PURPOSE

If you critically look at man, you would discover that these three things: purpose, placement and destiny is central to each and every one. There is no man or woman that you see or come across that does not have a purpose, it does not matter whether they have discovered it yet or not. Purpose is the reason a man or woman was created. Purpose is the original intent of God before He created every man. In Psalms 139:16, David said: “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.” The Passion Translation of the same verse says: “You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I had ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for were already recorded in your book.”

There are two things we can glean from this David’s revelation that we just read as it relates to our purpose.

Number one: God knew us before we were formed. David said “YOUR EYES SAW MY SUBSTANCE BEING YET UNFORMED.” God did not make us and then start to look for purpose for us. Our purpose had been before we were created in the first place. The same thing God said to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 to 6, how He had ordained Jeremiah a prophet from the womb unto nations. Number two: Our days on earth and all that we will do in it had been preordained even before we appeared in it. This is why David wrote in Psalms 90:12 that the Lord should teach us to number our days that we may apply our heart to wisdom.

There are three fundamental questions that usually arises in the minds of people when it comes to the matter of purpose. The first question is: Why Am I Existing? Obviously, many people have died, both young and old, but here I am, still alive; why am I still alive? Why do I sleep and wake up? This is the first question. The second question is: Does My Life Matter? What is so special about this my life? Is there something about this my life that I should be aware of or is it just there? Now, if one is able to raise these two questions, then it would ultimately lead to this third question, which is: What Exactly is my Purpose? Let us go straight into the word of God and see how all these questions could be answered.

Let us start our observation from Ephesians 1:3-6. The Bible says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” A corresponding Scripture to this is Acts 15:18 which says: “known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” We have a purpose in God right before the creation of the world, not after its creation. God had us in mind before He made everything. A proof of this is God making everything that man would ever need and require for survival before man was brought into the scene. Somewhere in Genesis 2:5, God did not cause rain to fall on the earth because there was no man to till the ground. That shows us the extent to which God was thinking about us before He brought us into the scene.

Let us continue with our text. It says: ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Romans 8:28-30

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

PLACEMENT

Also, there is no man or woman that does not have a placement. Everyone is actually being placed somewhere. Our purpose in life necessitates our placement. A man or woman who is wrongly placed would struggle to fulfil his or her purpose because purpose is usually place specific. In Genesis 2:8 and 15 (New American Standard), the Bible says: “The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. ¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.” Also in Isaiah 46:11, the Bible says:

Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

God is the one who places us and put us right where we can fulfill our life’s purpose and arrive at our destination safely. God is not a purposeless God. Our God is a God of purpose and He created each and every one of us with a purpose. In order for us to fulfill our purpose, He puts us in places where we can fulfill that purpose.

For example, if your purpose is to remain in Nigeria and fulfill the will of God here, if you find your way say, to the United States of America and while there you are fulfilling the will of God, it does not still negate the fact that you have wrongly misplaced yourself from the plans of God for your life. There was a time I heard the story of Kenneth E. Hagin (Senior) how that after 15 years he had been actively involved in the work of ministry, God said to him “he has been doing his own things all along. And that now is the time to His own will.” It is possible for one to assume he or she is in God’s purpose or fulfilling God’s will and be doing it in one’s way and not God’s way.

In that place we read, God puts Adam in Eden and not somewhere else. Eden is a place of envy. Eden is the garden of the Lord. In Ezekiel 31:9, the Bible says: “I made it beautiful with a multitude of branches, so that all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.”

DESTINY

There is no man that does not have a destiny. Destiny talks about a series of events or occurrences that would happen to any man, whether they are divinely orchestrated or humanly orchestrated. God, based on His purpose for our lives, has a preordained destiny for our lives. But if man wouldn’t follow this purpose, and choose a different path, there is also a destiny attached to that as well; meaning that our choices can influence our destiny.

The Link between Purpose, Placement and Destiny Fulfillment

There is a reason God placed us where we are. Anytime there is a purpose of God to be done, God uniquely places the person who would see to the execution of that purpose where they should be. Sometimes, the people in question don’t even know from the beginning why they are where they are, but as time goes on, they begin to see the need why they are where they are. And most times, it takes being spiritually sensitive to discern that we are in specific places to fulfill the purpose and counsel of God in such places.

Joseph’s Purpose and Placement and Israel’s destiny [Genesis 15:12 to 20, Psalms 105:7 to 26]

“Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴ And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” ¹⁷ And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. ¹⁸ On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— ¹⁹ the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

God destined the children of Israel that they would be slaves in a foreign land for a number of years before they come to inherit the promised land, He promised Abraham. All through Abraham’s sojourn on that land, he was a stranger, he couldn’t lay claim to it; because the original owners are still there. He was living in tents.

He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
⁸ He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
⁹ The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
¹⁰ And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
¹¹ Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
¹² When they were few in number,
Indeed very few, and strangers in it.

¹³ When they went from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,
¹⁴ He permitted no one to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,
¹⁵ Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”

¹⁶ Moreover He called for a famine in the land;
He destroyed all the provision of bread.
¹⁷ He sent a man before them—
Joseph—who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They hurt his feet with fetters,
He was laid in irons.
¹⁹ Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of the Lord tested him.
²⁰ The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the people let him go free.
²¹ He made him lord of his house,
And ruler of all his possessions,
²² To bind his princes at his pleasure,
And teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Israel also came into Egypt,
And Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham.
²⁴ He increased His people greatly,
And made them stronger than their enemies.
²⁵ He turned their heart to hate His people,
To deal craftily with His servants.

²⁶ He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron whom He had chosen.

Psalm 105:7-26

The purpose of God for Joseph was that he would become a Prime Minister in a foreign land so that the destiny of the children of Israel would be fulfilled. But that purpose would not be fulfilled if Joseph had remained in his father’s house and home country. God needed to orchestrate activities and events that ensured that Joseph was pushed out of his father’s house into that rightful place where the destiny of the children of Israel would be fulfilled.

Sometimes, things happen in our lives that pushes us into our destiny, even though we may not be fully aware of what God is doing. This is why it is also important that we see the hand of God in everything that we may be going through. If you look at your life and you discover that you are struggling in some certain areas, most times it may not necessarily be the work of darkness, it may also be an indication that you are not in the purpose of God or in the place where God wants you to be.

Merit of Working in the Purpose of God

#1. Prosperity answers to purpose and placement [Genesis 39:20 to 23]

“Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. ²¹ But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. ²² And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. ²³ The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.”

Prosperity is a product of purpose and placement. If you read the stories of those God prospered in the Bible, you would notice these two elements in their journey: they were in the purpose of God and they were also in the places that God put them pert time. You would prosper in the purpose of God to the degree of your obedience to that purpose and also remaining in the place that God has ordained you to be. Genesis 26:12 to 14 says:

“Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. ¹³ The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; ¹⁴ for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So, the Philistines envied him.”

Demerit of Not Working in the Purpose of God

#1. We don’t arrive at the preordained destination that God has prepared for us.

#2. Not Working in the purpose of God could also bring about a devastating consequence. An example is Elimelech. Ruth 1:1 to 4

“Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ² The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. ³ Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. ⁴ Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵ Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so, the woman survived her two sons and her husband.”

How Do you Know Your Purpose and Where God has placed You?

Ask God and He will reveal it to you. Proverbs 25:2 says: “it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Thanks for the gift of your time, Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!
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