Charlie Lewis

Our purpose comes directly from our God before the “in-time” component of our eternity began and specifically addresses a need that is found in time. Our purpose is not formed by the temporary situations, circumstances or relationships that we encounter in our in-time experience. Our purpose began long before our situations, our circumstances and our temporary, in-time relationships existed and long before they had impact on our lives.

It is not difficult to distinguish between what is temporary in our lives and what is eternal. Our temporary is what we only experience when our spirit is in our body and on the planet earth. Eternal describes what our spirit experienced before entering our body in time and on the earth, and what our spirit will experience when our spirit departs time and our body and is no longer confined to the earth. 

Employment is the method – job, vocation, profession, etc. that we engage in to earn money for our chosen lifestyle for our provision in time and employment is often very temporary.

Deployment is when we have been prepared and sent – dispatched and/or deployed, by a higher authority whom we serve under their authority, to a particular location for an assigned mission that produces a specific, desired outcome. Deployment addresses outcome.

While employment is temporary, what we become, our outcome is eternal. Employment produces income (currency) that is temporary, and deployment produces outcomes (results) that are eternal.

Religion – the parameters, guidelines and restrictions for conduct and behavior that are defined by a discipline of belief is temporary. There was no religion in the Garden and there will be no religion in Heaven.

Relationship is eternal. Relationship describes the way people/spirits are connected or the state of beings being connected.

The Kingdom perspective is always eternal, and that vantage point is different than the temporary vision we receive from the vantage point of time, and the results and the outcomes are exponentially better.

Perhaps our challenge is that we expect a thundering voice from Heaven like Moses was portrayed as receiving in the movie The Ten Commandments. Or maybe like Saul we expect to be struck down and blinded until you are led to someone who will pray for our healing and declare our purpose from our Creator and Designer God to us. These are accurate accounts of our Creator and our God speaking directly to humanity, but they are not the only way our Creator fellowships and communicates with humanity. There are a majority of accounts of the day to day, everyday communion and fellowship of our Creator with humanity where these things do not happen. Instead, there is a voice that speaks directly to humanity, spirit to Spirit and the message is just as clear. There is never a situation, a circumstance or a relationship where that voice does not speak to our spirit directly giving us guidance. You may believe that God does not speak directly to you. Let me assure you, God continually speaks to everyone including you. How many times have you made up your mind and decided that you would do something in a certain way and a voice inside of you tells you, “no, do not do that”? I believe equally as frequently we have decided not to do something and our inner man, our spirit man hears and understands differently and again we are told to do differently than what we have decided.

When we hear these directional voices in our inner beings, our spirit and our mind, we must take them to the courtroom of our mind where we must decide as the judge and the jury if the message that we have heard is correct, or if we must declare it incorrect and follow another path. We must have prepared/programmed the databank of our mind with the truth of our God’s Word and that must be our standard for deciding. We must take our choices to our mind, our Gatekeeper and evaluate our response. This experience is repeated continually, daily, hourly and every minute of every day by everyone.

It is important that we cultivate and that we develop this process.

When we hear, we immediately judge what we are hearing by the scriptures, the living, breathing, eternal Word of our God. We are told in our Constitution that the Word exposes the difference between the spirit and the mind, the eternal and the temporary. We are told to program or to reprogram our minds to agree with our God’s Word. The Word of our God, our Constitution is steadfast, it is sure, it is eternal and we can and we must trust the guidance and the direction it provides. The values, the principles and the precedents established in its Words are described as being active and alive and it is to be alive in our lives providing constant direction for our lives.

Our Creator declares that we hear, and that we recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd. We hear and we know the voice of our Father, and the voice of a stranger we will not follow. When we hear, we take what we hear to our mind and there we determine if it is agreeable and in line with His Word and we decide based upon that supporting information from scripture, our Constitution, if we can and if we will embrace the message for the direction for our lives. Our perspective must always be from our eternity and our eternalness, and that position will always align with the living Word of our God. The Word is eternal, and we conduct and live our lives in the present, the here and now, by the eternal direction that it provides.

We have learned that the “before-here” portion of our eternity and our eternalness is designed to have significant influence and to have major impact of the “here” component of who we are. Our before-here is to play a pivotal role in our “hereafter” also. Where we came from and who we are eternally is far more significant and far more influential in the successful and meaningful living of our lives than the source of our temporary body.

