Deep within every human being, there is a desire to live a life of significance and purpose. If you search the scriptures you will find God designed this as part of our natural human instincts to draw us toward our special purpose in His will.
Ephesians 1:11 [NKJV]
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. . .
Ephesians 2:10 [NKJV]
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Jeremiah 29:11
[KJV] For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
[New Living Translation] For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
The word thoughts/plans used here is (מַחֲשָׁבָה) machăshâbâh in the Hebrew, pronounced makh-ash-aw-baw'. It literally means, "that which one meditates, purposes, or plots over."
God knows the plans He has made toward you because he made those plans before you were ever born.
God told Jeremiah,
[Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV] "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you. . ."
Each one of us has been designed by God for a special purpose!
God has fashioned each of us to individually fulfill His specific will in our lives.
He created us, formed us, and knows each of us by name.
God is working in you to complete His design and purpose for who he wants you to be and what he wants you to do.
Psalm 37:23-24 [NKJV]
The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the LORD upholds him with His hand.
Up to now, you may not have understood this principle behind your creation, but in the back of your mind, you have always wondered, "Why am I Here?" "What is my purpose on this earth?"
Finding the answers to these two questions can bring you into a deep abiding peace as you live and work inside the will of God.
Psalm 33:14-15 [NKJV]
From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.
Psalm 139:14-18 [NKJV]
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when [as yet there were] none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
Some think that God works so specifically to fulfill His will in our lives that He moves us around like pawns on a chessboard. So much so, that they look to God for answers as small as daily tasks we must do to sustain ourselves each day in life. This is taken so far that it has been taught and accepted through the centuries that God will bring you suffering and illness to punish you for sins to shape you into what He desires in your life. He does not test using evil means (James 1:13) and He does not cast evil on others to give you blessings. Evil is a tool Satan uses that he might destroy you and your existence.
God is passionately invested in you becoming more than you could ever become without His directions and His intervention, but He does not move us around on the board of life, requiring us to do simple life tasks. God provided for us ways to manage life using the spiritual tools of the Fruit of the Spirit, the Gifts of the Spirit, and the Armor of God. Then as you become more aware of God's ways, he works in your life to build you up to be all in all with Him. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians to work out your own salvation. God left it to us that we work in His good pleasure.
[Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV]
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
God does intend on revealing to us His plan and how our purpose lines up with that plan, but he leaves it up to us if we are going to follow that plan or not.
This is how Adam chose to not do the will of God and chose to eat of the forbidden fruit.
This is why people choose to follow after the works of the flesh and not the fruit of the spirit.
You would think it would have been so much easier if God had made us to simply do His will.
So, why didn't God do it that way? Why did He give us a will of our own and allow the weakness of humanity the option to decide over GOOD or EVIL?
The answer is, God's glory is shown when a person will choose to love God and give themselves to Him instead of choosing to follow evil or human weakness.
This is why we are told to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"; so that you will choose to do the will of God.
When a person chooses God's will over their own, they are more likely to continue in it.
If you are made to follow in a certain path, the human being will often time rebel against it.
When you are saved, God has designed us to:
Become chosen (John 15:16)
Become known (Romans 8:28-30)
Become predestined
Become called
Become justified and
Become glorified.
My Design
Here is a story that shows one of the ways God has worked to design who he wants me to be.
It was November 14, 1971. I arrived the night before on the USS Lexington, for my place of duty in the U.S. Navy. After finishing my Navy bootcamp training, I was assigned to this aircraft carrier that was home based in Pensacola, Florida. I had never lived on my own before joining the Navy. I was in my first year of college and ran out of money by the end of my first semester. The military was offering the G.I. Bill, that would pay for college schooling to anyone who served four years in one of its branches. I joined the Navy because I was always intrigued by the ships and the water.
Before joining the Navy, I was on staff in a little church located in my home town of Amarillo, Texas. I had been there for over a year working as the Youth and Music Minister. I had a strong commitment to the work of the Lord and I was learning much through the Bible as God was revealing many things to me. At that time I was not aware of how much joining the Navy was a part of God's design for my life.
