THE PERILS OF PURPOSE

Genesis chapter 4




Today we are walking in: The Perils Of Purpose




Today we look to the word-PURPOSE- H6213 ’asah--to do, work, make, produce; to act, act with effect, effect






The Torah testifies...............

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The prophets proclaim..................




Isaiah 14:26

This is the purpose H6213 that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.







The writings bear witness...........................




Ecclesiates 3:1

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose H6213 under the heaven:




The Perils of Purpose


Life without purpose is haphazard. Purpose is the key to peace.


As the hysterical woman carried the screaming child into the emergency room, the noisy room immediately became silent. All eyes turned toward the two who had stumbled through the door. For in her haste and great distress, the woman lost her balance and nearly fell. For a moment it seemed the child would surely tumble to the floor. Instantly, she caught herself and clutched at the slipping child. But not before an audible gasp passed through the room. Then their horror deepened as they saw the child’s hands, arms and face. They were badly burned.


Later, after the child had been taken upstairs to a room in pediatrics, a nurse overheard the child and his mother talking.


“My arm hurts, Mommy,” the boy whimpered. When his mother didn’t reply immediately, he tore frantically at the bandages over his eyes and screamed in terror, “Mommy, where are you? I can’t see you.”


“I’m right here,” replied the gentle, yet tearful, voice. “I know it’s hard for you not to see me, but you mustn’t pull at the bandages. Remember what the doctor told you.”


“I know, Mommy, but everything hurts. And I was
scared when you didn’t answer me.”


“I know, honey,” came the soft reply.


As the mother watched her son, regret filled her eyes and tears streamed down her face. The unknown terrors ahead filled her heart and her mind. Then in the quiet the child asked, “Mommy, why are you crying?”


Surprised that the child—with his bandaged eyes and the sedating medicine the nurse had given him—could know that she was crying, the mother replied, with a catch in her voice, “I’m just sad that you’re hurt, son. And I’m so sorry.”
“I’m sorry too, Mommy. I didn’t try to trip you.”


“I know. But this is why I’ve warned you so many times to stay out of my way when I’m carrying hot things from the stove.”


“I didn’t know it would be that hot,” the boy replied drowsily, as the medicine took effect.


“I’m sure you didn’t,” his mother answered, leaning back in the chair and preparing for her lonely night vigil.


The Peril of Ignorance


Ignorance! It is the most destructive force this world knows. It causes wars, poverty, fear and worry. It also destroys the lives of millions of people. Deadlier than Hasatan or any force of evil, ignorance is the number one enemy of life.


According to Webster, ignorance is “the quality or condition of little knowledge, education or experience; unawareness.” When ignorance is used to describe our understanding of purpose, it means that we have little knowledge, education or experience concerning the reason for our existence. We know neither the motive for Yah’s creating us nor the end toward which our existence leads. We are unaware of His plans and purposes for our lives, and our existence becomes a trial and error game. Such ignorance is dangerous because it permits the possibility that we will live all our lives and never know why we lived.

Like the child who was not completely ignorant of the dangers of the stove, most of us are not completely ignorant of Yah’s purposes. By now we know that Yah is the source of purpose; that purpose has a certain inherent, individual, multiple, interdependent, permanent, resilient and universal nature; that purpose is both governed by and revealed in a set of principles; that purpose has a priority over function, design, talents, potential, demand, provisions, promises, time and position; and that purpose is valuable, with a multiplication of benefits.


Knowing something and comprehending it, however, are often two very different experiences. Although we may know the facts and the correct words, it is very possible that we have not yet grasped the significance for our lives of what we know. Too often, knowledge without understanding gives a false sense of security that prevents us from giving our serious attention to the remaining steps in a process.


The journey of living with purpose requires a lifelong relationship with Yah our Creator. Because we are the creatures and He is the Creator, we must go to Him to discover all we were meant to be. Like the child who feared life without the closeness of Mommy, so too we need the closeness with Yah of knowing and being known.

The Value of Relationship


The word for know in Hebrew is yadah, which means “to go to bed with, to have a relationship with.” It speaks of an intimacy that goes beyond casual acquaintance. “Adam knew Eve his wife” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).


Understanding and living with purpose requires insight beyond mere knowledge. It demands trust and loyalty that believes what it has seen and acts on that belief. Yah’s principle of seedtime and harvest, for example, necessitates both the vision of the harvest and the planting of the seed. Thus, Yah blesses those who give freely, trusting in His sovereign care. Or consider Yah’s promise that He will give us the needed words to witness for Him (Matthew 10:19). Knowing and believing the promise does nothing unless we act on it, trusting Yah to act in return.


