The Four Beacons

In my life, I have made many mistakes, and have struggled for a long time to find out what it is that I should be doing.   One of the good things about this, is that I seem to have discovered some stuff which might be useful for others, in trying to decide where to take their lives.

Aligning your life is a bit like aligning a ship

Have you ever watched a ship come into a harbour? You might have noticed three beacons. If I remember right, there would be one green, and two red beacons. These three beacons are normally very bright, and are exactly in line with the mouth of the harbour. If you were to stand exactly in the centre of the mouth of the harbour, you would see only one beacon – the green one – and the other two would be hidden behind it. Move to the right or the left, and you would see the red beacons coming into your line of sight.

The ships use these three beacons to ensure that their course is true, straight into the harbour – so they don’t maybe accidentally hit some shallow ground to the side of the mouth of the harbour. As long as they see only green, everything is fine. As soon as they see red, they know that they have to adjust course.

In our own lives, there are also a few of these beacons, and the sooner you can learn to know these beacons, the easier it will become for you to learn to direct your life in the way that you should go. I’ve also learnt that these need to be aligned, for your life to “work.” Focusing on one only, just doesn’t seem to quite work.

Beacon Number One: God’s Calling

The first beacon is the most important: It is God’s will for your life — His calling for you.

Some people believe that only certain people are called, and the rest of us should just make a “normal” living. However, I believe that each of us have been put here with a specific purpose, a specific plan. God made you the way you are, because He wants you to be doing something for him, in this time.

2Pe 1:10 So then, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election certain, for if you keep on doing this you will never fail. (ISV)

So how do you know what God’s calling for your life is?

The first way, is to pray and ask God to reveal it to you.

Jas 1:5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to everyone generously without a rebuke, and it will be given to him.

The second way to know, is to record words spoken over you by prophets. Write them down, and review them regularly, because they contain some keys to what God wants to do in and through you.

1Ti 1:18 Timothy, my child, I entrust to you this command, which is in accordance with the words of prophecy spoken in the past about you. Use those words as weapons in order to fight well,

Your calling is also built into the way you have been created – more about this in the third beacon, which is your design. Let’s first look at the second beacon, so that we k
eep the order of priority right, here.

Beacon Number Two: Principles of God’s Word

The second beacon, are the principles of God’s Word.

If anything that you are planning to do, starts moving outside of the principles of the Bible, then you should know that you are moving outside of God’s will for your life – and moving into a dangerous place.

There is only one way to safeguard yourself here, and that is to study God’s word regularly, continually and systematically. You should always be busy reading through the Bible from cover to cover, apart from any Bible studies you are doing, to make sure that you are continually reminding yourself of all the principles in God’s Word.

Psa 119:15 I study your instructions; I examine your teachings.

Psa 119:16 I take pleasure in your laws; your commands I will not forget.

Beacon Number Three: Your Design

The third beacon, is your design. God made each of us different, and He made us the way we are, for a reason. I believe that our design and our calling are very closely linked. Take a look at the Parable of the Tractor and the Ferrari.

With your design, I refer to the things you are good at and the things you enjoy. You could also call it your talents. If you try and do things you are not really good at, you will find it very frustrating.

So how do you know what your design is? Over time, you learn to know and recognize what you are good at, as opposed to those things at which you suck. At school, you will probably have found that you find some subjects easier than others. That’s a good start. You could also have found that maybe you’d been doing some extra-mural activities – and that you might have been better at some of them, than at others.

Design has another part to it though, and that is enjoyment. It is true that we often enjoy the things that we are good at, but sometimes there are things that we can be good at, but we don’t enjoy doing them. Especially if you are talented in various areas of life, you might find that you seem to be good at certain things, but when you do them, you are not really happy.

The best way to figure this out, is to look at your life and take note of the times when you are happy. Take a few minutes every day thinking about the day, thinking of the times you were happy; write down what you were doing, and why it made you happy. Also take note of whether you felt that you were good at what you were doing.

I cannot think of a single scripture that supports this principle, but there are multiple scriptures where we see God implementing this principle by referring to the fact that the people called to do a certaintask, were both skilful, and moved in their heart to do it.

Exo 31:2 “I have chosen Bezalel, the son of Uri and grandson of Hur, from the tribe of Judah,

Exo 31:3 and I have filled him with my power. I have given him understanding, skill, and ability for every kind of artistic work—

Exo 31:4 for planning skillful designs and working them in gold, silver, and bronze;

Exo 31:5 for cutting jewels to be set; for carving wood; and for every other kind of artistic work.

1Ch 27:32 Jonathan, King David’s uncle, was a skillful adviser and a scholar. He and Jehiel son of Hachmoni were in charge of the education of the king’s sons.

2Ch 34:12 The men who did the work were thoroughly honest. They were supervised by four Levites: Jahath and Obadiah of the clan of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam of the clan of Kohath. (The Levites were all skillful musicians.)

Son 3:8 All of them are skillful with the sword; they are battle-hardened veterans. Each of them is armed with a sword, on guard against a night attack.

Dan 5:12 He has unusual ability and is wise and skillful in interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining mysteries; so send for this man Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, and he will tell you what all this means.”

Beacon Number 4: What do you WANT to do?

The last beacon, is what you really WANT to do. It should be a combination of all the above, as well as just being aware of what kind of future makes you happy when you think about it. The thing that you should simply ask yourself, is “What do I WANT to do.” This is a difficult question to answer, and it must be, most importantly, submitted also to the first one – which was your calling – what God wants you to do.

There are times in our lives when we have to do things we don’t want to do, but generally, it has been my experience that God wants us to do the things we enjoy, that make us happy, and that give us a sense of achievement and fulfilment.

Psa 37:4 Seek your happiness in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desire.

Psa 37:5 Give yourself to the LORD; trust in him, and he will help you;

This scripture can be interpreted in two ways – and according to a friend of mine who used to lecture at Bible College, both interpretations are correct:

The first and most common interpretation, says that when you desire something, God will grant it to you – provided obviously that you meet the condition before that – which is to delight yourself in Him.

However, the second interpretation, which is less often made clear, is the fact that the desire itself, comes from God. He places the desire itself in your heart.

Think and pray about all these things, and find your descriptions of each of these Beacons. Write them down, and then see in which direction they point. If you go in that direction, chances are that you will be spot on, walking where you should be, and find a life of happiness fulfilment and purpose.

Love

Ashton