Gods original plan over our lives is to be the best version of ourselves
Written By Peter Chonga
Many of our lives today are stuck and stagnant, even those of us that appear to have abundant material possessions, numerous academic accolades, and perhaps plenty of friends, subliminally aren’t fulfilled, we are hollow and empty. We stagger through days with life styles that exemplify defeat. Our life styles are punctuated by vain aspirations and ambitions. We want to dress, speak, look, smell, eat, and even walk like someone else. But is that what God desires for our lives? Gods purpose for our lives is to be who he set us out to be right from when we were formed in our mother’s womb. He knew each one of us by name and scripted a distinct chronology for our lives. (Isaiah 49)
In his original plan he envisioned us operating in a domain with an assurance for our success. That’s the domain where we are the best version of ourselves, in that domain we are who we were truly made to be. You see, we are a peculiar species, so distinct from the rest of God’s creation. The scriptures say that God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh day. (Genesis 1 V 1-32) In the five days of creation of the heavens and earth, God was doing nothing but setting the stage for what he had planned to do on the sixth day. By the sixth day, God had finished setting up the stage. Remember, with a word of mouth he created every living thing and non-living thing. Throughout the five days, God did not converse with anyone about his creation, not even once.
But When he got to the sixth day, something truly extraordinary happened, it appears he paused for a few seconds and conversed with those who were around him about what he was about to do next. The Bible gives account of this event in this way, “then he said,” “let’s make man in our image and likeness” (Genesis 1 v 26) meaning to say, of all of his creation, man is the only one creation that he used his own bare hands and his precious breath to bringing into being. He did not create man with his word of mouth, instead he literally used his hands to make you and me. How cool is that? Peculiarity does not get much more peculiar than that.
Throughout the scriptures, God continued to show his adoration for his hand work of art; mankind. Through Jesus, his only begotten son, mankind was redeemed from sins. Then came the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’s ascension. (Acts 2 v 2) This outpouring is a seal indicative of the fact that in his eyes we have found favor. It is through this seal that God imparts diverse spiritual gifts to each one of us. A testament that we are his hand work of art and that he shall never forsake or leave us alone.
In the book of 1 Corinthians 12 v 7 the scripture talks about the gifts of the spirit. And note that these gifts are not exclusive to leaders of the church or Pastors alone. This promise is to each one of us regardless of which continent we originate from, whether we have honorable titles or not, whether we come from wealth families or not, whether we are famous or not. The only title required is that we are called the children of God. We were once astray but Jesus’s blood shed on the cross at Calvary made it possible for us to be adopted into Gods family. With our heart so contrite and our spirits broken, we have accepted salvation which is Gods ultimate gift to his only peculiar creation; mankind. We are thrusted into Gods family as totally different creatures, we are no longer the mediocre version of our past self because now it is the blood of our Lord Jesus running through our veins. We are highly honored by God and forever we shall never be despised.
In God’s presence a noble process of redefining, remolding and reposition us to fit into his original plan for our lives begins. Be assured of his commitment to bringing to fruition the work he has begun in each one of us in his own perfect time. His timing releases a specific spiritual gift in each one of us that turns us into vessels of honor, not for our individual benefit but for the edification of the church.
That’s the best version of our lives that we are meant to operate in, brethren. It does not mean that we have to open a church, or quit our day jobs even though sometimes the demands of our respective gifts could grow to occupy every space of our lives. At that point, it could become apparent that we are struggling to keep up with our other endeavors. Slowly they become peripheral and distal. Divesting them becomes the only plausible option to take in order to concentrate on growing our spiritual gift for the edification of the church.
Other than that, God has called us and spiritually gifted us within our respective households and vocations. I can’t help it but to imagine what kind of impact a physician or a nurse or any health care worker with a gift of prophecy or healing would create, blue collar or white-collar worker with a gift of discerning spirits. I mean fathers, mothers, tutus, nephews, cousins and even neighbors with a gift of working miracles. Just imagine it!!!
Heavenly Father, in total humility we lay bare on the alter asking you glorious Jehovah, creator of heaven and earth, Lord our God, Lord our Shield, Lord our protector and provider that you release your anointing on each one of us, help us discover and embrace our spiritual gifts according to your promises in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.