Your Purpose: Part 1
- Brittany Ulman
- May 2
- 9 min read
I don’t know what brought you here. Why you chose to read this post out of all the blogs floating around the web.
Maybe you have been told or made to feel as if you don’t have a purpose, and now you believe it. Maybe you are trying to find your purpose, but all your attempts thus far have only left you more confused, discouraged and empty than when you began. Maybe you know your purpose, but for whatever reason you are not living it out; perhaps because your circumstances do not seem ripe for you to walk in that purpose. Maybe you are just trying to survive, and the idea of knowing your purpose and living it out isn’t even on your doppler.
I don’t know your story, but what I do know is that it is no coincidence that you are reading these words at this exact moment. God led you here on purpose.
So whether the above scenarios describe you or something entirely different, hear me when I say—better yet, hear God when He says: He made you on purpose for a purpose, AND He desires you to know that purpose and to live it out fully.
Every single human being has the same purpose. Everyone who has lived, is living and will live has the same purpose: to know God and make Him known.
We all have the same purpose, but only some choose to pursue it. For those of us who do, we get to express it differently based on how God made us and where He places us both in time and location.
To know God and make Him known. Same purpose, different expressions. Actually, our chief purpose is to know God, and one of the supernatural fruits of that relationship is to make Him known. It can be no other way. If you know the great and living God, you cannot help but make Him known.
Now, I realize this is a common phrase in the modern Christian world, to know God and make Him known. It is probably the mission statement of hundreds, if not thousands, of non-profit organizations and churches. That’s good! It’s true. However, as it is with many things in life, including spiritual Truth (maybe even especially spiritual Truth), regularity can diminish our reception. It can dwindle our zeal quicker than Niagara quenches a candle.
Though a great, profound, mind-blowing, life-transforming Truth, we come to accept it as normal. We hear of and talk about it so much, we allow it to become commonplace knowledge. Just another fact to be filed with other tidbits we have acquired through the years, like the time of our worship services and when within them we are to stand, sit, sing and pray. Sandwiched between the lyrics to our favorite song and our coffee order sits great Truths like John 3:16 and our purpose statement.
At least, that is how it is for some of us. For others of you, this is the first time you are hearing this. Maybe not literally the first time physically, but the first time spiritually. You have heard about God and how He loves you. Perhaps you have even heard that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for you, yet the significance of these statements has not resonated with you until now.
If this is you, oh my, I rejoice that you are here. (Remember what I said about God bringing you here for a purpose? Looks like we found that purpose.) Keep reading, my dear friend, and allow God’s Truth to transform you through the renewing of your mind (see Romans 12:2). Prepare for heart surgery.
Every single human being has the same purpose...to know God and make Him known. We all have the same purpose, but only some choose to pursue it.
Wherever you find yourself, whether a seasoned saint or a seasoned seeker, let this Truth sink in. Do not allow the enemy (Satan) to rob you of the awesome reality that your purpose is to know God and make Him known.
The Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The One who spoke all into existence and knit you together in your mother’s womb (see Psalm 139:13). You, beloved, can know Him and make Him known, a.k.a. be used by Him for His great Kingdom purposes.
This is Truth not because I say it, but because HE says it. The One and only God, the One who cannot lie (see Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:18), the One who is Truth (see John 14:6), HE says it. It is all over His Word. From Genesis to Revelation, we find it in every book of the Bible, including in the cherished rows of Leviticus.
We won’t unearth it now, but please, as you study the Bible, keep your eyes and ears open to this Truth. Look for phrases like, “so they will know,” “so you will know” and “so He will be known.” Know what? Be known as what? So we will know that HE is God, The One and only true God.
This Truth, to know God and make Him known, pulses through His Word. It is also one of the things Jesus prayed about before He went to the Cross. Moments before He was arrested, tried, scourged, mocked and nailed to the Cross, Jesus prayed this Truth. We can read it in John 17, in what is often deemed, “The High Priestly Prayer.” The true Lord’s Prayer.
Look at some of these verses with me. Starting with verses 3-4, Jesus says to God the Father, “‘And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do’” (emphasis added).
What does Jesus reveal to us in these verses? Namely, that eternal life is knowing God, specifically to know the Father and Jesus, Whom He sent. (We also know from other areas of the Bible that eternal life is to know God the Holy Spirit as well.)
In verse 4 Jesus goes on to say that He accomplished the work that the Father gave Him to do. What was that work? Well, as is often the case with our questions about God, we simply need to keep reading His Word to discover the answer.
