God’s Vision, Your Unique RoleSample

In order to construct a personal vision, we must grasp God’s vision for the world and fall in line with it. If the mission of God and the Bible is to bring glory to Himself, the vision of God and the Bible is to bring people to Himself. God has pursued a whole-earth, all-peoples vision from the beginning. His desire, focus, and plan are oriented toward the nations, and His vision will be finally accomplished one day, as we learn in the book of Revelation.

God’s vision of international salvation, offered to humanity without cost, has only one condition—sole trust in Jesus alone. Since that condition exists, you ought to pursue the fulfillment of an internationally oriented salvation vision in your life as well.

So how do we discern our purpose and live according to His vision? Let’s lay out a theological grid for personal purpose:

Salvation: Our salvation fits His eternal purpose and results in the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:11–12). God saved us for a future heaven and has given us a guaranteed deposit for that purpose (2 Cor. 5:5–6).

Sanctification: God’s purpose is our holiness, our sanctification. “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life” (Thess. 4:7). Sanctification is the outworking, the overflow of the realities of our salvation.

Suffering: We are neither to romantically embrace nor to run away from unavoidable suffering. Obeying God may entail suffering. So we are to suffer patiently, “for you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:20–21 NASB; cf. 4:1). Suffering produces sanctification.

Service: The Lord Jesus was especially aware of His unique purpose on the earth. He declared (Luke 4:18–19) and stuck to His purpose, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43). All through the Bible, God had special service purposes for individuals to fulfill, to carry out His ultimate purpose.

Unless you keep these aspects of God’s purpose in mind, you cannot determine how He has called you to unique and specific service.