PRINCIPLES OF PURPOSE!!!! PART 2!!!!

Genesis chapter 1







Today we are walking in: The Principles Of Purpose Part 2!!!!







Today we look to the word-UNDERSTAND- H8085 shama`--to hear with attention or interest, listen to understand (language)










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




Genesis 11:7




Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand H8085 one another's speech.










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




Nehemiah 8:2




And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear H8085 with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.











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




1 Kings 3:9




Give therefore thy servant an understanding H8085 heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?







1. Yah Is a Yah of Purpose




Yah is a purposeful Being. He has a purpose for everything He has ever done. He established His purpose before He created what was needed to fulfill it. What He plans is intentional, meaningful, and guaranteed to succeed.




This theme is found throughout the Bible. Consider these Scriptures:




The Most High Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.” (Isa. 14:24)




The plans of The Most High stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. (Ps. 33:11)




As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

(Isa. 55:10–11)




Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because Yah wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.

(Heb. 6:16–17)




Yah has purposes that He determines beforehand and then carries out. These include plans for humanity as a whole and plans for males and females who carry out humanity‘s purposes. To bring this to a personal level, this includes plans for you and me. Yah does not do anything on a whim or without knowing the end result.




The origins of humanity are described in the book of Genesis, which means beginning. However, the Creation that we read about in Genesis was not the real beginning. I would like to call Genesis the end result after Yah finished His thought processes. When Yah finished deciding what He wanted to do, then He created. First Yah predetermined, predestined, or purposed everything. Then He produced it.




This concept is crucial to our understanding of purpose. It means that Genesis was not the beginning of a supernatural experiment with an unknown outcome. Genesis was the beginning of the production of something that was sure. So, when we talk about what happened in Genesis, we‘re really talking about what happened after Yah finished thinking.




Therefore, in Genesis, we are looking at the start-up of the project, as I like to call it. Those of you who are studying project management know that this is an important step in the process of building. When you reach the start-up phase, it means that you have all the plans drawn, all the physical resources in place, all the management resources in order, and now you‘re ready to begin. That‘s Genesis.




Do you begin building a house when you dig the foundation? No, you begin building it when the idea is conceived.




This means that the finished house is in the unseen. People pass by the property, and they don‘t see it. However, to you who understand and know what is going to happen, it is already finished. Digging the foundation is the beginning of the implementation of your purpose. So, after you dig the foundation, when somebody asks you, What are you doing? your answer is very definite. You point to the architect‘s rendering of the house and say, I am building this.




Yah revealed this truth to me in a very visual way. There is a street near where I live called Shirley Street. At one time, there was only a parking lot there. One day when I was driving along that street I saw a large sign with a beautifully painted picture of a building. There was no building on the site yet, but there was the big sign and the name of a building. It showed the landscape, the color of the building, the windows, everything. It was a detailed picture of what the completed building would look like. The sign said, Coming soon.




I drove past the lot and sensed the Holy Spirit saying to me, Did you see that? I said, See what? He said, Did you see the finish? Did I see the finish? I drove by the post office and came back around to take another look at the painting. He said, There it is. The finish. The construction company was showing us the end of their purpose. To have vision means to see something coming into view as if it were already there. The company had a vision for this building.




Likewise, Yah in His wisdom is not guessing about His plans for us for humanity as a whole or for each of us individually. Yah has already decided on His purpose. He has the complete picture. It‘s on His drawing board. It‘s His vision for us. It isn‘t an afterthought. In Genesis 1, we read how He began to dig the foundation of humanity. We‘ll pick up on this theme in chapter 4, because it is essential to understanding the nature and purpose of the male.




What we need to understand at this point is that when Yah created the male and the female, He had already predetermined what they were supposed to be and do. They are not divine experiments. Together, they are an intentional divine project with a predetermined purpose.




2. Yah Created Everything with a Purpose




Yah created everything with a purpose in mind, and He also created it with the ability to fulfill its purpose. Everything Yah has made is the way it is because of why it was created. The why dictates its makeup. The purpose of a thing determines its nature, its design, and its features.




You don‘t make something until you know what you want and why you want it. You‘ll never find a manufacturer starting a project in a plant, hoping it will turn out to be something useful. Its purpose and design are complete before production starts. For example, if a manufacturer decides he wants to build an apparatus that can both record moving pictures onto a magnetic tape for replay and broadcast them live through the medium of television, then he has created a product, a video camera but the manufacturer designed it first. What‘s more, everything in the video camera is necessary for its proper functioning. If you could look inside such a camera, you would see things that you didn‘t know were there and that you don‘t know the use for. Yet nothing in that product is there for the fun of it. As a matter of fact, because it is so expensive, there had better be nothing in it just for the fun of it.




Let me give you another illustration that is even closer to home than your big toe. Are you aware that if your big toe were cut off, you would lose your balance and fall down? You probably never think about your big toe until you stub it. Then it just seems like an annoyance. Yet it keeps you standing up when you lean forward. Your big toe isn‘t there just for fun. Thank Yah for big toes! There‘s also a purpose for your fingernails. Some of you know exactly how important they are because you‘ve had an accident and lost one. Your fingernails are there to protect the softer skin on your fingers.




Since Yah created everything with a purpose, both males and females need to go to Him if they want to know their true reason for being. If they try to change His plans or fight against them, they are in essence fighting against themselves, because they‘re working against their own nature, their own makeup, the way they function best based on the Manufacturer‘s design. Moreover, because Yah is love, His plans embody what is best for us, so they would also be working against their own highest good.




Yah‘s purpose requires two genders working together in cooperation to accomplish a mutual vision. Accordingly, males and females have complementary designs that enable them to fulfill Yah‘s purpose together.





3. Not Every Purpose Is Known to Us




Although everyone and everything on earth has a purpose, this does not mean that we are aware of their purposes. When human beings as a race turned their backs on Yah and His ways, as we learn about in Genesis 3, they ended up losing their knowledge of Yah‘s intent for themselves and for the world.




Rejecting Yah was the equivalent of buying a sophisticated and intricate piece of equipment and then throwing away the user‘s manual. If you get something to work under those circumstances, it is only by pure chance. The more likely scenario is that you will never get it to function properly. You will also miss out on the many features and functions it has to offer. It will never fulfill its complete purpose.




Likewise, humanity has not honored the fact that Yah‘s creation and His directions for living were established for a specific reason and that, if that purpose continues to be abandoned, males and females will never function properly as human beings. This is a very dangerous situation for them to be in, because it leads right to the next principle.




4. Where Purpose Is Not Known, Abuse Is Inevitable




Whenever purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. Suppose I‘m Henry T. Ford. I‘m going to add a motor to a carriage and build a product called a motorcar. I know the purpose before I build this vehicle. It will enable people to be more mobile on land. Now suppose you decide, I want to use this motorcar as a boat, and you drive it off a cliff and into the water. What will happen? You‘re probably going to drown, and the car is going to be ruined. Why? The car was built to fulfill a specific purpose, and if you do not use it according to its purpose, then you will likely be harmed in the process. We need to keep from driving off the cliff of life by understanding and fulfilling our purpose as human beings.




Here is another aspect of this principle: the penalty for drinking poison is death from poisoning. You don‘t need Yah to kill you after you have swallowed poison. What this means for us is that Yah doesn‘t have to do anything to judge us for abusing our lives. We judge ourselves by receiving the consequences of our participation in harmful practices based on our determination to live according to our own knowledge rather than His. Consequently, we are victims of our own decisions, not of Yah‘s judgment.




These examples demonstrate that if you don‘t know the purpose of something, you will misuse or abuse it in some way. That‘s why it‘s possible to be sincerely wrong. It‘s possible to be faithfully wrong. It‘s possible to be seriously wrong. You‘re serious, but you‘re wrong, because you don‘t know the purpose for the thing you‘re involved in.




This principle holds true for everything, including people.




How many people go into marriage very seriously? Most people do. They go to the church, stand at the altar, and say to their betrothed, I will love you until I die. They‘re very serious. But then they die in three months. At least their love dies. Then their family and friends try to figure out what happened. Their marriage failed because they didn‘t understand the purpose of marriage, the purpose of a mate, or the purpose of family. Because they didn‘t understand these things, they abused their union.




People abuse things because they just don‘t know their purposes or because they disregard those purposes. When males and females don‘t know Yah‘s intentions, they end up abusing each other, even if they don‘t mean to. If males are going to solve their current identity crisis and fulfill their purpose as men, husbands, and fathers, they must rediscover Yah‘s plan for them. Otherwise, they will hurt those around them, even if it‘s unintentional.




5. To Discover Purpose, Never Ask the Creation; Ask the Creator




If you want to know the purpose of something, don‘t ask the thing itself. Why? It didn‘t plan, design, or build it- self. Only the manufacturer knows the why and how of his product; no one else truly does. That is why he can claim perfect relationship with his product.




