If you are anything like me you live to discover more of God and His purposes for your life here on the green planet. It’s a lifetime of inquisitive deduction that unfolds through a growing relationship with an invisible but oh-so-real and ever present God who shows up in a multitude of ways that are undeniable.

God is real.

The idea that He has a purpose for your life is not just sermon-fodder. It’s true.

How do we enter into the place where our work and our worth align so perfectly that we feel we are living out our purpose with authentic faith?

Here’s my take for what it’s worth.

A Simple Truth For All Your Life And Loves

It all begins with something so simple you’ll kick yourself for not seeing it before. Truth is, you may have read it, you may even have nodded in agreement. The question is, how would this truth look if it were applied on a daily basis in your life and work.

Would the simplicity of what I’m about to share change the perspective you approach your everyday with, and would it affect your daily practices and disciplines?

Ready? Here it comes. This is as simple as it gets…

“Then said they unto him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29 KJV)

To do the work of God is first to believe in the work He did and does for us!

Jesus first!

Everything else follows.

Doing The Work Of God By Being Thoroughly And Unashamedly You

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Well, good morning, folks, or afternoon or evening, depending on where you are in the world today, I want to talk about something that’s actually. Very much, it’s something that I think about a lot nowadays, and it really is it’s really arisen from a kind of this desire to seek and find and discover more of God and more of his ways. And and, you know, there’s it’s like why we spend our lives sometimes pursuing something, looking for something.

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I remember as a young man looking in in like really honestly looking in all the wrong places. But, you know, and then discovering and finding Jesus at like 19 years old. And and then suddenly a new pursuit began. A new adventure, a new desire. And that desire and that pursuit has never stopped since that time. You know, I’m the there’s this curious, inquisitive nature. There’s this kind of dedication to discover more of this invisible but real God that we serve.

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You know, God proves himself in so many ways in the lives of those who’ve chosen to follow him. You know, there is not there’s I was talking with Larna just yesterday. We were just talking about the nature of faith and believing in God and believing in the things of God. And, you know, I’m sure you’ll understand when I say to you, you know, there comes a point where you actually go here. You go beyond belief.

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You know, you go beyond just believing because you’ve experienced so much of kind of God’s work and God’s reality and and God’s intimate, real solid, substantial friendship in your life, that it’s no longer a matter of belief. It’s a fact. It’s as much of a fact as the nose on your face. It’s and so we go beyond that place of belief. But we want to move deeper into the things of God. We want to really I think my my exploration at the moment, my pursuit is to find the place of integrity where my kind of my work and my world really come together, that there’s not a distinction between who I am and what I do.

00:02:54.020]
I believe that God has called us primarily to be in the business of being our self. And when we discover that, when we discover who we are, when we discover our identity in Christ, along with that blueprint comes the plan to and the purpose that then fuels what we do and how we turn up in the world. And again, I was thinking about this, and there’s just this amazingly simple truth about how we can align our life and our loves and our desires and our personality and our passions with what we are actually here and how we’re turning up for others in the world.

00:03:44.630]
And it’s just such a simple scripture that, you know, like so many things with with Jesus and like so many things in scripture, there’s just a kind of profound simplicity to it, that if we allow our pride to get involved, we would actually say, well, no, that that really can’t be true. It’s too good to be true. That’s too simple. But just take a look at this scripture here. Take a look at this trees.

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The disciples came to Jesus and they said to him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God. And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God. So here, my dear friends, is your job description. OK, this is this is the job description of every man and woman who walks on the planet, OK? This is the work of God. This is what God is asking of you. This is this is what is on your mind.

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This is what you can write on your resumé whenever you kind of turn up at the pearly gates. This is the work of God that you believe on him, whom he has sent the work of God is simply to believe and enter deeper and deeper into. A life of trust to teach to to set your heart and lean your heart into this, this exploration of the goodness of God, the fever, the blessing and the life of faith, and to move more and more fully into that that like the reality of that.

00:05:37.670]
So you’ve not got, like, one part of your life over here and another part here and another part can be compartmentalised somewhere else. But there’s this integrity and this wholeness that we enter into, which really kind of strips out this striving because we’re no longer trying to be someone. We’re no longer trying to become something. We’re no longer looking for accolades or badges or names or whatever else titles or whatever else it may be. But we’ve found a place of comfort that we’ve found that place of comfortable fitting into the clothes at the God and the circumstances and the actions and the way of life that God has designed for us to walk in.

