Many Americans find their lives devoid of meaning or purpose. In a recent poll, 40% of Americans state they have, “not discovered a satisfying life purpose.” In essence a life devoid of purpose is not worth living, as the Holy Bible attests. Those who find their life’s purpose, often live long and prosperous lives. Only God can unveil our purpose because only He knows the precise reason for our creation. Join Carl now for an exciting three-part series, live in session, where he divulges the means to attain our life’s purpose. Let’s join him now…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, this is the beginning of some live sessions talking about finding God’s purpose for your life. Now, if you’re in your 20s, you know, you’ve got plenty of time to figure out God’s will for your life. You’re developing skills, you’re finding out your talents, and as you shift into your 30s, you’re really honing those gifts and talents. But you know, if you’re in your 40s like me, you probably now need to be moving into what God has called you to do, and thinking about mentoring other people in the things of God, and raising up that next generation of people in the faith. So we’re going to begin this new series now of finding God’s purpose for your life, but there’s always a common theme whenever we do this.
It’s the daily application of reading God’s Word and seeking the Holy Spirit in your prayer time. That, to me, is the answer, in a nutshell, of finding God’s purpose for your life, because if you don’t spend time with Him, friend, you’ll never find it out. Let’s join me now, live in session. You could have done a thousand other things, but you chose to put yourself in front of the Word of God, and to be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer only, amen? Some people go to church for entertainment, some nice music, you know, good message, straight to lunch or dinner afterwards, but they don’t really apply the Word. And I’ve been praying recently that I would apply the Word that I’m preaching, because we’re all submitting to the same Word, amen? We’re all submitting to the same mirror, and we’re looking in this mirror daily, amen? We’re not just doing it for fun and grins. So tonight’s message is finding God’s purpose for your life.
How many have found it already? How many have already found God? You’re already doing it. You’ve nailed it. Nobody, right? The essence of this message usually is most people are still trying to find their purpose. They’re trying to find direction in life. It’s not always something that comes easily, and so we have to really press in, amen? So are you following your plan or God’s plan? How do we know the difference? How do we know that difference? How could we discern the difference? Is there a perfect, good, and acceptable will of God? Is there a difference in the Word? Could we be following something good, perfect, or just acceptable? Hint, yes. It’s in Romans.
Making godly decisions will result in following God’s plan automatically. So every time we make a decision that is in God’s favor, we’re on His path. Every time we steer in the opposite direction, we start to get into the permissive will of God, and even the acceptable will of God, and dare I say it, disobedience as well. Question, if God allows it, does that mean that He approves of it? If He allows something in this life, does that mean He approves of it? No. Tonight there are terrible crimes being committed. God does not approve of those crimes.
Well, He’s allowing them, but He doesn’t approve of them, okay? Because man on this earth has a choice between good and evil. That’s always presented to us. It never goes away. But some people think that just because God allowed it, it must be His will, and that is error in thinking, friend, okay? That’s fatalism. We don’t believe in fatalism. Are we truly seeking God’s will, and have we laid our will at the altar and said, Lord, I’m putting my life in Your hands, okay? I’m submitting myself to You, okay? Not many people have done that. Not many people have the bravery or guts to do that, but it’s exciting when it occurs, amen? Is this you? Are you the bull that God is trying to hold back? He’s tugging on you saying, don’t do that. Please don’t do that again. It’s going to hurt.
You’re going to hurt yourself, amen? You’re going to hurt yourself, all right? Romans 12:2, “and be not conformed to this world. That word is aeon, not cosmos, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God,” amen? So again, the onus is for us to prove it. We’re the ones who are proving it, right? And we have the good, acceptable, and perfect will. And when we think of things like perfect, we think in our heads, that’s not making any mistakes. The perfect will of God is I just tiptoe through life on a bed of roses, and everything’s great. That’s the perfect will of God.
Friends, newsflash, that is not the perfect will of God. Sometimes God has actually taken us into difficult places. Whoa, that sounds Baptist, brother. Well, praise God. It’s a little Baptist. It’s a little Pentecostal. It’s a little Methodist. It’s a little Anglican and everything else, amen? Yeah. Notice, we are the ones who have to prove, but by the transformation of the renewing of your mind, that is how you can prove the will of God. As you transform your mind in this, then you’re better able to discern the will of God. When you get born again, maybe you get spirit filled, okay? Maybe you get baptized in water. There’s a transformational process occurring in your soul.
It’s a steady progression. Some people resist that. They don’t want to have anything to do with the transformative side of God. Other people are welcoming and embrace it. They bear fruit. The soul doesn’t always want to jive. The soul doesn’t always want to give in to God’s will, because we think if we give in to God’s will totally, we’ll have no fun left. God’s anti-fun, right? Fun isn’t in the King James. I’ve looked it up, all right? But there’s joy, amen? There’s peace, all right? Abiding joy, et cetera, okay? God is a good God friend. He’s not trying to quench your wonderful life. He’s trying to embellish your life, amen? Yeah. So, if there are the three wills of God, there’s good, acceptable, and perfect, how do we distinguish between them? Well, good, maybe, you know, I do most things right. I was born again. I read the word once a week, maybe once a month. I give occasionally to God.
You know, I might talk about God at a party or something. I’m pretty good. Then we have the acceptable, the bare minimum. I just got born again. I’m saved. Back to my old life. That’s acceptable. Is it? Arguably disobedient. Then we have the purpose-driven person, where they have made Jesus the Lord of their life, not just Savior. I’ve got my fire insurance. Now I’m going to make him Lord. I’m going to make him Lord of my finances, my life, my love life, my relationships, right? My pastimes. I’m going to invite him into everything and say, Lord, burn up my idols on the altar, an idol-burning session. Everybody loves that, right? Then we have the disobedient friend. Being disobedient doesn’t really get us anywhere. It causes us to be in stagnation. Many people want the desires of their heart fulfilled, but they’re not willing to do what the Lord is asking them to see those desires fulfilled, right? So don’t ask me what this is. I had a crazy moment, but here’s A and here’s B, right? The perfect will of God, in theory, is going from A to B, right? We’re just going to walk that straight line.
Amen? We’re not going to have any testing. We’re not going to have any trials. We’re not going to have any temptations. Just go straight on through. Life’s a little different, friend. You start at A. You get a new job. You go to college first, then get your job. You get married. Some people have children. They leave a church, join a church. Some may get divorced. Life is this, and many people are saying, Lord, are you in the chaos? Are you in the mayhem, Jesus? Are you with me in the craziness? Amen? Many people are praying that, and I understand that.
I’ve had some really bizarre turns in my own life, all right? However, as soon as Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist and baptized with the Spirit of God, it said, the Spirit led him in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Whoa, time out. The Spirit led him in? That means it was planned, okay? There is some testing in our lives, friend. The testing develops character, and once you pass those character tests, the blessing and favor of God is upon us to advance into our Canaan land, to advance into our promised land. Amen? But we don’t want to overcome the giants many times. We don’t want to address the stuff, the stuff in our soul, the addictions, you know, whatever it is, is the besetting sin that is working against us.
We’ve got to say, Lord, do heart surgery on me over and over until I’m the man of God or woman of God you want me to be. And we don’t want to get paranoid either, okay? This isn’t like every week we’re just going to dig up the seed and see how it’s doing and replant it. No, we’re going to let the Lord do his thing, okay? And we’re going to enjoy life as well, all right? It’s not all introspective work. God never tempts us, friend. Satan tempts us. God will test us, however, okay? Testing is biblical. The perfect will is not a bed of roses. We’ve seen the Apostle Paul, for example, go into Corinth, go into Ephesus, go into these cities, and he was stoned almost to death in one instance, beaten up, whipped, etc. It was not good necessarily. And some would contend that he was doing the perfect will of God, friend, okay? So if you’re in a position right now where you’re like, Lord, I feel pretty messed up right now and a lot of stuff is going in my life, well, God is with you, friend, in the mayhem. He’s with you in the mess, okay? One of the pastors joked with me. He said, you know what? The Lord has never let me down once yet, but he scared me half to death several times.
