How can I discover God’s vision for me?
A while ago I received the following questions:
- How can I discover God’s vision for me?
- What does it mean to believe in God 100% and live for Him 100%?
Good questions that we cannot answer in one line and that people could literally study all their lives. We did not have that time to answer these questions (the time to answer was a maximum of half an hour), so you have to choose what to emphasize and therefore you have to answer the question in (broad) outline.
Let’s start with a question that actually comes before those two questions:
Why did God create us?
When we know why God made us (purpose) we also come close to the answers to those other questions. And now we can start building great human theories about why God created us, but that’s not necessary. It is clear in His word:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Colossians 1:16
So you were not created for yourself, you were created by God and for God. God is your goal. And then the automatic consequence is the following:
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4:11
In other words, God is your goal and what you should start with is to give Him the glory in everything (100%) because He made you. That does give Him pleasure if you do so.
And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind
Luke 10:27a
And just a side note that we should not forget, God did not create you because He needs you: As God He needs nothing. In all eternity He felt no loneliness, so He was not looking for a ‘friend’ because He needed you. He loves us, but this is not the same as needing us. If we had never existed, God would still be God—the unchangeable (Malachi 3:6). Wow!That gives me a very humble feeling… something we too often forget… He does not need you, you need Him. Wow…
So we are there to give Him that honor. You can give that honor in words, but also in actions and behavior. But what is the order? What does God most want from you to start with? Your actions… or something else. What is His number 1 priority:
For I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice, And the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6
That is more than clear. God wants you to know Him and He wants your loyalty. How do you get to know him / the knowledge who God is / what He wants? “Read your Bible. Pray every day. And you’ll grow, grow, grow..” Do you remember that song? This immediately raises the question: do you do that? Do you really invest time in getting to know God? Or are you working harder than getting to know God through His word? If you want to know what God asks of you, you have to know God. If you want to know how to be loyal to Him, you have to know who He is. How much time have you spent getting to know Him this week? How many hours of Bible study and prayer were there this week? Because that is what He primarily asks of you. This is His first question, that “working for God”, that only comes afterwards. And unfortunately, as humans, we often get that order and priority fundamentally wrong. We work very hard, but for Whom we do it and why… we spend far too little or no time on it. How can you know what to do for God if you don’t know who He is?
Anyway, on to the next part. If you now know who He is and therefore also know how to be loyal to Him as stated in Hosea 6:6, then we arrive at the following verses:
You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
John 15:14-15
Now a picture is starting to emerge. God doesn’t need you, but He does want to love you. That love is conditional, as you can see in the verse above. You must do what He asks of you so that He can become friends with you. And some of the things He asks you to do is to honor Him and get to know Him. And there are also practical things we can see about why God made you, which can also tell us more about how we can then do something practical for God if we know Him. Immediately in Genesis, when God created man, you can already see that God also indicates a purpose for why He created us:
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.
Genesis 2:15
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that [a]moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28
This immediately indicates that “doing something for God” does not have to be that complicated. So you don’t have to move to another country to do so, you can just do it at home. Wherever you are, whatever education you have completed, anyone can do that. God has given you His garden, take care of it. And nowadays, we not only need gardeners for that garden, but also someone who repairs the tractor and also someone who does the accounting for the gardening company.
Is that it then? Take care of the earth and be done with it?
No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
And that is indeed only the beginning of way more, because there is indeed more to the earth than plants and animals. This is made even more clear in the following verse:
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10
What then are the “good things” in this verse? Do what God asks of you, honor Him, take care of His “garden” and…
God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
1 Peter 4:10
Then the sum becomes the following: Do what God asks of you, honor Him, take care of His “garden” and serve each other by giving God His grace to each other. How?
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
2 Corinthians 3:18
So God asks you to be a “mirror” image of Him. What is God His image? God is righteous, loving, faithful, light, in Him there is no darkness, He keeps promises, patient, living, full of power, God does judge, and much, much more. We must also reflect that in our lives. Have you noticed that God is way more than just love? If you only reflect love, you are not doing what God asks of you… because He is MUCH more and also wants you to radiate more than just love…
Are we there yet? No.
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 28:18-19
God would LOVE to have more friends who know Him, honor Him, do what He asks of them, take care of the “garden,” and do good things. So one of the things God also asks of you is to make all nations His disciples. How do you do that?
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17
What is that word of God? The Bible. And then we get to the following sum:
God wants more friends who know Him, honor Him, do what He asks of them, take care of the “garden”, and do good things. To make all nations His disciples, you must tell them (so that they literally hear) what is written in His word.
By just being “a mirror” you are still not doing what God asks of you. “I tell people who God is by my behavior” is far from what He says in Romans 10:17. Yes, your behavior should certainly be a reflection of who God is, but if that is it, then you are still disobeying God and that was not what He asked of you.
And then we already have quite a sum:
God does not need you, but wants you as a friend, to love Him, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, to honor Him (for who He is and for what He does, in that order) by cultivating His garden and telling more people, through His word, that God also wants to be their friend (and there are conditions attached to that) and you also do that with your actions (the mirror) towards others.
And yes, we can continue for days and days to figure out how to do that, but if you understand the above, the rest will follow automatically. You don’t have to move to another country to cultivate that garden, nor do you have to study for 10 years first. There is no excuse not to start today to honor Him, with 100% of what you have received from Him, to study who He is, to be His mirror, to tell other people that God wants to be their friend too. You can start with that today… or even better… continue with that… for 100%…
