7 Steps to Living Out a Biblical Life Plan
At some point we think about the big questions:
Why am I here?
What am I doing with my life?
Many people have trouble coming up with answers. So they push those questions aside for a later time or they say something like, “who knows, I’m just making the best of it.”
According to the Bible, God has already made specific, wise, love-based plans for every one of us. (Ephesians 2:10, 2 Timothy 1:9). We never have to wonder IF we have purpose.
What many of us struggle with, even as sincere Jesus followers, is:
What specifically does God want me to do?
How do I accomplish His plans?
There is a lot to it. After all, God has made us with incredible capacities and He works, as only He can, with life’s innumerable variables to bring His plans to pass in our lives.
I have met no one who says, “my life has turned out exactly as I expected when I was 20 years old.” So, should I even make a life plan? Is it biblical?
Most Christians fall into one of three camps in living God’s purposes:
Camp #1: “I’m not planning, I’m trusting.” This group of saints either doesn’t see the need to make a life plan or tried, it didn’t work and so now they go day to day, trusting God to direct their steps. (There are several Scriptures that can endorse this view.)
Camp #2: “I’m intentionally planning and working the plan.” These believers have seen the Scriptures that do endorse planning and do their best to set up and follow one. They too want to glorify God and see following a plan as the most biblical and best way to go.
Camp #3, use a hybrid model. They plan some things, but not everything. These saints prayerfully plan some areas of their lives but not others. Or, they plan sometimes and use “trust, don’t plan” during other seasons.
It’s not the purpose of the article to convince you. What I want to do here is give you the crucial steps to take if you are in camp 2 or 3.
Here goes:
- Make sure your spiritual base is solid.
As Christians, our top priority, the divine design is our salvation/discipleship base.
We believe following Jesus is the most important thing in life. He is the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Him. We are saved as a gift of God’s grace, by faith, not by anything we do. Being a disciple of Jesus is the calling of all believers.
We are staying solidly in the Grace Zone. We realize we were never and never will be good enough on our own; to be righteous in God’s sight or to know God and receive eternal life.
And,
We intentionally, consistently prioritize God, His word, and His purposes in our hearts, minds, and progressively, in our actions.
This base has to be prioritized and maintained or none of the other steps work.
2. Decide planning is God’s will for you.
It’s important to decide if making a biblical life plan is the right path for you.
It’s certainly ok to try it out, but most of the time, unless it becomes a personal conviction, the majority don’t stick with it. Why?
Because there is always some point in time where we face resistance or failure in pursuing what we believe is God’s will.
When I’ve worked with people on clarifying their unique purpose and setting up an initial plan to make progress, almost always, quickly some type of problem arises that makes it hard to get started.
It’s the parable of the sower in full demonstration (Mark 4). Satan’s first attack, after the seed of the word has been received and planted is direct pressure. He brings hardship, or some type of persecution or resistance to try to steal the word, or the God-dream.
If that doesn’t work, then he tries the gradual approach of trying to choke the seed get by the thorns of distractions or delay. Jesus clearly said, these choking thorns grow, they don’t pop up overnight.
It will take time to live out God’s plans and purposes. The enemy will resist. Even when we are in God’s will, doing what He wants us to do; doesn’t mean it will always be smooth sailing.
If the enemy can’t keep us on the sidelines, he will attempt to discourage us or make it hard, so we quit.
We have to believe, based on Scripture,that making purpose-inspired plans is God’s will for us.
3. Clarify in your own mind God’s Pillar Purposes.
God has end goals, He has purposes for the universe, the world, and us. Though we don’t know everything He is up to, He has revealed much. It is bigger and better than our limited minds can fully grasp.
What He has revealed as His Pillar Purposes gives us guidance and faith WHEN WE LEARN WHAT THEY ARE.
When we clarify what those purposes are in our own minds, then we can start aligning ourselves with them. Getting in alignment with God is one of the best things we can ever do, because He is not changing.
It’s much better to be going with Him than against Him.
God’s plans for us will be in perfect alignment with His big plans. What He has called us to do will be a fit for His end goals.
We want a synchronized, aligned plan.
We can have that once we clarify what God’s pillar purposes are.
We can then align our unique roles and goals with what He is doing.
With some study, we can see what those purposes are (God has woven them throughout His word).
We then use those as the foundation and pillars for our own roles.
Getting clear on His pillar purposes takes us a long way in understanding how to prioritize and plan our time and where to best use our gifts and talents.
