Mensa Otabil - Called According to God's Purpose
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Welcome to a brand new week! This week, we’re going to look at some important ideas that affect the way we live our lives and the way we respond to God. We start with Romans chapter 8, verse 28: «And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.» We’re going to focus on the phrase «according to His purpose.» We know that all things work together; that’s another aspect of it. But God has called us according to His purpose. To experience the fullness of life that God wants us to have, we have to accept and live with the mindset that God has called us and that He has called us according to His purpose. God’s calling for us is always a high calling, or it’s the highest calling.
What do we mean when we say something is a high calling? It means that amidst all the things that draw our attention-people calling you to do one thing, others calling you to do something else, and even things you want to do for yourself, along with all the things your parents want you to do — above all those calls, above all those demands, there is a higher demand that God is placing on our lives. That is what we call His higher calling. It goes higher than everything else, and we must come to the awareness that there is something God wants us to do that is higher than any other thing we want to do in life. If we find ourselves in that higher calling of God, we get our highest output, our highest significance, and our highest joy.
Now, God’s high calling for you is also called His perfect will for you. That means it is a perfect fit for you; it’s the perfect thing you have to do with your life. So, God’s high calling for me is not going to be the same as God’s high calling for you. God’s high calling for you may not be the same as His high calling for your spouse, and the place that God has designated for each one of us is based on what He has called us to do. If God calls me to do «A,» He will create a spot called «A» where I fit in, and only I will fit in that space perfectly. Other people may try; they may pretend, they may imitate, they may copy, but nobody is going to fit into the place that God has designated for me. That is a mindset we must have: that God has a calling for our lives, and the calling for our lives is according to His purpose.
For us to really live our lives in a way that brings significance to ourselves, we must be where God wants us to be. It’s a very simple truth, but it’s very difficult to obey. Why? Because life is full of imitation. The human being is prone to imitation. We learn by imitation; we learn to speak by imitating people who speak, and we learn to walk by imitating others. Much of what we do in life is by imitating somebody else. There is value in imitation because if someone has done something right, you can learn from that person and get along. But when it comes to the calling of God, there is no imitation; there is originality. That’s why it’s difficult to find ourselves in the calling of God- because, for much of our lives, we have been programmed to imitate. We have to pray that God gives us the grace that when it comes to our calling, we will not be imitators but followers of the higher purposes of God.
That also means we have to be ready; we have to be prepared for where God wants us to be because it will take a lot of change and will place many demands on us. What God wants you to do with your life may sometimes be uncomfortable for you, but if you follow Him, yield to Him, and prepare yourself for Him, He will take you to amazing places and do amazing things with your life.
Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, You have called me according to Your purpose. I will be what You want me to be. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»