October 2022
Pastors and spiritual leaders in our country and around the globe are hurting and discouraged. Living on the Edge is privileged to equip them and help sustain them through specialized training and events like the Pastor Renewal Retreat at the Billy Graham Center in North Carolina a couple weekends ago. Pastors from all over the world came together for training and to enjoy memorable times of fellowship and prayer together. God is on the move—and we are so grateful for you and the important role you are playing in this ministry.
Your gift this month will be used to disciple believers in the US and around the globe.
Message from Chip
I’m convinced that God has designed every single one of us to be difference makers. At Living on the Edge, we’re compelled to help you do just that. To get started, you’ll need to do two things—discover who God made you to be, and get into the game. To help you identify your purpose and walk in it, I’d like to walk you through seven basic facts and one timeless principle that will help you fulfill the role God has for you.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
PSALM 32:8 (NASB 1995)
Dear Friend,
The most important question you can ever ask, and one you need to answer correctly, is What is my purpose?
If you fail to answer that question or if you answer it incorrectly, your life will be an ABSOLUTE TRAVESTY! It will be wasted.
God has a specific plan and purpose for your life. Just as there’s no one in the almost 8 billion people on the planet with the same DNA that resides in you, He has a purpose and a calling for you individually that no one else can fulfill.
Discovering what God made you to do—and then pursuing it—is more satisfying than anything you can imagine! Yet I meet godly, intelligent people who don’t have a clue why He created them and placed them here in 2022.God isn’t secretive about this important subject. He is very clear in Scripture on the purpose He is calling you into.
7 Facts and 1 Timeless Principle
1. God has a specific purpose for your life. Your Creator designed you with something very specific in mind. You’re His masterpiece, His work of art. God has “good works” for you to accomplish for Him!
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)
2. God wants you to discover and live out your purpose. He doesn’t want it to be a mystery or a secret. In fact, He wants to help you figure it out—this whole process is under His watchful eye!
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” (Psalm 32:8, esv)
3. God’s purpose for you is a good one. You don’t need to wonder if He has something frightening or objectionable for you to accomplish. We serve a God who loves to redeem and restore.
“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, esv)
4. God’s purpose for your life will flow out of your natural abilities and personality, your life experiences, your spiritual gifts, and the wounds you have experienced.
Psalm 139:16 says that God tenderly knit you together in your mother’s womb—He made you with a unique personality, with likes and dislikes. He knew how you’d respond to life’s circumstances. His purposes grow out of your life experiences, both the good ones…
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8:28-29, esv)
…and the bad ones.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4, ESV)
God has deposited spiritual gifts within you to empower you to fulfill what He has made you to do (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). And His purposes for your life will grow out of the wounds you have experienced.
“He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10, ESV)
5. You and only you are responsible for discovering and fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.
And when you get to Heaven, He will ask you how you used the resources He supplied for you (Matthew 25 and 1 Corinthians 3).
6. God has two big agendas for your life, and they are inseparable. One is vertical (His work in you) and one is horizontal (His work through you).
As God does His work in you, His top priority for you is to make you like Jesus (Romans 8:29). While doing His work through you, God wants to dislocate your heart so you’ll see what Jesus sees, feel what He feels, pray like He prays, and give what He gives to bring light and life to others.
7. You will never discover your gift in isolation. This is a process to be done in community.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5, esv)
We belong to one another. We need feedback and input from one another. We are created for deep, authentic relationships, and this is essential to discovering our purpose.
Finally, I’d like to share a timeless principle with you about discovering your purpose. God must work deeply in you before He works significantly through you. The story of the Bible is God using ordinary people to do extraordinary things to provide exceeding grace to undeserving recipients!
So let me help you take your next step. Last month I sent you a copy of my new book, Your Divine Design. I hope you’ve been encouraged as you’ve explored the unique gifts God has given you!
And this month we’re releasing another resource to jump-start your journey of identifying your unique gifts and purpose. It’s an online assessment called The Real You. We’ve designed this to help propel Christians into meaningful service in the face of real need as taught and modeled by Christ. It takes about 20 minutes and will help you identify your spiritual gifts, your core values, and the roles God made you to fulfill. Learn more at TheRealYou.org.
Bottom line: God has a plan for your life. He made you with certain traits, talents, and abilities so that you may fulfill a very specific role and purpose while you’re here on this planet. When He created you, He simultaneously built into your life what you are to do. And when you discover and fully embrace His plan, you can start living the life He intended for you.
I can’t tell you how excited I am that God is using Living on the Edge to help Christians live like Christians, both here in the United States and around the world. We are amazed at the doors of opportunity He is opening!
As God expands our reach and influence, your generous gifts are needed now more than ever. Thank you in advance for asking the Lord how He would lead you to help us in this season.
Moving forward together,
Chip Ingram
CEO and Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
Prayer and Praises
Every month, we’ll share with you the top three prayer requests and praises from our team at Living on the Edge. This update is one of our favorite, as it’s so clear the many ways that God is at work in our ministry. Chip and our entire team encourage you to celebrate and pray alongside us.
We Thank God For…
- Blessing the Pastor’s Renewal Retreat at The Cove last month. Hundreds of U.S. and global pastors were encouraged and refreshed through Chip’s teaching.
- His grace on the first Ripple Summit at The Cove. 120 attendees and contributors from around the world shared their collective experience on making disciples for Kingdom impact.
- Empowering The A.R.T. of Survival training in Malawi, Ethiopia, and Zambia as thousands of leaders in these nations were encouraged and strengthened in their call as pastors.
We ask God to…
- Bless the Disciple Makers Conference at The Cove October 7-9
- Empower The High Impact Church pastor training in Kenya this month.
- Engage tens of thousands of Christians with our new resource, The Real You, as we launch it this month. Pray that God will use it to inspire believers to become On Mission in meaningful service to a world in need.
BONUS LESSON
There is one question you need to answer, and answer it correctly or your life will be a travesty. That question is “why am I here?” God has put in you a spiritual DNA that’s unique, for a specific purpose. He didn’t say the path would be easy or that you wouldn’t experience trials, but your greatest fulfillment in life will come when you discover what that purpose is. He wants to do something in you. Then, and only then, He will do something extraordinary through you.