My Life – Made for Living

For many years I have enjoyed restoring old cars. My heart seems to beat just a little bit faster, when I see a grand old car, of days gone by, still on the road. I have had many wonderful adventures with cars bearing names that many of you may have never heard of, such as Riley, Lagonda and Alvis.

Even today I have a car which is older than I am! But very few people would be able to drive it! Not because it’s hard to drive, but because no-one has taught them how to start the engine. You can’t just jump into the driver’s seat and turn the key – there isn’t one! There are a few basic steps that must be carried out before the engine will burst into life. Without knowing these basics, the car is useless.

God’s Order for Living

In a similar way, many people today have never learnt the basics of God’s order for living. As a result, they are unable to do what God intended for their lives or discover that their life really was made for living!

So, in these early sections of our Journey to Freedom, I am putting some really important foundational principles in place. Many years of experience of ministering to people right across the world, have proved time and time again how important this is.

What is obvious to some people is not obvious to others. And for many people a reminder of vital foundations has been the key that opened the door to miracles in their life.

I well remember a man, who had two theological degrees, telling me that it was only when we went through these foundations together that he really understood what the cross was all about. And that changed everything for him!

You are a miracle!

Take a look at your hands and marvel at the way they are made. The fingers and the joints are perfectly designed to carry out all the essential tasks of life. Imagine what eating would be like if you had no hands to prepare the food, to pick it up or to put it in your mouth!

Then run the end of your fingers gently over different surfaces. Your fingers are so sensitive that even with your eyes closed you can tell what you are touching.

Now take a deep breath and thank God for the oxygen in the air. Imagine what’s happening in your lungs as the oxygen crosses into your blood stream and is carried to every part of your body, bringing life to all your vital organs. Without oxygen you would quickly die.

Every part of your body has been carefully designed by an incredible genius – the one we call our loving, Creator God. As the Psalmist said, ‘I am fearfully and wonderfully made!’ (Psalm 139:14).

With your eyes you can see. With your ears you can hear. With your nose you can smell. And with your tongue you can taste. Every one of your senses is a miracle of operational genius. And with your mouth you can speak and eat as well.

Your digestive system processes food, extracts the goodness, stores energy as fat and eliminates waste. Your legs, arms, muscles and bones help you get around and do things. And at night everything shuts down for seven or eight hours to allow your body to rest, so you can recover your strength for a new day.

Yes, you are a miracle and your body is the most amazing of machines. But you are more than a machine!

More Than a Machine

I’m typing these notes on a computer – with those amazing fingers God gave me! The computer is also a marvellous machine, but it doesn’t do anything unless I correctly set up the operating programs and type instructions on the keyboard or click my ‘mouse’.

A computer, like any other machine, requires an operator to use it according to the maker’s instructions. Without an operator the computer will sit on the desk and produce nothing! And if you don’t know how to obey the instructions, even the most expensive computer will cause you endless frustration as it refuses to do what you want. I know – from hard experience!

In a similar way, you’re the operator of the machine called your body and unless you give your body some instructions it will lie there, like an unused computer, doing nothing. An unused computer has great potential but it produces absolutely nothing!

Machines are also made to be used in a certain way. If you misuse a machine you will quickly damage its operating mechanisms and before long it will become useless. And in the same way, if you misuse your body, the time will come when it will cease to function properly and life will come grinding to a halt.

The computer was designed to be highly productive when working together in harmony with its operator. There seems to be no limit to what can be done from the keyboard. I have just written an important letter to a friend and sent it by e-mail. Then I ordered a birthday present for my grandson from an online store. After which I looked at a news website to see what’s happening around the world.

This one machine, correctly programmed and operated, achieved all of these different things in a matter of minutes! But I had to give the computer the correct instructions and tell it what to do.

Your body was designed in a similar way to be highly productive. I have already done many things today with my own personal machine – my body! After a night’s sleep I got my body out of bed, then together we went and took on some fuel (breakfast), before taking the dog for a walk. After which I sat down at the computer to do all the things I told you about. My body and I worked together as a unit to achieve all that I had planned for the day.

So Who Are You?

While most people will recognise you by the shape of your body, you are more than your body.

A day will come when your bodily machine runs out of its capacity to cope any longer with the pressures of daily living. Your machine will then cease to function and the world will say you have died. But nothing could be farther from the truth! You do not die when your body ceases to function.

When you reach that point you will discover first-hand that your body is, in reality, only a machine, a temporary home, and that you have moved on to a different realm of existence.

There is life after death – as Jesus proved to us when He was raised from the dead. Our soul and our spirit will continue to live beyond the grave.

But the nature and quality of that life will be directly related to the choices we have made while living here on earth (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, Matthew 6:19-20).

Later we will look more closely at the nature of both God and man. We will learn more about how God intended our soul and spirit to work together in harmony within our body, so that we can be the people God intended us to be.

Life is for Living – to the Full

You are a person in your own right. Your earthly body is a temporary home – not an eternal residence. Here on earth you and your body are inseparable. Your body gives you visible identity and your body also enables you to function as a human being on planet Earth. And God has created you for a purpose – He loves YOU. You are special to Him. You are made for living!

But what does that mean? It certainly means more than just functioning as a machine. For Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life – and have it to the full” John 10:10. Jesus certainly wasn’t talking about mere existence.

To fully understand this we will need to understand just why the world is in such a mess. For Jesus came to rescue us from the mess that man had got himself into, because of his sinful choices (John 3:17). Those choices have produced a harvest of pain, bitterness and suffering, arising out of man’s rebellion against the God who created him for a purpose.

How can we live life to the full when we’re so held back by the chains of ungodly choices, made by both ourselves and others and also by our ancestors? These are important questions, which we will need to address.

Yes, we can look forward to eternity in heaven, and that will be a wonderful escape from the hardships of life on earth. But I don’t think that’s all Jesus was referring to when He talked about giving us the opportunity to live life to the full.

You are made for living – here on earth as well! But you also have an enemy, the enemy of souls. Satan does not want you to enter into the blessings God has prepared for you. Satan wants you to be spiritually dysfunctional and never know the joy of real life. (John 10:10a) God has a better plan for your life! (Ephesians 2:10).

Before man sinned he was able to enjoy the fullness of life in fellowship and relationship with God. But because of sin man became separated from God (Genesis 3:8-10). Fullness of life means living in relationship with our Creator (Ephesians 3:17-19). Outside of God we can never live life to the full. Our potential will always be limited by that breakdown in relationship with the One who made us.

We may be able to use the gifts and abilities that God gave us, but outside of a restored relationship with God the damage caused by sin can never be healed. And no matter how successful a person might appear to be, outside of God, that success will never satisfy the desire of the human heart for relationship with our Creator.

Yes, living life to the full means living life in a restored relationship with Father God and then discovering how he transforms us from the inside out. That way we can become the children of God He planned from the beginning. Only in that place will we truly know the joy of the Lord and that joy will become our strength for daily living (Nehemiah 8:10).

Today is a good day for you to decide to give God first place in every area of your life. As you travel step by step on this Journey to Freedom, allow Him to restore you to be like Him.

Summary

God intended our lives to be more than mere existence. We were made for a purpose and God wants to see us restored to a right relationship with Him so that we can enter into the fullness of Life. Satan, the enemy of our souls, would want us to look at the mess and give up. God wants us to see Him and look up! ‘Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life!’ (John 14:6)

Prayer

Help me, Lord, never to forget that you made me for a purpose. I pray you will show me how to start living life to the full and discover my true potential in God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.