Mike Signorelli - How to Know Your Purpose
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But one of the questions that I get the most is, «Pastor Mike, I’m so confused and perplexed. How do I know the significance and the purpose of my life?» I believe that I’ve received a revelation from God about how you can discover what your true purpose is and why you’re here. I wanted to talk to you about that today, and I want to speak from Scripture.
Did you know that if your faith is little, your faith can grow? How many of you knew that? For those of you who are looking around during worship and saying, «I wish my faith was like their faith. I wish I believed it like my mother.» I wish I believed it like that person next to me who’s weeping right now. Did you know that your faith can grow? How does your faith grow?
The Bible says faith comes by what? Hearing. Hearing. Faith comes. Dylan, come here. Now look, Dylan was over there, and I was over here, but when I said, «Dylan, come over here,» now Dylan’s here. See, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of the Lord. As Scriptures are being declared, you might feel like you don’t have faith, but faith arrives, faith shows up, faith steps up into the room, faith steps up into your being, faith steps up in your mind. Come on, I’m normal just like you, but I’ve been through a process of hearing and hearing the word of God, and it’s increased my faith.
I didn’t realize that at 13 and 14 years old, every time I was reading every page of the Bible obsessively, I was increasing my faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. So if you’re here today, I believe that primarily the Lord wants to deal with your faith. It’s often not «I don’t know what my purpose is.» It’s actually «I don’t have faith to operate in what I know it already is.» Come on, that’s a revelation. I talk to people all the time where I say, «You know exactly what your purpose is, but you don’t have the faith to operate in it.» Come on, faith comes by what? Hearing? And hearing what? Hearing the word. As you listen to the opinions of people, your faith decreases, but as you listen to the word of God, your faith increases. Let faith arise as the word of God is released and goes forth. The word of God will say, «I know New York, but greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. If God is for me, who can be against me?» This is how faith speaks. Faith speaks, and fear jumps. The doctor gives you a diagnosis, but you hear the word of the Lord, your faith increases. The great physician says, «Oh, he’s a good physician; he was good enough to diagnose it, but I’m the great physician; I’m good enough to cure it with one drop of my blood.» Faith! Somebody shout, «Faith!»
I’ve done these sermons for years about discovering purpose. It wasn’t until I matured in ministry that I realized they already know what it is—they haven’t heard the word. How many of you are going to wave at me if you’re going to make a commitment to read your Bible more? Faith comes by hearing. Who’s going to make a commitment? I’m going to read my Bible more. Write this down in your notes. I’m going to give you three ways to actually access the secret of your purpose: Number one, what’s the pain? Number two, where’s the passion? And number three, what’s the plan? The pain, the passion, and the plan. Say it with me: the pain, the passion, the plan. Come on, say it again: the pain, the passion, the plan. Show me your pain, and I’ll show you your purpose.
«Oh, my dad abandoned me!» Yes, yes, you are to be a father to many. «Oh, my husband walked out on me. I’ve been struggling so much!» Oh, your pain will become someone else’s comfort. Show me your pain, and I’ll show you your purpose. Show me where you’ve struggled, and I’ll show you your greatest sermon.
Oh, I wish somebody would—I’m going to agitate you and shake you until you start hearing what I’m saying. «Oh, Pastor Mike, I struggle with addiction in my sexuality.» Well, guess what? It sounds like you’re a chain breaker for lust and perversion and all that garbage. «Pastor Mike, I don’t know my identity.» Well, it sounds like the Father wants to use you to release identity in other people. Show me the pain, and I’ll show you your purpose.
Where’s the passion? You know the world has a way of killing passion. The world has a way of killing passion. Come on, family, let me just face this way: family has a way of killing passion. You know, Jim Carrey’s dad didn’t think he’d ever make it as a comedian. Come on, so often when we have a passion, we allow life to tell us what’s possible, but that passion came from the throne room of God. Did you know that when I received the gift to preach, do you want to know how I knew? I started preaching in the shower. I remember I used to—I don’t know about you guys, I get my best prayer time in the shower. If you have a family, that’s the only place you have to yourself, and even that’s debatable! Even that’s debatable! But I remember I began to pray, and sermons started materializing in my mind. I didn’t strive for it. I remember, wow, I would be—this is how I knew the Lord was doing something in me through the gift of preaching. I would preach to myself, and some of the most powerful sermons were the ones that were happening in my spirit as heaven was depositing something in me for God’s people.