Our Creator and Designer has said that each of us enter this planet with an implanted sense of purpose which works through all of our “time” to achieve a specific, designed purpose that we receive from our Creator and our Designer before our arrival on this planet. Discovering what that purpose is has challenged humanity from the beginning of time. Every human being ever born on the earth asks themselves the question, “why am I here?” This question and its correct answer are the reason for our existence. Our reason for being. Our purpose is wrapped up in this simple, yet profound, question and its accurate answer. We search for this knowledge and for the subsequent wisdom that we receive from knowing our purpose to the daily, moment by moment living of our lives. This is the only platform that will bring to us the happiness, the contentment, and the forever success that we long for, and that we are made to experience while we are in-time.

In our Constitution we are presented with this clarity about our source for this knowledge and for this understanding about where we find our purpose through the Holy Spirit God speaking to us through King Solomon’s writing in Ecclesiastes.

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy]…

Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

This scripture is very foundational in our quest for our purpose. We cannot overlook what is said here about our purpose while we are “in-time.” We are told that our experience while we are in time is beautiful and all that goes with that. We are clearly told that our purpose, the reason that we are here, the reason for our being, is found in our eternity and in our eternalness. We are told that our purpose is placed in our spirit and in our mind by our Creator and our Designer, our God. This skill-set is part of the package that we receive from our Creator and our Designer when He “forms us and empowers (consecrates) us with gifts, talents, abilities and also the anointing” that we are to use to perform our purpose on this planet while we are in-time.

He follows all of this declaration with the profound statement that there is nothing under the sun (while we are in time) that will satisfy humanity, other than our pursuing this design and our operating in this “implanted sense of purpose.” This understanding is key to finding our purpose. Knowing where our purpose is located and how we are to pursue our purpose while we are in-time provides the map and guide to our success.

This information is part of the design that He Himself places in each of us when He forms us and when He sets us apart to be His witness, His Ambassador, His Prophet proclaiming His goodness to the nations.

Our Purpose, the “why we are” and the “why we are here,” is the foundation and the unavoidable beginning of our success story. We cannot proceed past this. We must first know our purpose in order for us to fulfill our reason for being. Before knowing our purpose, we must first know that there is a purpose for us. As Zig Ziglar said, “you cannot hit a target you cannot see.”  It is not our charge to create our purpose, but rather to discover His purpose for us and then to go after it with all that we are.

Our purpose is not difficult for us to determine. Have we looked in the correct places?  Have we placed so many unreasonable and unrealistic requirements for our verification and acceptance that we have made it impossible for us to know and to accept what our Creator has prepared for us? Our Creator has not hidden our purpose from us, nor has He made it difficult for us to know for sure and without any doubt what our purpose is. He wants us to know. His plans for us are wrapped up in our understanding His purpose for us. He has said that our implanted purpose from Him is placed in our eternity and in our eternalness.

Keep an eye out for next week’s blog, where I will address more about discovering our purpose while we are in-time.

The two primary questions that we are asking when we do our ancestry and DNA research are, “Who Am I?” and “Where Did I Come From?” Researching those questions has created a more than one hundred-million-dollar industry. We are interested and we want to know. This information is interesting and can be very exciting. I enjoy watching the programs where someone digs deep into a person’s earthly lineage and provides their findings to the person whose ancestry is being investigated. The findings always surprise those being researched. It appears King Solomon was correct when he said that we in the present, the here and now, do not know much about those who came before us, and those who come after us will not know much about us. It appears this generation is more keenly interested and more passionate than other generations to find out all they can about their ancestry.

Occasionally, in these shows, the investigators locate Family that the person did not know existed. Sometimes they facilitate connection and new relationships are begun, based on the common lineage. While there are exceptions, my research has shown that there is not much change in the life and in the outcomes of those whose connections are uncovered. It is good knowledge, but their life patterns are pretty much set, and not much changes; this is interesting and can even be fun, but there is not a great deal of impact on either party that discovers their relationship.

While each of the five questions we are considering is important and does have significant impact on our life experience, and on the process of the living and on successful outcomes of our lives, the third question stands out in its importance and in its significance.  My research and my personal life experience have shown that there is more actual impact on the living of our lives and on our outcomes than all the other four questions combined.  Knowing and understanding the answer to the question “Why Am I Here?” is extremely important to Humanity and is very pivotal in our outcomes. For the successful and meaningful life, we are designed to desire and to live, we must know the answer to this question personally, for ourselves.

