Jentezen Franklin - Secrets To Finding Your Purpose
I want to talk to you. We've talked in this pretty powerful series on the right people, the right place, the right plan. Last week, we talked about the ministry of the moth, and how God leads us gently, is his first choice. But today, I want to talk to you about secrets to finding your purpose. Secrets to finding God's plan, God's purpose, for your life. I love this scripture in the Old Testament that says, "Thou, O Lord, through Your commandments, have made me wiser than my enemies". That through Your Word, You have instructed me and made me wiser than even my enemies.
Ladies and gentlemen, listen carefully. If you're taking notes, write this down. The Word of God is the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of God can make you wiser than your enemies. Wisdom, the Bible said in Proverbs 4:7, wisdom is the principal thing. Wisdom is critical, and what is wisdom? The Word of God is the wisdom of God. To ignore the Word of God, to not read, study, and apply the Word of God is to ignore the wisdom of God. And wisdom is the principal thing. The Word of God is the wisdom of God, and wisdom is the ability to recognize difference. In people, the difference in people, in opportunities, in timing. Wisdom is knowing what to focus on, what to ignore.
Boy, that was wise to ignore that, and focus on that. That's wisdom. Wisdom is recognizing people who belong, people who don't. It's recognizing opportunity. How do you get the wisdom of God, to discern the difference between right and wrong? This way or that way? How do you get that wisdom? The wisdom of God is the Word of God. The purpose of wisdom is to know who you should honor. It's so important that when you get the wisdom of God. The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God", therefore, he never honors God. But when you understand that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, or the honor of God in your life, then you are already on your way to succeed.
The purpose of wisdom is to know who you should honor. Every sin is a sin of dishonor. David said, "Against thee have I sinned". He committed adultery with Bathsheba, but the first one he dishonored was God. When you understand that if you fail, you can trace it back to a person you chose to dishonor. If you succeed, you can trace it back to a person you chose to honor. This book is God's wisdom. 800.000 words are in the Bible. 66 chapters, 27 in the New Testament, 39 in the Old Testament. It is crammed full of the wisdom, and the genius of God. This is God's Word.
The Bible said, "The Word is a lamp unto my feet". If I want God's plan for my life, I must know this Word. Anything you need, if you will study this book, find one topic and become an expert in this book on it, and you will not be held back. You will rise, you will go to the top. God will make room for you. If you're interested in business, study business in that book. Get notepads. Show me how you study the Word of God, and I'll show you how you'll have wisdom. If you know one subject and you're an expert in it, and I'm telling you that the Word of God is so full, it's so full of amazing things. It will give you the discernment and the wisdom to know, to decide the difference between people.
There are people who feed into your life, and there are people who feed off of your life, and you need wisdom to know the difference. There are two kinds of people you are supposed to let into your life. The people you can minister to, and the people who minister to you. You have to classify people who come into your life. Not everybody, this is going to shock some of you. This is almost going to sound un-Christian, but no, you just don't know the wisdom of God's Word. The truth is, you have to classify people who come into your life. And there's only two classes: those that you minister to, and those that minister to you. You're not called to everybody. You have to qualify people.
The Bible said in Joshua 1:8. "This book shall not depart", listen to this, "The book of law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night", listen to this, "That you may observe to do all that is written thereof", and then, listen to what he says: "You will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success". Notice, God doesn't make you prosperous. When you get into this book and you meditate in this book, you make your way prosperous. God doesn't give you good success. When you get into the wisdom of God and the book of God, the Bible said you will make your way. "I wish God would bless me".
Get in the book. Get into the wisdom of God. The Word of God is the wisdom of God. It'll make your way prosperous, and you'll have good success. You don't have a prosperous marriage? God says, "I've given you a way, but I'm not going to just fix your marriage. I'm going to let you get into the book, and learn how to love your wife, learn how to love your husband, love how to forgive one another. Become an expert in forgiveness, find every scripture on marriage you can", and guess what? God'll give you the way to be prosperous and have a good marriage. Become an expert.
There's a difference between the person of Jesus and the principles of Jesus. You can know the person of Jesus, and never know the principles of Jesus. And you can go to heaven, but you can have a miserable life on earth when you don't learn the principles of Jesus. Just because you know the person of Jesus and you're saved does not mean you're going to have a victorious life and a happy and blessed marriage. You can know the person of Jesus, and not know the principles of a happy marriage, family, or how to run a business successfully.
The principles of success are in the Bible, and it's not enough to know the person. That's why you're so wise for being here, because you need more than the person of salvation. You need the principles to have a joyful life, a happy life. You can know the Son of God and not know the systems of God. You can know Christ and not know His customs. You can have an experience with God, but not have the expertise of God. And you can be saved and fail at everything; relationships, marriage, everything, because you don't know the wisdom of God. And the Word of God is the wisdom of God. You don't just have to have a saved heart, you need a renewed mind.