And I never complained that a pastor didn’t schedule me to preach because preaching isn’t something that happens on a stage; preaching is something that happens with your life. I would take these sermons and I would write them down in a notebook, and I would preserve them. I’d say, «Lord, I’ll never kick open a door because you cancel the assignment of strivers.» And I would say, «Lord, you’re the one who’s got to call me to preach because promotion comes from you. Promotion doesn’t come from man. You’re the one who opens the door; you’re the one who closes the door.» I never once have asked anyone ever if I could preach in their church, but the doors have opened globally. Oftentimes I would have a sermon in my notebook, and I would sit on it for years, and then I would get the call to preach, and I’d say, «I already know; my gun’s already loaded for that assignment.»
Show me your passion, and I’ll show you your purpose. I have a passion for music, and I’ve only ever led worship one time for V1, and it was during the onset of a global pandemic. But I believe that our house has experienced passion as people have learned instruments and sung songs. What is your passion? Show me your passion, and I’ll show you your purpose.
Lastly is the plan. Let me just read this to you. I want you to get this in your notes: pain without passion is torment, passion without a plan is exhaustion, pain and passion without a plan is destructive, and pain and passion with a plan is the secret to purpose. Are you catching this? Are you catching this? This is rich. Pastor Mike, I have pain, but I haven’t experienced my passion. Well, guess what? You’re in torment. «Pastor Mike, I have all this passion, but I have no plan.» Guess what? You’re exhausted because you’ve done everything you could think to be successful, and it hasn’t worked. «Pastor Mike, I have the pain and I have the passion, but I don’t have a plan.» And when you have pain and a passion, it always ends in destruction.
Can I read you God’s word so that your faith can arise? Matthew chapter 4, verse 23: «Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.» Somebody say «in their synagogues.» Come on! Jesus started in the synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease. Somebody say «every.» That includes your disease. That includes the one that doesn’t have a pill or a remedy. In 2021, healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about Him spread all over Syria. This is with no Facebook, no Instagram, no email, no mass texting system. The word spread. Pastor, listen to me: if you’re more concerned with marketing than the miraculous, you’ll never expand the kingdom in this season.
People brought to Him all who were ill of various diseases. Now listen to this: those suffering with severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed Him. I want you to focus on verse 24 that says those suffering with severe pain. What if I told you that the hidden blessing in your pain is meeting the person of Jesus Christ? When your pain has no other solution, what if it’s your pain that drove you to Jesus? What if He—come on—what if He actually, for a season, allowed the pain to bring you to the person? And while you were seeking purpose, you needed the person of Jesus Christ, but only your pain would have taken you to the person, and if you received purpose, it would have been a counterfeit purpose.
Second Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3-8: «Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.» Somebody say the phrase «all comfort.» I just want you to hear it: cigarettes are comforting, but it’s not «all comfort.» It’s comfort with a high price tag to your bank account and your physical health. I ripped up a pack of Newports right here on this stage last Sunday night because someone traded some comfort for all comfort. Someone traded a little—but I wish you guys heard what I was saying today—"who comforts us in all our troubles.» Say «all.» Oh, Pastor Mike, you don’t understand my situation. Oh, connect group leader, I’m suffering in a unique way that you don’t know. Guess what? «All.» «All.» «All» who comforts us in all our troubles so that we—now listen, here’s the flip—so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we received from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
So we share in sufferings with Christ, but the comforting of Christ comes through us. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer, and our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. The reason why you haven’t shared in the comforts of Christian leaders is because they’ve never shared in the all-comfort of the Holy Spirit.
A lot of leaders mask vulnerability with whining and crying, but you say, «I’m suffering just like you’re suffering, but I’m receiving a comfort from on high,» and now you can be a recipient of this comfort too. See, if you’ve ever been through anything, you’ve been through it for someone else’s comfort. If you’ve asked God, «Why? Why did I go through it? Why did I suffer through that season? Why didn’t I have a childhood like other children? Why didn’t I have a family like other families? Why?» What if God’s shouting back to you, «Let my comfort in you be the comfort for those around you»?
So when someone comes up to you and says, «Oh, I was raised poor.» «Oh, I was too, but I’ve learned that I’m blessed to be a blessing. I’ve learned that a city on a hill cannot be hidden. I’ve learned that I’m a recipient of the Abrahamic covenant that says the blessings of the Lord are yes and amen. I’ve learned the power of agreement. I’ve learned that I am no longer a slave nor am I an orphan, but I am a daughter or a son of the King, and my comfort is your comfort now.» You may have been born poor, but you are going to die a legacy holder, a legacy bearer. «Let my comfort, the comfort that came to me in my struggling—oh God, why did I get cancer? Cancer is not for your death; it’s for your testimony and my comfort is going to become their comfort in Jesus' mighty name.» Oh, let my comfort be your comfort. It was my suffering for your comfort. This is how you find your purpose.