The morning after I reported to the ship for duty was a Sunday and I wanted to go to some church that morning. Because I came in at night, I was not aware of how far I had to walk to get off base and find a church; so, I got up early and put on my dress uniform. I was walking toward the direction of the front gate for about fifteen minutes when an officer stops to give me a ride into town. I was so new in the Navy I did not realize this officer was in officer training school. I just knew he was an officer and I treated him that way. When he stopped to ask me if I wanted a ride, I told him I was going into town to attend a church somewhere. He said he was on his way to church then and I was welcome to go with him to his church if I wanted to. I like that idea, so I went with him. The church was so enjoyable and friendly, I went back that night and joined as a member. I stayed with that church for two years, until I was called upon by another church in the city, to become their Youth and Music Minister.
A pastor had started building a new church in the northern part of the city and sought me out to come and help build this new fellowship. They had been having services for about four months at the time and I knew by what the Lord was working in me, that I needed to go and help this pastor. My ship went out on Mondays and came in on Fridays. We were a training aircraft carrier for the aviation pilot training that was located on our naval base. The pilots in training would use our ship to learn how to land plains on a carrier. Because we were normally off on the weekends it was easy for me to continue working in the ministry while still in the Navy.
The second month I was with the church, the pastor wanted me to go with him to this church association meeting he called a 5th Saturday Meeting. Every time there were five Saturdays in a month, the local association of churches got together on that day for a time of preaching, fellowship, and food. Because of my duty the night before, I told the pastor I would meet him at the church hosting the meeting. I got to the church a few minutes late but before they had finished their time of singing hymns. When I walked in and sat down my eyes landed on a young lady that took my breath away. I was a very committed minister that kept my mind on what was taking place in the church meetings. I enjoyed the fellowship and excitement that came with churches coming together to benefit the local mission efforts. The church I was working in was one of those local missions and I was going to be introduced that day as the new Youth and Music Minister of the new mission church for the association. As a form of introduction, they had me sing and share a little about who I was and my background. I must admit that I had no clue what was taking place that morning because I could not get my mind off of this young lady sitting a few rows ahead of me. As I was sing she mouthed the words of the song along with me, and I watched her the entire time, sing the song directly to her as though there was no one else in the building that day. I told the Lord, "She would be the perfect wife". All I heard him say back was, "She is the one". Before that day was over with I was in love and I did not care what it was going to take to meet her. As I approached her to introduce myself, a woman (her mother) called her to their car because they were leaving. I only got to say a few words to her and I never got her name or her phone number to call her.
The next part of this story is the part that shows how God works to design who He wants you to be.
By the next evening, on Sunday evening, I had her phone number and was talking to her on the phone. They lived in a town that was thirty miles away from Pensacola, where I lived. I found out she was only 15 years old and her parents were not going to let her start dating until she was 16, which was in two months. I was 21 years old and I thought she was too young to date also. When I talked to the Lord about her age, He told me the same thing, "This is the one". God also told me, "This is the one you had been praying for". So I continued talking with her until her parents let us go out on a date, but it was just two weeks later. Because I was the new minister at the mission church in town, her parents allowed her to start dating sooner. We were married after dating for only ten months. My wife was 16 years old and I was 22 years old. We have been married for forty-five years now. We have five grown children and eight grandchildren. This was a design by God. I married a woman who lived four states away and was much younger than most in America, and we were not pregnant nor had done anything wrong. This was just six years after I was saved and had given my life to Jesus.
This story gets better in the way it shows the design of God for those who will give themselves to His purpose.
My wife's parents named her after their pastor's daughter who was Ruth Smith. My wife's parents had friended their pastor's teenage daughter in such a way she was like a daughter to them. They loved her so much when they had their first child, a girl, they name her after Ruth. This is how my wife's name is Ruth Ann. Annie was Ruth Ann's grandmother, where she gets the name Ann. When Ruth Ann and I married, Ruth Smith was married and had three children, one girl, and two boys. The girl was named April because she was born in the month of April. April was just a child when she stood as one of our flower girls at our wedding. When April grew up she married Michael Franz. Michael is the son of the officer that gave me a ride into town on November 14, 1971, many years earlier.
All these people are specifically related to my wife and me because they are part of God's design that has developed my wife and me to be who we are. God is truly amazing that He would design and work in so many lives that a minister (myself) would leave Amarillo, Texas; get assigned to Pensacola, Florida; get picked up by an officer the first day in town, that takes me to a church in the association of churches, where two years later I would meet the young lady (Ruth Ann) from Milton, Florida, that would become my wife ten months from the time I met her; and that officer's son would grow up to become the husband to the daughter Ruth Ann is named after.