While I was doing research and preparing the manuscript for the book Kingdom Deployment – Operating in Your Created Design for Your Eternal Purpose, I uncovered an overwhelming and devastating statistic about Humanity that has continued to bother me since my learning the information. Each year on our planet more than one million people choose to end their own life. This is not acceptable. This is not okay. A recent study stated that in the United States in the the last ten years the number has increased more than seventeen per cent. The problem is not getting better. We are going the wrong way. There has to be something that we can do.

The number one and the primary reason given by those who choose to take their life is that they have no hope. They see no way out of their situations, their circumstances and their challenged relationships. Our minds – our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our personality and our will play an amazing movie that we view in the theatre of our imagination and of our reason. This is where the battle is fought. The battlefield of our mind is where the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light go to do battle for our souls, our eternal spirit. Our spirit is the prize! Our eternal spirit is what the battle is for and what the challenge is completely about. The absence of hope is a pandemic reality of our world today. Why?

In our Constitution and our Governing Agreement, our Creator and our Designer says that His people are being destroyed because they do not know Him. When someone chooses to end their own life, they have lost the battle in and with their mind. The reason and the passion/motivation/unction for writing this series is predicated upon my strong and overwhelming desire to assist you on your journey so that you will discover, without question,  the foundational and the fundamental answers to these breakthrough questions that forms the correct platform and the accurate understanding for how you can and how we are to live the successful and the meaningful life that you are designed to live and to enjoy by your Creator and your Designer God. Our Creator declares that He has prepared paths for us ahead of time (before we personally entered time) and that He has prearranged our lives so that there is a Good Life ready and waiting for us to live. Did you know that? He clearly states that He has plans for us that are good and that are full of hope, and they do not include disaster for us. We have learned that for us to achieve and for us to understand and then to accomplish our “created design”, there must be a paradigm shift in our worldview – How we view life, how we think, what we believe, and in the way that we choose and the process that we engage to decide upon all of our thoughts, our actions, and our desires. We must always begin everything that we do from the Kingdom perspective where our vantage point is our eternity and our individual eternalness. This is a huge shift and makes an enormous difference in the living and the outcomes of our lives. This requires that we reprogram our minds (the way that we think, what we believe, and how we choose to act) to become agreeable with and in alignment with His Word, our Constitution (the body of fundamental principles and established precedents which define our agreement for our governance). This is exciting! This is revolutionary! This will change our lives to be the experiences of victory and overcoming power, where we live and where we exercise the authority and the dominion over all the forces of the Kingdom of Darkness that desires to destroy us and wants us to destroy ourselves. This is how we are designed to live. We are designed to experience a powerful, living and breathing relationship with our Creator and our Designer, the true and the living God our Father and our Friend who loves us. We have discovered that this is who we are. We are the product of His design for relationship through fellowship with Him and with Humanity. He has given us gifts and benefits that we bring into time to enhance everyone’s life experience on the earth. We enter time and this planet with abilities, with gifts, with talents and with qualifications to perform amazing benefits for ourselves and for all of humanity. Our inclination and our propensity are to go after this divine charge with all that we are. We have an unction and a drive that is implanted in our spirit and in our mind by our eternal Father, to pursue the performance and the delivery of these gift for ourselves and for humanity. This desire comes directly from the throne of our God. Humanity cannot impair nor deter our ability to achieve our purpose and our calling. This is who we are forever, and this is the most powerful anointing we are given for our lives.

The following was said about Abraham and His journey and experiences in-time.

9 Prompted by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise (of God, though he was like a stranger) in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with him of the same promise.

10 For he was (waiting expectantly and confidently) looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.

Hebrews 11:9-11 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

Abraham considered himself to be a temporary citizen on the earth.

His origin and his destination were fixed.

As we can see, even knowing this, Abraham’s journey in-time was full of challenges that were created when his focus shifted to the situations, the circumstances and the relationships that he experienced in the present, material world of time instead of focusing on his origin and his destination. Abraham continually had to make good choices for his conduct and for his behavior. When he allowed fear to manipulate his mind and his spirit, the consequences were not pleasant.