00:06:36.020]
You know, it’s such a simple truth, isn’t it? And so here we find that to do the work of God is simply to believe in the work that he does, that he did and that he does for us. That is where we begin. And I know it sounds like way too simple because there are all sorts of complicated things that we have to deal with in life. We’ve got to pay our bills. I get it. We’ve got to pay the rent or the mortgage.

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We’ve got to turn up at work and fulfil certain kind of responsibilities, etc., etc., etc. There’s so many kind of factors that make up this thing that we call life. But, you know, just just like boil it down to this statement. This is the statement that kind of just keeps kind of coming to my heart again and again and again. I’m asking the Holy Ghost every day, Lord, what does this look like? What does this look like for me?

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Okay. And it’s going to be different for everyone. It’s not like, you know, the great thing about the way God has designed us and the way God wants us to turn up for others is that he doesn’t do it with, like, just some kind of cut-out. He doesn’t do it where he just stamps out humanity. So everyone is exactly the same. And his expectations and his requirements and desires for each and every person are all exactly the same.

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So we can walk around like robots. Okay, being nice religious chaps and chaps is it’s just not true, you know. And this statement, Jesus, first everything else follows Jesus first, everything else follows. They said to him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God and Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God that you believe on him, whom he sent. That’s where it begins. That’s the foundation that we begin to build from.

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And when we align our hearts and say, OK, Jesus, I’m not going to try and do this myself, I’m not going to try and make my own way. I mean, you know, but I’m going to allow you to lead me in, you know, the scriptures. Talk about a guy, two men. There’s the man. He built his house on sand, the scripture says. And then this other guy, he built his house on the rock.

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The guy built his house on sand, was someone who heard Jesus but did not pay heed and did not act on what he heard. The man who built his house on the rock is the man who heard what Jesus was saying to him. You know, you heard not just I’m not talking about listening to a sermon, OK? I’m not talking about listening to some preacher or even listening to me. I’m talking about hearing God speak in your heart, in your conscience, at the hearing God speak and that kind of gut knowledge that like, man, I know there’s something more.

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I know that I’m here for a purpose. I know that I’m here for a reason. And then we. Responding to that and becoming more and more sensitive to the leadings of the Holy Ghost as we go forward in life, the guy who built his house on the Rock the Scriptures tell us is the one who heard and then responded and acted on what he heard. It’s a daily thing. It’s not like a one one time thing. It’s every day we come and we choose to to stand on the rock and we say, God, in my marriage, Jesus first.

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Everything else will follow in my work, in my business, Jesus first. Everything else will follow. Yeah. You know, in whatever endeavour you are involved in, whatever whatever is being asked of you and demanded of you, I believe with all my heart that Jesus wants to be creatively involved in what you’re doing, you know, and in believing first we believe in Jesus and he brings us into this experience. Okay. This this salvation experience. He then sent the Holy Spirit and these words, man, are in the scriptures.

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He says that I’m going to send the Holy Spirit not just to be with you, but to be in you. There’s a leading from without the Holy Ghost will will use circumstances and he will conspire in the best possible way to to bring you into connexion with the right people, the people in the knowledge and the circumstances that you need to discover who you are and step into it. And then he is in us leading us from within that we would turn our ear to the still small voice of the Holy Ghost.

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And he wants that that voice wants to wants to help you navigate through all of the noise you have. He wants to help you navigate through all of the questions and the confusion that comes sometimes with with kind of just everything that’s kind of frothing around us. Jesus has not left you alone. You know, he said this. He said my piece. I leave you my peace. I give to you not as the world gives, OK? This isn’t based on everything kind of lining up and everything being exactly as you’d want it.

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And like everything feeling perfectly as you think it should be. This is not peace like the world gives. You know, this isn’t this isn’t kind of sit up with your popcorn and watch a movie piece. It’s it’s a piece that goes far beyond kind of just like your weekend piece or or you’re walking on the Hill piece or whatever it is you do to chill. This goes far beyond that. He says, let not your heart be troubled neither.

