No doubt, in your career, you’ve had to take a personality test or two. I’ve used them with every team I’ve been on, as they can be useful to uncover personal strengths and weaknesses, help you communicate more effectively with teammates, and equip you to better understand how you and those around you are motivated.
But when it comes to uncovering our life purpose as followers of Christ, are our personalities and preferences the best foundation? I don’t think so.
Why? My wife, Michelle, has put it this way many times: Kingdom assignments don’t come with personality and preference passes.
A few examples:
Evangelism isn’t just for extroverts.
Leaders aren’t exempt from serving.
Forgiveness isn’t just for those with a natural bend toward compassion.
So as each of us navigate the specific call God has on all of our lives, we can always assume our specific assignment falls under the umbrella of the corporate calling God gives to all who believe in Him. (Quick Tip: The best way to discover your specific assignment is to get busy with God’s call to all Christians.)
We are to know God and make Him known.
We are to be disciples who make disciples.
We are to love God and love others.
But these statements can’t be cheapened to merely our earthly objective; they’re our Biblical Identity.
Your Biblical Identity is found in the eternal family to which you BELONG, the truths you BELIEVEabout what God says about you, and who you are BECOMING in Christ.
Belong
Before you were even created in His image (Genesis 1:27),God knew you and had plans for your life (Jeremiah 1:5).Ephesians 1:5 says that “He predestined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ.” No matter what earthly family you were born into, at salvation, you’re given an eternal family. You bear God’s image and His name.
Believe
To adapt an A.W. Tozer quote, “What you believe about God is the most important thing about you.” Belonging to God’s eternal family is a free gift through Jesus, but our belief in Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross moves His sacrifice from factual to personal. Part of our Biblical Identity is our pure belief that God is who He says He is and that He’ll do what He says He’ll do.
Become
Colossians 3:1-3 puts it this way:
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
Becoming like Christ is never complete this side of Heaven, but is our ongoing process of becoming more like Jesus and less like the world. As we grow in Him, we become free from putting our identity in earthly things and can live our lives honoring God and impacting others for His glory.
Bottom line: If we genuinely want our life purpose to be wrapped up in God’s agenda, we can’t use ourselves as the foundation; we have to use Him.
But how? That’s the other thing that often irks me about personality tests. You walk away with plenty of information, but typically, not a lot of practical steps to apply what you learn. And I’m a process guy.
So that’s why I created the MLP Guide: to put a Biblical foundation and a process in place to use the gifts God gave us.
But regardless of whether you choose to use this tool or not, I pray you’ll remember this as you start setting 2019 goals:
The most important thing about you is what God says about you.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Visit here to learn more about the MLP Guide. If you loved this, don’t miss the opportunity to download the MLP Core Four, your free gift from James to further understand the core components of the My Life Purpose Guide.
