Have you ever wondered what your God-given purpose is? The exact reason God put you on this earth to accomplish His plans? In today’s episode of the SALLT Leadership Podcast, host Wes Lane outlines the need for Jesus-centered leaders to find clarity about their purpose in life, and some practical ways to follow the “Holy Breadcrumb Trail” and uncover your specific calling.
Episode 2 Show Notes – Discerning Your Purpose
“Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.” - Ephesians 1:11 TPT
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:11-13
Clues to Follow on the Holy Bread Crumb Trail of Purpose
● Gifting
● Experiences & points of personal impact (like Muller & Juv Div)
● Circles of influence (Workplace, Community, Home)
● Prophetic utterances
● Networks (random or of common cause)
● What do people say about your strengths and calling
Entire Heart + Persistent Pursuit = Precise & Purposeful Existence
Additional ways to uncover your purpose
● Take a personal assessment (Strengths Finder, Personality Assessment, Spiritual Gifts
Test, etc.)
● Ask others to point out your strengths and most effective qualities
● Ask God
(00:51):
Well, welcome to another episode of the SALLT Leadership Podcast. The show for leaders who want to live a purposeful life, grow in their faith, and maximize their abilities and influence for the kingdom of God. I'm Wes Lane. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about how to discern your God-given purpose in life. So let's get to it. So when I was 44 years of age, I remember this so well, it was a Saturday night. I'm an assistant district attorney, this is my career as a prosecutor at the time. And I'm watching the Reverend Charles Stanley on TV and he looks at me through the TV and he points his bony finger right at me. And he says, “You can know the purpose of God for your life.” And I went, “What?” I mean, have any of you ever wondered, what is the purpose?
(01:47):
What's the call of God in your life? I mean, we're called to many things in many roles, husbands, wives, fathers, daughters, sons, business people, entrepreneurs, homemakers, mothers, all across the board. We have a lot of different roles to which we're called to. And within that, we are always sent with a common thread of context and that's this, we are restorative agents of change. Which means that we're sent as problem solvers. As salt and light people we are meant to solve problems. Why? Because the world is one big messed up problem. I mean, what brings peace and wellbeing? And what's known as Shalom, people who solve problems. Jesus came to redeem a world that was filled with problems, and He died for that problem world. He came to set the captives free.
(02:50):
So what does that look like for you? What problems are you called to bring the Shalom of God to? Any idea of what that might be? Or would you like to know? Well, Stanley inspired me that night to hunt for clues on what I would eventually call years later, the holy breadcrumb trail. I mean, I'd never really thought about it like that, but after 20 years of following this trail, I suddenly realized, “My gosh, this is fascinating.” He's constantly leaving clues and it's the path of purpose. And as long as I would stay on the trail, He would get me where I needed to be. Ephesians 1:11 says this, “Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.”
(03:45):
Wow. Well, and then Jeremiah 29, of course, which I've said to you in a previous podcast. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” The clues are all around us as we look. Clues that I learned to look for and to cobble together, which would ultimately become a mission statement for me. Think about this, there are things like your personal giftedness, the experiences, and the points of personal impact that have had on your life, circles of influence, your workplace, home place.
(04:30):
I mean, what do people say about you? For example, I remember one time 30 years ago being with a group of people. And I was just talking to them, whatever it was. And one of them looked at me, they were pastors as matter of fact, and they said, “You're a Barnabas.” Honestly, I didn't know what that meant at the time, but I found out later that Barnabas means son of encouragement. I am, I was an encourager. And so I got a clue right there. I'm an exhorter and an encourager. I enjoyed it. So, I started at looking at all of these different surrounding things, and I'd gotten some materials from him as well. And they were asking me thought-provoking questions, things that were making me contemplate these things and be very thoughtful and purposeful about it.
(05:14):
And as I did that, I cobbled out why Wes Lane is on Earth. And I share this because, you can do this, you can do this. And because I can tell you this 22 years later, I am fascinated by how this has been a guiding light to my life. And would you like a guiding light to your life? It's been very helpful to me. And so I would suggest it might be for you. So here's why Wes is on Earth, and I cobbled this out, “To exhort and encourage the body of Christ in an understanding that God has not changed. He wants his children to be powerfully significant and relevant to the well-being, to the Shalom of their community and His omnipotence, the power of God, was ready to see to their success.”
(06:04):
Then a little later, I became the district attorney. After that, about six years later, I cobbled out the last piece. All of which unbeknownst to me at the time would become what we're calling SALLT, which is, of course, the producer of this broadcast. After that, I had this passion, I wanted to help leaders to stop looking at themselves as leaders who just happened to be Christian, but rather as Christian leaders assigned by God to their sphere of influence. Which demands the question, what are you gonna do about that? If you're assigned to your sphere of influence, whoa! So what are you gonna do about that? So all of these pieces came together. They were from my experience. For example, as I said, I learned that I was an exhorter and an encourager.
(06:54):
I took a spiritual gifts test. I discerned, “Okay, I'm an exhorter and an encourager.” And so that became a piece of that. And then the little pieces that I said about to exhort people to understand God hasn't changed. And another piece of that, that God's power, the omnipotence of God would stand already. I'd been deeply impacted by a man named George Mueller and his life, which is jaw-dropping. And then I started learning about the other lives of other folks that were jaw-dropping and currently are jaw-dropping. And I realized God's a lot more powerful than I thought. And He is a lot more engaged than what I thought. And when I started looking up and the need and the people and the heart's desire for us as the children God to be more involved.
