Purpose Driven, or Spirit Led?
By Joel Hart, Puyallup, WA

(This writing was born out of
prayer and a study through the book of Acts. 
I feel it necessary to note that I have not read any of the popular
“Purpose Driven” books.  This
letter is not meant to be an endorsement for or a rebuttal toward those
books or the authors, as I know nothing about either. I did not set out to
write anything on any subject, much less this one. 

This is simply an expression of the impression made on me by the
Holy Ghost in a place of prayer early in the morning.)

In the last few years the
words “Purpose Driven” have become a slogan or catch phrase for many
church congregations.  There
has developed in our nation purpose driven churches, purpose driven lives,
days, weeks and months of purpose.  Individuals
and congregations have been consumed by “purpose.” 
Does the Church have purpose? 
Absolutely!  Is the
Church to be driven?  Not
scripturally.  Is this merely semantics or is it a subtle deception? 

Let’s compare the “purpose driven church” to the “Spirit
led church” in the book of Acts.

Let’s
look at the following examples and choose; 1) purpose driven or 2) Spirit
led.

1) Acts 2:1-11 –
the “Birth” of the Church/Holy Ghost outpouring/Peter begins speaking 

(Driven,
or led?)


2) Acts 2:38-47 – salvation message and following actions of
fellowship, all things common, prayer from house to house…  (Driven,
or led?)

3) Acts 3:1-3 – Peter & John on their way to the temple for
prayer meet the lame man  (Driven,
or led?)
4) Acts 4:7-14 – Peter speaking to the council/declaring the Name
of Jesus Christ  (Driven,
or led?)

Let’s
skip forward a few chapters:

5) Acts 7 –
Stephen speaking before the High Priest, beginning
at Moses until he’s stoned  (Driven,
or led?)

6) Acts 8 – Let’s spend a few
minutes here:

           
Philip goes to Samaria and begins preaching Christ, performing
miracles, casting out spirits and healing the sick. (vs. 5-7) 
As a result, Philip baptizes many. (vs. 12)  Nobody is receiving the Holy Ghost yet.  In verses 15-17 Peter & John, Philip’s brethren from
another city, show up and begin to lay hands on the believers and they
receive the Holy Ghost.  Here’s
Philip seeing the fruit of his labor in the new birth of souls. 

Suffice it to say that harvest has come to Samaria. 
So Philip should pitch a tent, dig in and labor with purpose to
continue seeing fruit.  Right? 
Well, it depends.  If
Philip were purpose driven, that would be the thing to do, but if he is
Spirit led…

Acts 8:26 “And the angel of the
Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”

What?! 
Leave the greatest outpouring that Samaria has ever seen just when
people are receiving the Holy Ghost to follow real specific direction?  “Go toward the south.” 

Not only broad and general, but also it’s toward the desert. 
Sure, that’s where we want to go when the Holy Ghost is being
poured out as a result of our personal prayer, teaching and sacrifice. 
Furthermore, Philip went and only found one man passing through. 
You mean, leave a thriving outpouring in a city to go into the
desert to meet one man you don’t know and apparently will never see
again. Purpose driven or Spirit led? 
Consider this, nowhere in scripture can you find where Philip
ever returned to Samaria.

Continue reading through
the book of Acts and asking the same question? 
Peter on the rooftop before going to Cornelius house – driven or
led? Consider Acts 16 – Paul is moving city-to-city and working with
churches being established in the faith, and increasing in number daily. 
They were ready to move on into Asia – Purpose – but verse 6 says
they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost. 
Verse 7 says they wanted to go into Bithynia – purpose – but the
Spirit wouldn’t allow it.  Thank
God, the Spirit led them!  Purpose
would have taken them into Asia or Bithynia, but the Spirit led them into
Macedonia where a woman and her household were baptized, a damsel was
delivered from a spirit and a prison keeper and his house received truth
and were baptized.

Read on, it is a pattern
throughout the remaining twelve chapters. 
Men and women of God being led by the Spirit. 
The only time you find someone driven by purpose in the book of
Acts is in Chapter 9.  Saul
had purpose driving him!