In verses 6-8 Jesus continues,
“‘I have manifested Your (meaning the Father’s) name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You. For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me’” (emphasis added).
Such depth in these words! We won’t uncover them all now (we can’t!), rather we will continue to consider how they breathe life into our purpose.
Jesus said He manifested, or revealed, the Father’s name to the world. A name in the Bible is not just some letters on a page or words hanging in the air, but one’s being, their character, their essence. Therefore Jesus’ work was not just to utter the Father’s name, but to make Him known. His being, His character. To make Him known and to make Jesus Himself and the Holy Spirit known. All 3 members of the Trinity (God in 3 persons, equal yet distinct).
"'And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.'" - Jesus (John 17:3)
That is the work Jesus came to do, the work He accomplished. He made God known, having passed on the Father’s words so that people will receive them, come to know in truth that Jesus came and believe the Father sent Him. To grant the eternal life He mentioned in verse 3.
BUT! It does not stop there. In verse 18, Jesus says, “‘As You (the Father) sent Me (Jesus) into the world, so I have sent them into the world’” (emphasis added).
Did you catch that? Just as Jesus was sent to make God known, so He sent His people, the ones given to Him by the Father. My friend, this includes you, if you have received His words and believe He is God in the flesh who came to forgive your sins. If you believe Him with all your being and thus freely give your life to Him.
If this is you, you are not only sent by Jesus just as He was sent, but He is praying for you. This very moment! He is praying you continue the work He came to do (see verse 9); part of His accomplishing His work was to equip and send His people to continue the pattern He set forth. The Great Commission testifies to this Truth; in it, Jesus tells His people, “As you go, make disciples of all you meet, teaching them to do all I have commanded” (my paraphrase, see Matt. 28:18-20).
Now, I realize some of you may sense an uneasiness arising within you, so let me make a few clarifying statements.
First, yes, we are sent by Jesus, like Jesus to make God known, but we are not sent entirely as Jesus was sent.
Meaning, our calling is to make disciples, not to save anyone or pay the penalty for their sins. Only God can forgive sins, which is why Jesus came. No one else could take on such a heavy burden. Only the perfect God could be the perfect sacrifice. Jesus is the only way to the Father, and it was only through the shedding of His blood that our sins were covered.
Secondly, the “them” Jesus refers to in John 17:18 and implies in Matthew 28:18-20 includes you and me.
In these words, of course, Jesus addresses His first disciples, but He is also addressing His people today. How do we know this? He tells us! Look at John 17:20-21; He says,
“‘I do not ask for these only (meaning His first disciples), but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me’” (emphasis added).
Jesus is sending you just as He was sent, having given you the same words He was given by the Father. Why? So that the world will know God! So that they will believe the Father sent Jesus (the very eternal life Jesus spoke of in verse 3).
This, this is your purpose! Your God-given, God-prayed-for purpose. Jesus came to make Himself known to you, and He is sending you so He can make Himself known to others through you.
What a grand purpose! All other “purposes” the world throws our way pale in comparison! They are absolute rubbish. Nothing is so beautiful.
Lastly, your calling does not hinge on your worthiness.
Maybe you know Jesus sends His people for such Kingdom purposes, but you don’t believe that applies to you. After all, who are you to know God and make Him known? Does He know who you are, what you have done?
Your purpose does not hinge on your worthiness, but His.
Yes, He does. All of it. More than you do. And yet, Jesus died for you, is sending you and is praying for you just the same. He knows where and who you were, and He has come to change it all. Through His forgiveness of your sins, all the evil you did is gone (see Colossians 2:13-14). Forgotten. Not to be spoken of or relived again. It is no longer your identity (Galatians 2:20). He has come to make you new (see 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21). He always meets us in the mud, but He never intends to leave us there. He loves us too much.
Just as a loving earthly father would not allow his child to continue to harm himself and perish in broken evil, our Heavenly Father wishes none to perish but all to come to saving faith in Him (see 2 Peter 3:9). Even more, He desires all to come to Him to be transformed from one degree of glory to another as He molds us to be more like Christ (see 2 Cor. 3:18).
Your purpose does not hinge on your worthiness, but His.
So now that we know our purpose, how are we to live it out? What exactly does it mean to know God and make Him known? Well, that will have to be the topic of our next post. In the meantime, I pray you will spend time with God (hint, hint) and hear what He has to say. Pray with Him, read His Word (the Bible) and prepare to hear His gentle, still, small voice. See you next time, beloved.
References:
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Crossway Bibles.
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