Therefore, if you‘re going to use something, the first question you need to ask is, Who made this? If you buy a certain kind of guitar, you need to consult the manufacturer who made that particular guitar. That is why the company includes an instructional booklet with the instrument; the booklet tells you how to use the guitar based on its purpose. You don‘t use it to paddle a boat. You don‘t use it to play baseball. In other words, the manufacturer sent you the manual to protect you from abusing the product and so you could have the full enjoyment of it.




The point is this: to understand how we function as human beings as males and females we need to go to the Manual given to us by the Designer and Manufacturer who created us: the Bible. Yah knew exactly what He wanted when He thought of the male. Remember that He created both male and female after He had decided what each should be in order to fulfill His purposes and plans, and that He designed them accordingly.




This means that He is the only One who knows how humanity is intended to function. If you have any questions about why you are here, you should check the Manual. If you don‘t know the purpose of a thing, all you can do is experiment. Everybody who doesn‘t know his or her purpose is just experimenting with life.




Let me use marriage as an illustration again. Do you know what most marriages are today? Big experiments. I don‘t really know what a wife is for, but I‘m old enough to get married, so I‘m going to have one. You get married because you‘re twenty-five. All right, then what? Do you know what you have? No, but she looks good. What‘s a wife for? Hey, man, to have sex with and to clean the kitchen. This is a big experiment. But guess what? After three weeks, you realize she doesn‘t agree with your definition. The experiment isn‘t working. She isn‘t cleaning those dishes, and she isn‘t into being a living sacrifice every night. She begins to ask for things like time. She wants love and affection and attention. She wants appreciation. Hey, I didn‘t bargain for all that. Well, my friend, marriage is not a trial run.




Again, whenever you don‘t know the purpose of a thing, you‘re experimenting. That‘s what many people, especially young people are doing with life. They don‘t know what education is for, so they treat school like an experiment. They skip classes and spend their time partying, then they flunk out. They experiment with sex and sexual identity, and they end up with all kinds of problems. They experiment with drugs and hurt their bodies.




Dr. Munroe said, When I was a boy, I was tempted to experiment in order to find out about life. I‘m grateful Yah protected me from much of that. But many of the young people whom I grew up with did not make it through their experimentation. The experiment blew up. Some are dead. The bodies of others are contaminated and wrecked from using destructive substances. They didn‘t know the purpose of the elements they were using.




I‘d like to say to the young people listening to this series: if you want to know why you were born, the worst people to ask are your friends, because your friends are trying to figure out why they‘re here, too. If you want to know your reason for existence, don‘t ask another product; ask the Manufacturer. Everyone else is guessing.




What we‘ve been doing all these years is asking the product why it exists. Because the world doesn‘t understand much about the reason for the existence of things, it functions like one big experimental lab. All of us seem to have been assuming the position of scientists. We have imagined that we have the time and intelligence to discover the reason for our existence through experimentation. Then we find out that life is short, and that we‘re very poor researchers.




Life is too precious to treat like a trial run. The only way to avoid the cost of trial and error is to learn the purpose of your life. Think about a car mechanic. If he‘s just experimenting, he won‘t last long in the automotive business. If he says, I wonder what this part is for? Let me guess what section of the engine I should attach it to, that‘s experimentation. He doesn‘t know what the manufacturer had in mind.




Well, if you wouldn‘t let an inexperienced mechanic work on your car, what about your life? No university professor knows people well enough to write a definitive book about what makes us tick. No psychologist or psychiatrist truly knows me. Yah wrote a book on His product, and the product is me. Tell yourself, I‘m an expensive product. I won‘t let anyone experiment with me. It‘s a dangerous thing for us to experiment with this precious commodity called life.




Therefore, if a man wants to know his reason for living, He must look to Yah and His Manual not to other males. If he looks to himself or others, he will travel an unreliable and hazardous course in life.




6. We Find Purpose Only in the Mind of Our Maker




If you remember this principle all your life, you‘ll be safe: before you buy something, check to see who made it. Right away, you‘ll know what was in the mind of the maker. If you buy a shirt on sale at a discount store, and you see the store‘s label in the collar, you‘ll treat it differently than if you buy a Pierre Cardin shirt. You might toss the discount shirt on a chair, but you‘ll put the designer shirt on a hanger in your closet.




We need to understand the mind of our Maker. How do we do this? By learning how He thinks. The only way for us to succeed is by discovering and living in the purposes of our Maker, by undergoing a transformation in the way we think about ourselves based on His original intentions for us. That transformation comes about by a renewal of our minds: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Yah’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Yah this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Yah’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom. 12:1–2)




Yah‘s ways will transform your spirit, your mind, and your outlook. When you present yourself to Yah and learn from Him, you will begin to understand His purpose. “The law of The Most High is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of The Most High are trustworthy, making wise the simple” (Ps. 19:7).




The greatest way for you to find purpose is to yield your life to the Manufacturer. You shouldn‘t come to Yah because it‘s the religious thing to do. You shouldn‘t come to Yah because everybody is doing it. You shouldn‘t come to Yah because it‘s good to be a part of the community. You should come to Yah because you want to find out how not to waste your life. No one knows you like the One who made you. That‘s the bottom line.




We are so special to Yah that He sent His only Son to die for us. There must be something unique about each one of us for Yah to want us to receive salvation so that we can fulfill the purpose for which He gave us life. We need to seek Him earnestly in order to discover that purpose. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).




Thus, the male will fulfill his purpose only if he seeks the mind of his Maker with all his heart. When Yah‘s plans unfold before him, his fragmented life will become an orderly whole, and he can become the man he was meant to be.




7. Yah’s Purpose Is the Key to Our Fulfillment




You can never be totally and completely satisfied until you find your purpose and then live in it. You cannot do what you‘re supposed to do until you discover what you are supposed to do. And if you do what you‘re not supposed to do, you‘re not going to be fulfilled. You‘re wasting time. You‘re abusing your life. Stop it right now.




I was speaking about purpose at a community in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A lady came up to me after the service and said, I‘m fifty-six years old. Where were you fifty-six years ago? I said, What do you mean? She said, You‘re the first person ever to come into my life and help me understand that I have a reason for living and I can‘t give an account of fifty-six years right now. Where were you for fifty-six years?




Sometimes people begin to feel the way that woman did; they‘re distressed because they‘ve wasted so much time. If this is your situation, don‘t be discouraged. One of the wonderful things about Yah is that He has a way of restoring the years that the locusts have eaten. (See Joel 2:23– 26.) When you go to Him, He knows how to make up for the time that you‘ve lost.




Yet Yah would prefer that we follow Him and know our purpose all our lives. That is why the Word of Yah says very strongly to young people, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” (Eccl. 12:1). The Bible is saying to us, Remember Yah now—not when you‘ve finished partying and ruining your health with drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, so that you say, Well, I‘m sick now; I‘d better go find Yah. Don‘t wait until after you have messed up your life to remember Yah.




“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” Why? Yah wants you to remember the Manufacturer early so that He can set you on course for your entire life.




Yah didn‘t say, Remember the university. He didn‘t say, Remember the school guidance counselor, or Remember what your friends are saying. They can give you only their opinions about what you should do. Yah said, Remember your Creator, the Manufacturer, the One who made you. Remember Him first while you‘re young. Why? So that the evil days won‘t rob your life.




Some of you know what I‘m talking about because you‘ve been there and now regret it. Some of you might still be in the middle of it. Others of you might not be using harmful substances, but you‘re still ruining your life. You‘re working fourteen hours a day trying to be successful, but you‘re not doing what you were put on the earth to do. You‘re not going to be fulfilled.




Wouldn‘t it be great to live every day effectively, doing exactly what you were born to do? There‘s no fulfillment without knowing your purpose.




Remember the painting of that building on Shirley Street? After I had driven past the sign the second time, the Holy Spirit said to me, If you were to see the men working on that project, digging up all the mud and muck, all the rocks and everything, making big holes, and if you were to ask them what they were doing, they would say, We‘re moving toward that. We are building that.‘ They could tell you exactly where they were headed. I have never forgotten that lesson.




I have a question for you: is your life similar to that? If someone were to ask you what you‘re doing, could you tell them you‘re headed somewhere? Could you tell them where? Are you so clear about your dream that you could paint a picture of it?




If you know where you‘re going, then when someone doesn‘t understand the reason for the mud, the muck, the water, and the hole, it doesn‘t matter. All that might not look right, but you see, that‘s the process. The process gets really messy sometimes. When you‘re in the midst of the process, your life might not look like it‘s becoming anything. But take careful note: there‘s a painting of you. Yah has painted it for you in His Word. Anytime you get bogged down in the mud and the muck, every time you get discouraged, you can look at that painting.