Two other times in the
book of Acts you can find individuals being driven, both of those times
they were being driven by storms.

You
see the nature of Jesus is not to drive, but to lead.

Go all the way back to
the Old Testament.  It is a
pattern established by God Almighty throughout. 

When He brought the Israelites out of Egypt they were led by a
cloud and a pillar of fire.  The
Egyptians were doing the driving until the Red Sea.

Purpose doesn’t cause a
man to eliminate the majority of his army just to take 300 men into a
battle.  It had to be God
leading.  Purpose doesn’t
take a man to a brook to drink and be fed by ravens. 
It had to be God leading.  Purpose
causes a king to say, “I’ll build you a temple.” 

A king choosing to be led by the Spirit of God recognizes when
purpose must be set aside.

Is it wrong to have
purpose?  Of course not!  However,
having purpose and being driven by purpose are two very different things. 
We as the church of the living God must have purpose, but we must
be led by the Spirit.  If we
are driven by purpose, we are setting ourselves up with deception and a
false sense of security.  When
a church, ministry or individual is purpose driven, the achievement of the
purpose serves to validate the church, ministry or individual rather than
the voice of God serving to lead and direct. 

It becomes our way of determining what we believe God feels about
our actions and us.  Our lives
lived for Him become lives based on fulfillment of purpose rather than
lives built on a relationship with Him that grows each day.

One of the key indicators
is when we begin to feel pressure.  Purpose
driven ministry creates pressure.  Pressure
to see results.  Pressure to
prove time spent in prayer was effective. 

Can God ask us to wait on
Him in a place of prayer for days, weeks or even months until His promise
comes or does the need for a visible, viable plan of evangelism justify a
deaf ear? (Acts 1 & 2)  Can
God ask our brothers to come into a city to pray for souls to receive the
Holy Ghost where we have been praying, preaching, working and baptizing or
does the time and labor we’ve invested make it our work and justify a
deaf ear? (Acts 8:5, 6, 12-17)  
Can God ask us to walk away from a mighty outpouring of the Holy
Ghost to head south towards a desert or does the addition of souls where
we are ministering justify a deaf ear? (Acts 8:26-39) 
Can God ask us to stay out of a city that hasn’t got a church in
it yet because it isn’t His time or does being missions minded justify a
deaf ear?  (Acts 16:6-7)

Let’s
visit one other situation in scripture. 

Luke 10:38-42

41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful
and troubled about many things:


42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which
shall not be taken away from her.

Martha knows that Jesus
is in the house.  Martha has a
purpose – serve Him.  Prepare
a meal for Him.  Make His room
look nice.  She was very busy
working for Jesus.  She was
driven by purpose.  So strong
was her purpose that she felt her sister should join with her in
fulfilling this purpose.  There
was one problem though.  Mary,
her sister, didn’t live her life with Jesus based on purpose. 

It seems we can become so busy fulfilling purpose in working for
Jesus that His Spirit can no longer lead us to a place of simply waiting
at His feet.  In this purpose
driven day, waiting at His feet can be viewed as inaction or a lack of a
plan.  What a subtle deception.

Consider Matthew
4:1 & 2, Mark 4:1.  “Jesus,
being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness.” 

Purpose didn’t take Christ to a place
of prayer and fasting – the Spirit did.

Gal 5:16-18


16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulful the lust
of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do
the things that ye would.


18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Rom 8:13-19
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
manifestation of the sons of God.

In this hour like no
other, His Spirit must lead us, the church of the living God.  
The world is starving for a Spirit-led church. 
The souls around us are hungry for a Spirit-led life.  Your soul and mine want a Spirit-led ministry. 
According to Romans 8:19 there is an earnest expectation of the
creature that waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. 
Let us not be deceived by purpose for we need manifestation. 

Jesus, help us to lay aside our purpose and choose to follow your
leading.

(Joel Hart is Associate Pastor of New Life
Pentecostal Church in Puyallup, WA and also serves as Washington District
Youth President for United Pentecostal Church.)