True Purpose!

Ephesians 3:9-11

I was chosen to explain to everyone[a] this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. 10 God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.

(New Living Translation)(NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.

 

The True Purpose Of God Is Not Always Seen, But Always Realized In His Truth!

About 10 months ago God moved us to West Jefferson. It was not a move of our choice, but a move of His Sovereign Purpose. We submitted ourselves obediently to the call of God to go to West Jefferson, knowing the full purpose of this move was not about the obvious. Bob took a job with a national company that was contracted to build a hotel for a 24 year old owner whose family is from India and builds hotels as part of their family caste position of "housekeeping". The next ten months of our lives proved to be a very amazing Adventure with God that started with us praying over the land where the jobsite would be, the city that we would be in that God's purposes, intentions and will would be done through us. Bob worked every day giving more that was required (minimum of 65 hours a week) and ran his race each day with the excellence of God's strength and character. As time went on, we were hit with every crazy thing you could ever imagine that could happen, yet Bob remained steady and true pushing this job through some really hard things, including one winter storm after another. We did everything possible to make relationships with everyone God put in our life path and Shine the life of Jesus through the Truth of His Word, evident in all of our actions and the faith of His Life active in our all in all. We made many divine appointments, one of them was the 24 year old Hindu owner who kept asking us out to dinner, kept asking us questions about our lives; a Hindu that did not understand the drive and motivation that kept Bob steady through all the trials of this jobsite, came face to face with The Living God.

During this 10 month periods, we made many, many divine appointments with God's Purpose; "Talking Up The Truth" and steadfastly walking in the Presence of God under the covering of His True Purpose. The jobsite became more and more dysfunctional as time went by and we realized that this also was God's Purpose; that we shine a Light of Truth through some very hard situations created by the greed and dysfunction of man's corrupted nature in action. We kept asking God what to do each and every day as we became fogged in by the dysfunction situation around us created by the working out of corrupt greed and all the ugliness that spins a dysfunctional weave around it! Recently, we could not see our way out, what to do next and we would cry out to God and His Truth and Light kept leading us to the greater purpose of God and we clung to that. The Lord told us to stay put, that He was in the middle of the chaos, that His Purpose was our strong foundation. Bob continued to pour his life's talents into this job; to keep it functioning he had to work very long hours, but also He kept shining the Light of Christ in every dysfunctional twisted weave of the relationships that were a part of this job. Bob continued to be God's Truth that led the way.

In the last two weeks, things were really coming to a head because the owner had not paid any of the contractors for two months. Yesterday the owner pulled an intentional act of greed, and in total desperation he turned against everyone, cutting off all by invoking his right to terminate the contract. He had a lawyer with him and asked Bob to leave the job immediately and take nothing with him. Bob prayed and asked God what to do. The Lord said: Walk in the truth. Bob told the owner that the files, the computer and everything in this trailer belongs to our company and my personal tools in this trailer belong to me and I will take them and then I will be gone. The owner said to Bob, you will not take the computer and the files and you will leave now. Bob proceeded to pack the computer and files in his truck. The owner left and came back with a police officer who came to arrest Bob. Only God…. The police officer was a man who knew Bob and knew his Godly reputation in West Jefferson. He took Bob aside and talked to him and Bob's boss on the phone and he decided not to arrest Bob but to let Bob take everything out of the trailer under his watchful eye and then he escorted him off the jobsite.

2 Corinthians 8:5

This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard. What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives. That's what prompted us to ask Titus to bring the relief offering to your attention, so that what was so well begun could be finished up. You do so well in so many things—you trust God, you're articulate, you're insightful, you're passionate, you love us—now, do your best in this, too.

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

You might think that we have wasted 10 months of our lives because we were sent to West Jefferson to build a hotel. Yes, that is what it looks like on the outside, but in the unseen the purposes of God were accomplished. Bob has never left a job unfinished in his 45 years of construction work and he has never been on a job that has been this dysfunctional. Did God hear our prayers that first day we walked the wooded site on that mountainside and prayed for His favor, His blessing upon this site? Yes He did… but His answers were not about a hotel job, but they were about His Hidden Kingdom Purposes, the divine anointing of His Will upon each appointment that we made in West Jefferson as we planted seeds of Truth as we Talked up His Truth. These actions of faith, founded upon the True Purpose of God will not return void. We spent hours and hours with the 24 year old Hindu owner of this jobsite, not at our leading but at his request. He wanted to be with us, yet in the end he totally betrayed Bob and said to him as he left the site yesterday: "This is not personal, it is business"! Bob was disappointed in his decision, yet he knew deep inside this young man had been changed forever by the Truth that has been seeded in his life, because it won't return void.

POSITION YOURSELF IN WHAT IS TRUE, TALK UP TRUTH!

Job 42:1

[ Job Worships God ] [ I Babbled On About Things Far Beyond Me ] Job answered God: "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?' I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, 'Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.' I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor."

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Our flesh is tired from the battle, weary from working so hard, and being disappointed and betrayed by ugly human nature and in this case, in these 10 months taking the beatings that greed, self promotion and pride can bring upon the flesh! Yet we know that God chooses to anoint His Purpose in Sovereign ways, ways that we can't wrap our flesh around. Why would He not allow us the apparent victory of finishing this job, of seeing Him prevail in the nature of those so corrupted by the greed of this human race? That is a question we can't answer, yet somehow deep inside we know that the Purposes of God were accomplished even though the situation does not equate with our perception of success, we know that Kingdom success was in lifting up Truth and Light faithfully and consistently until the Lord said so! It was a winless, hopeless situation, yet the Truth, Integrity and Perseverance of God shone through it all… Bob Glowed God's Glory! In that is the true Purpose of God, that His Truth and His Glory is Talked Up!

In this situation we have learned much and we now have a passion for Truth, to Talk It Up, no matter what things are in the scene, we know that our Sovereign God is evoking His Purpose in the unseen. We also have a new passion to learn more about God's Purpose, because it is an area of our Christianity that we need to learn more about. Because most of the questions we ask God, our Why questions are because we don't know much about God's Purpose, how it works so Sovereignty when it wants and how it wants, despite our human striving, God's Purpose prevails in victory, that even when seen we don't understand the way of it. God's Purpose is truly a mystery that we hope He will reveal to us more of and teach us how to walk in step with His Purpose, despite the dysfunction in what we see. We must never stop being found in Him and Talking Up His Truth in our lives… no matter what is seen, we must live in the hope of the unseen Purpose of God!

PS… See James Duvall's Blog… You will see this Truth of God's Purpose in Action. A Worship Leader being betrayed and disappointed by a huge lie of another Worship Leader, yet not letting the disillusionment and disappointment derail the Purpose of God in the anointing of a song called: "The Healer". The Purposes and Anointing of God are Sovereign and they can be seen even through the failure of the human nature! Read about it! James Duvall Wrote: I Am Still Going To Lead The Song… http://jamesduvallblog.com

Colossians 1:8-10

Also he has informed us of your love in the [Holy] Spirit. 9For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [[a]special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the [b]full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [[c]in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things-- 10That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and [d]desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, [e]acquaintance, and recognition].

Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation