Why are we here? The answer to this question should set our priorities and objectives straight and avoid a lot of dead end streets in our journey toward God.
I was flipping channels looking for the hockey game, when Oprah pixilated on my screen and asked the grand question, “Why are we here?” The guest’s answer didn’t resonate with me, so I began ruminating on how Jesus would have answered her.
My journey to articulate life’s purpose began with the question, “What is my destination in Christ?” My rationale was that if I know where I’m going, I’ll better understand how to journey. Scripture says that when we arrive at our destination, “we will become like Him and rule and reign with Him”. I’m not sure what we will be ruling over, but the compelling thing to me is that we will have His power and authority. That’s the same power that created the earth and the universe! This has been promised to us by Christ – another example of equality in the Trinity and the Kingdom of God.
When we start becoming like Christ is unclear to me, but the most dramatic changes begin when we see Jesus as our Lord. When we get a revelation of Jesus as the King of the Kingdom of God, we begin a new (spiritual) life. We’re transformed in an instant – we call it being Born Again. It’s marked in Jesus’ life as being baptized by the Holy Spirit AND fire, after which He went into the wilderness for 40 days as preparation for His ministry.
“Fire” represents the purifying work of God. We must be purified and prepared just like all the valiant men of God in the past. Joseph, David, Paul and many others spent time in their personal wilderness in preparation for their ministry. Paul said that the story of the Children of Israel (in the wilderness) was given for our understanding and as a warning. Their experience in the wilderness wasn’t about the destination, it was about learning how to overcome their enemies. The difference between them and us is that God overcame their enemies on their behalf when they were obedient to Him. In our case, we overcome our enemies using the power God has given to us in the Kingdom, because of our love for equality, truth, justice, and Christ. We are like Him. We give our lives to God and build the Kingdom of God because of love. We learn to hate injustice, inequality, greed, and lies in the wilderness and along our life journey. The destination is important, but the journey is even more important because it prepares us for ruling the universe with Christ in the future. We learn and are prepared here. Life is the Boot Camp for our ultimate purpose – ruling the universe.
Therefore our purpose in life is to “BECOME” so that we can “OVERCOME”.
Our enemies on earth are described by Paul as the “flesh”, the devil, and the world. The keys to overcoming them have been given to us in an allegory designed and recorded by God for us, in the story of the Children of Israel in the wilderness. It is an allegory of the Christian life and it should inform and guide us, because it clearly sets our priorities and instructions us on “becoming”.
Jesus lived above the natural world. He commonly superseded natural law by raising the dead, multiplying food, healing the sick, etc., etc. to show us what is possible in the Kingdom of God. He acquired for us not only salvation, but the ability to live now in the same Lordship He had on Earth. We start our rulership now. The flesh, the devil, and the world have been defeated by Christ but they only are held to that defeat if someone rules over them. It’s here and now that we must learn to overcome and shape the world as we are led by the Holy Spirit.
Our lives are being crafted by God to teach us and challenge us to live and overcome using the tools of the kingdom of God. Jesus had two themes in His ministry: reconciliation to God and the demonstration of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ protocol for prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) demonstrates our priorities: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”. Prayer is our entry point to the Kingdom of God and its power. It is the tool and the call to rule and reign with Christ, here and now. That is why we are here.
© Copyright 2014-15, Paul K. Weigel – All rights reserved.
Interested in learning more about the Children of Israel’s journey in the wilderness?