Yet, even with this necessary element of trust, knowing in the biblical sense means more than believing and acting. It involves a oneness with Yah or another person that provides a true unity of purpose. Selfishness and jealousy vanish. Quarreling and reluctant cooperation become attitudes of the past. This unity of purpose between Yah’s will and ours is the ultimate goal of Yah the Father.

Unity of Purpose


Purpose looks through the eyes of Yah, seeing the end, then moving back and starting toward what we have seen. It requires a passion for understanding and sharing Yah’s vision that prompts us do things we would never attempt in our own strength. It obligates us to receive Yah’s demands, however massive or insignificant they may appear, as the desires of a loving Father who is drawing from us all He placed within us for the good of the world.


Such living requires a depth of communion that allows the human spirit to hide itself in Yah, drawing from the Holy Spirit both the information and the resources to accomplish everything that has been purposed. It demands moving with, not against, the promptings of the Spirit, refusing to hang back when the Spirit says “go” or rush ahead when the Spirit says “wait.” This life of purpose is not without its pitfalls, for ignorance is not the only peril of purpose.


The Peril of Despair


The most common peril of this intense knowing is the despair that creeps into our lives when the vision and the reality are far apart. As Yah’s demands stretch our faith, we undoubtedly have periods when we stumble and falter, expending considerable energy on this business of living with purpose. The contrast between the glowing vision of what one day will be and the reality of our repeated ups and downs damp ens enthusiasm. The prophet Elijah succumbed to this peril when he felt that he alone was responsible for ridding the land of false Yahs.


Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the Yahs deal with me ... if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I’ve had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life ...” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep (1 Kings 19:1-5).


While he slept, an angel awoke him and told him to eat, “for the journey is too much for you.” So Elijah ate and drank. Then he traveled forty days and nights to the mountain of Yah. There he met Yah.


And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord Yah Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, broken down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:9-10).


When he obeyed the Lord’s command to stand on the mountain in His presence, Elijah found that Yah was not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire. Yah spoke to him in a gentle whisper, telling him what to do next and assuring him that he was not alone.


Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus.


When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also anoint Jehu ... king over Israel, and anoint Elisha ... to succeed you as prophet. ...Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:15-18).


So Elijah went from Mount Horeb and “threw his cloak on Elisha” (1 Kings 19:19). Strengthened by the Lord, Elijah moved on toward the completion of his purpose.


Despair, though a danger of known purpose, need not overcome us if we continue in relationship with the Lord, our Yah. Time in His presence strengthens us to remain faithful to the shared vision and purpose. On the other hand, trying to lift ourselves from the pit will not work.


The Peril of Idolatry


Prolonged desp eration opens the door for idolatry, which is nothing more than replacing Yah with something else. Living with purpose always contains the temptation to focus more on the temporary struggles of the journey or the provisions for the journey than on the One who calls us to live and move and have our being in Him.


When the children of Israel saw that Moses delayed in returning from the mountain where he was talking with Yah, they sinned by molding and worshiping a golden calf (Exodus 32). Unwilling to wait for Yah to fulfill His purposes, they provided a Yah for themselves. Their impatience was a costly error. So angry was Yah with their impetuousness and unfaithfulness that He desired to wipe out the entire people and start again with Moses (Exodus 32:9-14; Deuteronomy 9:7-29). Even though the Lord relented from His intent to destroy the entire people, three thousand people were killed by the sword and the Lord sent a plague on those who remained.


Too often the impatience that undergirded the Israelites’ disobedience is evident in the Church when we fail to wait for Yah’s timetable. As our energies and resources become severely stretched trying to maintain a large building or extensive programs, we have nothing left for ministry. Such impetuousness always carries a price.


Oh, the resulting idolatry may not be as visible as the golden calf, but moving ahead of Yah’s schedule always turns our sight from Yah to the process by which He works out His purposes. This deviation is not to be viewed lightly, for idolatry short-circuits our potential and detours Yah’s work in and through us. It also removes us from the intimacy of vision and direction that Yah desires for His relationship with us, because Yah is a jealous Yah. He will not tolerate anything that replaces Him or removes our trust and affection from Him. We dare not become impatient and run ahead of Yah, for the peril of idolatry is a serious pitfall within the journey of finding and fulfilling the will of Yah.

The Peril of Arrogance


Limiting Yah is a peril that is related to but not synonymous with idolatry, because it also restricts Yah and wastes time, energy and resources. In essence, we bind Yah’s hands because we presume that we know how and when He is going to work. This assumption leads to an arrogance that either interferes with the accomplishment of purpose or completely nullifies it by desensitizing us to Yah’s direct instructions.


Although living in relationship with Yah does strengthen our understanding of His will, we will never completely see what He is trying to do or why, because His thoughts and ways are far beyond ours. King Saul had to learn the importance of obeying Yah’s specific commands, whether or not they matched up with his expectations and desires.


