Part I
There are endless examples of God’s design in nature that illustrate His glorious wonder, but what does that mean for us and how does it help us understand our purpose and life mission. I will address this on two levels: Spiritual Cosmos—comprehensive purpose (Part 1 & 2) and Spiritual DNA—individual life mission (Part 3 & 4). Both have to be in sync to function properly according to their design in order to avoid a superficial life loaded with good intentions.
This journey was ignited for me in the late 80s. I was listening to a graduation speech by Dr. Myles Monroe. The principle shared is that everything in life has a purpose—from eyebrows to nose hairs, ants and roaches, and even green vegetables. The problem is that not every purpose is known to us (especially roaches!). When purpose is misunderstood, we are led into another problem—abuse.
When we do not know the purpose of something, that “something” will inevitably end up being abused. The word abuse is made up of two words, abnormal + use. If you don’t know the true purpose of a wife, husband, child, job, money, etc., you will ultimately abuse them. Another truth of the word abuse is that it also implies there is a normal use for things. We must find out something’s purpose before doing anything with it.
Sounds simple, but the dilemma is that we often go to the wrong source to find the purpose. Well, what is the right source and how do you know? Let’s look at an iPhone app. How do we know what the true purpose of the app is? It would make the most sense if the developer of the app would give us an illustration, demo or manual for the app. They know why they programmed the buttons and functions the way they did. The correct way to find the purpose of something is to go to the one who creates that thing.
So, what is the purpose of man? I think you get the idea—don’t ask man; ask the Manufacturer.
God’s original purpose for man is found in the beginning of the Manufacturer’s manual. Once He created man, He stated in Genesis that “it is finished, it is good.” What was “finished”? What was “it”?
God made a lot of good things those six days, but it wasn’t complete until he made man and woman. The creation of mankind made “it” complete. What we see here is the beautiful harmony of creation, and the sinless, holy-intimacy between God and His beloved creation man.
Adam did not have to go to a prayer meeting, church service, or play some soft worship music to get “in the Spirit” to connect with God. He just walked in the cool of the day with God. God’s presence was with him. It was a divine romance in the Garden, a true intimate relationship between God and mankind. By no means am I advocating that we should not go to church, but we must understand what God’s original design and purpose was, and is—intimacy with Him. This is what makes church relevant today (we’ll save that topic for another day).
According to Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew word used here is “bara”, which means to create from nothing. After the heavens and earth were created (“bara”), different words were used for rest of creation. The other Hebrew words for creation were “asah,” which means to make from something or to fashion it and “sharats” which means to bring forth abundantly. As God continued to create, He spoke to the element in which he was forming it from. God spoke to the water to bring forth the fish. He spoke to the earth to bring forth every creature that crawls upon the earth. God spoke to the element in which He purposed for it to abide in, as well as for its natural body to return to upon death.
What “element” did God speak to when he created mankind? The first answer that comes to mind is that He spoke to the dust. Yes, our bodies were formed from the dust, but when creating mankind, He said “Let Us make man in Our own image.” According to God’s design, mankind is created out of Himself, to abide in Him, as well as to return to God after our physical body dies. This is what makes us human.
The word human is made up of two words—Humase, meaning spirit, and man, which means dirt–a spirit in the flesh. Everyone is man, regardless of shape. Man wears dresses and man wears ties. Some of man’s “flesh-suits” are female and some are male. We are all humase-man. So the next time you feel like you are really something extraordinary, just remember we are all just “spiritual dirt bags.”
The next thing God did was extremely profound. He established the general life mission of mankind. He spoke to man and said, “let THEM have dominion.” God gave authority on earth to humans, not animals, other beings or spirits, but to Humase-spirits! This dominion on earth that God spoke, even excluded Himself! Dr. Monroe, gave this explanation about the significance of earthly dominion, he said, there is one thing more powerful than God—His Word! In essence, God will submit Himself to His Word. He will never violate His own Word! When God speaks it becomes even a law unto Himself. So much so that it is all in the same.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1(NKJV)
Unfortunately, man was enticed by Satan to abuse his dominion authority, therefore losing his sense of purpose and contaminating his position of holy intimacy with God.
Thank God the story does not end there, in Genesis 3:15 God spoke His Word again with a promise that through a woman God would provide a means to cure the law of separation. He told Satan that He would legally restore what was contaminated by sin. The devil knew God was Holy and wondered how it would be made possible for Him to enter again into intimate fellowship with the unclean human race.
God continued to speak throughout the ages. God spoke to Abraham that He would provide a race of people as a catalyst to establish His Promise for mankind, so He provided Isaac, Jacob, then the 12 tribes and God kept right on speaking. God spoke through Isaiah something very powerfully noted in Isaiah 7:14 “..behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” which means “God with us”! He was letting Satan and the world know that unity will be restored once again. God also proclaimed through Isaiah in chapter 9 verse 6 it says, “For unto us a child is born, Unto us a Son is given.”
Take a close look at this. Only a child was born, not the Son. Mary did not give “birth” to the Son, simply the child. God had to give the Son. Mary gave birth to Jesus, but God gave Christ! Jesus was brought forth to make Christ’s mission of restoration legal!
I’ll explain in simple biological terms as it was explained to me. When a woman carries a child, the blood of the child and blood of the mother do not mix. The mother and the baby are separate. The mother simply feeds the baby necessary nutrients through the placenta as the baby rests in the womb. In summary, God spoke the Word (Seed) to Mary and she received it. The embryo began to form from the spoken Word that she received. The baby grew inside Mary, but the blood of the baby remained pure! Mary only fed the growing baby. Mary gave birth to Jesus and God gave Christ, and then came forth Jesus-Christ!
The remedy for the sin that had torn apart our purpose of holy intimacy and dominion is here! This is good news! It’s the good news of the Gospel, although it’s critical to focus on the real content of the Gospel. In the next VCM issue we will take a closer look at the principle theme that Jesus preached to fully implement the power of purpose and personal destiny for our lives.
“Your Spiritual Cosmos: Understanding Your Purpose” Part II]