One crucially important catalyst to your recovery from lust, masturbation and porn addiction is discovery of the fundamental reason you’re placed on earth, that is, your prime purpose for being on earth which makes you live with a vision.
Sad to say, without a discovery of your life purpose, your recovery from the addiction could be very slow, and after recovery, you may relapse into the sinful habits because the vision to discipline you and keep you focused will be wanting. Once you know what you’re on earth to do and you pursue it squarely, when distractions (e.g. lust, masturbation, porn, fornication, adultery…) comes your way, you’ll easily recognize them for who they are and vehemently resist them. Satan is behind all distractions to destroy the focused children of God or stop them from fulfilling their life’s purpose and making God proud.
It makes no sense at all that a man/woman is simply sent to earth by God to have a family and friends, acquire education, get a job, marry, have children, own properties and/or accolades and depart earth, no, not at all! So, each and every person was created and doubtlessly placed on planet earth for a unique assignment (that can only be fulfilled working and walking with God), that perfectly explains why we’re all different, and with different spiritual giftings and natural talents.
How to Know God’s Purpose for Your Life
Three steps are involved:
Step 1: Know God’s general purpose for all men
God’s general purpose for our lives is revealed in the Scripture in the following areas:
To know God – Colossians 1:10, Ephesians 1:17, 2 Peter 2:18
To be reconciled to God, that is, to be born again and ensure others experience the same by preaching the gospel to them. John 3:7, 2 Corinthians 5:18
To love God with all our heart, body, soul and spirit – Matthew 22:37-38, 1 Corinthian 2:9
To fear God, trust Him, obey Him and serve Him. Ecclesiastes 12:13, I John 5:3, Exodus 23:25, Proverbs 3:5-7
To glorify God in all we do – 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:23
To be useable by God – Romans 6:13, 2 Timothy 2:20-21, Matthew 5:13-14. We must be sanctified, and readily yield, release and submit ourselves to God to be used by Him.
Step 2: Ask and search out God’s specific purpose for your life
God’s specific purpose for your life will only be discovered through prayer and fasting according to Acts 13:2
Choose a day or two to fast and pray. Let it be a day you will stay indoors as fasting is a time we get away from all distractions such as food, people, things, in order to be with God and hear from Him. God speaks but we’ll only hear Him when we are quiet (1 Kings 19:12). So, choose a day or two, be alone, in a serene environment or in your room shut out from all noises and distractions of any sort, and talk with God. Your specific life purpose is inside of you, and you only capture it when alone in a quiet place with God.
Once alone in a quiet place, begin worshipping and praising God for a good period of time, then pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you God’s specific purpose for your life as you would want to please God by fulfilling it; pray and listen.
Take a pen and a paper or a book to write your vision. Vision is what guides you to the fulfillment of your specific purpose. It keeps you on course. Without it, you will be jumping from one thing to another, lacking focus in life. Vision shows you things as they ought to be in your life in future, and you follow it to see those things manifest physically.
Think about everything you desire to do on earth before you die and write all of them down.
Identify and write down the talents and gifts you have.
Identify things around your world -things/situations you see on a daily basis or even occasionally that is a pet peeve; things you desire to change which others may not really consider bad, annoying/wrong.
Simplify the things you desire to do on earth before departure by writing them down in simple and clear sentences. Simply also the gifts, talents and problems around you you desire to change or see a change in.
Think about how you will achieve all you desire to do on earth and solve the problems you’ve identified using the talents and gifts you have written down; make a plan on how you plan to fulfill your vision and write it down as the Holy Spirit instructs and leads you.
Wisely summarize all that you have written down to one sentence, to the point where you know, this is who I am and this is what I offer my generation. This is your life purpose, your vision. Document it.
Start to communicate that simple sentence to people, talk about it to people, “This is who I am; this is what I offer my generation.”
Run with the vision, that is, start working towards accomplishing and actualizing the vision by gradually working on the plans you’ve laid out on how to meet your desires and solve the problems you identified using your gifts and talents.
Revisit your written vision often to see if you’re on course and if you’re actually doing what you were born to do or going off track.
Step 3: Be observant and spot a true life purpose with these clues
Your specific life purpose will be something that will advance the Kingdom of God because you have left the kingdom of Satan. So, the unsaved in the world will be saved, and lives will be positively transformed spiritually and otherwise via your vision. Colossians 1:13
It will be something that will benefit believers (Christians). Colossians 1:27-29
It will positively impact humanity, that is, bless humanity.
It will be something of service to others, not of you being served, glorified or worshipped. Matthew 23:11-12
It will be something related to your spiritual gifts in Christ. Romans 12:3, 6 and 1 Corinthians 12.
It will be something you are willing to die for; something you can die for, not just live for.
It will be something God will be at the center of, not yourself nor any man.
It will be something you are very passionate about, and something others would perhaps struggle with but you find yourself doing with ease.
It will be thoughts that won’t leave you. The dream that keeps coming back for so many years.
It will be a deep-seated desire to change a situation in your world -the situation or thing that gets you angry and saddens no one but you. Whatever makes you angry in your world, you were born to solve.
It will be confirmed by ‘Rhema’ -2 Corinthians 13:1. A rhema is a scripture quickened by the Holy Spirit to apply directly to your life. So, 2/3 scriptures will minister directly to you regarding that vision at some point.
It will give you joy, peace and great fulfillment.
It will attract people’s encouraging words and admiration and bring about your earthly prosperity.
Things to Know about God’s Specific Purpose for Your Life:
Your life purpose will be something that others -your parents, siblings, friends, relatives will not understand and might try to kick against, mock, ridicule or dissuade you from. But you must stay on it while being subject to, that is, staying under the authority of particularly your parents as Jesus did in Luke 2:49-52. Honor your parents but obey God.
All true visions will be tested for authenticity through trials. If a vision is terminated by trials, it was probably not authentic.
The greatest enemy of vision is distraction. It comes in doing things that not only are wrong but things that seem and appear good but are not right because they are not in line with your life purpose.
Vision comes in phases, and it is fulfilled in phases. So, God reveals more things as time goes by. He makes it clearer with the passage of time if you stay on track – Proverbs 4:18. Moreover, certain life purposes will only be revealed at the right time, so you may not specifically know it now but at the right time it will come to you and you will know it as you keep following the general purposes. Psalm 1:1-3.
Visions will go through a death experience- John 12:24. This means all visions must be submitted to the leadership of God. No vision or purpose should ever be bigger or more important than God, nor take over the rightful first place of God in your life.
It might be a small idea but God expands it as time goes by -Luke 16:10. Life purpose is fulfilled through faithfulness in little things. Don’t overlook the small things. Everything big was once small and everything big starts small. Matt 23:11-12.
The greatest enemy of right is not wrong but good. As a child of God, Satan knows you are too smart to do something wrong, so he focuses your attention on doing something good/ getting you to do something good because when you do something good, you think you are doing something right. You were born to find out what is right for you which is God’s specific purpose for your life, not what is good for you. Many things can be good for you, but only one thing is right for you; for you were not born to do many things or everything, one thing is necessary. “But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, There is only ONE thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
Some of what to be doing now to see the vision/specific purpose fulfilled:
Read, study and meditate on the Scripture. Joshua 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:15, Psalm 1:1-3
Develop the habit of seeking God first and putting Him first above all else. Psalm 63:1-2, Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 6:33
Establish regular times of prayer and fasting; fast and pray at least once a week. 2 Corinthians 11:27, Luke 5:35, Matthew 6:16
Discipline yourself and be focused. Refuse to be distracted or lured away from accomplishing the identified and written vision.
Pursue the vision squarely.