Show me the pain, and I’ll show you your purpose. Colossians chapter 3, verse 23: «Whatever you do—» Somebody say «whatever!» «Oh, Pastor Mike, I want to do this, and then I want to do this, and I want to do this, and I don’t know what to do.» «Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.» You know how I know whether it’s your purpose or not? Who you do it for! Yeah, come on, this one got it! The amount of time it takes for him to be proficient in this instrument and to sing the way he does reveals that he’s doing it unto the Lord, because if he was doing this for you, he would never get good enough to actually do it the way he does it. See, your audience determines your passion, which determines your purpose. And if you’re just playing the guitar because you want to get fans, you’ll probably end up with no fans, no followers, and be a terrible guitar player.
But when you’re passionate, and you have an audience of One, and you’re worshiping the Lord, you’ll get so lost in His presence that no one will have to schedule your rehearsal because you’re not rehearsing; you’re activating your purpose. You’re operating in your purpose. If you preach for people, you’re probably going to be a bad preacher because you’re going to live by their approval and die by their disapproval. But if you preach because you’ve got a message like fire shut up in your bones, you don’t care if two people stay or 20,000 stay. Every sermon is a stadium because you’ve activated your purpose. You can’t teach purpose; it’s activated through your passion.
Let’s talk about the plan, though. Whatever—whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. «Whatever.» Sometimes my wife says, «Man, thank you so much for massaging my back.» Sometimes there’s ulterior motives connected to that! Come on now, husbands, it works. Don’t play stupid. So here’s what I need you to understand: sometimes you’ll see someone doing something, and they’ll say, «I’m so confused; I don’t know what my purpose is,» but there are ulterior motives connected to what they’re doing. There are ulterior motives. You’ll never be successful; you’ll never operate in your purpose. You’ve got to get to the place where you say, «Whatever I do, I do it unto the Lord.» Whatever I do, I do it unto the Lord. It makes my heart unoffendable because this song—you may not have liked it, but it wasn’t for you.
Do it unto the Lord! He’s the one! It’s like when Christ was baptized; He came up out of the water and said, «That’s my Son! I’m proud of Him.» You know how many people Jesus had to offend to actually walk in the approval of God? You’ll have to offend a lot of people to walk in God’s approval. You have a choice: offend Jesus to walk in man’s approval, or actually offend a lot of people to walk in God’s approval.
Last but not least, I want you to hear this: Your pain should connect you to the person of Jesus Christ. Your passion should connect you to the person of Jesus Christ. Your plan should connect you to the person of Jesus Christ. Your pain reveals what you need Him for. Your passion is wasted on anyone or anything else other than Him. Believe me, I tried! And your plan, if it works without Him, it’s a bad plan. Your plan should be so impossible that the God of impossibilities is the only way it’s going to take place. If you can do it with your bank account, it’s not God’s plan. If you can do it with your relationships, it’s not God’s plan. If you can do it with what you know in your natural mind, it’s not God’s plan. If you can deal with the wisdom that you receive from someone else, it’s not God’s plan.
I wish somebody heard me today: «Teach me how to be successful.» There’s going to have to be a sacrifice. It’s going to have to burn before the Lord. It’s going to have to be so ridiculous, so impossible, so ludicrous that people thought you lost your mind. And then you tell them back, «I did lose my mind. I lost my carnal mind, my natural mind, my broken mind, my captive mind.» I lost my mind! I lost my mind! That’s how I’m operating in my purpose. If the world’s in their right mind, I think I’ll pass!
Whatever! Whatever you do! When you change that poopy diaper and you’re so frustrated you want to give up on your marriage, you better change that diaper unto the Lord. That becomes your purpose. Son, when your wife is foaming at the mouth, cussing you out with dragon breath, and you forgot the reason why you married her, you better say you’re sorry; you better ask for forgiveness; you better love that woman; you better honor your covenant of marriage because that’s your purpose! That’s your purpose!
When you wake up and get ready to go to work, it might be a job you hate, but nobody should tell it because you’re a Christian, and you’re a sojourner; you’re a pilgrim! You don’t even belong to this place anyway; you’re a citizen of a different place called heaven. Shouldn’t nobody tell whether you love your job or hate it because you do whatever unto the Lord? And then God says, «Oh baby, you did it with a good attitude, so you just qualified yourself to graduate to the next level.» And some of you are getting ready to graduate. Some of you are getting ready to discover your purpose!