We are designed by God for a Purpose.
The elements of that design are so we can fulfill God's will upon the earth.
His will is going to do things that are very beneficial for those who will choose to follow in His will.
Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits. . . [NKJV]
Psalm 116:12 What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me? [NKJV]
Life in Christ is not what we give up to be a Christian, but it is what we benefit from knowing Him and living inside his mercy and grace.
We are Designed for the Benefit of Others
In 1980 my wife and I were expecting our third child and times were hard. We were unable to sustain a living through the work of ministry and I had to work in secular jobs to provide for our family. We had gone back to Texas hoping to make a living working with my father. Complications with my father made things too difficult to continue working with him and because we were expecting our third child, we decided I would go back into the military until things could level out.
I went into the Army instead of the Navy, hoping to see my family more and not be at sea all the time. I entered the linguistics program being pushed by the Army because of the need for Russian interpreters. The cold war with Russia was in full swing and the Army was paying a good bonus for those finishing the Russian linguistics school in Monterey, California. The school was 42 weeks of intensive drills and memory work that taught how to speak, read, and write the Russian language. Normally a class of 45 students is reduced to 20 students in the first eight weeks. By the 16th week, we had only lost three students so the school announced those not having a 90% or above by the end of the next week would be rejected from the program. That week I made 87% and was reassigned to the job field I had in the Navy, which was being a paralegal. Because I had not gone through the Army paralegal school I was sent to the school in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The students of the paralegal school were placed three to a dorm room. I was placed with a typical soldier that liked to party and have a good time when he was not in a class, and a Muslim that was more committed to his purpose at the school. After a few weeks of being together in our dorm room at night, the Muslim student questioned why I was so committed to reading in the Bible every night. I explained to him that I was a minister in the Christian faith and I was only in the Army because I was unable to make a living working in churches. The school was a self-pace course and each individual was only at the school as long as it took for them to finish the required work. The Muslim soldier had been there longer than me and had come to the end of his training. The next day he was scheduled to leave and fly to his new duty station. That night he expressed to me how he was nervous about flying in an airplane. He was afraid of the plane falling out of the sky and possibly causing him to die. I told him, "Why are you afraid, you have Allah to protect you." He immediately answered, "You know Allah is not real and that he cannot really help anyone." I was shocked that a Muslim would speak such a thing. I assured him that there was a way to have internal peace. It was through Jesus Christ. He responded with, "Your God does not care for me!" I shared with him that God loved him so much He designed my steps to be in front of him so he could hear the gospel from my lips. I shared how I was unable to make a living so we decided to go back into the military. How I was enrolled in the linguistics school, doing well in my studies, and suddenly I find myself in the same legal school he was in; and that I was assigned to his dorm room. After going through a few more questions this Muslim young man accepted Jesus as his savior. As he was leaving the next day he told me he was not afraid to fly on the plan now, because Jesus would protect him.
We are designed for a purpose and if we will choose to walk in that purpose God will use His design in our life to benefit other people.
He designed our being, our purpose, our path. . .
Psalm 37:23-24 [NKJV]
The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the LORD upholds him with His hand.
Ordered is the Hebrew word, kûwn כּוּן, pronounced koon, which means to be appointed, fashioned, or framed. It literally means to be made to stand upright.
God has designed us to become what He sees us to be.
He designs us by first calling us to His grace (Romans 8:28).
He has given us revelation and knowledge about how He is and who His Son is, so we can come to the knowledge of Salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ.
He continues designing us when we allow Him to fill us with His Spirit so that we have the power to do His work (Ephesians 5:15-18).
He continues designing us by giving us revelation through His word;
Wisdom to use what we are receiving;
And abilities to carry out His will. (Ephesians 1:3,17-18).
God is designing and building your story too!
As you continue to allow the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, to build you up, He continues to fulfill in you His design, His will, and you will see the hand of God working in your life.
Commit your ways unto the Lord. . .and these things will come to pass because you are designed by Him for a purpose.
Proverb 16:3 Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established. [NKJV]
Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. [NKJV]