These challenges for humanity will never end while we are in-time. Our knowing who we are and where we came from will provide direction and guidance for our choices in every area of our lives. Our awareness of this knowledge and this understanding will greatly enhance our experience in the living of our lives and the outcomes of the in-time portion of our eternity. This will greatly impact what our experiences are and will allow us to choose good outcomes for the successful and meaningful results that we innately long for and that we desire to accomplish.

A favorite scripture that adds credence and clarity here is:

10 For we are God’s own handiwork, his workmanship (God created and designed us). We were recreated in Christ Jesus, (born anew) that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us. By taking the paths which, He prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearrange and made ready for us to live.

Ephesians 2:10 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) paraphrased

Where did we come from? We came from eternity without time, where we were with and where we were known by our Creator and our Designer God. God knew and approved of us as His chosen instrument for His Kingdom before He formed us in the womb. Before we were born, He set us apart and made us unique, one of a kind. He consecrated us, giving us a divine purpose for our mission on planet earth. We are not just citizens of the earth, but our forever home and our citizenry is in His Kingdom. We are deployed to the earth as ambassadors of His Kingdom. Our mission is to tell everyone, all of Humanity, of His goodness and to make the earth be as His Kingdom is in Heaven.

Our Before-Here, the component of our eternity when we were with our Creator and our Designer before we entered time, is where we came from. This is where the plan for our life was written and placed in His book for all of our eternity before we were born, before we breathed our first breath. Our before-here is where the directions and the guidelines for our successful and meaningful lives are found. To live our lives without an active reference to the transcendent relationship where the instructions and the directions for our lives are found is frustrating and tragic, and we would completely miss the mark.  The plan (His plans for us) are good and they are found in our eternity and in our eternalness.

Our eternity consists of three components – our “before-here”, our “here and our now,” and our “here-after.”  Considering each component of our eternity and their individual impact of the daily living of our lives cannot be neglected or discounted. These components are connected deeply, and each component has huge impact on the other components of our eternalness.

Our Creator and our Designer, our non-religious Father said this;

Before I formed you in the womb I knew and approved of you as my chosen instrument in my Kingdom. And before you were born, I separated and set you apart, consecrating you (for a divine purpose) I appointed you as a prophet to tell the nations about my goodness.

Jeremiah 1:5 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) paraphrased

Our lives did not begin at our birth on this planet, or even at our conception.

We are an eternal spirit. We have no beginning and we have no end.

Our body has a beginning date and an ending date, but we will never die. The real us, the eternal us, our spirit, lives forever.

When we understand our design and the components of who we are, we know that our spirit is the real us. This is who we are forever. Our mind is who we think that we are. Our mind is programmable, and it is our charge and our pleasure to program our minds correctly so that we confirm and agree with who our Creator and our Designer says that we are. We then become who He says that we are, and we can and we will do what He says that we can. Our body is the temporary home of our spirit on this planet and is who we appear to be to other humans. Our body is not permanent, forever.

So then, where did we come from and how shall we live our lives because of these facts?

Our agreement for governance, the scriptures, provide understanding and direction.

16 Therefore we do not become discourage (utterly spiritless, exhausted and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man (our body) is (progressively) decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self (our spirit) is being progressively renewed day after day.

17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour, time) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us and everlasting weight of glory beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparison and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease !

2 Corinthians 4: 16,17 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

The Passion Translations says it this way;

¹⁶ So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day. ¹⁷ We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 The Passion Translation (TPT)

Here we are presented with a clear description of the difference between our temporary life in-time and the forever and eternal us, the origin and the foundation of who we really are forever.

Our body, the temporary us, begins to decline and to decay from our birth on this planet. Our spirit man grows stronger with each passing hour and is preparing for our next experience and the next component in our eternity – the “here-after.” This is when we return to where we came from. This is our Creator and our Designer’s plan for us; to be in His presence forever, experiencing unimaginable fellowship and communion.

16 They are not of the world (world, belonging to the world) just as I am not of the world.

John 17:16 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

In this usage the word from can be interchanged with the word of. Just as Jesus was not from this world, we are not from this world. Our lineage and our heritage are both rooted in eternity.

Next week, we will conclude the question “Where Did I Come From?” with Part 3 of this series.