Listen, if you’ve got a bad attitude in a job you hate, you’ll bring that bad attitude into your purpose too. You know how I know? Because I hire full-time ministry people who hate it too! And I said, «Use the problem, not where you’re at.» Some of you keep trying to escape levels that God needs you to graduate.
Somebody just say, «I’m graduating! I’m graduating!» Come on, if you can’t withstand the demons in your job, you’ll never withstand the demons in your purpose! If you can’t bring the kingdom of darkness down in your job, you won’t do it in your purpose! Somebody say, «I’m graduating! I’m graduating!»
Listen, I can’t tell you how many times in the last couple of years I looked at my wife and said, «You are only going to get the fruits of the Spirit out of me. I’m going to act like every second of my life is recorded because this is the best sermon I’ve ever preached in my life.» Because I want to punch a hole right through that door, but I’m going to punch a hole through a stronghold and a generational curse, and I’m going to rise up and be what I never saw someone else be because where your pain is, that’s where your purpose is.
Would you stand to your feet with me? Proverbs chapter 19, verse 21: «Many—» Somebody say «many.» «Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.» Many! Some of you are spinning, «Oh, I got this plan and this plan, and then I put this here, and then I moved this here, and I got this.» And the Lord’s like, «Shut up! My plans are going to prevail.» Once you shut up! Did you know that prayer—listen to me, Catholics, listen to me, Presbyterians and Methodists, listen to me, Pentecostals who never stop speaking in tongues—I’m serving notice on all of you. Do you want to know why Jesus was in prayer for so long? Can I submit to you the idea that He was listening some of that time too?
«Now, son, listen, today you know Peter?» «Oh, yeah, I know Peter.» «Yeah, he’s pretty jacked up. Hey, he’s going to step way out of line; just rebuke the devil, just tell him, 'Get thee behind me.'» How do you know if some of what you encountered in Jesus' life and ministry was foretold in prayer and revealed by the Father? There are conversations happening; you’re in the divine timeline. See, prayer is information through impartation for activation of the purpose in your life.
Prayer is a dialogue—prayer is a dialogue. It says that «for many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.» And guess what? Can I just deal with some bitterness in some hearts right now? Have you ever seen a wicked person prosper, and you’re like, «Why? Why is it working out for them when I’m a good person?» Can I just tell you some great news? Pride goes before a fall. Can I tell you some even better news? There is a safety feature on this planet that is only allowing the plans of God to play out. I’m here to tell you, don’t let your heart get bitter, because even while they think they’re prospering, they’re not.
Proverbs chapter 15, verse 22: «Plans fail for the lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed.» Don’t isolate! Somebody say, «Don’t isolate!» You’re never going to fulfill your purpose alone! We team up to strengthen up; we give up to go up! You cannot do it alone! «Oh, I’m just going to…» That’s why that woman from V1 Alabama said, «There may not be a church in my neighborhood that I want, but there’s one that exists, and I’m going to birth this thing in my living room.» And someone from her family got free from drug addiction as they gave a V1 watch party.
Plans fail for the lack of counsel. Your connect group leader will counsel you; your care pastor will counsel you; the sermons I preach every week are a global Bible study that will counsel you. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 3: «Commit-» Everybody say «commit!» «Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.» Why does it seem like my plans always fail trying to fulfill my purpose? Because you didn’t commit them to the Lord; you committed them to your idolatry, and the Lord sabotaged it to save you. That’s raw, but that’s real!
Why do my plans never work? Because you never committed them to the Lord; you committed them to some stuff you wanted to make your broken ego feel better about your low self-esteem, and He thwarted you so that He can heal you, so that if you ever get the stuff you wanted, you can sustain it, and it doesn’t take you out. Commit! Somebody say «commit!» The decision speed in an airplane is V1. It’s when the pilots say, «We’re out of runway; there’s no more distance. This plane is going to fly.» Whether a tire blows out or the engine catches on fire, no matter what, a greater force of nature has taken over.
Until you commit-somebody say «commit!» There are people that do their wedding vows right in front of me but never commit in their heart; they have a back door; they have an escape hatch. There are people that go to church on Sunday, waiting to find something wrong to excuse them to go back into isolation. Yes, I’m getting up in your business, and the Lord says, «Commit!» Somebody say «commit!» All movements are started by committed people.
Somebody shout «commit!» You know what makes the body of Christ powerful? The fact that God let you imperfect people in it, and me too! And so this church needs your commitment. It needs your commitments! The body of Christ! And then what happens is when you commit to the Lord, everything else He will establish your plans.