What Is Your Mission; Do You Even Know It?

       As sons of God, we are called on periodically by the Lord to carry out specific missions for Him! It may be as little as giving, praying, helping, teaching, counseling, it is a mission nonetheless, for the furtherance of the Kingdom! Sadly, some of us get so preoccupied with what our purpose on earth is that we miss carrying out a present and pressing mission for the Kingdom! There are so many books, seminars, teachings and lectures on how to find one’s purpose. The idea is that if one can get and understand what his purpose is, life will begin to make sense to such. Thus, many that are yet to get what their purpose is are dissatisfied and depressed with life. The quest for finding out what one’s purpose is has led many down paths of hurts, despair and disappointment. However, that is not our discussion for today. As a child of God, do you know what your particular mission is at this time? I use the word ‘particular’ because we have a general mission for every child of God, which is: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). This we are to do daily and everywhere we find ourselves. 

        But there is a particular mission for you. Do you know it? The marriage you have, do you know it is a mission field? Where you work or school, do you know you are on a mission? Where God placed you on the earth, do you know the mission you are supposed to carry out? Every time God calls a man, He gives the man instructions. The instructions become the man’s mission. Refusal to carry out this mission or to do it properly results in chaos and disaster as we saw with King Saul (1Samuel 15) and the Young Prophet (1Kings 13). You may argue that like Ananais God used to open the eyes of Paul, you have carried out the Lord’s instructions, and unlike him, you are now at rest and free to serve God as you please. However, from Scriptures we know this is a dangerous state to be in! When the Disciples went to Jesus to teach them to pray, one of the lines in the prayer was: “Give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3), this means, on a daily basis we are to ask instructions of the Lord: What He would want us to do for Him. That was why Jesus answered the devil during His temptation: “…It is written: ‘Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 

        We see this play out as well when the Lord sent His Disciples to go evangelize. When they were done, they returned back to Him! That is the pattern we must follow! Joshua and the Israelites had a mission when they entered the Promise Land – defeat and drive out the Canaanites! However, after defeating Ai, they were visited by the Gibeonites who tricked them and they fell for their deception! Beloved, after carrying out God’s mission, we must return to Him for more instructions. So many were given a mission and they refused to return back to the Master at the end of the mission: “They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow” (Psalm 78:57). A faulty bow cannot shoot arrows straight. So many refused to return to the Lord to ask Him for their next mission, they became faulty and crooked bows: Shooting arrows at targets that the Lord did not ask them to. This was exactly the case of Solomon. His mission as king was to build the temple; he did, including his palace. These projects took twenty years out of his forty year reign. When he was done, he embarked on all manner of projects God did not instruct him to. Remember, the Lord had said he would have peace during his reign. In his years of peace, he embarked on marriages and projects that took his heart away from God. If only he had used the years of peace to grow in the things of God, teach his children, his household and the whole of Israel the precepts of God he would not have experienced the troubles he had in his latter years. Because of his failure to return to God and ask for ‘what next’, the kingdom was torn from his hands. The son that succeeded him followed his pattern by turning his back on God as well: “When Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power, he abandoned the law of the Lord – he and all Israel with him” (2Chronicles 12:1). Not only Judah went astray, even the rest of Israel joined him in his sin! 

       There is so much worldliness among brethren because many do not know what their mission is! Many have embarked on unauthorized missions that will only lead them and those around them down the path of darkness! If you can remember to ask the Lord to bless you on a daily basis, you must equally ask the Lord for your mission! Beloved, the instructions you received of the Lord is your mission! It is time to stand up to receive them and carry them out. There is fulfillment when we obey the Lord’s instructions! The consequences of not obeying are unpleasant because we serve a Faithful and a Just God! Beloved, ask the Lord to show you what to do daily, so as to live a life that brings pleasure to Him! God bless you!