See, a lot of people have given their heart Jesus, but their mind is still unrenewed. The Bible said don't be conformed to this world, but get a new way of thinking; be renewed. Romans 12: the renewing of your mind. Both are necessary. You know, no heart people, I'm going to call Christians, heart Christians, they're all about feeling. "I feel the presence of God", nothing wrong with that. They're into worship. They'll worship for hours. "I feel God. I feel angels", and they'll worship; and there's nothing wrong with that. But usually, they're not much into studying the Word. They're just into feelings. They get into a service and work themselves up into a lather and go outside and don't even know what they were shouting about.
And then there's other people, don't worry I'm coming your way if that wasn't you. Then there's people who they're all about the mind; they're mind people. They don't want to worship and praise. Usually, real smart mind people are not much into worship. This is how they do during praise and worship. 'Cause it's all about up here. It's all about up here. If you can ever get the heart worshipping and the mind studying the Word of God, that combination is something the devil cannot deal with. With you have the humility to worship, but you have the mind of God and the wisdom of God you are a threat to the enemy in your life.
Come on, and say, "Amen", somebody. Both are necessary; the person and the principles; worship and study the Word of God. You will never wake up with a God knowledge. I just woke up and I knew about the book of Romans. Hallelujah. It's not going to happen. You can love God all you want, worship God for hours and you still will have no knowledge. And, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge". Marriages are destroyed 'cause they don't get into the wisdom of God. Business don't succeed not cause they don't try hard. They don't have wisdom to know the difference between people and opportunity and timing and focus, don't and ignore, that only comes through, you ought to, man, when I dropped this Bible, my momma used...
When I was a kid if we'd drop the Bible, she'd say, "Pick it up and kiss it". We had to pick the Bible up, you ought to kiss your Bible every once in while. You kiss your cat, kiss your Bible. My God, if you can kiss an old... Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. Pursue the knowledge of the Word of God. Control and manage your thought life. What you picture in your mind will happen in time. Garbage in, garbage out. Gospel in, gospel out.
You can't make withdrawals if you haven't made deposits. If you make deposits in your mind bank, then you can make withdrawals from your mind bank of the wisdom of God when you need it. When you need it, you open your mouth, and if you've made the deposit, God will give you the answers in a moment's time. You'll just have wisdom, and people will be amazed. How did he know to do that? It's the wisdom of God, you made bank deposits in your brain, and in your spirit, and then you can make withdrawals. But if garbage in, garbage out. You're either a container of treasure or trash. You're either putting treasure in, or you're putting porn in, you're putting some rapper that's cussing. "Blankity-blank, blank-blank".
And then, you wonder, after Free Chapel, great service, get out in the parking lot, somebody pulls and roll down your window, and, "Blankity-blank". Where did that come from? Garbage in, you were listening to, "Blankity-blank, blank-blank". You put it in, it's going to come out. You put truth in, it's going to come out. You put love in, it's going to come out. You put victory in, it's going to come out. Take a praise break, and I'm going to keep preaching in just a minute. Preaching the truth. What are you putting in?
Understand the power of spoken words. Speak what you expect, not what you're experiencing. Talk about two things, talk about what God has done, and talk about the blessings that are en-route to your life, even as you are sitting here today, and begin to praise God for those things. And God says, "I create the fruit of your lips". He said that in Josiah: "I create the fruit of your lips". "Whatever your lips say, I start to fashion-fold, and I create". Stop complaining.
Turn to somebody and say, "You look like the cover girl for the Book of Lamentations". Come on. Stop complaining. Faith comes when you hear God talk. Faith is courage. And faith comes when you hear God talk, that's why it's so powerful to read the Bible. And if you don't understand it, just read it. Just read it, just keep reading it, and pass through the parts you don't understand. But if you just keep reading it, somewhere in there, if you'll read the book, the book'll read you, and there'll come a verse out of nowhere, and bam, it'll jump out of all those, that, "So-and-so begot so-and-so". "So-and-so begot so-and-so". And right in the middle of it, and: "No weapon formed against you shall prosper".
Wow. And then, you keep reading. Get in a book you don't understand, just keep reading. You ain't got to worry about what you don't understand. There's enough. If you'll read this book, this book will fill you with the wisdom of God, but you have to have a time, you have to have a place, you have to sit down, you have to say it's from 7 to 7:15, or 7:20. I don't want any interruptions. I turn all the stuff off, and I'm going to read this book. If you will give God the next 30 days and read the Bible for about 20 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, read a Proverb, read a Psalm, and read through, systematically, one of the books of the Bible. If you will do that, in 30 days, you will begin to see an amazing revolution begin to take place in your family, in your life, in your attitude, in your outlook. It's just that simple. It's the wisdom of God.
Here's another one. I really thought, I don't know if I wanted to put this one in here, but I feel like I'm supposed to. One of the keys to finding your plan and your purpose in God is establish and maintaining your friendships. Don't lose your friendships. Don't let pride and anger cause you to destroy good friendships. Nurture your friendships. Maintain your friendships. Send texts and phone calls. Just do things to stay in touch with people that God strategically places in your life. It's so important. Call somebody.