When a person works in construction, sometimes the contractor will tell him just to dig a trench. He can‘t see what this trench has to do with anything, but he has to trust him. He digs the trench because he knows the contractor sees things he doesn‘t know about. Likewise, Yah is in the business of constructing us and our lives. He is the Contractor. Sometimes He will tell you to do something, and He won‘t explain much about it.




You may be in the middle of something right now that He‘s told you to do, but that you don‘t understand; it doesn‘t seem to make any sense. You feel like you‘re just digging a trench. You‘re saying, This isn‘t what I bargained for. Maybe your job is a trench. Maybe your marriage is a trench. But when you are pursuing Yah and His purposes, He‘s saying, Don‘t quit. You don‘t understand. Just stay where you are. We‘re building something here. Just dig the trench.




A man may be able to see the outcome of Yah‘s purposes in his life twenty years into the future or only one day ahead. Yet if he is living in Yah‘s plans for him, he has found the key to his existence.




Yah Put Your Purpose within You




Becoming what Yah has purposed for you not only allows you to live effectively, but also to worship your Creator, who has given you ideas, talents, resources, and energy to fulfill His desires and plans for your life. Proverbs 20:5 says, “The purposes of a man‟s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.” That‘s a powerful statement, isn‘t it? “The purposes of a man‟s heart are deep waters.” That means your purpose is inside you. Yah has placed it deeply within you. However, in order to draw it out, you need to be assisted by Yah‘s wisdom and revelation because your purpose was born in the mind of your Maker.




Remember that Yah created the male with a specific purpose in mind, and He designed him uniquely for that purpose. Therefore, a man possesses inherent characteristics and qualities that are necessary for his functioning and fulfillment as a male. Moreover, when a man identifies, understands, effectively applies, and manifests these qualities in his life and relationships, the female will also experience a fulfillment she has always longed for.




As we‘ve seen, it is beneficial to look at the overall picture before seeing how all the details fit into it. In order for a man to know Yah‘s purpose for him as a male and as an individual, he first needs to see Yah‘s purposes for humanity as a whole. In the next teaching, we are going to take a close look at Yah‘s wisdom and revelation in regard to the creation of man.




Principles




1. Yah is a Yah of purpose.




2. What Yah plans is intentional, meaningful, and guaranteed to succeed.




3. Yah created everything with a purpose.




4. The purpose of something determines its nature, design, and features.




5. Not every purpose is known to us because we have lost our understanding of Yah‘s original intent for us.




6. Where purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable.




7. To discover the purpose of something, never ask the creation; ask the creator.




8. If we don‘t know the purpose for our lives, we‘re just experimenting.




9. When you go to Yah, He knows how to make up for the time that you lost from not knowing your purpose.




10. We find our purpose only in the mind of our Maker.




11. Yah‘s purpose is the key to our fulfillment.




12. Yah put your purpose within you. To draw it out, you need to be assisted by His wisdom and revelation.

PRINCIPLES OF PURPOSE

Genesis chapter 1







Today we are walking in: The Principles 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...............

****








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:







Seven Principles of Purpose




Yah’s Purpose Is the Key to Our Fulfillment.




Yah desires that every man find his purpose and fulfill it. If a man wants to know who he is in order to live fully in that reality, he must first understand Yah‘s principles of purpose. He has to learn these anchors for living from the Word of Yah. Otherwise, he will fall into a trap of confusion where many of us are right now.




Proverbs 19:21 is a foundational Scripture in regard to understanding Yah‘s purpose: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is The Most High’s purpose that prevails.” This crucial truth tells us that we can make all the plans we want to in life, but if we don‘t make our plans according to the purposes for which Yah created us, then our plans will be in vain. We won‘t live up to our full potential, and we will be unfulfilled. We may even pursue goals and engage in practices that are harmful for us. We have only one life, and we have to make that life count if we are ever to fulfill our purpose.




How Are You Using Your Life?




What value do you place on your life? Do you know that one of the most dangerous things in life is wasting time? It is said that time is a commodity that you never are able to recapture. Once you‘ve lost time, it‘s gone forever. What you‘ve lived, you can never relive. So the best thing to do with time is to use it in a way that will bring the greatest results. The best way, the only way, to use time effectively is to do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it. Effectiveness does not mean just doing good things, but rather doing the right thing.




Good versus Best




It would be terrible to be busy doing the wrong things your entire life. Wouldn‘t it be sad to be serious and committed and faithful to the wrong thing? It‘s possible to do what is good but not what is right. What I mean is this: it is possible to do good things but not the things that are best based on Yah‘s purposes for you. One of HaSatan‘s greatest weapons against my life is to get me busy doing things that are good but that are not right and best for me.




Yah created each of us with a purpose. That purpose is what‘s right for us. Suppose Yahusha had become a priest in the Sanhedrin, the highest council and tribunal of the Jews.




That would have been a good thing. Suppose He had become a member of the Sadducees and been one of the leaders in the social structure of Galilee and Judea. That would have been a good thing. Suppose He had become a social worker, helping the poor, having massive crusades, feeding multitudes of people every day with bread and fish. Would that have been a good thing? Sure. Suppose He had devoted every hour to healing the sick and raising the dead. That would have been a good thing, wouldn‘t it? Yet it would not have been the right thing for Him.




There was a time when Yahusha began to tell His disciples that He would be crucified. They didn‘t want to hear that. “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Most High!‟ he said. “This shall never happen to you!” (Matt. 16:22). The disciples‘ reaction to Yahusha‘ purpose was, We rebuke You. Get that thought out of Your mind. You will not die. But Yahusha turned around and rebuked them for their shortsighted perspective. “Yahusha turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, HaSatan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of Yah, but the things of men” (v. 23). Yahusha was saying, in effect, I know why I was born. I know the purpose for My life. Don‘t distract Me with things that are merely good. I must pursue the highest purpose.




One of the reasons Yahusha knew His purpose was that He was continually seeking Yah and in constant communication with Him. That is the pattern each of us needs to follow. Why? It‘s dangerous to live without Yah. If you don‘t know Yah, you‘ll never know your reason for existence. And if you don‘t know why you were born, you could live a completely wrong life. I didn‘t say a bad life. There are many good people who are pursuing relationships, careers, and goals in life that are not best for them. What we have to concern ourselves with is living effectively. The only way to live a fulfilled life is to know why you were born.




Fulfilling Your Purpose




Have you ever had a new car break down on you right in the middle of traffic? You got out and kicked one of the tires. You just wanted to curse at it because the car wasn‘t fulfilling its purpose. It was brand-new. It looked sleek. It had a nice paint job. But you couldn‘t drive it. What made you angry at the car?




It‘s simple: the car‘s purpose was to transport you, to make you mobile; but the car was not taking you anywhere. No matter how great the car looked, it wasn‘t right; it wasn‘t fulfilling its purpose.




Many men are like that car. They‘re stopped in the middle of traffic, and they don‘t even realize it. They‘re spending their lives doing things that look good, but they don‘t know Yah or they know much too little about Him and His ways.




We have to realize that good deeds are not a substitute for rightness. Knowing and fulfilling your purpose is the only way to do what is right. Remember our foundational verse: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is The Most High’s purpose that prevails” (Prov. 19:21). One of the reasons why this verse is so important is that many people are planning to use charitable work as their ticket into heaven. It‘s very dangerous to attempt to bribe Yah. Yah is not impressed with all the good things we do. He‘s waiting for us to do what He‘s asked us to do in the first place.




Discovering our purpose enables us to stop wasting our lives and start fulfilling our potential. However, then we must be careful not to become sidetracked along the way. The greatest way to destroy someone is to distract the person from his or her true purpose. Sometimes people will do this unintentionally, as we saw from the example of Peter and Yahusha. However, whether people try to distract us out of the best or worst of intentions, we must learn to remain steadfast in the purpose for which we were created.




Remaining Constant in Your Purpose




Nehemiah fulfilled an important purpose in life, but he might have been persuaded to be sidetracked. He was in exile serving as cupbearer to the king of Persia when he heard that the city of Jerusalem was still in a broken-down condition. He was distressed over this news and determined, I‘ve got to repair the city. So he prayed, and then he obtained permission from the king to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Yah‘s favor was on his plans because this was the purpose for which he was created. He went and started to rebuild the wall with the help of the remnant of Hebrews in Jerusalem.




However, some men from the surrounding area didn‘t like what Nehemiah was doing, and they tried to stop him. They ridiculed and slandered him, but he kept on with the work. They conspired to kill him, but he armed some of the workers with weapons and thwarted the plot. They tried to fill him with fear and make him flee for his life. One of the last things they tried is usually the most effective means of sidetracking people. They said, Come, let‘s have a meeting; let‘s discuss what you‘re doing. Maybe we can help you. (See Nehemiah 1–6.)




Again, the best way to prevent a man from accomplishing something is to get him to do a good thing, like have a meeting, instead of what he should be doing. Yet Nehemiah wasn‘t fooled. He told them, “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” (Neh. 6:3).