(07:39):
Well, that came from my involvement, running a juvenile division. I saw the brokenness in these children, these families, these kids who, you know, good and well, when they end up in prison, years later, you figure that wasn't God's first plan for their life, but that's what living in a fallen world will do. So what would that look like if the children of God were to step into that and intervene and to help and keep these kids on focus? So all of those things, plus I went through my spiritual journals that I’d been keeping. All of that resulted in my crafting, what I just said, and what I have been just stunned by, to repeat myself is that, that has been an incredible guide trail for me. In fact, that's what I do.
(08:27):
That is what I do. I walk that out and here's the deal. I did not get a special deal. This is your deal. Every single person that has been sent, has been sent missionally. Now, this is gonna shock you, but you have been sent no less missionally purposeful than was Jesus. Okay, think about that a little bit. Jesus was sent super duper spot on purposefully. So are you, so are you, don't let anyone dumb that down. But think about this too, at the same time, I was looking recently through one of my journals from 2000, and interestingly, my wife, Laurie was really struggling during that period of time. She was really wondering, what am I doing? What's my role? What is my this? And my that? Lori's a surgeon.
(09:28):
She had a role, but she was just confused and it was very obvious. Well, now 22 years later, it's just fascinating. I see everything that she's done. The reason why I'm sharing this with you is I want you to take some of the pressure off yourself. You may be already spot on what God wanted you to do in the first place. You're just not recognizing it. You
see, God sends us to bloom oftentimes right, where we're planted. He is utterly willing to. So I look back at Lori's life, for example. And I see, okay, there's somebody whose whole heart was given to the Lord.
(10:26):
She loved Him and was wanting to serve Him. And at the same time, she was persistent in her pursuit of Him. And you know what that wound up being spot on that holy breadcrumb trail. Because you combine those two things, your heart and your pursuit of Him. And what's He gonna do? He's going to enable you to live a precise and purposeful existence. Lori always was right where she need not have been concerned because she was already living. She was blooming where she's been planted. Maybe you are too. Sometimes we get so dissatisfied that we don't realize that, you know, God being so in the weeds of our lives, He sent you right to that place you are right now. And so look around you. What thing needs to be loved well? Who needs for you to be Jesus in the midst of that?
(11:34):
And I tell you what, I'll keep hammering every time I talk to you, He is such a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He will not let you live less than a purposeful existence. Because let me tell you in the kingdom of God, everybody gets to play. No role is unimportant. Every one of them is critical. Every one of you have a role to play. We all need to be doing our jobs. The world says you gotta have money and you gotta have power. You gotta be cool. You gotta have the right clothes and all that. But here's the deal. Jesus says the only thing you need to live a life that matters, a life of significance, a life of well-being is to just simply need Him. That's all you gotta do.
(12:27):
Just pursue Him. He will work. You show up. He shows off. He will provide you with all the power and the influence that you need to accomplish your excitement. I have struggled with this in the past, and this is a real common deal for us to do and that's this, we think that we gotta give Jesus a leg up. “I really don't think Jesus can do that. And so, therefore, I think I'm gonna have to help Him.” What I've discovered is that He is more than enough. And sometimes if you'll just take your hands off the steering wheel, He really will do it just fine. He wants your success. And so He's willing to also make sure that we all bloom where we're planted.
(13:16):
So imagine, I mean think about this. What does a city look like? What does a city look like when all God's kids are beautifully blooming right where they're planted? What does that look like? It's gonna be a place that you and I aren't even gonna recognize right now. And He's willing to do it right now. This is not for the hereafter, this is for the here and now. Right for the here and now. Right now we are stewards and He sent you to this garden and He really believes we can make it a beautiful place. So here's a few takeaways. These are the next right steps I want you to think about. I want you to take a personal assessment. Just spend some time. Would you like to have a greater clarity on why you're on planet earth?
(14:06):
If so, ask God. Ask Him, ask Him about these things. Ask Him for divine connections, ask Him for the people that can help you. Let me tell you something, I have been astonished by how He has always put somebody in my path. That's gonna help me go to the next level. That's not a special deal. That's the way God works. That's the deal. That's the deal you get. He has already got these people figured out and He's always gonna send you what you need. Let me also tell you something too, if you think, “Oh, I'm having all this adversity” and “Oh gee, I must be out of the will of God." Well, nonsense. That is not true. So think about this, God is the greatest personal trainer in the world.
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If you'll step into the gym with Him, He will pump you up. I mean, He will muscle. He will help you but that requires you to be able to trust Him more. That requires deeper faith and that requires friction. That requires adversity. If you want to be, and to walk in the fullness of what He's willing to do, you gotta let Him train you and He will. And let me tell you, He will never take you any further than you're willing to. So He wants you to understand why He has sent you. He wants you to pursue that and it will be a life of high adventure. I can promise you this. And so remember this, you have been design built by a living loving God sent into this moment of history, to the community in which He has sent you to live as a part of God's overarching strategy to redeem and restore the Earth to Himself. Your life is purposeful. It matters. And God has a vested interest in you accomplishing your life mission successfully. You can do this, rise up, I'll see you next time.