Can God Alter Your Purpose if You Asked Him?

Can God Change Your Purpose if You Asked Him?

“My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I’m ready. Do it your way.”

─Jesus Christ

 

I think this is a very valid but critical question to ask. It forces us to gather all the knowledge we have about purpose and put it in perspective. Fortunately, the answer to this question is binary. There are no gray areas. It is either a Yes or a No. What do you think the answer is?

First if you are to answer in the affirmative, it is because of a certain “world view” that you have gathered. The same applies if you answered in the negative. One uniting factor (and I love it thoroughly) is that the question firmly identifies God as the originator of purpose. Isn’t therefore interesting that those who do not believe in God also do not believe in the message of life purpose? Let me not digress.

In answering this question, we need to identify several things about purpose. The first thing that does not need much debate is that God is the originator of purpose. The following statements therefore must be true:

1. Purpose is the original intention for the existence of a thing, whether living or non-living
2. God is the originator of purpose and has one major purpose for creation
3. Everything in life has a purpose for which it exists
4. There is nothing that exists without a purpose
5. All things exist to serve the original overall purpose of God
6. God assigns everyone a specific purpose to fulfill
7. God equips each thing that he has assigned a specific purpose the ability to fulfill its purpose

What shall we say about these things then?

• The logical explanation about all this is that purpose is not an afterthought.
• Purpose actually outlives the person. Your purpose was pre-determined set and completed before you were created. You were therefore gifted and equipped specifically to accomplish it.
• Purpose is not experimentation. It is not a matter of trial and error, at least from God’s view point. It is single, integral and the center of the existence of something.
• Purpose is not a temporary task that can be dispensed with and we move to the next thing
• Purpose

What we find in actual sense as we had already shared earlier in a post, there are many people who do not know what their purpose in life is. In fact, the majority of us are born not knowing exactly what our purpose in life is. For some reason, God made purpose in such a way that we have to ask, seek, and knock on doors for it to be unearthed. And yet God has not left us clueless about what our purpose is. God has placed a seat of emotions in our hearts where two major emotions reside that can determine what we were created to do. These emotions are compassion and anger.

Secondly, as already mentioned earlier, God has already equipped us in order to fulfill that purpose. That is why some people are gifted with beautiful voices to sing, others with words to encourage people, others with brain to conceptualize complex things and so on. It therefore would be absurd to find a gifted and talented artist working as a teller in a bank for the rest of their lives. Pray tell me, why would that be the case? Why would someone who is gifted with writing get stuck in a job of being an accountant for example?

If we answer these questions, we shall draw closer to answering the main question in this article. The question is: Can God change your purpose if you asked him to?

Consider the following:

• Is there precedence in scripture anywhere of that happening?
• Why would you want the change in the first place? Because it means that you have come to that beautiful and critical place where God actually reveals to you why he created you, but you in your wisdom would now ask him to assign you something else! Remember Moses rejecting his assignment to be a deliverer? Remember Jonah rejecting his assignment to be a preacher and warn people of their ways? Remember Jesus famous prayer, “Take this cup of suffering from me, nevertheless thy will be done and not mine”
• God’s gift is without repentance. He does not change His mind. So the variable here is not God, but you who is asking to have your purpose changed. Could it be that it is overwhelming to you? Could it be that
• You are the clay and God is the potter. A product does not ask to be re-designed or re-assigned in purpose. But please note that there is what we call abuse and misuse. Abuse is when a product is neglected or deliberately spoilt so that it malfunctions. Misuse is when a product is exploited for the wrong reasons for which it was originally intended.

The Verdict

Jeremiah asks a powerful question:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? The answer is “No”, and if that is the answer to that question that Jeremiah asks, then that is the answer to our question today. No, God does not change or alter your assignment when you ask Him to. The following reasons have already been shared and highlighted.

1. God saw your purpose at the very end of it before you were born. There is no other purpose for your life but the one He created you for.
2. God is not a man who changes his mind
3. God is the creator, you are the created. You cannot rearrange His plans and purposes for your life. He knows best and has the best fit and answer for you.
4. God’s calling and gifting and purpose for your life is not a burden
5. God is not asking you to do it alone. In fact, there is no purpose that I know of that can be fulfilled by a single person. Purpose is necessarily huge, impossible, too expensive and mostly unreasonable.
6. There is no precedence anywhere where people rejected their original purpose and God rubberstamped it. If anything, God stuck to His guns. In fact, Jesus Christ Himself asked for God’s plan to be changed so He could accomplish God’s purpose in a different way. God did not relent.

What you need to understand is that God’s purpose is not a burden for you. It is your door to your glory. Fulfilling your God-assigned purpose in life is the most glorious thing you would ever do. God is not punishing you. He is releasing you from a cage and giving you freedom to express your calling to the betterment of others.

Lastly, I think by the time you realize what your purpose in life is, especially as it is revealed to you by God, you will fall in love with it so much that you will not want to do any other thing apart from that purpose. Towards that end were you created. Stay there. Stay faithful. Just do it.