Message: Jesus spoke of the grain of wheat in the field saying “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself.” But if it dies it produces a large crop. The one who loves his life will lose it and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” This sounds like backwards-reverse language but it’s not something you can psychologically do to gain. You can’t fake it. You have to literally come to a place where your passion and drive is no longer to make yourself known and successful, but to make Jesus known and his kingdom successful. When we do this authentically we gain everything because of the mind shift. Much of this gain will be on an eternal level and not here on this earth, but the fulfillment we previously thought we would get from success comes when we fulfill our purpose. It’s not a trick. It’s a shift of focus to what actually matters.
Command: Die to my own desires for self-preservation and self promotion.
Promise: I will be fulfilled more by living out my purpose than I ever would by trying to attain the successes of life.
Warning: If I am chasing after the successes of life instead of my purpose, I will turn up empty.
Application: This is not to say that we shouldn’t strive to be successful and achieve goals. It’s talking about what drives us in life. This reminds me that my very motives for everything I do should be to make him known and to increase the kingdom of God. When those things are in proper order I am fulfilled in my purpose and the secondary reward is that I can’t help but be successful because walking in obedience to God just does that. This can’t be faked or manipulated because character (or the lack of) will be exposed and God is not fooled. There will be fruit to show for whether it is good fruit or bad fruit and the fruit doesn’t lie.
