Goals That "Work" For You

Goals That "Work" For You
Goals can be a delight to achieve or an intimidating mountain that taunts us. Knowing how to set them is important in making progress toward your inheritance in Christ. Many believers are totally content to operate without written goals and some are still quite successful. I want to suggest the successful ones  still have goals of the heart; they just have a theology that prevents them from admitting it. Servants with no personal goals who just do what the Lord tells them typically live out most of their Christian life getting the dial tone. God works through personal initiative and individual creativity. His will is found in the desires of our heart.
Goals of the heart - Goals cannot be set with our mind alone. They must be set around the passion of our heart and the purpose of our life. People mistakenly set goals around giving or making money. Money can't be a primary goal because it doesn't articulate a desire of our heart. However, every goal usually does require money to reach it. Here's what I learned as a pastor, "Ministry costs money!" We don't love money; it's just a tool that funds our ministry.
No Goals? - What happens if we coast through life with no sense of personal destiny or goals built around our passion? We still have to eat! So, we find a job, make some money, pay the bills and give to others that do have goals. We end up serving money with our time - a job. Serving in that which is another man's is OK for a season; just not for a life time. The goal is to identify and serve your own heart's desire - eventually.
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? Luke 16:12 KJV

"And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Luke 16:12 NASU
Here's the real reason to have goals built around your life's passion. Those goals will go to work and make money so that you can achieve your dream. Last week we talked about Exercising your heart. If you tap into your life's calling and purpose there will be several trademarks.
1.First, we enjoy what we're doing because it expresses the desires of our own heart.
2.We sense the Father's pleasure spiritually and we feel a wind in our sails naturally.
3.New ideas and creativity and work cause wealth to flow toward us and multiply our ministry.
But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. Deut 8:18
Sabotage - If we try to set goals with our mind and skip the real passion in our hearts, then our hearts simply sabotage the whole process and our goals work against us instead of for us.
For example, I'm funding our ministry through day trading. If I lose sight of the real purpose of ministry and start to focus on the money then my heart starts to sabotage my success and I violate the training of my mentors. In hindsight it looks obviously and incredibly and embarrassingly stupid. My mind can't believe it happened... neither can my mentor! But my heart understands clearly that I'm starting to wander from my purpose. (Can you see why diets don't work? They don't address the heart.)
We need coaches and mentors and training (and diets), but none of it works until our heart's desire is identified. Good mechanistic "how to" training just gets filtered until it supports a dream. Our mistake is that we start with some formula for success before we understand the dream that success will serve. That's why our goal can't be something like making money. Our real dream is connected to a tangible purpose. Money is just a tool to make a dream come true.
To set a goal around money without a connection to a higher purpose falls into a trap, "love of money." That scenario also sets the stage for moral compromise... greed, theft, lying, etc.
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money , have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Tim 6:8-10 NIV

Keep your lives free from the love of money... Heb 13:5 NIV

Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it. Prov 1:19 NIV
Note: Keep in mind these verses may cause us to hear a wrong message, "God wants us poor." The real truth is that God want us wealthy enough to fund our dream with abundance through a cup that continually overflows. We've written a four part series on wealth that you may enjoy. Is Wealth God's Will?, The Reason for Wealth, Wealth is a Tool, and Moving to a Wealth Mentality.
Get Connected - To realize your full potential in Jesus, you and I have to tap into the real desires of our hearts and flow with them. That's what makes life fun... ministry multiplies, wealth flows, and fruit is the result. Set goals around your life purpose and the desires of your heart. Get to the bottom of your real heart's motivation so that your heart is rejoicing instead of working against you. "Religion" in the legalistic sense, is trying to work for God and against your heart. It doesn't work... but we already know that, don't we?
...your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass... Isa 66:14 NIV

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Prov 17:22 NIV
 
 
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John and Sue     www.Releasing-kings.com