Deuteronomy 8:18, says this, "You shall remember the Lord your God for it is He", watch this, "Who gives you the power to get wealth". It did not say that God gives you wealth. He said, "I will give you the how to get wealth". He gives you the mentality. He said in Isaiah 48, "I will teach you how to prosper". "I'll teach you to profit". Isn't that a beautiful verse? "I am the Lord your God who teaches you. I'm not going to give you profit, I'm going to teach you how, in my Word, if you'll take the time to invest the right seeds into your life". He'll teach you.
I'm almost done, but think about this. There is a mentality to being blessed. Money goes where money is. Success goes where success is. Jesus was teaching a lesson one time, and He said that there was a guy who had money, and he didn't do anything with it, and there was a guy who had some money, and he invested it and made a lot with it, and Jesus, God's Son, said, "Take from the guy who did nothing", and he needs it, real bad. "Take it from him, and give it to the guy who's really blessed", 'cause success follows success.
Money follows money. It's a principle. When Solomon was the wealthiest man in the world, the Bible said that the queen of Sheba came to see him, and after she saw all that he had done, it took her breath away, and then she did the strangest thing. She got 120.000 talents of gold, and the man who least needed the resources, she gave it to him. What I'm saying to you today is so powerful, that once you get the Word of God and the wisdom of God in you, it enables you to make wise decisions.
Your assignment will always have an enemy. Nehemiah began to build the wall, and the enemy showed up. Jesus had an assignment, but the pharisees showed up. Anytime you are doing what God has assigned you to do, there will be enemies to God's assignment. Your assignment is geographical. Jonah was not in the right place. God said, "Go to Ninevah", but he didn't go there, and God prepared a fish, and swallowed him. And when God got through with him, by the time all of those amino acid juices ate all his hair and eyebrows off, he came out looking like an old, withered up raisin. Spit up, with fish vomit all over him, spending the night on a rubber mattress for three days and three nights. He came up and said, "I'll go anywhere you want me to go".
Don't make God prepare a fish to get you where you're supposed to be. God's assignment is geographical. What you hate or what angers you is a clue to what you're assigned to deal with. Some things you can ignore, but some things really get on your nerves. If you see somebody, maybe it's abuse, or maybe it's alcohol, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, you know, the woman that started that, her son was killed. And it so upset her, that she started a whole movement of mothers against drunk drivers.
Man, why did she do that? Because she got angry about something. Maybe it's sex trafficking, or maybe it's poverty, or maybe it's sin, you know, kids in a situation where they're never, whatever angers you, in a, when Moses saw an Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian, it angered him, and he went and slew him, that he did it out of timing, but it was a clue to his assignment. He was called to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians. Let me give you another clue. What you love and what you enjoy is a clue to your assignment.
Anytime somebody comes to me and they say, "I just don't know. Oh, Pastor. Pastor I need you to council me. Should I marry this person"? And they're sad and they're crying and they're disturbed and they're torn to pieces. The lack of joy is a clue. If you're not ecstatic about it, if you're not gooey in love, if you're not, "Oh, I can't breath without them near me, touching me". Do not get married. The lack of joy is a real clue. The bible said perfect love cast out all fear. "I'm afraid. I'm afraid".
If you are really in love, you're not afraid. Decide to excel in your present assignment. I really want God to, I'm waiting on somebody to discover me. I'm waiting on the big door. I'm waiting on somebody who... big doors swing on little hinges. You have to excel in your present assignment, and when you excel in your present assignment, it says to God and to people who you may not even be aware are watching you, they're too big for that place. They need a bigger place. Excel in your present assignment.
Quit waiting. The Bible said, "Despise not the day of small beginnings". Don't put little value on the little hinge, but the big doors swing on the little hinges of our life. And you must excel in your present, "I wish I could get a big contract". Excel in your present assignment. Hallelujah. Can I give you one more? Talking about ways to find God's plan. You must make a decision to honor divine authority in your life. I'll close with this. Make a decision that you will honor mentors.
See, there's two ways to learn, mistakes or mentors. When you invite correction, you remove the pain of it. Listen to this, mentors are shortcuts to success. Mentorship is learning through the pain of another person. I'm glad you failed. Now, tell me why, so that I don't have to. Thanks very much.
There are three things that spiritual mentorship will release into your life, and even in the natural. If you've got a boss, they're your mentor. Three things they can release in your life, every time. Provision, promotion, protection. If it's spiritual authority, they always have the ability to release provision: if you honor 'em, protection, and promotion. And don't ever forget that law, it's a law, and if you honor it, God says it'll help you, 'cause God's going to use somebody to help you get in your place. Now, I want you, right now, to raise your hands up toward heaven, and say:
Lord, I thank You today that I have heard the truth. The wisdom of God is the Word of God. I will no longer neglect it. I repent, that I have not consumed it, that I have not devoured it. But starting today, I prioritize my days in my life. I will seek and pursue wisdom and the knowledge of God. And I thank You, that when I do, You'll make my way prosperous, and You'll give me good success. In every area of my life, I yield to Your wisdom. I yield to Your Word. I yield to Your plan. I receive the right people, the right place, the right plan, in Jesus mighty name.