Inspiration Station: "Priorities"

Ever wondered why some of us feel lost despite achieving so much? Imagine your actions perfectly aligned with your life’s true purpose. That's the journey we embark on in this episode of the All Purpose Pod. Drawing inspiration from the profound teachings of Dr. Myles Monroe and Stephen Covey, we unravel the universal quest for purpose that transcends any stage or status in life. We'll challenge you to differentiate between what’s merely urgent and what’s truly important, helping you to reassess your priorities and the motivations behind your actions. My personal experiences as a former certified life coach will guide you through this transformative process, encouraging a deeper understanding of your own life’s mission.

In a world where material success often overshadows inner character, we shift focus to spiritual alignment, integrity, and character building. Learn how placing God at the forefront of your daily routine can redefine your priorities, drawing from scriptural figures like Job and teachings from 1 Samuel and Proverbs. Through metaphors and personal anecdotes, we emphasize the importance of prioritizing character over possessions, urging you to live a life rooted in faith and integrity. This episode is a heartfelt invitation to reevaluate what truly matters, ensuring that your goals are not just achieved, but that they resonate with a higher purpose. Join us, as we explore how aligning your life with spiritual values can lead to genuine fulfillment.

Here are three keywords we can't do without pondering to get the most out of this episode:
Purpose
Position
Placement

Yes, I've discussed them before but the value in today's times is without limits. I define and give examples of each to help you see why every decision that we make should be viewed through the lens of these three keys. 

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Chapters

• 0:32 Exploring Purpose and Priorities
• 6:48 The Priority of Spiritual Alignment
• 16:21 Understanding Purpose, Position, and Placement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

I Welcome back to the All Purpose Pod for an all-purpose life. Wherever you are and however you're listening today, call me, mr U the podcast. Thanks again for making us a part of your week. Well, we're excited to be back with you guys. If you're listening to us audio only, apple Podcasts is definitely the place to be. Gives you the opportunity to download all four plus seasons of our show, the Call Me, mr U the podcast, and all of our brand of shows, as well as being able to hear us on any platform, and you can subscribe to our show there as well. If you are listening outside Apple Podcasts, of course, spotify, amazon Music, pandora, iheartradio wherever you enjoy your podcast, you can find us. If you're watching us, of course, youtubecom at theycallmemisteryou, and we simulcast on all social media platforms Facebook, instagram, tiktok, twitter, you name it. We're there. But thanks again for your time with us today. We definitely appreciate all the support, even those that are supporting us financially with generous donations. Thank you for keeping us going. Definitely appreciate that. A lot of production costs and things of that nature to keep doing what we're doing. Really grateful to have the opportunity to keep this going. So thank you for that. Yeah, so I'm going to get into a few things for you today, but you know I talk a lot about purpose because it's just such a big deal. You know I talk a lot about purpose because it's just such a big deal.

Speaker 1: 2:07

In all of my time many of you guys heard the story on different shows or you heard it from me personally in our interactions with each other. But I used to be a certified life coach. I think my certification probably has expired by now. You know I'm still doing it for free in some areas, but I was a certified life coach, fully certified by the ICE and all the different credentials. I had those things. And I have my own life coaching practice where I was dealing from a personal, spiritual and business standpoint. So I was coaching people in business and helping them kind of build their brands and launch their businesses. I helped them with all of those things. So I kind of had my hands on a lot of things where coaching was concerned.

Speaker 1: 2:53

But one of the biggest things that I always heard I don't care if it was about business, I don't care if it was a spiritual coaching session, whatever it was I always heard the same type of questions and they all stemmed around purpose Every single time, every single season. That I was doing that in it didn't matter. It was always about purpose. And I believe that is the question that every human being continues to ask, and they cry out to the heavens why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? What happens after I die? Where do I go? All these things are important questions that we continue to have to deal with because purpose matters that much. So we definitely want to get into that a little bit because I think it's really important. I think purpose is valuable to us where we are, because if we don't understand that, how do we function?

Speaker 1: 3:46

Our dearly departed mentor, dr Miles Monroe, he used to say all the time he's actually one of my favorite passages or quotes from him. He says if the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. And I think a lot of us, if we look around, we're abusing our circumstances, we're abusing ourselves, we're abusing our family, we're abusing our future, because we don't know why we're here and what we're supposed to be doing. So what I'm going to try to do today is try to help out in this short time that we have together today. He's trying to help out in this short time that we have together, try to help out with a little of this. So maybe perhaps we can promote some more questions, some more thought, maybe I might be able to share an answer that might help you because it helped me. So, excuse me, we'll see how that goes, but thank you for hanging in there while we kind of walk through this together.

Speaker 1: 4:43

But you know, I always ask this question because it's really important, you know. But we have a lot of priorities in life. I know people who are professionals, people who homeschool, people who work very demanding jobs, and people who are not working demanding jobs at all, but they work in their own business, and some people who are unemployed. We got friends and family in all types of categories. But there's one thing that we all have in common we all have priorities. My question to you we talked about it on a previous episode and many previous episodes, if I'm not mistaken but what's your priority? Why are you doing what you're doing? Is your priority the right one? It's the one that's on the top, numero uno, the top priority. Is that priority the right one? It's the one that's on the top Numero uno, the top priority. Is that one the right priority? Should you be doing that? Excuse me?