Reinforce Your Purpose




I can‘t emphasize strongly enough that knowing your purpose is crucial for your life‘s course. Every young person comes to a time when he or she leaves childhood and enters adulthood. That period is called adolescence. This is the time in which young people are trying to discover who they are and why they are.




This is also often the time when we lose them or gain them, lose them to a destructive lifestyle and a wasted life or gain them for a positive, fulfilling future.




Purpose, therefore, is key to a young person‘s effectiveness and happiness in life.




Did Yahusha have an adolescent problem? The answer is, very simply, no. Why? His purpose was reinforced from birth. His earthly mother and father were told why He was born. Somehow I believe that Yah would love for all parents to know Him so well that they would have an idea of the life purpose of their children.




The messenger of The Most High said to Joseph, “You are to give him the name Yahusha, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Joseph shared this message with Mary. When Yahusha was born, Mary could talk to Him about His purpose. Even though, at the time, she didn‘t fully understand the implications of His name, she could tell Him, You‘re going to be a Savior.




The Hebrew meaning of the name Yahusha is The Most High is salvation. In essence, Yahusha‘ name means Savior. When He was a boy, His friends would say to Him, Savior, come out and play with us. His parents would say to Him, Savior, come in for supper. When people heard Him coming, they‘d say, Is that you, Yahusha? How are you doing today, Savior? All His life, He heard that name. Yet it was not just a name; it was a reason for being, and He grew up with that purpose in His mind.




When Yahusha was twelve years old, He went to Jerusalem with His parents to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. When the Feast was over, His parents started for home, thinking that Yahusha was among the large group of relatives and friends traveling with them. When they didn‘t find Him, they went back to Jerusalem and finally found Him in the temple courts. They said, Why did you leave us, Son? Why did you do this to us? (See Luke 2:48.) His answer was very powerful. At twelve years of age, He was able to say to His parents, “I must be about My Father‟s business” (v. 49 NKJV).




How old are you?




Are you still questioning what you are about?




Are you still wondering what kind of business your Father is in and which part you are to play in the company?




Are you still ―changing your major in life every three years?




Do you find you can‘t graduate from Yah‘s preparatory school into Yah‘s work world?




Are you fifty years old and still looking for a job transfer?




I know it‘s not easy to take a hard look at yourself, but it‘s necessary if you‘re going to discover your true purpose in life.




You will be busy doing meaningful work when you learn why you are here. At twelve years of age, Yahusha was busy with His purpose. Isn‘t that an exciting way to live? Don‘t give up on having a purposeful life, no matter what your age is. Get busy with the right thing.




Principles for Finding Your Purpose




How do you discover what‘s right? Yah has given us seven principles of purpose so that we can live successful, fulfilled lives. Write them on a sheet of paper and put them on your mirror so you can look at them every morning when you‘re getting ready for work. Use them as a bookmark in your Bible to remind yourself of them when you‘re praying and reading the Word. When you understand these principles, you‘ll be able to learn and live in your purpose:




1. Yah is a Yah of purpose.




2. Yah created everything with a purpose.




3. Not every purpose is known to us because we have lost our understanding of Yah‘s original intent for us.




4. Where purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable.




5. To discover the purpose of something, never ask the creation; ask the creator.




6. We find our purpose only in the mind of our Maker.




7. Yah‘s purpose is the key to our fulfillment.

WHAT IS A REAL MAN????

Genesis Chapter 1







Today we are walking in: What Is A Real Man???







Today we look to the word- MAN- H120- 'adam-ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)









The Torah Testifies……….




Genesis 1:27




So God created man H120 in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.







The Prophets Proclaim………





Isaiah 17:7




At that day shall a man H120 look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.






Jeremiah 5:1




Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man H120, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.







The Writings Witness………





Proverbs 7:7




And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man H120 void of understanding,






Proverbs 9:9




Give instruction to a wise man H120, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.







Biology Is No Longer as Great a Factor





Biology doesn‘t determine male-female roles and functions the way it used to. Today, because of the prevalence of both dual careers and birth control, a husband and wife might choose not to have children. Also, because of the widespread idea that fertility is a woman‘s business alone, the woman will often tell the man when or if they will have a baby. Even if they do have a child, that doesn‘t necessarily mean that the wife will stay home to take care of the baby all day or every day. Daycare and other childcare options enable her to work at a job outside the home either part- time or full-time.





This change is bringing new kinds of stresses to the family. If daycare workers or nannies are bringing up the children, sometimes the children don‘t really know their parents. Also, the parents don‘t always know what the baby-sitter is doing or teaching the children while they are at work. Essentially, this means that the children are being brought up by people whom the parents cannot be sure of.





In addition, since a woman‘s childbearing and childrearing was what formerly brought her honor from her husband, the man now has to find another way to honor his wife. Because of the traditional pattern, when a wife demands honor from her husband today, he sometimes thinks, ―Well, what are you doing to earn it?




Twenty-first century relationships are difficult.





We Are No Longer in Survival Mode





Most of us don‘t focus on survival and protection the way people used to. This is not to say that we don‘t face economic challenges and job-related stress, but the physical risk is not the same. We‘re not out hunting food and facing the elements just to stay alive. We have twenty-four- hour-a-day grocery stores and microwave ovens. While we live in an uncertain world where there are still dangers, the physical environment is much friendlier now than it was for our forefathers. Today, a man will leave the house in the morning dressed in his three-piece suit as he drives his Lexus to work as a doctor in a fancy office. The physical risk is gone for most people.





One of the differences between the old and the new ways is that, when people get married, they often already have most of what they need, instead of having to struggle for it. Moreover, the woman is no longer dependent on the man to provide for her after they marry. Because the traditional role of provider is ingrained in many men, this situation can be unsettling to a man.





For example, a man will meet a woman and discover that she already owns material possessions. Because she has been working for a while, she makes more money than he does and drives an expensive car. She owns a condominium, a thirty-five inch television, a refrigerator, and the food in it. She can buy her own gas for her car. She has it all worked out, and then he says he wants to marry her and take care of her. How is she going to depend on him? She has money in the bank. What is the man going to give her? She isn‘t looking for survival and protection; she‘s independent, and so her expectations in regard to men and marriage are totally different.





Some women wonder, How am I supposed to be submissive when I make more money than my husband, and the house and furniture are mine? In other words, she‘s saying to the man, You have to earn the right for me to submit to you by giving me something I haven‘t already given you. That‘s a tough statement for a man to hear. So the man says, Well, I can‘t give you anything because you owned more than I did from the very beginning. How does a woman submit to somebody whom she believes she is supporting? It‘s a difficult situation for both men and women. But it‘s the world we live in.





Do you wonder why divorces are so common these days? One reason is that a woman can now tell a man straight and fast, If you can‘t take care of this properly, I‘m going to leave. My mother had eleven children. When she had a problem, she couldn‘t say to my father, I‘m going to leave you. Where was she going to go? She had no professional or academic training, no preparation for a job outside the home. The home was her life.





Independence is a relatively new situation for women, and men are still learning to cope with the change. In many ways, the woman has taken over not only the man‘s traditional role of provider, but also that of protector. She has mace, she has a gun in her purse, and she has a cell phone to call the police instantly. So what does the man do? He says, I‘m your protector, and she says, I don‘t need you to protect

me. It‘s a different world. Men don‘t know what they‘re supposed to do for women anymore.





Roles and Skills Are Less Compartmentalized





Men and women used to exist in different spheres. A man‘s sphere was work and survival. The woman‘s world was the home and children. There was no confusion of roles. They knew exactly where they were supposed to be.





A woman leaving the home and entering the workplace means that the home is no longer kept by her specifically. The man isn‘t sure what his job in the home is, and the woman isn‘t sure what her job in the home is. They‘re confused.





Your father used to bring home the beef, but now your wife is bringing home not only the beef but the cow. Besides that, she owned two cows before you married her. She doesn‘t want any beef from you; she already has beef.





If both husband and wife are now bringing home the beef, then who‘s the provider? That‘s a problematic question for men. If both are paying the mortgage, then who‘s putting the roof over their heads? Your father was considered the owner of his house because he bought and paid for it. Today, the house doesn‘t belong to the man. It belongs to both the man and the woman.





Some men wonder how their fathers used to be the man of the house. Now, if a man puts his foot down, his wife will put her foot down, too. The things men were taught no longer work. Your father says, Put her in her place. You say, But the place belongs to her. Show her who wears the pants in the family. But she wears pants, too!





Many couples face difficult economic situations that require both of them to work to make ends meet. However, the cultural shift of women going to college, pursuing careers, and delaying marriage has made significant changes in family life.




For example, a man may say, Honey, you have to bring up the children, and she‘ll say, No, I‘m going to work. Why? I want to use my education, and I want a certain standard of living that requires a double salary, so I‘m going to work. He says, But who will bring up the kids? You are the child-bearer and the child-nurturer. Her answer is, My employer has a daycare center. I‘m taking the job.





