I am also in a season of discernment, which almost always comes with transition. I’ve been thinking and praying a lot about God’s ultimate purpose for my life. I’ve always lived with a strong sense of destiny. I know that I am created for a purpose that I’m uniquely prepared for in giftings, talents, personality, experience & passions. I have something inside that drives me towards accomplishing that which I was created for. There have been seasons in my life where I thought I knew what that purpose was. But I’ve never felt the intense longing I do now to hear from God about it. I’m ready for the hard right hand turn.

We have many Biblical examples of people who knew their purpose. To me the greatest example, besides Jesus, was John the Baptist. John may have been obscure, living in the desert with weird clothing and a weird diet, but he was famous. Mark 1 says “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him”; John the Baptist was a household name.

John was amazing. He knew he had a call from God to be the “voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’” and he was doing it. Thousands upon thousands of people were flocking to him to be baptized and to look for spiritual guidance. He had many disciples who helped him in his work. He even deflected the speculations from people that he was the Messiah. This is all great, but there’s something else in John’s life that I believe provoked Jesus to call him the greatest man to be born of a woman.

In John 3, some of John’s disciples came to him to complain that Jesus had started baptizing people and everybody was now going over to him. If you think about it, they had legitimate concern. They had been ministering in a national spotlight to thousands of people. They had a huge following and were being greatly used by God. The blessing of God was all over their ministry but now someone was taking away their people. Someone was threatening the life of their ministry. But read what John says in John 3:27-30.

To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. “

If John would have reacted differently to the word from his disciples and tried to re-gather his followers, then he would have used his ministry to keep people away from Jesus. Think about it. If John continued his ministry, he would have become an obstacle to the very One he was meant to draw people to. But John knew that his job was to prepare the way, not lead the way. John did what many others have failed to do; he finished his race without stumbling right before the finish line. He could do that because he knew his purpose. And at the point where it was most crucial, he said that Jesus must become greater, and he must become less.

In 1 Peter 2 we read that God is building living stones, His people, together to become a spiritual house. We all fit together in a certain formation and only when we’re correctly assembled will the Church be what she’s called to be. To put it in the words of Paul, if you’re a foot trying to act as a hand the whole body is affected adversely.

How much healthier would the Church be if even a quarter of us were functioning in the purpose we were created for? There will come a day when the Church will be all she was created to be – a bride without spot or wrinkle, shining light in the darkest times.

Now is the time. God is calling us to connect to the rest of His body & operate in the purpose He created us for. God is calling all of us to fit in.

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