the Gentile Church was born from that same fire that all the Apostles shared.

You may not fit the same profile as Paul, but take heart: neither did the other eleven apostles.

Yet they were hand-picked by Jesus for their task… and so are you.

God chose you to be a witness for Him. He saved you. And in Mark 16:15, Jesus commanded you to "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.” 

The “super saints” of the Bible succeeded not because they were great, but because their love for God and His Gospel created in them the foundation on which their faithfulness and trust rested.

The standard isn’t how well studied you are, how financially well off, or how talented you are.

All of those things are nice, and personally I’d like a huge helping of all three, but that isn’t the measuring stick of our impact for God.

Those are blessings God has given to each of us to a greater or lesser degree for the purpose of using them to glorify Him.

They aren’t ours. They are on loan from God and we are the stewards of His grace. When we use those blessings correctly, they honor and speak of the glory of God and of all that He has done for us.

The gift is in direct portion or need to the task God has called us to.

Finding your purpose in God comes from being obedient to the Word of God, and praying regularly, and then applying what He gives you to your everyday routine and relationships.

Hearing from God is vital. Prayer is talking to God, then listening to what His Spirit is saying to us and doing it.

Oftentimes when we can’t hear God, it is because we haven’t learned how to listen to His still, small voice. Sometimes it is because of unrepented sin.

God wants us to deal with our sin, to ask for forgiveness and then move forward with Him.

The rule here is do not wait to repent, no matter how big or little the sin seems.

Run away from your sin! Treat it like Ebola! It’s life threatening and contagious!

Sin always separates us from God, but repentance builds the bridge back to Him again.

Too often we sell ourselves short, convincing ourselves that we’re not in the limelight, so we don’t matter.

That kind of thinking will put out the God-given fire before you even get started, killing your desire and effort to make a difference for Him.

But think about it: what do you use more, the everyday coffee mug, or the expensive china cup in your hutch? The china in the hutch is for special occasions like Easter or Christmas.

It’s the ordinary cups that get the everyday use. Just let that sink in.

Every day, we are called to use our everyday God-given blessings and His mercies, given to us new every morning, as a silent or spoken witness.

With the hand of God on our lives, our everyday purposes become our godly destiny, and that is what will build our trust and faithfulness in Him.