Life Mapping is an exercise designed to realign your life
with the purposes of God. It is designed to be a 24-48 hour exercise in
solitude (or with your spouse) where you reflect on where you have been and
where you need to go. It is a time to allow God to show you all the areas of
your life and reveal your strengths as well as weak areas. This is timely
exercise as we prepare for 2007.
List all the areas of your life such as work, school, family
and church. These are separate areas of your life that will typically function
independently of each other. For example, your boss and your work do not
typically care what you do when you leave the job. You job will continue to run
whether your home life is functioning correctly. The following is a list of the
most common areas: Work, school, family, church, ministry, sports, hobbies,
finances, marriage, relationships,
- Work – List your bosses,
employees, peers, job responsibilities, etc. Did God put in this position?
What are His plans for your career? He who is faithful in little things
is faithful in large things.
- Reflect
on the following biblical characters.
i.
Joseph. He was a faithful steward to Potifer, the Jailer and Pharoah.
But even though he was a slave and treated as such, he was always faithful to
God
ii.
Daniel was castrated and his parents were most probably
killed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, but yet he faithful to the purposes of
God in his life. Counselor to at least 4 of the following 7 kings
1. Nebuchadnezzar
2. Evil
Merodach (Amel-Marduk)
3. Neriglissar (Nergal-Sharezer),
four year reign
4. Labashi-Marduk (nine months)
5. Nabonidus
6. Belshazzar son of Nabonidus
7. Darius
the Mede
8. Cyrus
the Persian
- School – Why are you in school?
What are you studying? Is God involved in your career choice? Do you study
to get straight A’s or do you study to get by?
- Reflect
on the following biblical passages.
i.
Paul’s told Timothy to “Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.
ii.
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.2 Timothy 4:2
iii.
Study the life of John Mark because according to 2
Timothy, John Mark was useful to Paul at the most difficult time of his life.
- Church leadership - Where are you
serving in the church? Are you planted in the church or are you a church
hopper. Can you lay down your life and die for a community of believers? Are
you being cheap with your time or are you giving your time to your church
community freely and full of energy?
- Dietrich
Bonhoeffer once said "When Christ calls a
man, he calls him to come and die".
- A
person who chooses to become a servant or a bond-servant makes only one
choice. They chose to serve. They never get to make another choice.
- Ministry – Ministry is a function
of your abilities. Are you prophetic? Then your ministry will develop from
that gifting. Are you loving and caring? Then your compassion will move
you into a pastoral role. We must be responsible to the giftings of God
- Parable
of the Talents. Matthew 25:14
- What
does God expect of me?
- Who
am I responsible for?
- God
said to Abram, “you will be blessed so that you may be a blessing”
Genesis 12
- Mother
Teresa: "I belong to Jesus. He must have the right to use me without
consulting me."
- Family – Is your family balanced
and functioning correctly.
- I Timothy 3:1Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his
heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of
but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able
to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent
but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He
must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with
proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to
manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become
conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7He
must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall
into disgrace and into the devil's trap.
- Marriage – This is usually the
most important area to spend time on. If your marriage is not functioning
correctly, the odds are the other areas of your life are not balanced and
functioning correctly either. It is not by accident that God gave us the
following command: When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or
be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at
home making his wife happy. Deut 24:5
- Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is
the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is
the saviour of the body. 24Therefore
as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in every thing. 25Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, 27That he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. Eph 5:22-28
- Children – How are your children
doing? Are they moving into the purposes of God for their lives? Are you
pushing them into careers? God’s career or your career? Are you more
concerned with their education or their relationship with God?
- The
best father is not a disciplinarian but a mentor. A good father will
shape a child’s life and future.
- Meditate
on King David’s failures and successes with his children.
- Finances – Are you in debt? How
much do you owe? Is your debt controlling you? Or are you controlling your
debt? If you are in the job that God gave you then you are earning
sufficient wages for His purposes and you must learn to live with your
wages. Do you understand money? Are you using money as a tool to build the
Kingdom of God or are you materialistic? If we
are not faithful with unrighteous cash that has NO eternal value, then God
will never trust us to care for His people, whose souls are priceless!
- Reflect
on the following quotes:
i.
Rockefeller. “I have made millions, but they have
brought me no happiness.”
ii.
Vanderbilt. “The care of 200 million is enough to kill
anyone. There is no pleasure in it.”
iii.
John Astor. “I am the most miserable man on earth” (fir
trader, ship trader, bought most of Manhattan
island from Indians)
iv.
Henry Ford. “I was happier when doing a mechanic’s job”
v.
Carnegie. “Millionaires seldom smile.”
vi.
Subtract two years from your life if you make over
$50,000 per year
vii.
Read proverbs.
The above eight areas are only the most common. Ask God for
wisdom on every area that you are involved in and remember:
The only thing constant in life is change.
Weak leaders and most of humanity are pushed around by
change. Change will force you to move to a new job, learn a new career, find a
new church, lose friends and family, to buy a new phone, etc. Change will push
you around. It is not kind.
However,
Change, in the hand
of a wise leader, will submit to your direction. You will lead and not follow.
You will be the head and not the tail. The LORD will open to you His good treasure,
the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the
work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail;
(Deut 28:12-13)
Change is the most
powerful tool for getting closer to God.
In fact, God carries change with Him at all times. God is immutable
(meaning He never changes) but he always brings change.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor 3:18
If we are made in the image of God
then we must recognize that we carry the same ability to bring change in any
and every situation.