There may be some truth in that. You know, God’s asked me to do some stuff and it’s like three or four months down the road, it’s like, now you asked me to do that, right? Yeah. It’s not always something that is being reinforced, okay? So when you look at that word perfect, however, it doesn’t mean lacking anything. It means a full age or complete. God’s will is a full age and complete. There’s a time when it comes to full maturity and you enter into that perfect will of God for your life, friend. But the irony is many of us are asking to get advancement, but the truth is God saying, no, I need to change some stuff in your heart so that your character is ready to make that advancement. Because if you make the advancement too soon, you could fall, okay? Now, there’s many people who’ve done this, even in ministry. They’ve almost gone nationwide or international within six months and it’s like, wow, God’s doing an amazing thing.
And he was, it’s just sometimes the character traits came out and that ministry was wrecked, okay? And so we have to be really careful when we’re praying for advancement in our life, in our workplace or whatever it is. We say, Lord, I want that promotion, but I only want it if I’m ready for it. If I have the character for that promotion, I’ll take it, okay? But if I still need to work on some stuff, I’m willing. Matthew 4:1, “Jesus was led of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil,” okay? There was a testing. Jesus had to win in the private ministry before he was embraced in the public ministry. I’ll say it again.
There was some private battles Jesus had to win before he was presented in public, right? He overcame three times, three key temptations, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. And those are the three temptations we’re always overcoming in this world, right? The devil hasn’t got anything new, friend. If it worked with the first mom and daddy, it’s going to work with every other mommy and daddy down the line, right? Why change a strategy if it works, right? So again, we’re talking about some theology tonight. We’re breaking some sacred cows. We’re getting out our knife and we’re slaying them, okay? Some will say, well, if it happened, it must have been God’s will. No, not all that occurs is God wills it. This is fatalism. In the religion of Islam, they will say all is as Allah wills it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That means that God is endorsing rape. God is endorsing pedophilia. He’s endorsing all these things because all is as Allah wills it.
Absolute nonsense, friend. Absolute nonsense. Our God has nothing to do with evil. He is not a part of evil, okay? Light, darkness, separate. Amen? Can I get an amen on that one? Okay, good. We’re the ones who bind and loose, not God, right? Loose means allow in the Greek. Whatever we allow, God allows. God will let us rob a bank if we want to on the way home. He’ll let you rob the bank. It’s not open, just making sure you know that. But people think just because God’s allowing stuff that he agrees with it. No, there’s a judgment coming, right? After this lifetime, there’s going to be a judgment.
So having observed people a little bit, what I’ve noticed is the most miserable people on earth are willfully disobedient Christians because they can no longer enjoy the fruit of sin. In the old world, they could enjoy sin because they had no knowledge of the truth. But now that they’re saved, man, Jesus has really messed up my social life because I can’t do this and I can’t do that. And even if I try and do it, I just feel really bad on the inside. Friend, the incorruptible seed of the word of God is inside of you. And that will cause conviction.
That will cause irritation if you carry on in your old lifestyle. Oh, pastor, man, that sounds so heavy. Guys, it’s the word. It’s the word. Try it, okay? I remember I got born again in the spirit field, went on a night out. I was like, get me the beers in. I’m having a rack of beers. This woman poured me like five pints of beer. Every one of them tastes like vomit. I said, change the keg. Okay. Back in the day, I liked my beer. Okay. I’m just being real. I was from Wales. Okay. We like beer. And again, I’m not saying absolutely explicit. You can’t drink beer. It’s drunkenness that’s the sin. Don’t want to get into that debate. Let’s pick it up tomorrow with part two of our session.
https://carljosephministries.com/podcast/spiritual-gifts-series-part-2-the-gift-of-the-word-of-wisdom/
https://www.wbcs.org/blog/finding-purpose-in-life
Finding God’s purpose for your life: Part 1 (LIVE)
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