What does a man do when his wife makes more money than he does, and he believes he‘s supposed to be the provider and protector of the home? He‘s frustrated and even ashamed. That‘s one of the reasons why there‘s so much quarreling in our modern marriages. We keep arguing over who‘s supposed to do what.





These and other similar situations have changed our perspectives dramatically and altered our traditional roles. The male isn‘t sure what a man is anymore, and the female isn‘t sure what a woman is anymore. This change has caused tension for women as well as men.





For instance, some woman actually feel guilty when they say, I‘m a homemaker. Do you think that in your parents‘ or grandparents‘ time, people asked a woman, So, what do you do? The question never came up. But today, almost every woman is asked what she does. In other words, we know what she doesn’t do. She doesn‘t just stay home and bring up children with the implication that this is something to be ashamed of.





It used to be much easier for the woman who stayed at home with her children. She had support in this role because every woman in the neighborhood was at home. Today, people think something is wrong with a woman if she is a homemaker. They think things like: What‘s the matter with her? Is she lazy? or She‘s not very creative, or She must not be smart enough to have a career, or She needs to get a life. The idea is being promoted in society that only dumb women stay home.




The results of changing gender roles can be distressing for both men and women.




People are confused about how to act in this new world. It has become a psychological dilemma for them. Many are feeling tense and displaced, and they are trying to figure out what is wrong with them. I‘ll tell you right now what is wrong: it‘s simply a different world.





Independence Has Changed the Parameters of Appreciation





Increasingly independent, self-sufficient, contemporary women no longer feel the need for men to provide for and protect them. This is a problem for men. They‘re trying to get along in a relationship, and they‘re not sure who is responsible for what. For example, a boy takes a girl out for lunch, and he looks at her and says, Are you going to pay for yours? Thirty years ago, the man automatically paid. Why? It was the man‘s job to be the provider. But now if a man takes a woman to dinner, and he finds he doesn‘t have enough money, she reaches into her purse and says, I‘ll make up for it. He feels shame, but she‘s not ashamed, because she has the money. And guess what? She still likes him. She likes him because she feels there aren‘t too many good men around anyway.




The independence of women is diminishing men‘s traditional value to them. Historically, men have always died at an earlier age than women. Why? They had to go out into the cold and sleet in the winter, even if they were coughing with tuberculosis, in order to provide for the family. They were the sole element of survival for the family. This is why women valued them. Sometimes, when a woman reveals that her husband is abusing her, and she‘s asked, Why don‘t you leave him? She‘ll reply, I can‘t do that. That‘s a deep answer. There are certain things about him she values.




If a man spent every day risking his life to protect you and the children and to provide for you, then how are you going to feel about him? Obviously, you are going to esteem him highly, because you know what he‘s doing to take care of the family. That is why it was natural for your mother, even when your father didn‘t always act right, to love and honor him. He was valuable to her.




Today, however, this is not necessarily the case. When a man shows interest in a woman, she may tell him, Now, let me tell you this right up front: if you can‘t cut the mustard, you can leave whenever you‘re ready. And if we get married, I want you to sign a prenuptial agreement so that everything I bring into this marriage will stay mine if the marriage ends. Women don‘t value men in the way that they used to because the needs men used to supply are now being supplied by the women themselves. Some husbands are afraid of their wives because they think their wives don‘t need them.




Another significant change is that, for the first time in recorded history, men and women look to one another primarily for love and companionship rather than survival and protection. Our priorities as human beings have changed. People are looking for something more in their relationships. Happiness, intimacy, and lasting passion are now requirements for a relationship. Yet understanding how to provide these things often does not come easy for a man.




Happiness




The male‘s traditional roles are not enough to make his partner happy anymore. Women want companionship andattention in order to be happy. My father couldn‘t take my mother for walks or out to dinner at a restaurant. There was no time for it. He made my mother happy just by making sure that the family had clothing, running water, and so on.




What can men do to make women happy today? That‘s the challenge. Have you ever heard a man say, What does a woman want? In the past, men used to tell their wives, Woman, what else do you want from me? I put a roof over your head and food in the kitchen. Remember when men said that? Those days are over.




Intimacy




When the man risked his life to give his wife food and protection, then intimacy, sensitivity, and good communication skills were not an issue. The woman didn‘t say, Honey, you have to learn the psychological and emotional instability of a woman going through menstruation. A man didn‘t have time to learn to get along with a woman. Again, when he arrived home, it was dark, he was tired, and all he wanted was food and sex. The house was his, the food was his, and the rationale was, It‘s time to pay up. But nowadays, women want intimacy and communication. Talk to me. You haven‘t told me you love me all day. That‘s the way women think today. You looked at everybody else except me. You didn‘t notice my dress. Listen, the caveman didn‘t have time to look at any dress. He was too busy trying to survive. But the world has changed.




Did your parents or grandparents ever talk about PMS? They were probably too busy to talk about it, and people even husbands and wives weren‘t as open about such topics. Now, the social atmosphere has changed, and we have more time to think about these things. These days, a woman might say, Don‘t touch me now; I‘m going through my cycle. My hormones are out of balance. A man now has to study what mood his wife is in. When you‘re just trying to survive, you‘re not thinking in terms of moods. It wasn‘t necessarily a better way of life, but it was definitely a different way. Men are still trying to figure out how to build intimacy and communication into their relationships.




A woman may wonder why her husband has problems talking with her. He doesn‘t know what to say, and she doesn‘t realize what he‘s going through. For example, suppose she has a fantastic job, a leadership job, an administrative job and he has a lesser job. She comes home and tries to talk to him at dinner. What do they talk about? She‘s conversing on a highly intellectual level, and he‘s not there yet, because his job doesn‘t require him to stretch that far. So she says a couple of sentences, and he‘s intimidated. He says to himself, Oh, that‘s a big word she used. He doesn‘t know what to do, because his leadership role seems to have diminished.




In this challenging time in our culture, women need to show understanding to the men in their lives. For example, suppose a woman marries a man, and they are settled in their house, and she says to him, Be a man. He says, Okay...how? His back is against the wall. He used to know what that meant, but not any longer. So she says things like, Be my spiritual head. He looks at her blankly. My father was a caveman. He taught me that the Bible and community are for weaklings. So I‘m really not much into being in the community. I‘ll go to please you, but if that makes me a man, it‘s going to take a while. He doesn‘t understand spiritual matters as well as she does because he was taught that religion is for women.




So she says, Comfort me, and he says, How? He didn‘t receive that kind of training from his father. She says, Show me affection, and he says, Oh, no. How do you spell that? She says, Be sentimental, and he says, Sentamen- who? What is that? He doesn‘t understand what she means.




What do many women do in this situation? They become angry. Just be a man! How? Provide for me! But you make more money than I do. The man is confused. He doesn‘t realize she wants him to provide for her emotional needs or if he does understand, he doesn‘t know how to fulfill those needs. Men need patience and understanding from their wives.




Passion




Passion is also necessary for today‘s relationships.




Remember that, in the old days, the man would just ask, Woman, are you ready or not? There were no romantic preliminaries. He‘d say, Tarzan ready for Jane. Jane ready? Okay, bring it on. That was it.




Now, however, women want men to turn the lights down, bring scented candles into the room, and put flowers everywhere. The men say, What‘s going on here? You have to work for it now, men. It‘s hard work!




These days, women want men to start romancing them in the morning make them breakfast, run the bathwater for them, take them out to lunch, call them five times to tell them they love them, pick them up in a limousine and take them out for a nice dinner then they might be rewarded that night. There‘s no guarantee, but they won‘t be rewarded without working for it.




Male-Female Relationships Have Become a Mystery




In many aspects of life, therefore, the roles and relationships of men and women have completely changed in the last few decades. This putting aside of traditional male roles seems frightening and even dangerous to many men because they don‘t know where it leaves them. They feel there‘s now a

great deal of mystery in the relationships between men and women, and they don‘t know what to expect. I can empathize with what they‘re going through. Studying this topic has made me realize that we‘re really in a cultural dilemma. I feel for men. They don‘t know what to do. If you are a woman, you need to understand that men are really in trouble.




I have tried to give you a picture of what changing gender roles have done to throw men off balance, so that you can see the nature of the dilemma they‘re facing. Some of the scenarios I‘ve given are humorous, but the problems males are facing are serious because they have to do with purpose and identity. They are serious because confusion over purpose will sideline and even destroy people‘s lives.




Roles versus Purpose




All this ultimately comes down to what males use as a basis for their self-worth and identity. Because men have linked their identity to their roles, now that the roles have changed, they have left themselves no basis for manhood. Whatever they replace their old idea of masculinity with may or may not be a true or fulfilling role for them. What is more troubling, when men don‘t understand their place in the world, they will often either withdraw from it or use their influence in harmful ways, such as committing crimes.




