[From Chapters 6 and 7 of my book, The Additions to the Faith]
To contemplate Yahweh’s purpose is to seek the mind of Christ and the very heart of the Father. Such a pursuit stretches our small hearts and minds and enlarges them until we begin to see through God’s eyes. As He declares, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” God has His own agenda and purpose. We, too, have plans and desires for our lives, but few possess the same purpose that fills the heart of our Heavenly Father. Herein lies humanity’s great dilemma. (Isa. 55:8-9)
From the beginning, God has worked according to a master design. Though mankind often wanders from that design, He patiently waits for His crowning creation to come into harmony with His purpose. His dealings with Israel reveal this patience. He took the twelve tribes as His wife, intending to bring forth sons and daughters through a spiritual union with them. Yet they pursued the gods of the nations around them. Through Jeremiah He lamented that faithless Israel had committed adultery and had been given a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, His mercy remained, and He promised forgiveness and restoration if they would return to Him. (Jer. 3:6-14)
Behind all of God’s dealings stands a purpose that is both simple and profound: God is reproducing Himself through a chosen company of human beings. Certainly, He loves us and desires to save us from sin and self-destruction. The mind of Christ does not remember our sins and faults. Satan does and throws it up to us in a constant barrage of celluloid-like scenes from our sordid past. Satan remembers and hurls memories at our mind until we awaken to what is really going on. No, our father does not remember the sins of our past so, why should we remember them? But salvation is only one part of a much larger eternal plan. To understand that plan, we must consider what is contained within the very word “Father.” (Eph. 1:4-12; Rom. 8:29)
What Is in the Father’s Heart?
A father is one who begets life. The title itself implies offspring, reproduction, and inheritance. One cannot truly be a father apart from children. Thus, the desires of the Father’s heart are revealed in His name. His purpose is to bring forth sons and daughters who bear His likeness and share His nature. (Luke 3:38; Heb. 2:10; 2 Pet. 1:4)
Many claim God as their Father, yet often deny the spiritual law that He established from the beginning: every seed bears after its own kind. If God is truly our Father, then His purpose should become our purpose. His desires should become our desires. We should seek to know His mind and participate in the work that fills His heart. The Father’s great purpose is to reproduce His life, His character, and His love until He fills creation with the expression of Himself. Humanity was created to be the vessel through which this purpose would be accomplished. (Gen. 1:11-12, 26-28; Eph. 3:14-19)
Walking in Agreement with the Spirit
This understanding is essential if we are to walk in the Spirit. Scripture commands us to “walk in the Spirit” and to “abide” in Christ. Yet how can we walk with Someone if we do not know where He is going? As Amos asks, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” To walk in the Spirit requires agreement with the Spirit. We must understand not only where God is leading, but also why He is moving in that direction. (Gal. 5:16, 25; John 15:4-5; Amos 3:3)
Christ perfectly understood this. Throughout His life He was occupied with His Father’s business. He possessed the mind of the Father and devoted Himself to completing the Father’s work. And what was that work? The reproduction of God’s life through the Seed Son. (Luke 2:49; Phil. 2:5; John 4:34; John 17:4)
Creation itself testifies to this purpose. Everywhere we look, life seeks to reproduce itself. Plants bear seed. Animals multiply. Humanity is driven to seek companionship and family. These patterns are not accidental. They are witnesses embedded in creation that point to the Creator’s own purpose. God is reproducing His life and His love, and mankind is the spiritual soil in which this divine work is taking place. (Gen. 1:21-28; Rom. 1:20)
Only when we understand and embrace this purpose can we truly walk in the Spirit and abide in Christ. If our worship, ambitions, and prayers are centered upon a different objective, then we are no longer abiding in Him. To abide in Christ is to remain in fellowship with His purpose and to align ourselves with His plan. (John 15:4-8; 1 John 2:24-28)
From Servants to Friends
This is also the pathway from servanthood into friendship with God. Jesus told His disciples, “I call you not servants … but friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” A servant obeys commands without understanding the larger purpose. A friend is entrusted with the secrets of the heart. What greater privilege could there be than to know what the Father is doing and to be invited into His counsels? (John 15:15; Ps. 25:14)
Nor was this privilege reserved only for the first disciples. In His prayer recorded in John 17, Christ expanded this promise to all who would believe through their testimony. He prayed that we might share in the same unity and glory that existed between Himself and the Father. This invitation extends to us today, if we have faith to receive it. (John 17:20-23)
The promise that whatever we ask in His name will be done is connected to this abiding relationship. When we are united with God’s purpose, our prayers become expressions of His purpose. We begin to ask for the things that advance His work, and those prayers find their answer in Him. (John 15:7, 16; 1 John 5:14-15)
Joining the Father’s Work
The tragedy is that many believers pursue purposes that differ from God’s own. When our ambitions, ministries, and religious activities are rooted primarily in human desires, we mistake our plans for God’s will. True worship is not merely offering God our ideas of what should be done. It is joining ourselves to what He is already doing. (Matt. 15:8-9; Prov. 14:12; Isa. 29:13)
When we understand His purpose and commit ourselves to its fulfillment, something changes within us. The power of the Spirit increases in our lives because we have become fellow workers with Christ in the Father’s business. Christ is finishing the work given to Him, and the members of His body are called to share in that same labor. (1 Cor. 3:9; Mark 16:20; John 14:12)
Our calling is to bear witness to the truth that God is reproducing Himself through the Seed Son. As Christ’s life grows within us, the reality of His resurrection becomes evident through transformed lives, spiritual power, and the works of God manifested through His people. The world is to see the life of Christ expressed through those in whom the Seed has come to maturity. (Gal. 2:20; Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:11; John 12:24)
Wisdom Before Power
Yet this journey begins with wisdom and knowledge. It begins with seeing what God is doing and understanding why He is doing it. Significantly, the first gifts of the Spirit listed by Paul are the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Before power comes understanding. Before effective service comes revelation. (1 Cor. 12:8; Prov. 4:7)
As we come into agreement with the Father’s purpose, the Spirit supplies the wisdom, knowledge, and gifts necessary for us to participate in His work. And that work, from beginning to end, is the desire that has always filled the Father’s heart: the reproduction of His own life and character in His sons and daughters until His purpose is fully accomplished. (Eph. 4:11-13; Rom. 8:29; Hab. 2:14; 1 Cor. 15:28)
In short, some humans will love God. They are “the called according to His purpose.” He knew them from before. He gave them a predestiny “to be conformed to the image of His Son. He predestinated them; He called and chose them; He justified them and glorified them. Having done all this for us, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. (Romans 8:28-37)
Kenneth Wayne Hancock
