We are all created. We are all uniquely and wonderfully made in the image and likeness of Almighty God. We all have the creative power of Word. We all have a purpose.
When you belong to Jesus, the same Spirit lives inside of you that raised Jesus from the dead. The power is there when Jesus is there. So how do you access that power? How do you discern your purpose?
You ask. And you choose.
For salvation, you ask for forgiveness, you ask Jesus to come into your heart and take over your life; then you believe and expect that He does and has. You ask and you choose.
Pastor said this past Sunday that for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you ask for it. You have to choose to receive it. Without it, you still have salvation, but with it you have power. So you ask for it and you expect it.
The same is true for knowing your purpose. You ask for it. You expect God to answer. You choose to listen, to be patient, to walk through what you must walk through to prepare for it.
I asked to know my purpose. I ask for clarification all the time. I ask when????
For a long time all the LORD gave me was out of Genesis: And your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you; as for me and my house we shall serve the LORD; and I will place enmity between you and the Woman; say that you are my sister so that for your sake my soul shall be saved;--
I don't even have to look those up. I received confirmation of them so many times and from so many quarters and for so long every time that I studied the Bible -- or even tried to escape them by turning to secular books, novels!, TV shows or movies, that I finally just submitted to the LORD and quit fighting them.
People who know me and my story have never understood how I have stayed in my marriage so long, but the level of the opposition and the attacks against my marriage after a time only convinced me that I really was hearing what I knew I was hearing from the LORD.
Despite all the loops my husband has caused me to navigate, all the pain and heartache, most of it deliberate, with malice and aforethought, the hardest thing I have ever done was submit to him when he demanded I file for divorce. But the LORD just kept coming back at me in my prayers the same as He always had, "Submit to your husband".
How could I be hearing right when I had submitted to so much, endured so much, gone through so much pain and betrayal and humiliation by submitting to him to preserve the marriage and to stay obedient to the Word? After all that, now I was to submit to my husband's demand that I file for divorce?
But for every time that I had obeied, every time that I had swallowed my pride, shelved my pain, humbled myself in my humiliation, God had done as His Word promised: He had turned all things to my good as I loved Him and was called to His purpose.
I would not wish that one single person should ever go through the things that I have endured, but I would wish that everyone had the results in their lives that the attacks I have endured, the battles I have fought, the lessons I have learned, and the strength and wisdom I have gained, have wrought in my life. My advice would be get there by a different route, but get there.
I have been through some vicious, brutal, and bloody battles (mentally, emotionally, and spiritually), but I have been blessed and highly favored; mentally, emotionally, spiritually, AND physically; more and more out of each successive one. As a result, I have learned to walk by faith and not by sight. Even as I move towards divorce, I am waiting expectantly to see how the LORD is going to work this out.
I know I win. Every time. Without fail. It's still by faith, but my expectation is also bolstered by experience. I win every time without fail.
It took me a couple of months to break free of the entanglements and distractions that come with filing for divorce in a secular court; but I am looking at circumstances right now with a sense of humor realizing that no one, including me, is going to be able to say that the final outcome is anything but God and He will get all the glory.
I'm looking forward to seeing how He is going to do it while I continue to submit to my husband and move forward with what he thinks is his plan and his will.
Because out of the pain of this latest act of obedience, this latest lesson in submission, I have fought my way to remembering what I have been taught and what I have learned over and over again in these last several years. I have a purpose and the enemy is powerless to prevent it.
I am Woman who did not accuse her husband in the Garden though he conspired with the enemy placing her in harm's way and threw her straight under the bus before God. She accused only the enemy, the serpent, Satan the accuser; not her husband, not the one who she was one-flesh with.
I am Sarah who was delivered into shame and humiliation with her marriage treated as offal by her husband as a result of his fear of the enemy; not once but twice. And out of that submission made them both wealthy as well as a testimony to the power of God Most High.
I am Rebekah who was used in the same way by her husband as he had learned from his father, yet when he was dying determined to obey his own desires instead of the command of God, she said let the sin fall on me and did what was necessary to save her husband's life and bring him into the will of God. And he lived 14 more years at least and being an old man, satisfied and satiated with days; his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
I am Zipporah who bloodied her hands sanctifying her children to save her husband then submitted to the bonds of her marriage to him again when her Father returned her to Moses after he was convinced by his sister and brother that she was not good enough for him and put her away. Who's a bloody wife now?
I am the war horse, well trained and obedient to the hands and cues of its rider; sensing the enemy, hearing the sounds of the battle and eager to engage the enemy; lethal on the field of combat when plunged into the battle but only at the will and not before the command of its rider who at last releases me to do what I have been trained to do as a weapon and a helpmeet and part of a team.
That is always the core of the purpose. Engage the enemy. Jesus defeated him at the Cross. So does that make us a mopping up action? I have no idea. The Bible says God knew the end from the beginning. When He spoke the first Word the last one was already put into motion. In the present, the future already awaits.
The sovereignty of God is for another post one day maybe though. This post is about purpose. For everyone it is different, but it is also the same. Engage the enemy.
When you think God has forsaken you; know that is never true. When you think you cannot do or take or submit to what His Word would have of you in the circumstances, remember Hebrews 12:3. When you decide God could never have intended for you to endure such humiliation or disrespect, such pain or betrayal, such punishment or heartbreak, --
"Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials] (Amplified Bible)...
Recall Sarah who was delivered in Pharaoh's harem and Abimelech's as well by her husband, "Say you are my sister so that for your sake my soul shall be saved" and who bore the promise.
Recall Rebekah, also delivered into the hands of the enemy by her husband out of his fear of the enemy, yet who volunteered for any sin to fall on her head in the deception that pulled him back from the brink of death and returned him to the will of God.
Recall Zipporah who was forced to take into her own hands the bringing of her children into the will of God despite a Godly husband who knew the LORD intimately and knew better than his behavior; who was set aside at the urgings of a brother and sister out of his mother's house where the Word told him to leave so that he could cling to his wife.
Recall our LORD Jesus, betrayed for money, turned over to the enemy by one who sat at His table, shared bread with Him, was the treasurer of His household, and who loved Him.
And through it all remember Woman; who never took her eyes off the LORD. She knew and named her enemy -- and it was not her spouse; it was not the flesh and blood person who delivered the blows or the angst to her soul.
But just to be clear -- if someone is physically abusing you -- remember God put Moses in the cleft of the rock to keep him safe as He walked by. You can pray, you can battle from China just as effectively as you can in the same room. Time and distance offer no impediment to the LORD. Jesus bore our bruises, our infirmaties, the beatings; if you are in a physically abusive relationship, get out. Fight, battle, don't let him go, don't stop loving him, but get out of his range.
The enemy has a limited range; but you don't when you battle in the Word.
The purpose is to determine to fight. To give no ground to the enemy. To know what he gets is but temporary, you get it back better and more. Purpose in your heart to fight that battle; to choose it and to expect to win it.
Then watch what God does. Watch as your purpose within that purpose is revealed to you. Watch as you are trained and prepared to be ready for it in God's time; every time.
Know that nothing can stop it. Circumstances are subject to change. God likes to snatch victory right out of the jaws of the enemy. Trust the unseen.
Learn to be like Rocky Balboa -- facing his opponent with a shrug and a query, "Is that all you got? You ain't so bad."
Not Biblical -- but true all the same. Walk by faith long enough and you will discover your experience teaches you, you really can do all things through Christ who strengthens you and nothing is impossible with the LORD.
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