What can men do to regain their footing and identity?




First, they must adopt an entirely new way of thinking. They need to think in terms of purpose rather than roles. The reason they are having problems today is that they have been basing their worth on the wrong thing all along. Roles have never been the true basis of a male‘s identity and purpose. Roles can be helpful or harmful, but ultimately they merely reflect culture and tradition.




What men really need to discover is their underlying purpose, which transcends culture and tradition. A man‘s position and actions must flow out of his purpose, not the other way around. That is why the answer to the male‘s dilemma is not just to adjust to changing times although some of this will be needed but to discover the inherent purpose of the male. Since we live in a confused society, the knowledge of what it means to be a true man cannot be acquired by observing the culture around us. Males need an understanding of themselves that is not overly influenced by societal trends in short, by someone else‘s image of them. Where, then, can we go for answers? One of the themes we‘ll keep returning to in this series is that the purpose of something can be found only in the mind of its maker. Men therefore need a Yah-given identity if they are to fulfill their true purpose. We must learn what Yah originally intended for them. To do this, we must go back and rediscover the Creator‘s original plan for both men and women.




Once more, we must realize that when men are ignorant of their true identity, it affects not only their own callings and fulfillment, but also that of their families and of society as a whole. This is because Yah has given males a unique leadership influence. As the man goes, so goes the family, society, and the world. I believe that if we don‘t address the male‘s identity crisis, our whole generation is in trouble. There‘s no escaping this fact.




The answer for males in the twenty-first century is therefore to




• Define their worth based on Yah‘s purpose, rather than society‘s roles.




• Learn Yah‘s vision for their lives.




• Continue to live in the truth of who they were created to be.




If males understand the purpose and responsibilities Yah has given them and the true design of their relationship with females, they can be free to fulfill their destiny and potential. They can be the men they were created to be.




If you are a man, you don‘t need to be confused about your identity and place in life, regardless of the conflicting signals society is currently sending out. You will find fresh vision and direction in rediscovering Yah‘s purposes for both males and females. Through this knowledge, men can be and do more than they ever imagined, and women can gain a new understanding and appreciation for men while enabling them to fulfill their calling.




What is a real man? Someone who knows the reality of who he is and who lives in that reality. This knowledge starts with understanding the significance of being created purposefully by Yah.




Principles




1. Males have traditionally defined their manhood by their roles.




2. Historically, men and women had established roles that didn‘t overlap.




3. Relationships are different for men and women now that we no longer depend on one another for security and survival.




4. Men are in a crisis of identity and purpose.




5. Confusion over purpose will sideline and even destroy a person‘s life.




6. If a man links his identity to his roles, when the roles change, he gives himself no basis for manhood.




7. A man‘s identity is found in his purpose, not in his roles.




8. Men‘s underlying purpose transcends culture and tradition.




9. Knowledge of what it means to be a true man cannot be acquired by observing the confused culture around us.




10. The purpose of something can be found only in the mind of its maker.




11. Men need a Yah-given identity if they are to fulfill their true purpose.




12. When men are ignorant of their true identity, it affects not only their own callings and fulfillment, but also that of their families and of society as a whole. This is because, as the man goes, so goes the family, society, and the world.




13. A real man is someone who knows the reality of who he is and who lives in that reality.

INTRODUCTION : UNDERSTANDING THE PURPOSE AND POWER OF MAN!!!

Genesis chapter 1







Today we are walking in: Understanding The Purpose And Power Of Man!!!!













Today we look to the word- MAN- H120- 'adam-ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)









The Torah Testifies……….




Genesis 1:27




So God created man H120 in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.







The Prophets Proclaim………





Isaiah 17:7




At that day shall a man H120 look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.






Jeremiah 5:1




Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man H120, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.







The Writings Witness………





Proverbs 7:7




And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man H120 void of understanding,







Proverbs 9:9




Give instruction to a wise man H120, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.




The twenty-first century male is in crisis. Throughout the nations of our global village, the prisons are filled with multitudes of men. Compared to their counterpart, women, they are responsible for a vast majority of the criminal behavior worldwide. They are also victims of drug abuse and the principal carriers of the dreaded AIDS virus. Many have found a home in subculture gangs, instigating antisocial activities that wreak havoc on the social order. Men revel in the oppression of women and perpetuate domestic violence.




In every culture and social system, men are struggling to find their place in a fast-changing world. In many societies, the dramatic change in the status of women, the workplace, and traditional cultural roles has left a significant number of men confused, disillusioned, angry, frustrated, and traumatized. Yes, the male of this cyber-technical, Internet-driven, postmodern world is caught in a worldwide web of confusion. Men are in trouble but are afraid to admit it. They are lost in a maze of new paradigms and the uncharted waters of social and cultural convergence.




Change is often the source of uncertainty and a measure of fear and anxiety. For many, this type of fear is difficult to manage, and it causes varying reactions. Some negative reactions to change include denial, ignorance, isolation, anger, resistance, and resentment. These reactions can cause serious effects on the environment in which the change is taking place. The result can be oppression, suppression, violence, and the spirit of control.




A brief study of the behavior of the male-factor in many nations today, including yours, will reveal such reactions to cultural changes. The drastic transitions taking place in social structures and the shifting of long-held beliefs are destroying the defining lines and the very definitions of our lives. For the male in most societies and cultures, this redefinition is traumatic and has rendered many men without a clear definition of manhood, masculinity, and fatherhood.




The impact of the confusion on women, the family, and society is also frightening. Many women suffer the violence of angry men. Children are victims of abuse and resentment, and society bears the scars of social deterioration. Governments are helpless to respond to this phenomenon. They find their ideas, laws, and social programs ineffective in addressing it. Men are clearly in trouble.




So what is a man to do? The number one challenge to the male is his identity crisis. The average man is confused about his manhood, masculinity, and sexuality. He doesn‘t have a clear definition of what a man is supposed to be. Some men have confused their cultural, social, and traditional roles with the definition of manhood. However, this has proven to be one of the major causes of the problem because, as the roles change, so does a man‘s image of himself.




How do we measure a man? What is true manhood? How do you define masculinity? What is true male sexuality? What is the true purpose of the male in relation to the female? Is there a universal definition of manhood? Can it be attained? Where do we go to get this definition?




This series addresses answers to these critical questions from the perspective of the male. The purpose and role of the male in the scheme of human experience is explored through returning to the original process of his creation, based on the premise that no one knows the product like the manufacturer. No product can understand its identity by asking the customer, because only the manufacturer knows the original purpose and potential of his product. Therefore, it is imperative that the male rediscover his original purpose and understand his true potential, as well as gain a clear understanding of his principal function within the human family.




The male is the key to building strong, enduring social infrastructures, stable families, sane societies, and secure nations. It is critical that the subject of the male‘s crisis be a priority for men, women, and national governments, so that we can secure progressive social developments within the countries of the world. Let us begin our journey through the land of cultural confusion to rediscover the purpose and power of the real male.




Introduction




The male holds the key to the nations—and our nations are in crisis. As the man goes, so goes the family, society, and the world. The problem is, men don‘t have a clear idea of where they‘re going anymore. They are suffering from a lost sense of identity—and the consequences for their families, communities, and nations are far-reaching.




Conflicting Views of Manhood




Traditional male roles once gave men continuity and balance from generation to generation. Today, many men are questioning who they are and what roles they are to play in life. On the surface, they may be following customary life pursuits, such as working, marrying, and having a family. Yet they have an inner uncertainty about what it means to be a man, a husband, and a father.




What is causing this uncertainty? A major reason is that society is sending out conflicting signals about what it means to be a man. Traditional views of masculinity compete side by side with new ideas of manhood in the marketplace of ideas—each vying for supremacy.




A Clash of Old and New Ideas




This contest of ideas is being played out as we absorb the vast social and political changes that have taken place over the last forty years. On both national and international levels, cultures and ideas are colliding. As a result, people are reevaluating what it means to be human, what it means to be a man or a woman, and what it means to be a country. Some of these developments are:




• the movement for women‘s equality,

• the exportation of Western culture in the world,

• the fall of Communism,

• the global marketplace,

• a growing interconnectedness between nations.




Whether worldwide or locally, our world is rapidly changing before our eyes, and the social transformation accompanying it can often be painful. The clash of old and new ideas has left many men perplexed and frustrated in regard to their identity. How do their new roles (for example, equal partnership with women) play out against more traditional ones (such as breadwinner and protector)? Men are feeling compelled to redefine their roles as they attempt to adapt to these changing social expectations. This adjustment is disrupting both their professional and personal lives. It is altering their relationships with women. It is transforming family life.




Yet the lines of these new roles look blurry to men as traditional and contemporary ideas eclipse—overshadowing one another—and then separate again. For example, on the one hand, men are told there is no real difference between males and females and that they are to consider women as equals. On the other hand, they are encouraged to treat women with special care and courtesy—but when they do, they are often accused of chauvinism.




