Step 3 of the 7 Steps to Discovering and Achieving God’s Purpose for Your Life

Step 1 is REVELATION. Only God knows what He put you on this earth to do and only He can tell you what it is.

Step 2 is PREPARATION. The Lord will place you in positions where He will develop and refine the spiritual gift(s) He has given you. These gifts will be used to help you accomplish your purpose.

Step 3 is OBEDIENCE. As we learned last week in Genesis chapter 39, Joseph worked as a slave in the home of a man named Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife found Joseph attractive and tried to entice him to sleep with her. But he refused because he had the utmost reverence for the Lord. He told her, “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

Joseph understood that the Lord observes everything we do, say, and think. He knew that if he allowed his fleshly desires to dictate his actions, he would disappoint the Lord and pay a penalty as well. So he chose to obey God. Joseph was so determined not to become involved with Potiphar’s wife that, even though she approached him day after day, he refused to even be in the same room with her. One day when he went into the house to attend to his duties, she grabbed him by his cloak and he ran to avoid having any contact with her (1 Corinthians 6:18 NIV).

If you, like Joseph, are determined to achieve God’s purpose for your life, you must make up your mind in advance that no matter what temptation you face, you will obey the Lord. And you can rest assured that your obedience will pay extraordinary dividends in due time (Deuteronomy 28:1-14 NIV and Romans 12:2 NLT).

See you next week for Step 4 of Discovering and Achieving God’s Purpose for Your life!