PASSION STAGE: THE QUEST FOR PURPOSE

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and hope.

Jeremiah 24:11

Our soul needs a purpose so that we know that the career, relationships or hometown—all with their limits are not the end. We can know that our death is truly just the beginning of an eternity with Christ.

We often think and believe that the “greater” life is elusive and not attainable so we let ourselves stay spiritually immature and make do with what we already have.

In the Passion Stage of Spiritual Maturity we make critical decisions about our defining elements that make up our identity and faith. This is the dreaming and  doing stage.

All over social media, young Christians are crying out:

Do you see me? Do you hear me? Do I matter?

The Passion Stage is where childlike faith is lived and people do things for God that they once believed were impossible or only imagined someone else doing.

Chapter 3: JUSTICE CALLING

We are God’s plan for stopping injustice and ending oppression on earth.

• We must confront oppression as it happens.
• Where your passion is His inspiration to where you can make a difference.
• Your justice calling is what the passion stage of Christian maturity is all about.
• The more you respond to your justice calling, the more you will live by faith.

Ways to clarify what your justice calling is:

• Get up and get out – move, see, serve.
• Love people
• Listen to the Holy Spirit
• Use your abilities

You are made for more! Your life is meant for something astonishing!

Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter—On the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter. Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead, more than the living who are still alive. Yet, better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This is also vanity and grasping for the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-4

Chapter 4: DREAM LIFE

Socrates: The mob is always wrong.

It is time to move from the limited life to the life of limitless possibilities. We could just be getting by instead of following our dreams.

• We are amazing.
• We can make a difference.
• We are prized by God.
• Stop holding back or waiting for someone else.
• Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s house, but his reputation when he lost his temper and spent 40 years in the desert before God told him to lead.
• Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream of his children not being judged by the color or their skin but by the content of their character and even though it didn’t happen while he was alive, we get better at making that dream come true every day.

A dreamer [is one] who dreams.
A dreamer [is one] who dreams of a better world.
A dreamer [is one] who dreams of a better world and risks everything to make it happen.

-Erwin McManus

Dreams give us energy, direction, inspiration and a reason to get out of bed every day.

When you stop dreaming:

• people perish.
• work becomes a rut.
• your marriage has a 1/2 chance of lasting.
• people frustrate you and relationships become septic.
• your children don’t envision a future so they fail.
• you watch the clock and just get by.

The kingdom of Jesus is at the core of every dream we have.

When you find your dream, put all your energy into it and watch God put everything in place.

How to pick your dream:

What is so valuable, so great, so important that you would give your life to it?

We stop listening to our dreams when people criticized us or we let life take control or we let ourself become discouraged.

Do we actually believe the promises in the bible that God made?

And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and My maidservants I will pour our My Spirit in those days.

Joel 2:28-29

We should be encouraging others to dream and fulfill their dreams.

Sometimes our dreams become nightmares. Every person who ever did anything significant for God has had to take risks and find courage to overcome.

Courage is a dream life essential. God’s kind of dream life takes guts and faith.

Feel free to leave your comments below!

My name is Summer. That is how you can call me. I hope that I am a blessing to you. I am not perfect. I will fall again. But I am forgiven.

Do you know Jesus? Do want the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you understanding and salvation? Ask Him. Want someone to pray with you? Contact me.

If you would like to know Jesus as your friend, but want to make this amazing commitment by yourself please pray something like this:

Thank you Jesus that You are the Son of God, the God that created heaven and earth. Thank you Jesus that You came to earth in the form of a man so that You would be able to empathize with my humanity. Thank You that You did this in order to fulfill the promises You made at the foundation of the world.

I realize that I am a sinner and do things that hurt myself and keep myself away from you. Thank You that You died for my sins so that You could defeat death and bring me into Your life. Please forgive me.

I ask You to be Lord of my life. I ask you to heal my hurts and show me what my new life, empowered by You looks like. Thank You for Your mercy.

Amen

The Lord is with you always.