Find Your Purpose – An Active Listening Process

The joy of journalling

The following is an active listening process which we develop some years ago to help us gain a clear sense of God’s purpose for our lives. I used it to write my own personal calling statement which I keep at the front of the journal I use when I go on retreat. It is a wonderful reminder of God’s priorities for my lives and helps me to set kingdom focused goals for the upcoming months.

Active Listening Process.

1. Write down your earliest memories of a sense of the call of God on your life
2.  How has God been speaking to you through scripture – write down significant scriptures that give you a sense of God’s call on our life
3.  How has God been speaking to you through prayer – write down those things that you feel called to pray for on a regular basis
4.  How has God been speaking to you through the needs of others – Write down the areas of human need, suffering and pain that most make you want to respond
5. How has God been speaking to you through community? – write down the ways that God has spoken to you through the advice & counsel of others
6. Make a list of your own gifts & talents –
   1. spiritual:
   2. physical or intellectual:
   3. creative:
7. In what ways have your educational opportunities helped to develop these gifts?
8. How could these contribute to your sense of Christian calling:
9. Write down your broken areas – God often uses our weaknesses to change the world
10. What are your dreams & hopes for the future.  Write these down – even our self centred dreams may hold elements of God’s purposes for our lives:

WRITING YOUR OWN MISSION STATEMENT

1. Look back over all that you have written in the active listening process – prayerfully consider ways in which these could come together in a beginning mission statement that flows out of your sense of Biblical purpose.
2. Incorporate scripture where possible or write the scripture that has inspired your mission statement beside your mission statement
3. Make short, concise and easy enough to memorize
4. Make inspirational – this statement is meant to fill you with enthusiasm for the future that God has planned for your life
5. Examples of good mission statements –

• “To be a voice for the voiceless and bring glimpses of God’s shalom Kingdom into peoples’ lives”  Prov 31:8,9“
• To be a mediator of reconciliation between God and people with broken hearts, bringing them to growth and maturity in Jesus Christ” Eph 4:11,12
• “To be an expression of God’s Jubilee in my community and throughout the world”  Lev 26:10-13
• “To be an instrument of God’s healing bringing restoration to the land and to people’s lives” Is 58:6-9

Use your imagination & creativity to bring all the steps from the active listening process  together in your own beginning mission statement:

Check out the other posts in this series:

How Did Jesus Set Priorities

What’s Driving You

Finding God’s Purpose without Getting Burned Out