Need Direction? Try following your bliss! There is a famous quote by Joseph Campbell that is consistent with the Truth!
Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living.
When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.
The Context for Your Bliss
First of all let me remind you of who you are. Take away all the titles you have, all the trophies your have won, all the awards from school or business that you have achieved. Then take away all the cultural definitions or labels that you embraced… a woman’s place is in the home, or your stupid, or you’ll never make it, you’re a failure. Strip them away, that is not who you are. Now strip away your education, your place in society, your wealth or poverty. That is not who you are.
Now strip away all your looks, your physical features, good or bad, big or small, short or tall. Now strip off your soul. Yes your soul contains the feelings, emotions and carnal thoughts that have come from good and bad experiences. That is not who you are.
Then who am I? I am a spiritual being living in a human body.
But you aren’t just any spiritual being. YOU have been united to Christ’s Spirit. You have become the Holy of Holies for God himself. The real you, the you that is the essence of you is not God, but your spirit has been made divine by your union with the Spirit of Christ. That is why YOU, the real YOU is righteous. It’s not just because he says it… it is became he DID IT! Bliss is an inside job!
The Path of Bliss
One of the main signs that you are not headed in the right direction is depression. I’m not saying every experience of depression is the same, but one of the signs you are headed in the wrong direction can be a sense of depression. It means that what is in you, and WHO IS IN YOU and what you are doing with your life are not synchronized!
There is a spiritual sense of bliss when what is inside of you is lined up with what you are doing with your life.
I want to challenge you to follow your bliss! Follow your spiritual joy. That which you love to do… that which you deeply enjoy… that which motivates you is not just you… its God trying to line you up with your destiny!
As Dale Carnegie said, “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Or as another said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Follow your bliss! (Follow even if it is not a job, but simply something you might enjoy… painting for instance.)
Did you know that God was trying to use the deep spiritual joy and bliss of your heart to lead you into your future? It is his fishing hook to draw you into expressing your unique design in Christ!
Isaiah 55:12, “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
Imagine standing in front of your little one year old as a parent while your precious baby tries to take his first hesitant steps. Are your arms folded taunting her, or are you cheering and celebrating with joy? All creation is singing your song, and clapping their hands in invitation into your destiny! Abba-Daddy is cheering as his heart bursts with joy. As in the story of the Prodigal son, follow the sound of heaven’s party!
We think that He leads us by an audible voice. I heard Him like this several times in my life. I’ve heard a lot of whispers, too. Many think He leads with signs. We had amazing supernatural signs in a meeting the other night just because we asked. But one of the primary ways is by stirring up joy in us to do something or enjoy something or someone, or some new way of life.
Need more proof?
Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (delight).”
[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. (AMP)
Did you catch that? Do you know this is how God changes us, moves in us, works through us? It is not by demanding it from the outside but by motivating us from the inside. Sometimes when I don’t know what to do I just say, “God if you really want me to do this, I ask that you influence my heart, work in me, so that what you want and what I want are the same thing.”
And one of the ways he does that is by bliss, by joy.
I’m not talking about being led by destructive sinful pleasures. If you enjoy raping, pillaging and murdering, it’s probably not God. Lots of sarcasm intended! That is why you present your heart to God for him to fill it with his delight for the next step for your life!
I’m not even talking about following your excitement. Sometimes soulish excitement is just that, and you end up getting sucked into a sale on the Home Shopping Network or suckered into buying that SUV that you can’t afford. Next you are kicking yourself with buyer’s remorse and blaming God!
Your desires start becoming His desires naturally because you are one with him. It is rarely dramatic. Instead it is the subtle reality of joy coming into your consciousness as lightly as a morning mist. The fact is that most of the time we ignore those pulls of joy and think God, for instance, would never want you to be wealthy because all money is sinful. Paul didn’t say that money was the root of all evil. He said the love of money was the root of all kinds of evil. What if God actually wants you to be wealthy without being attached to wealth in your heart so that you could be the one giving away millions for the sake of the ministry or helping the poor?
Warning: Step Ahead Even if Its Hard
That means start taking some steps in that direction. Be led by the Spirit’s bliss. WARNING: if you follow everything everybody else wants you to do you will end up being conformed to THEIR image instead of the image of Christ for YOUR life. No one else can walk your path.
Hebrews 12:2, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Sometimes following your bliss is hard because in the short run it is going to cost you something. That is what the author of Hebrews says. Jesus followed his bliss THROUGH the difficulties. So following your bliss doesn’t mean that we bail out of things just because they are hard. It doesn’t mean that we quit because we are making it hard by living out of our old man identity. But in the big picture it is God who works in us to will and do of his good pleasure. Follow your bliss!
Conclusion:
I think we all want to make some kind of impact in the world. We all want to leave a legacy. We all want to leave our footprints on the moon. We all want our lives to have purpose and meaning. Notice what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:45, “the first Adam became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, became a life-giving spirit in his resurrection. Do you want to live the abundant life of Christ? Do you want to make some small difference in the world? Then that life-giving spirit has purposed to flow through you. Christ wants the increase of his kingdom in the earth… but he does it through leading us by making His delight, our delight! God works in us to will and do of his good pleasure, and when you yield to your bliss, you give Christ’s life to the world around you!
I'm following my bliss by writing this blog to encourage and teach others. What bliss are you going to follow?
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