Upgrade Your Building Code!

For those that have realized God, there are those questions that will come up at some point. What is my calling? What is my purpose? How do I please God? Well, Pastor William Ilnisky of Lighthouse Christian Center Intl. put it this way: “Pleasing God is different for everyone. God has impressed different things on our individual hearts and when we walk in alignment with these things, we are pleasing God.” In other words, lets say God called you to write for His glory, and He has given you an anointing to be a writer. But I see that you are writing and you are ministering to people, and God is blessing you so I decide to write as well when God really gave me an anointing to sing. It isn’t that I shouldn’t be a writer, it’s simply that I am writing for the wrong reasons and I would please God if I were to focus on what He has anointed me to do. So really, what Pastor Ilnisky was getting across to me was that Purpose is directly associated with Pleasing God.

The bottom line is that if I knew my purpose, I wouldn’t have to preoccupy my time with trying to look holy, or look like I’m pleasing God.

I will tell you though, a lot of times we confuse purpose with process. Do you know anyone that has a job but is always complaining that they are so much better than this job, or someone who doesn’t even have a job and cant wait to get a job? Many times people living for God find themselves saying, “God, I need you to take me higher, I want to do your will but I know it’s not here. I just know it.” It’s almost like we are looking for some kind of, ‘first class calling.’

The truth of the matter is, Purpose is a Process. If God is the center of your life, then where you are right now, is exactly where you need to be in order to advance according to God’s calendar. I know the winds are blowing; the storm is brewing, and it seems like more harm that good is taking place. But we have to be built on a firm foundation to withstand the storms of life. To stay put and pray, instead of retreating and revoking God's will for our lives. Like Esther Ilnisky said at a Wednesday night Bible study, "Christians need to upgrade their building code!"

Take Joseph, son of Jacob for example. He told his family about some dreams he had, and ended up being thrown into a pit by his brothers; they just didn’t like him. Many of us are in ‘pits’ right now, and that’s why we’re crying out saying we need something better or something more in order to please God or walk in Purpose, when in reality we’re just fed up with our circumstances. Well, Joseph didn’t stay there for the rest of his life, and neither will you. But, we have to learn patience; we have to upgrade our spiritual building code to withstand these trials. Joseph was sold into slavery and became the head servant in the house of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers. God’s favor was on Joseph, and God blessed the work of his hands. Joseph honored God wherever he was and because of his devotion to God, (not laying with his master’s wife) he ended up in another pit, Pharaoh’s prison. How many of us today feel that where we are in life is like a prison? No way out; dead end; walls closing in on us. But, Joseph being committed to God and trusting God, rose to the ranks again, and became head of the prison. Eventually, Joseph made it to Prime Minister of Egypt where his dreams became reality.

What is the point of this excerpt? The point is that Joseph trusted God with his life. He was in some pretty uncomfortable situations and probably would have loved to be relieved of them immediately and go directly to the palace, BUT there was a process that Joseph had to experience first.

The job that you are on today is apart of that process. The horrible circumstances you are facing right now are apart of that process. The people that have thrown you into a pit, spoken negatively about you, and just out right hate you for no apparent reason, are all there because there is a process. God didn’t cause Joseph to be sold as a slave anymore than he causes people to hate us or speak bad about us. God, in His foreknowledge knows about it, and is using it for His glory. Romans 8:28 says it best:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them who are called according to His purpose.

Not our purpose, but His purpose. Don’t boycott your job; you’re messing with His purpose for your life if you do. Don’t give up and throw in the towel, promotion is coming; it’s a guarantee! It’s all a part of the process.

So then what is the purpose for process? The purpose of process is prepare you to handle power and authority. It is God’s original mandate to mankind when He told Adam to take control of the garden, to keep it, subdue it and have dominion over it. The problem is that we lost that place of authority when Adam and Eve sinned, causing Jesus to have to come to earth and die as a ransom for us all. However, most of what we hear in ‘Christian’ circles, stop right there. It never gets beyond the cross. As important as the cross may be, we allow emotion to keep us there. We wear them on pendants around our necks and erect them in our churches, saying we choose to remember Jesus dying on the cross. But what about Jesus resurrecting? If you ever notice, hardly anyone has a problem with you expressing Jesus’ death, but if you talk about His resurrection…. You are looking for trouble! This is sad. It’s sad because there is no power in death alone! Power comes through resurrection!

Acts 2:23-24 says:
23This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Ephesians 1:18-23
18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Philippians 3:10-11
10That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Death is apart of the process to get us to that original state of man before the fall in Genesis 3. The process that Jesus went through, the processes that we all face here on earth are all designed to get us back to our place of authority and dominion over the earth. Like Paul says, “…being conformed to His death”. Surrender our will to Jesus and run with His will. Dying to self is to live for Christ. Strange enough, we will see that just like Joseph, if we do God’s will, we will end up achieving the very dreams we had in the first place. Stay on course, don’t detour; you will achieve all that God has for you!