The Male in Crisis




Historically, men have defined their manhood by the various roles they have fulfilled for their families and for society. Now that these roles are in transition, they don‘t have a solid definition of masculinity to give them a cultural context for life. As a result, many men believe they have lost part of themselves, but they don‘t have anything concrete with which to replace it. Often, they don‘t even feel wanted or needed by women any longer. They used to have clear direction about where they were going as men. Now, it‘s as if they‘re trapped in a maze, frustrated and unable to move forward purposefully in life.




Some men have reacted angrily against the women‘s movement and other social changes. They have no intention of adapting. Instead, they have reasserted or tightened their traditional dominance over women because they are afraid of losing control. They have reacted by being either competitive or isolationist. They are domineering or even abusive to their families. In certain countries, men have aggressively fought back on a national level. They have countered the advancement of women‘s equality with severe restrictions on the lifestyle and freedoms of women because they perceive these changes to be part of the Westernization of their societies—a moral corruption that is harming their way of life.




A Crucial Crossroads




Why is the male‘s crisis of purpose such a pivotal issue? For one thing, it attacks the core of who men are, leaving them indecisive and foundationally weak. For another, it reflects a breakdown in understanding, communication, and cooperation between men and women that is unnatural and unhealthy. Males are at a crucial crossroads, and where they go from here will have a serious effect on the course of society. The crisis of purpose they are experiencing will escalate if they continue to live in an uncertain or defensive state of mind. They will remain frustrated and will live at a level far below their potential. Moreover, the cracks in the foundation of society will grow dangerously wider.




What should men do? Should they hold on to traditional roles and ways of thinking, or should they follow the road being paved by new concepts of maleness?




It would be difficult to stop the flow of change, and we would not want to return to tradition merely for the sake of tradition. The old system did not reflect the full purpose and potential of men, and women were often devalued under it.




Yet contemporary concepts of maleness are often ambiguous. They also tend to focus on roles rather than on the male‘s underlying purpose and identity (a crucial distinction that this series explores). What kind of world will we have if we keep following this new path? We already have some idea of the negative effects that a continuing male crisis of purpose would bring. Many of our current social problems, such as teenage pregnancy, crime, and poverty, flow from purposelessness and rootlessness among men.




The majority of crimes worldwide are committed by men. Ninety to ninety-five percent of those in prison in the United States are males. Recently, I have been amazed at the increasing numbers of boys who are involved in crime. We are seeing more and more criminal activity by males between the ages of nine and eighteen. In London, a five-year old boy was murdered by an eleven-year-old boy. In Chicago, a six-year-old girl was murdered by a nine-year-old boy. I remember when criminals used to be old men.




How often do you see a list of crimes that were committed during a given week in which 50 percent of the culprits were women? Never. It‘s really a male issue.




Whether we‘re talking about a broken home, an abused wife, an abandoned child, or a crime, we are looking primarily at a male problem that stems from a misguided purpose or a lack of true identity.




The Issue Is Purpose, Not Maleness




Why are many social ills caused by men? It may be tempting for some to dismiss males as hopelessly aggressive and domineering, with an essential nature in need of an overhaul. I‘d like to present an alternative perspective: the problem is not a biological one of maleness—but a spiritual one of identity. Male identity is not essentially a matter of roles, which vary with culture and shift with changing times—it is a matter of inherent purpose.




Therefore, to address the problems of our society and the world, we must start with the male and how he perceives himself. If men knew who they really are and their true reason for being, then their confusion, anger, and destructive behavior could be replaced with purposefulness, confidence, and a building up of society. It‘s when men don‘t know who they are and what purpose they have in this world that we experience a myriad of cultural problems.




While society is feeling the effects of the male‘s dilemma, it is also apparently contributing to it by presenting incomplete or confusing ideas of manhood. In this way, society is unknowingly bringing trouble upon itself. This double-edged sword is not new to our generation or our world.




The Consequences of Ignorance of Purpose




The crisis we are seeing today is actually a contemporary version of an age-old dilemma. Men and women alike lost their concept of what it truly means to be human— male and female—a long time ago. The problem is also not confined to particular cultures. The question of identity is a global problem. I have traveled to many nations, and I have concluded that most of the world is suffering from what I call the ―consequences of ignorance of purpose. In every nation, in every community, no matter what language the citizens speak or what color their skin is, people are experiencing a common dilemma. They are suffering the debilitating effects of a misconception of purpose. They don‘t understand who they really are and therefore aren‘t living up to their full potential in life.




In my earlier series, Understanding the Purpose and Power of Woman, I showed how humanity‘s ignorance of purpose has historically degraded women. (I recommend that series to men, just as I recommend this one to women.) I talked about how we can alleviate the pain and unfulfilled potential this misunderstanding of purpose has caused women over the centuries so they can be free to become all they were meant to be.




However, neither males nor females will ever be fully actualized if the crisis of the male is not addressed, since men have a primary influence on the tone and direction of society. This influence is meant to be used for good. However, as we saw in regard to many of the social problems we are facing, it can have exactly the opposite effect if it‘s not understood or if it‘s abused. There is no way that we can have a safe and productive world as long as humanity as a whole doesn‘t know its reason for existence—and men in particular don‘t have a clear idea of their identity.




People can go for years without realizing they aren‘t fulfilling their true purpose. Both individuals and cultures can become comfortable following established roles without questioning their validity. However, our socially turbulent society is forcing us to examine the underlying foundation of our concepts of maleness and femaleness. In this sense, we can look at this crisis as a powerful opportunity for self-discovery and self-actualization. It is up to us to make accurate tests of the soundness of both traditional and contemporary ideas of what it means to be male and female, and then to relay a strong foundation for society.




The purpose of this series is to give us principles for making that assessment and fulfilling our true purpose as human beings.




A Rediscovery of Purpose




Therefore, to rediscover the masculine identity, we need to address these questions:




• How can men gain their footing in the ever-shifting environment of cultural expectations?

• What does it mean to be male?

• What definition of masculinity should men adopt?

• Why is a male‘s self-concept so important to the foundation of society?

• What roles should men fulfill—in the workplace and in the home?

• What do gender roles have to do with the male‘s purpose?

• What are the differences between males and females?

• How are men and women meant to relate to one another?

• How can a man build a better life for himself, his family, and the world?




In the following teachings, I will explore these questions in a very straightforward and practical way. Join me for a rediscovery of purpose: the man as he was meant to be.







Men Need a Yah-Given Identity if They Are to Fulfill Their True Purpose.




Imagine that you are watching a television show similar to To Tell the Truth. Several contestants try to convince you that they are the Real Man. You have to guess which one is authentic and which ones are the imposters.




Contestant #1 tells you he is the Real Man because he fills the traditional male role: he supports his family financially while his wife cares for the children and the home. As long as he provides a roof over their heads and food for them to eat, he‘s fulfilling his duty as a husband and father. This man doesn‘t consider his wife to be his true equal.




Contestant #2 says he is the Real Man because he has a culturally progressive role: he shares household and child- rearing responsibilities with his wife while they both pursue careers. He thinks of his wife as his equal.




Contestant #3 explains that he is the Real Man because he has been freed from male stereotypes and has decided to take on the nurturer role of caring for the children and home while his wife goes to work. He considers his wife equal to himself—or maybe even better, since she has a more compassionate, sensitive nature than he does.




These are some of the images of manhood that are competing for men‘s acceptance today. Many men feel as if they‘re being asked to guess what a real man is by determining which contestant has the most convincing facial ex- pressions and answers. Yet there seems to be no clear-cut winner. In addition, society keeps mixing and matching these images until men don‘t know what‘s expected of them anymore. They are confused and frustrated as they try to sort through their own expectations for manhood while feeling pressure from the various segments of society that are promoting these images—or an impossible combination of them. Meanwhile, Hollywood is flooding society with intriguing icons of masculinity, such as James Bond and Rambo. Even though these images are superheroes rather than real men, it‘s sometimes hard to escape their allure. It‘s difficult not to start thinking that a real man should somehow imitate the power and resourcefulness they exhibit.





A Crisis of Roles





What makes our current cultural situation unsettling for men is that males have traditionally defined their manhood by their roles: the functions they perform for their families and in society. However, there‘s been a major shift in the roles of both males and females. The rules of society are changing. This has happened just in the last forty years or so. We‘re in the middle of a cultural transition, and competing ideas of masculinity are causing perplexing problems for men. They are being pulled in several directions at once while they try to figure out what it means to be a real man in today‘s world.





In recent years, literature focusing on changes in men‘s lives has indicated that the male is in a state of crisis and internal conflict. An array of studies are telling us that males aren‘t quite sure who they are or what women expect from them. Without a clear idea of their identity, men are trying to cope with the collision of new societal expectations and traditional ideas of what a man should be, which they have internalized through family, culture, or natural inclination.





