Five Critical Keys to Discovering Your Life’s Purpose

This is episode 3 of 4.

In episode 1 we settled the question Why it is important for you to discover the purpose of your life. In episode 2 we explored three important questions that you ought to settle in order discover your life’s purpose, which are, where are you from? Who are you? And why are you here? I believe you can give some answer to these questions. Otherwise, I encourage you to revisit the second episode again.

As you ponder this question in the mill of your mind, there are cardinal keys to discover your life’s purpose. Rick Warren the author of Purpose Driven Life. If you have not read the book I encourage you to grab a copy.

At the passage between childhood into adulthood young humans start to experience physiological changes. The body starts undergoing radical changes especially in females. The body starts taking a more rounded shape. Well that shape makes it easier to differentiate the female from male. We are going to use the acronym SHAPE to explain the cardinal keys to discover your life’s purpose. 

As maturity is progressive, discovering of life’s purpose is progressive. As you live on you will grow into more dimensions of your purpose and might effect certain changes to it or ways of accomplishing it.

Alright. The S in SHAPE stands for

Spirit: Prov. 20:27

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord,

searching all the inward parts of the belly.

God has programmed your spirit to have and access hidden truths not revealed to your senses. Your spirit transmits this information through your mind, which is in the soul. You receive it as thoughts, visions, dreams and imaginations, the mind decodes it into a mental video for you to relate with it.

I said earlier that we were made in the likeness of God. That is we have a software component called spirit. The human spirit has a coded version of all that you are and all you are made to be. Have you wonder why spiritists could give precise information about a person? It is because they have a way of cajoling the person’s spirit to supply information especially if the person permits them by direct contact or an object, linked to the person, is used in the invocation.

The spirit as key to discover purpose has to do with God’s revelation about your destiny. Some people learn of their path in life by a special dream or revelation.

Learn to listen to the inner voice. As Christians it means learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit

God has something to say about you. The first place to hear God is the study of His word. Start by meditating on God’s word. There you will learn God’s perspective about who you are, where you are from, what you are called to be and where you are going.

Some things might have been transmitted into your mind already. They are do-able but you are scared you can’t, yet you can’t get it off your mind. Right there is an indication towards your purpose. Just write that which is in your mind down whether you think it is doable or not. It is a key.

Another pointer to your purpose in life is your spiritual gifts. The unusual graces God has deposited in your spirit

Now to the next alphabet H which represents

Heart: Jn 2:15-17

17. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

Heart here refers to passion.

There are certain strong passions in you: positive passion of love, joy, excitement or negative passion like anger, hate, jealousy etc.

These passions can be pointers to your purpose.

You will feel strong love, joy and excitement when you do what you are destined to do. That is when you are fulfilling purpose.

When someone talks about a particular thing or is doing something and you feel this great admiration, joy and excitement just rushing through you, it is likely that your purpose is not far from it.

or you may develop strong negative feelings when someone is talking or acting badly on something. You have these that make you want to change that particular thing for the better.

Remember, Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It is also safe to say: where your heart is that is where your treasure will be.

Next is A that is

Ability: Exo 31:1-7 and Spiritual gifts: Eph 4:8 & 11

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

Everyone has a gift or talent, something you can do with less hassle and often done with excitement. This too is a pointer to your purpose in life.

When in search of your reason for existence pay attention to your natural gifts and talents. Use them to discern your purpose for existence.

God has placed everything you need in life within you. You might even be using them without knowing. Hence, all you need to do is to Discover, Develop and Deploy them. As you do you will realise they are pointing you towards your purpose in life.

Then there is the big P

Personality: Matt 7:20

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

This has to do with the totality of your attitudes, interests, behavioural patterns, emotional responses, social roles, and other individual traits that endure over long periods of time and makes you unique.

The you, you are hiding may be all that God needs for your purpose in life. Get in touch with who you are. Learn to love you. Are you an introvert, extrovert, calm, touchy, social, talkative etc? What interests you ? What appeals to you? What kind of people do you like or admire? Come out with who you are. That is all that God needs for your purpose. You will be surprise what God will make of you. Come out with you, destiny awaits you.

Finally in SHAPE is the letter E

Experience: 1 Sam 17:33-37 David

Everyone has experiences in life.

Things might have happened to you or are happening to you and you learn one or two lessons as you pass through them. That is experience. You see why it is important to keep a positive spirit and be reflective when you pass through trying times? Because then you can learn something and pick up for others, a message out of the mess you have been through.

Sometimes God allows you to go through certain circumstances so that you can learn from them and be in a position to empathise and help others through it.

Some people set up industries or organizations, build orphanages, and help the poor because they have experienced poverty.

Don’t waste your experiences. The purpose of your life or your life’s message may be built around it.

We have explored SHAPE, the cardinal keys to discover your life’s purpose. I believe you have found one or more of these keys useful in discovering your purpose in life. Glory to God. Don’t miss the final purpose where you will be given powerful purpose discovery questions and you will write your own life’s mission.

Until then, this is Sam Attu saying keep reigning with Jesus!

God bless you.