Your Unique God-Given Purpose

“Remember those who are called to be models for you and to teach you the Word of God. Consider [imitate, reproduce] the issue [the fruit, the example, the result, the outcome] of their lives. Imitate their faith for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:7-8).

This passage states that God’s people (our children, families, friends and every precious soul our Lord put on our path) must be able to look at our faith and trust in God through every trial and storm, in our deepest values, passion, reactions, decisions and true priorities and to literally imitate our faith. This unchangeable and remarkable principle means that my life must become a testimony, a proclamation and irrefutable proof that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. God wants my faith and my trust in him to plead with everyone who is watching my life and is tempted to drift away, to believe that God is faithful, he never changes, there is no shadow of variation in him and he who trusts in God will never be disappointed!

God wants your children and mine to testify to their friends that it is “by watching my mom and dad living their faith, day in and day out, through the terrible tragedies and trials of their lives, through every pain and pressure, that I have decided to live for God because my parents’ faith proved to me that God is alive.”

It is of supreme importance for every believer to realize that he possesses a sphere of influence that is uniquely his. We each have people we can touch or influence, a work to complete or a purpose to accomplish that no one else can.

This is what you are called to do: the people God predestined to be influenced by you, the eternal destiny you were called to fulfill, the greatest man of God in the world cannot do! It is your faith that produces the fruit of confidence in God in the people who surround you.

Some people’s faith, love, joy and passion are communicative. To be near them does you good, inspires you, heals and reconciles you with the human race. We love being around them and thank God for their faith that produces hope and propels others toward new heights, commitments, and possibilities in God.

^{Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.}