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Let it be afraid. You know, the Bible calls in the Old Testament this word peace is the word Shalom Ark. And the word shalom means a peace that passes understanding. It means harmony, wholeness, prosperity, wellbeing, security and completeness. That is the experience that that I believe God wants to bring you into. That’s the experience that I believe God wants to bring me in to. Thank God. And man, I’m like I I’ll be honest with you.

00:14:10.730]
Yeah. I’m not easily pleased. I have high expectations of myself and I I have I have very high expectations of God. I want to see him move and do miracles. I want to see him move and do great things in my life and the lives of my children in Larna live my wife and in the lives of the people that God has committed to my care in relationship. You know, in in in connexion, I want to see God move in powerful, real, tangible ways in their life.

00:14:58.520]
And and, you know, I asked the Holy Ghost asked me today. He said. What kind of legacy do you want to leave? I’ll be honest with you, I was complaining to him about some things. I was complaining to him and just, you know, sometimes it’s easy. I know I said sometimes I’m real prone to say, sometimes it’s easy for us, but I can’t speak for anyone else. I can only speak for myself sometimes.

00:15:31.710]
Sometimes it’s easy for me to get ahead of myself. Sometimes it’s easy for me to feel as though the world somehow owes me something. Sometimes it’s easy for me to measure others by what the expectations that I have placed upon them that that that and when they when they don’t fully deliver on what my kind of maybe even unspoken expectations were, I get a kind of out of sorts and get gnarly about it. And I was having a bit of one of those conversations with I don’t know if you ever have them.

00:16:08.580]
I mean, it’s maybe maybe you’re a great deal more holy than I am. But I was having one of those conversations with the Holy Ghost this morning just just over a couple of things. And the Holy Ghost spoke to me and he said, David, what kind of legacy do you want to leave? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? And and, you know, I’m I’m pushing on a lot of fronts, I’m pushing in business, I’m pushing in in my creativity, I’m pushing to see what we can do and what we can accomplish as a couple and with our children.

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Larna particularly is working so hard to see our children raised up and and shot like arrows into the world to fulfil what God has called them to do. And, you know, I could think of all of the different things that I want to see happen. But my answer was this. I want to leave a legacy of love. Not money. Not words even, and I’m a man of words, and I believe in leaving a legacy of of the things that God has taught you, the things that God has placed within you, your experience, your expertise, I believe it’s it’s important that you leave a record of that, that when you exit the planet, you do not leave with everything that God has put in you.

00:17:45.580]
I believe it’s important that we put it out there. That’s why we opened the Christian Creative Academy to try and help people write and publish their books, create their their training courses, or start their blogs or websites or whatever it may be, is really fuelled by a desire to see people leave a mark on this planet, both presently as they go through life and share their journey. And also ultimately really, you know, should Jesus kind of continue to tary come, Lord Jesus, you know, like that they would leave a legacy that others can build on, that they would build and lay those foundations and that what they have laid in their own heart would not leave with them, that we can stand, as people say, on the shoulders of giants, that we move from generation to generation, and we grow in stature.

00:18:46.630]
We grow in maturity. We grow in our earth, our ability to fulfil the that the the perfect will of God on this planet and become better representatives. And I just love to think of being like a representative of God as representing Jesus to the world. And I’m like fully aware that I am a I like I’m a poor reflection, but I’m only part of the reflection. And that’s what makes it OK. You know, it’s like I don’t have to be everything to everyone.

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I just have to be something to someone. And that’s why I’m saying, you know, like moving into this place of Jesus first. Everything else follows the work of God is not for me to be perfect. It’s not for me to do everything and be everything and be everywhere. It’s for me to be one hundred percent myself and turn up for other people in the best way. I know how to turn up and say, Hey, this is me.

00:19:58.150]
This is everything I am, this is all I’ve got. And I’m bringing it to the table because not not because I want to be something or be someone because that’s taken care of. Jesus has taken care of that Jesus first Jesus first Jesus first everything else follows. But because I my my heart yearns to see the body of Christ step into its creative destiny, my heart yearns to see the people of God being raised up and and and shot out into every sector of society to bring solutions, to bring answers, to bring faith and life to the table, to bring something that is that that flows from this place of peace, not as the world gives from this place of harmony and fullness and completeness, that we would be the ones who furnished the tables of the world with all the goodness of God and all the wisdom of heaven.

