The Purposes of God

In Acts we are told that David served the purposes of God for his generation then he died. 

What purposes are you serving?

There are of course the few intentionally evil people.  They are serving evil purposes and intentionally so.  But, those are unusual people.  None of us would think of ourselves that way.

There are many people going through life with no concept of having a purpose.  One of the reasons for the great popularity of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life was that it gave many people their first vision of what it means to have a purpose.  Of course the many institutions of the “church” were delighted to capitalize on that well written book in order to get people to adopt the purposes of the institution as their own purposes.

Virtually all people for part of their lives and many people for essentially all of their lives move only to fulfill their own self-centered purposes.  Some for money and the things it will buy, some for power, some for sensuality, and some for the shear pettiness of being self-centered and never needing to consider any other people.

Sadly, because hearing God, prophecy, and prophetic ministries in the Church have been largely despised and dismissed as irrelevant for our intellectual society, many believers have no greater sense of purpose than the unbelievers who are outside the Church.

But, there are many men and women who have a strong sense of purpose.  Many of them are able to cite multiple Scriptures upon which they base their purposes.  Most of these would tell you in no uncertain terms that their purposes are the purposes of God.

Ah, but David …

David the Book tells us served the purposes of God for his generation.

“For his generation” necessarily implies that for other generations God had different purposes.  Nonetheless, virtually none of us have ever heard a robust discussion among believers concerning what are the purposes of God for this generation.  Indeed for most who have ever considered the purposes of God at all, we have gone along believing that the purposes of God, like the character of God, are the same yesterday, today, and forever.  So, when some leader or another has provided a statement of the purpose of God and given Scripture proof-texts for it we have simply accepted it with little or no real examination as to whether it is the purpose of God for our generation.

Most of the “church” system is based on fulfilling the purposes from past generations that have been adopted for the institution.   When the question has been raised as to whether these are the purposes of God for us, the answer has generally been the equivalent of, “that’s the way we have always done it.”  At times we have even sung songs extolling the virtues.  “It was good enough for grandpa and its good enough for me.”

But, I ask you.  Have you ever seriously sought to learn God’s purposes for your own generation?  Be warned!  This can get you into conflicts with the system.  But, ask yourself whether David would have been satisfied with fulfilling something other than the purposes of God for his generation. 

I can tell you with certainty: The purposes of God for each of the three generations now walking the Earth are quite different from each other and radically different from the purposes of past generations.

What are you going to fulfill before you die?

His, thus Yours,

Stuart