Do you ever wonder what your purpose is? Do you ever wonder what exactly it is that God has created you for? I think this thought crosses most people’s mind at some point or another in their life. I came across a couple of verses in Acts recently that I felt were able to help us find the answer to these questions. Acts 22:14-15 says, “Then he said, ‘The God of our Fathers has appointed you to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of His voice. For you will be a witness for Him to all people of what you have seen and heard.’”
These words were spoken to the apostle Paul, but I believe they could apply to all believers. I believe these words contain the key to finding God’s plan for each of His children. I believe that according to these verses, we all have four important purposes in our lives. They are to know His will, to see Jesus, to hear His voice, and to be a witness for Him. Friends, join me if you will, as we endeavor to take a closer look at each one of these purposes. The first one we are going to look at is knowing His will. I believe we have been handpicked to know His will and to understand His plan.
“Then the LORD said, ‘Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham’” Gen. 18:17. God was willing to reveal His plans to His servant Abraham. The prophet Amos said in Amos 3:7, “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.” God desires for His people to know His plans. If you seek His face, and desire to know His will, He is more than willing to reveal it to you. In Matthew 6:10, Christ taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” because He knew the importance of knowing and doing God’s will.
It is important that we know and do God’s will, which is why I think it was one of the first points mentioned in Acts 22:14-15. Even Jesus made a point of explaining how He was obeying and doing God’s will. In John 5:19 and 8:28 said that He did nothing on His own initiative but was doing what the Father wanted Him to do. This reiterates the importance of knowing and doing God’s will. How can we know what His will is? By asking Him, of course. James said, “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2) and he was right. If you want to know the will of God, you have to ask Him.
We have to spend time with Him. We have to spend time in His Word. When we do this, He will reveal His will and plan to us. When we seek His guidance with a sincere desire to please Him, He will respond. We can trust Him to reveal His will to us. We just have to become familiar with His voice so we can recognize it when He speaks to our hearts. Which leads us into our next purpose, to see Jesus. In order to see someone, you have to put your eyes on them. You have to look at them. You have to fix your eyes on them. “Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfector of our faith…” Heb. 12:2a.
To see Jesus, we have to keep our eyes fixed on Him. We have to lift our eyes above our circumstances and fix them on Him. We have to choose to keep our eyes on Him, even when tempted to look elsewhere. And let’s be honest. There are an awful lot of things vying for our attention. There are a lot of things trying to distract us and tempt us to fix our eyes on them instead of our beloved Savior. Between the stress of life, the storms we face, and the temptations we battle, there are a lot of possible distractions. We have to choose to adjust our focus on a daily, even hourly basis.
We have to choose to keep putting our eyes back on Jesus, so that He is our Guide. We cannot let the things of this world cause us to lose our focus. It’s hard, believe me; I know it is. However, we have got to “guard our hearts” (Prov. 4:23) and do our best to keep the eyes of our heart focused on Him. One of the ways we can do this is to stay in His Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” John 1:1. If you want to know the Word, you have to read His Word. Your knowledge and vision of Him will grow as your knowledge of His Word grows.
If you want to see Jesus, get in His Word. This leads us to the next purpose of the believer which is to hear His voice. One of the best ways to hear and recognize His voice is by spending time in His Word. The other is by spending time in His presence. These two habits will help you to know and recognize His voice. It’s impossible to recognize a voice you are not familiar with, and you will never be familiar with His voice if you are not spending time alone with Him and His Word. You cannot recognize a voice you do not know, my friend. You have to get to know Him to know His voice.
Beloved, He wants you to know Him better. He wants to reveal His will to you. He wants to reveal Himself to you. And He wants you to learn to hear and recognize His voice. When you have learned to do these things, you are then able to work on fulfilling the next purpose He has for your life… to be a witness for Him. You will be able to “be a witness for Him to all people about what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:15). When you know Him, when you see Him, and when you can hear and know His voice, you will begin to experience Him like never before.
You will then have a powerful testimony to share with the world around you. You can go and tell “all that God has done for you” (Luke 8:39). My friend, God has appointed you to know His will, know His Son, and hear His voice so that you can go and tell others about Him. He wants you to experience Him so that you can then tell others “what you have seen and heard”. This is one of the purposes for which you were created. Perhaps you have wondered what your purpose in life was. Wonder no more, my friend; you have been created on purpose and with a purpose.
You have a calling on your life; you have a job to do for Him. He has created you to do things that only you can do, beloved. You have a very important purpose, dear one. Remember this and choose to keep your focus on what matters. Don’t let the things of this world distract you from what matters most. Fix your eyes on Him, seek Him with all your heart, and ask Him to help you fulfil His purposes for you. Ask Him to help you see Him more clearly and recognize even the slightest whisper of His voice. Ask Him to help you be a better witness for Him. I assure you; this is the kind of prayers He loves to answer.
My friend, I hope you have been encouraged by this reminder that you matter. You have been created for a purpose. You have an important job to do for Him and you can trust Him to help you to do all that He calls you to do for Him. Just trust Him, cling to Him, and He will bring it to pass. “I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill his purpose- I am self- sufficient in Christ sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace]” Phil. 4:13 AMP.
Katrina Douglas
