This message brings my Becoming Limitless series to a close, This series is about eliminating those internal limitations that keep us from following God. This series is not about getting rich and living your dreams, this series is about living FROM purpose and fulfilling those God given assignments in your life.
You are complete in Christ, doing things for him do not define you, but God does have things he wants you to do for him and his kingdom, and the fulfillment of those assignments increases his kingdom and brings great joy and fulfillment.
So what does he want you to do?
I personally think you can discern those assignments in an environment of love for others. In this series I suggest that you define who you love for your own understanding, and then take practical steps to act out that love for that people group, bringing the Gospel, meeting practical needs and prayerfully affecting them in such a way they turn to Jesus.
God Will Show You The Way
When God called Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt he told Moses that he would teach him what to say and do.
Exodus 4:12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 15b … and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.
Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit who would lead and guide us. Paul said we know God’s mind on matters of life and ministry and his spirit will reveal things to us that God has prepared for us.
John 16:12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
God is speaking, do you hear him?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no, it’s that way for us all. I’d like to put a few passages together and make a point about how God speaks and how you can settle into hearing him more consistently.
The first I already posted above, John 16:12-15. Jesus promises that his spirit would lead and guide us into all truth. His spirit will declare to you all that the Father has given Jesus. The nuance is that all of that is yours too.
The other 2 passages are 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 and Romans 8:9-16.
1 Corinthians 2
9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— Isaiah 64:4
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about (understands) all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” (Isaiah 40:13). But we have the mind of Christ.
If you have the spirit of God, you have his mind on the issues of life. By the way, if you’re born again you have his spirit.
Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
God’s spirit within you testifies to you or bears witness to you that you are his child. God is speaking to you and what he is saying is this, “you’re my child.”
We all want to hear God but are we hearing him reassure to us that we belong to him, that we’re safe in him, that we’re his beloved and favored child?
If you want to hear God’s leading for the assignments he has for you, make sure that you’re hearing him bear witness with your spirit that you’re his child. Anytime you pray or seek the Lord for wisdom and direction, allow him to bear witness to you that you are his and he is yours. Get excited about your place in his family and allow it to establish a peace that can not be shaken - then turn your attention to what he wants you to do.
Identity first, obedience second, it’s a winning combination.