Men‘s basic conceptions of manhood are therefore being disrupted. They feel displaced. They are either frustrated and struggling to adapt to a new but vague concept of who they are, or they‘re angry and trying to reverse the flow of change.




Are traditional roles to be totally abandoned? If so, what will replace them? Many men have unanswered questions, such as these:




1. Is a man still supposed to be the breadwinner and protector? Today, the woman goes out and makes her own bread and says she doesn‘t need protection. A man isn‘t sure what he‘s supposed to do for a woman anymore.




2. Is a man still the leader and authority in the home? This isn‘t clear anymore. The woman says, ―You‘re not my authority. I‘m not a slave. I make my own money and my own decisions. I do what I want to. I‘ll call you when I‘m ready for you. A man doesn‘t know how he‘s supposed to relate to a woman any longer.




3. Should a man still show chivalry? Should he open the door for a woman, escort her, pay for her meal on a date, and so on? A man will pull out a chair for a wom- an and she‘ll say, ―That‘s all right. Thank you very much, but I‘ll pull my own chair out. Sometimes a man will open a door for a woman and she‘ll be offended. ―Do you think I‘m crippled?‖ she‘ll demand. If a woman walks into a room and a man stands up out of honor, she might look at him as if he‘s crazy. A man isn‘t sure if he should be nice to a woman anymore.




4. Is a man still the defender of his family, property, and country? More women are entering law enforcement and the armed forces and are carrying guns. Some men don‘t know how to react to these changes. A woman walks into the house with her uniform on and her husband is scared to say hello to her. He‘ll jump up and say, ―Sergeant! Many men are thinking, ―She really doesn‘t require me to protect her. Men don‘t know if women even need them anymore.





Is there anything now that marks a man as different from his female counterpart? Based on the above scenarios, that‘s a difficult question to answer. Males and females are in a state of gender upheaval and confusion.




So what do you do in order to be a man in the twenty- first century? Who are men in relation to women? How are men to sort out the various versions of masculinity that are being promoted in the world?




If you are a male and feel that your work, your relationships, and your view of the world are being turned upside down, you‘re not alone. This is the most complex time in the world to be a man. Men of all ages are grappling with competing views and values of manhood.




What has happened?




Thousands of Years of Tradition Set Aside





Males used to acquire their ideas of manhood from observing their fathers or from longstanding cultural traditions. There was a continuity of masculine roles from generation to generation. Things are different now. Hundreds, even thousands, of years of tradition have been set aside in just one or two generations. This shift may have started in Western and industrialized nations with the women‘s movement and other cultural changes, but its influence is being felt in one way or another

all over the world.





Dr. Munroe said, For example, my life is completely different from my father‘s life. I can‘t use the way my father did things as a model for myself, and my sisters can‘t use the environment in which my mother functioned as an example for themselves. Our parents lived not only in a different generation, but also with different concepts of maleness and female- ness. Historically speaking, until recently, the man had certain accepted roles and the woman had certain accepted roles, and they didn‘t usually overlap.




Historical Roles





You can go back fifty, one hundred, five hundred, two thousand, four thousand years, and you‘ll find a fairly consistent pattern of roles for men and women that were acknowledged and valued. There were some very practical reasons for this long standing pattern. There have always been certain exceptions to the pattern among individuals and cultures, but the following is the way most families conducted themselves for generations. This traditional pattern continues to have an influence on male-female relationships today.





There Was a Biological Determination of Roles





In pre-modern times, biology contributed largely to the roles of men and women. Males are generally physically stronger than women, so the men were the ones who went out to hunt and provide for the family. Females are biologically equipped to have babies, so they cared for the children. In general, there were no birth control options and no abortion alternatives with which a woman could supersede biology. A man didn‘t have to wonder whether he or his wife would stay home and raise the children. Roles were less complicated because they were predetermined by biology.





Everyday Living Was a Struggle for Survival




In addition, people lived in a more hostile physical environment in which day-to-day living was a struggle for survival. This was another reason why the man, who was physically stronger, naturally became the provider and pro- tector of the family.




At that time, making a living was an especially precarious job. The man literally had to risk his life to take care of his family. This caused his wife and children to look to him for leadership and to value his crucial contribution to their survival. They depended on him.





When a man went out to get food for his family, there was no guarantee that he would come back alive. He might be fatally wounded by an animal or die of exposure. Therefore, the woman rejoiced to see him come home again. The same basic attitude held true in our parents‘ and grandparents‘ time when most husbands were the sole breadwinners of their families and their wives stayed at home. In the evening, the whole family was happy that the father had returned. Why? He had been out there in a risky world trying to make a living. Sometimes jobs were hard to come by. Sometimes the only job a man could get was working long hours in the fields or underground in a coal mine. When a man came home limping, his wife knew he had risked his health or even his life to keep bread on the table.





The family that I grew up in was a typical family of the not-so-distant past. I am one of eleven children. My father rose in the morning before we children got up, and he came home after we had gone to bed. He spent his whole life working, trying to feed almost a dozen children, keeping a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs. It was a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. My mother had to stay home, and her job was as hard as his. She had to take care of all eleven of us—cooking the meals, bathing us, washing our clothes, getting us off to school, making sure we did our homework, disciplining us. It was a very hard life. It was survival.





Roles and Skills Became Established





The basic needs of survival required men and women to develop specific roles and skills, which were passed along to succeeding generations. Up until your grandparents‘ time or even your parents‘ time, everybody knew his or her role and had skills that were equal to it. The husband knew what he needed to do, and he did it; the wife knew what she had to do, and she did it.





In this way, although survival was difficult, relationships were comparatively easy because there was no confusion over gender roles. A man and a woman didn‘t have to wonder whether one was infringing on the other‘s territory. Her role was to keep the house, cook the food, and care for the child- ren. His job was to hunt or harvest the crops and build a dwelling in order to provide food and shelter for the family.




Life was straightforward and so, in that sense, relationships were less complicated.





Interdependence Created a Natural Appreciation





This partnership in survival produced an interdependence between men and women that generated a mutual appreciation. Because they both worked so hard and did their individual parts, they honored one another. It was a natural appreciation. It was natural because their roles were very clear and were accepted as necessary and important.





In many of these marriages, there wasn‘t the kind of relationship between husband and wife that we know today. The man was motivated by simple things: food, sex, children, and security. He was not motivated by conversation and sentimental exchange, by emotional and psychological sensitivity. He came home when he wanted to meet basic needs.





For the most part, a man was honored and loved by his wife not because he was a good man or an affectionate companion, but because she knew he risked his life to take care of her and the children. She loved him because of what he did for her. He didn‘t earn her honor and appreciation because he was a sentimental, romantic guy. She valued his provision. If he didn‘t brave the elements and come back with fresh meat, she wouldn‘t honor him.





The woman spent time nurturing the children and creating a home, and she was honored and loved by the man for her contribution to the family. He didn‘t necessarily honor her because she was charming or because ―the Word of Yah says to do so. He honored her because she bore his children and because he knew the value of the work that she was doing. He didn‘t worry about who was going to feed and clean the children or who was going to wash their clothing. His wife did all that, and he honored her for it.





This means that romance was not a significant part of the lives of many of our early forefathers. They were too busy trying to survive. When you‘re in survival mode, there isn‘t much time for sentiment.





It was much the same way for many married couples up until the relatively recent past. A man spent all day working. He was occupied with providing for and protecting his family. He didn‘t have time for romance when he came home. All he wanted was food and sex. He wasn‘t concerned about taking his wife out to dinner or on shopping outings or giving her money to spend. He had money only to survive. The relationship was simply, ―Look, we have to survive and I have to protect you. Whatever I have to do to accomplish these things, that‘s life.





The man thought of his marriage as a partnership, but partnership didn‘t mean the same thing then that it does to us today. He didn‘t consider his wife to be equal to him or as good as he was. Instead, partnership meant that she had her part to play and he had his part. Men and women were taught this concept of marriage. A husband and wife hon- ored each other because of their individual contributions to the partnership, not because they acknowledged that there is an equality between men and women.





This is where we came from as a society. However, things have changed.





Contemporary Roles





Life is completely different for men and women now because we are no longer utterly dependent on one another for security and survival. Our roles and strategies have re- ally changed.




Men no longer have the job that they held almost exclusively for centuries. They used to have a role that was very clear—one they didn‘t share with their wives. How was manhood measured? Young men were told, ―Get a job, son, so you can provide for your family, and have some babies. Being the breadwinner and having the ability to procreate was the measure of a man. But the way society views men is in transition, and these are not considered the primary marks of manhood any longer. A number of families still follow the traditional pattern of the husband holding the job while the wife stays home with the children, especially while the children are young. However, even these marriages are usually influenced by contemporary rather than traditional ideas of how men and women are to relate to one another.