When Yah anointed Saul to be king, He gave him some preservation clauses that would safeguard Yah’s people and enable Saul to fulfill his responsibilities as their king. Through the prophet Samuel, Yah told Saul to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belonged to them. Nothing—men, women, children or infants; cattle, sheep, camels or donkeys—was to be spared (1 Samuel 15:3).


But Saul chose to disregard Yah’s instructions. Saving “the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs” (1 Samuel 15:9), Saul resolved to offer these to Yah, for he was unwilling to completely destroy these many good things. Indifferent to the disobedience this involved, Saul told Samuel: “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions” (1 Samuel 15:13).


Yah did not agree with Saul’s assessment of the situation. He was grieved that He had made Saul king and He resolved to remove Saul from kingship because he had turned away from Him and had not carried out His instructions (1 Samuel 15:10-11).


Disobedience, either by disregarding Yah’s instructions or by limiting how far we are willing to go with Him, is a pitfall that bears watching. We can never presume to totally know the heart and the mind of Yah, nor can we assume that we know better than Yah the nature and scope of His purposes. In other words, it is better to do what Yah tells you to do, than to do something nice for Yah. Disobedience is always wasteful and destructive because it reveals a pride and a presumptuousness that will ultimately destroy the person and forfeit the execution of purpose. The experience of King Saul is a grim reminder of the consequences of this peril.

The Peril of Criticism


Another peril of living purposefully is the tendency to criticize others when their vision and ours don’t match up. Some of Yahusha’ disciples were guilty of this when they criticized a woman who anointed Yahusha’ feet with costly perfume (Mark 14:3-9). Because they did not know or understand what Yahusha would soon experience, they could not fathom why such expensive oil was “wasted” instead of being sold at a profit that could have been given to the poor. Entangled in their efforts to do good, they misjudged the woman and her actions.


We dare not assume that others are wasting their lives if their actions and understandings are not the same as ours. By this world’s standards, their lives may appear to be wasted, but kingdom values are the only standards that count. Doing good does not always equal doing right.


The Peril of Deception


Finally, the pursuit of purpose includes the danger of deception. This occurs when we either blame others for our shortcomings and inadequacies or rely upon them too heavily for direction and purpose. Yah’s words through the prophet Hosea indicted both the people who were disobeying Him and the leaders who relished their wickedness. No one was exempt from the destruction and the rejection their corruption brought.


Let no man bring a charge, let no man accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. ...My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the law of your Yah, I also will ignore your children. ...Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds (Hosea 4:4-6,9).


This rejection occurred not so much because of the unrighteous acts as the unfaithfulness to Yah that prompted those acts.


Faithfulness to Yah is a cornerstone to achieving purpose. Whenever we choose not to acknowledge Him and His foreordained desires for our lives, we open ourselves to the influence of the evil one. For Hasatan knows what Yah intends for our lives and he will do anything to keep us from accomplishing it.


If you don’t find your Yah-given purpose, Hasatan will supply one for you, and he’ll convince you that it’s the right purpose. If, on the other hand, you know Yah’s purpose and you’re trying to live it out, Hasatan will either push you too fast or he’ll find ways to slow or detour your progress. Either temptation—embracing a false purpose or trying to use shortcuts and alternate routes to fulfill purpose—can only bring heartache and loss. Deception always occasions destruction.

Beyond the Pitfalls


Yah needs you to accept and agree with His will for your life. He also needs you to commit yourself entirely into His keeping without taking your life back now and then when you question what He is doing or where He is going. Only then can you avoid the perils or pitfalls of known purpose that would sidetrack your pursuit of purpose. His plans and purposes will prevail no matter how long it takes Him to achieve them, but He will not override your resistance or excuse your disobedience. He cannot make you successful until you allow Him to undo and redo the results and the motives of your sinful inclinations, and to clarify and realign your distorted perceptions.


The key to purposeful living is to take to heart the truth of Yahusha’ words—“Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)—and to commit your life to pursuing purpose with a passion. Then you will know victory over the peril of ignorance and the pitfalls of known purpose, and you will experience the freedom to be a successful, happy, productive child of Yah.


PRINCIPLES

1. Knowing purpose and comprehending its impact on life may be very different experiences.


2. Understanding purpose and living within it requires insight beyond mere knowledge.


3. Purpose from Yah’s perspective sees the end from the beginning.


4. Despair may enter our lives when the vision of our purpose and the reality of daily life don’t match.


5. Prolonged despair opens the door for idolatry.


6. Arrogance that assumes we know how and when Yah is going to work interferes with the accomplishment of purpose.

7. Disobedience is always wasteful and destructive.


8. Doing good doesn’t always equal doing right.