00:21:10.960]
I believe that I believe that we should have the greatest artists, the greatest songwriters, the greatest singers, the greatest architects, the greatest cooks. I believe that we should have that, like politicians so close with the Holy Ghost that no one can resist the power and the strength of the wisdom and the grace that they come with. I believe it. I believe it. I believe that society and our generation is crying out for the manifestation of the children of God.

00:21:47.320]
And I believe that you are one of those people. And I said, I want to leave a legacy of love, you know, and not money, not words, not empire or enterprise. It could be some. It could be all or it could be none of those things. But friend, I’m working towards with an end in mind. I’m working with the end in mind. The end in mind, good and faithful servant, you’ve been faithful with a little come in and I will make you ruler over much.

00:22:29.530]
Now the Bible talks about making disciples, and I made a word up this morning, you know, I don’t think it will probably end up in the Oxford English Dictionary or anything like that, but I do think it’s a good one. And it’s the word religious ised. Here we go. This is this is like from from the dictionary that I’m going to this is my new word. OK, maybe maybe it will be adopted into into like common vernacular, religious sized.

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OK. And this is what this means to make small God’s amazing promises through overfamiliarity. He’s an example. OK, David, religious ised, the great commission into something that only special people can do. So he could excuse himself from taking action in his everyday circumstances. Friend, I don’t want to religious size anything. I don’t want to religious size this commission to reach out and to build up and to be present to help other people, to make a disciple is simply to work with others and to help them recognise and remember who they really are.

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Because when we recognise them, we remember who we really are. We begin to act in alignment with that that harmony, that shalom begins to work in our lives. And we turn up in a powerful way for other people to help them accomplish what God has called them to do. And in doing so, we build one another up in love. Love faith works by love, pointing people to Jesus, Jesus in your heart, Jesus in your home, Jesus in your work, Jesus in your play.

00:24:38.850]
Jesus first everything else follows and starting with that end in mind. That we would one day stand and be judged for all that we’ve said, one day will stand and will be judged for everything that we’ve done. Everything that we’ve built here. Yeah, well, Stand will have to withstand the test to see what its true nature is. Is this is this built from the ego or is this built with eternity in mind? Is this built from the blueprint that the Holy Ghost has placed on the inside?

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Is this built from a place of humble following and humble hearing, or is this built to extend the empire of man’s ego? And everything will be tested? Everything will be. And we don’t want our works to be burnt up. See, a man can gain the whole world and lose everything at the end of it. He can lose his own soul. What does it what does that what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul and say, you know, it’s so important as businessmen, as business women, entrepreneurs, as men and women of influence and stature and whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whatever your circumstance, this truth applies.

00:26:17.590]
We are all called to the work of the kingdom. What is the work of the kingdom? What is the work of the kingdom? This is the work of the kingdom to believe. In the one whom Jesus sent to believe in, the one that God sent and then to receive the one who Jesus sent the Holy Spirit so we can walk in the truth. And so I just encourage you today, I know I’ve been kind of pretty kind of excitable today, but I and I encourage you to make Jesus your business model.

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I encourage you to make him the model for your family, the model for your home, the model for your marriage. I encourage you to to trust the Holy Spirit, to give you the strategy that you need. We can chase a lot of things. And there’s a lot we can learn from other people and a lot we can learn. And we should be we should be lifelong learners. We should always be seeking to expand and move forward. But like, don’t ever forget don’t ever forget that the work of God is not complicated.

00:27:41.070]
The work of God is not 66. Steps to the work of God is not some secret mystical thing. It’s not there’s no secret sauce here. There’s no hidden agenda. It’s just plain and simple. Believe and trust in the one who was sent to die for your sins and receive. The one who is sent the precious, amazing, wonderful, wise and gracious Holy Spirit who will teach you and lead you in the way that you need to go.

00:28:17.640]
And so, Jesus, we believe in you. We humble our hearts before you. We thank you, God, that there is nothing father there you do not want to get involved in in our lives. There’s there’s nothing that you’ve withheld from us. And Father, we want to get to the place where we withhold nothing from you. And so father in Jesus name, I just declare favour and grace and blessing over anyone who watches this or he is this.

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And Father, even if no one did God, I claim it for myself. I’ll have some. There’s more than enough to go around and I choose to partake of it today in Jesus name. Well, thanks for listening, hopefully. It’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.