4. Clarify God’s Specific Purposes for You During this Season of Life
I used to have clients work through a series of exercises combined with prayer to clarify and then write their God-given purpose. They would then write a one-sentence purpose statement.
Over time, I realized this approach needed a couple of significant adjustments.
First, although God’s pillar purposes never change, most times, His purposes for us change at different points on our journey. There are a few, like Jeremiah, who were always called to be a prophet and only a prophet.
But most people, even famous people, have different purposes during different seasons of life. Paul was first a prophet and or a teacher in Antioch before God called him to be an apostle.
Some are called by God to be business people, then go into vocational ministry. Others are in vocational ministry and then called by God to go into business.
Others go into science and then add science-based apologetics. Still others are in the workplace, stay home to raise children, then go back into the workplace. There are so many options as we follow Jesus.
Now, when I work with people, we zero in on God’s purposes for that season of life.
Second, coming up with a one-sentence purpose statement for a person’s entire life was more paralyzing than energizing.
How in the world is a person supposed to summarize what their entire life is about (outside of pillar purposes, like glorifying God) in one sentence?
Now, we come up with a purpose page based pillar purposes, using a few clear sentences. It is still easy to remember, provides focus, but is much easier to clarify and adjust as needed.
People have found this to be liberating, energizing, as well as increasing focus.
5.Make a goal-based plan.
Now we’re ready to make plans.
Some Christians think setting goals is only a business strategy, not a biblical one. However, you can look it up: the word “goal” is used several times in the Bible. Other “goal-related words” like vision and dream also support the idea of setting goals.
Some have told me, “I tried setting goals, and it didn’t work.”
No, not everything we plan will work.
But the research is undeniable. People who mentally set specific goals achieve more than those who don’t. People who write specific goals achieve more than those who only make mental goals.
And
People who make specific plans about how and when they will work on those goals achieve more than those who only think about them or write them down.
God, Jesus, Moses, David, Solomon, Daniel, Peter, John, and Paul all set goals.
Planning is simply: what steps do I believe God wants me to take to accomplish the assignments He is giving me?
Combined with prayer, this becomes a powerful tool in living God’s purposes.
6. Take action
The greatest plans accomplish nothing until we take action.
Jesus said, in Luke 6, there was one major difference between the person whose house/life stood strong during the flood and the person who built their house on sand. The person who built on a solid foundation didn’t just listen to Jesus’ words, they acted on them.
Only hearing, only dreaming, only planning don’t fulfill our mission. Doing those things combined with obedience is what changes things.
I’m sure you’ve experienced, I know I have, that this is the area that requires the most from us. Doubt, fear, procrastination, discouragement, distraction, laziness need to be overcome.
The sin nature and the devil don’t want us taking any of the previous steps; but especially this one.
Great news!
Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Jesus lives in us by His word and Spirit, and He wants to help us.
There are several steps we can take to increase our action percentages, but the main point is to commit to taking action, preferably every day.
Every day, take at least one step, even if it’s a tiny one towards fulfilling God’s purposes.
7. Review, adjust, go again.
No matter how good our plan is, no matter how clear our purpose, we will have to make adjustments as we go.
There is no way to expect everything that will happen as we follow Jesus.
Proverbs tells us to consider our way. Paul adjusted his missionary tactics as he went.
He never wavered from his calling and purposes, but he adjusted how he did it. He learned as he took action and made adjustements.
It’s important to regularly reflect on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. When we prayerfully reflect, God can guide us as to when we should keep plowing ahead or if we need to change course or actions.
2 Corinthians 3 tells us that we are transformed from glory to glory as we behold the glory of God. Jesus and the apostles used plants growing and structures being built as metaphors for our growth and progress.
Each of these passages show us that progress in following Jesus is a process.
Prayerful reflection and then adjusting are powerful means of growth and progress in living God’s purposes.
If you’re the type of Christian who believes in prayerful planning, these 7 steps can be a good outline to help you make and follow through on a biblical life plan.
One More Thing
One of THE MOST IMPORTANT goal achieving factors, found all throughout Scripture, and in mounds of solid research is the value of getting support. No matter how strong we are in our faith, getting human support increases success rates by as much as 80%.
If you want some personal support in doing this, it would be my honor to give you a free (non-salesy) 30 minute one-on-one coaching call. We will discuss where you are on your purpose journey and figure out your next steps so you can move forward with energized confidence. You can sign up for it here. www.truvinemission.com/coaching