Speaker 1: 5:36

There's a gentleman by the name of Stephen Covey. I used to read his work off and on throughout the years Fantastic work when it comes to dealing with this particular topic. He talks about how a lot of people's emergencies that they bring to you aren't emergencies at all. They sound urgent but they're not really urgent even to them and they shouldn't be urgent for you. We should never take on somebody else's emergency just as a quick tip. We shouldn't make their emergencies our emergencies Not fair to us and not fair for them in their growth as a person. But he has incredible work. I think the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People is one of his best books. It allows you to get an idea of how to stack your priorities what should go where, what goes under urgent, what goes under non-urgent, what goes under important, what goes under your daily disciplines. He has a quadrant that he created that kind of goes into all that stuff. It's really good. Stephen Covey C-O-V-E-Y. Definitely highly recommend his work, especially if you have issues in this area, especially if you have a problem with kind of stacking your priorities and having them in the right place.

Speaker 1: 6:48

That's become super important to me for several reasons, which I won't go into on this episode, but there's a lot of reasons why this is vital for me right now. I have to have this in place. I have to have my priorities straight, so to speak. One because I'm in expectation of greater things in my life. I believe that God's doing some things that I don't want to miss. I want to partner and be aligned with his heart when it comes to these things. At the same time, I got a family, I got obligations to people who I care about in ministry and in friendships and relationships, and I don't want anybody to get shortchanged because I don't have my priorities in line. So just a short version of that. We got to have our priorities straight. So it's your top priority, the right priority.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Where is God in your priority list? We always say number one because we feel bad. If we say number two or number three, then we got to justify why we put our job over God, or we put our children over God, or we put our desire to go fishing every weekend over God. So we're going to say number one because it's instinctive, we want to try to cover ourselves from backlash. We don't want to feel bad or look bad in front of people but, honestly, is God your number one priority? I mean, is that really the case? Is that really what's happening? What are the three most important areas of your life right now? What are the three most important areas of your life?

Speaker 1: 8:16

If I observed your daily routine, what would be the three priorities that I would be able to clearly see that you emphasize? Would that line up with the answer to your first question, what are the three most important priorities of your life? Would I see those things aligned? Would I see those things conjoined together? Would the three things I see you spending most time on, would it be in alignment with those three most important areas of your life? In a lot of cases, if I was to come and check you out, I wouldn't see that line up, because in most people's lives it doesn't line up. We know instinctively, we know what's the most important area of our life, or the three most important areas of our life, based on the question I asked you guys today. But what we do on a daily basis, the things we get involved in, things that we allow to distract us, almost never line up with those things and we go through our whole work day, a whole day of service, a whole day of taking care of duties and responsibilities, and we get to the end of the day and what do we realize? The revelation we realize is that we didn't even complete the things we were supposed to be doing, the important things.

Speaker 1: 9:29

I have a list of disciplines that I move by every single day and I don't mind sharing with you, at least sharing some of those with you. But you know, along with my, I read several chapters of the Bible a day, usually five to ten. My pastor taught me that, so I've been following his example. So five to ten chapters a day, every day, without fail. I deal with scripture memorization at least one scripture a week. I deal with reading books that kind of speak to where I am and where I need to grow and spiritually develop. I work on another language that I'm learning. I'm actually doing some research on some other areas. I'm doing that as well on some health areas. I'm doing that. I work on stuff for our brand of podcasts. We have four shows that we do. I'm working on building those up and making those the best that they can be. That's just a few things that I do every single day. If you would come and sit with me, you would see that every day Usually I try to stack all those things in the morning if it's possible, so that way I won't go into the day, start running into distractions and excuses and don't get the top priorities done every day.

Speaker 1: 10:48

That doesn't include housework, doesn't include working in our garden and making sure anything has to be harvested I'm doing that or planting things. All those things are part of our daily disciplines every day. But I understand who has a top priority. If the Lord is speaking to me at 5 in the morning and it takes me a while to deal with something, guess what? If the else gets pushed back because he's the priority, I don't put him on hold and say wait for me, lord, I'll get back to you later. I don't do that.

Speaker 1: 11:20

There's a passage of scripture in Luke, chapter 9, I think it's verse 59 and 62. Luke 9, 59 and 62. Where the Lord was calling to people to come and be my disciple and they had all these excuses. They were saying I need to go take care of my house right now, but I'll catch up with you later, lord, I want to follow you, lord, but I got to go home and Take care of my entire family first and have all the ceremonies and all the things that go with it, then answer all their questions About why I ain't going to see them anymore for a while.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Distractions, because God Is my top priority. I've elevated him there. I put him in that seat, in that throne in my life, in my heart. So for me, everything else has to come after that. Excuse me, do I do that perfectly? No, but that's my goal that he's elevated on that place, that throne in my heart, and that everything else that's not that comes afterwards and I get in order of family with my wife and all the things that come after that, all the things I named earlier. The three most important areas should match what's emphasized in my daily routine. Then, on top of that, here's a big question which of these areas are most important to God? Do you care about what's important to God? Do you care about what's important to God? That's really, really important, because how he views us is of the utmost eternal importance, how he views us. I did a teaching a while back about being in the right place, and I used Habakkuk 2 and 1, which says I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. I need to be in the place where I'm available and ready to hear what the Lord is saying to me.

Speaker 1: 13:09

We spend most of our lives running around doing all these things for all these people subject to all these people, all these voices in our life. If it's not our children, it's our spouses. If it's not our spouses, it's our employers. If it's not our employers, it's a person that we're working with, maybe in partnership or in business. If it's not that, it's somebody else that we're subject to. It's like all these voices are speaking in our life, but we don't even care about the most important voice that should be speaking to us, the one that has the power of life and death in his hands.

Speaker 1: 13:42

The one, as a matter of fact, gave us his breath on loan that we walk around with and use. Sometimes we bless, sometimes we curse, but we use a breath that he gave us on loan that we're borrowing. Imagine if I gave you an opportunity to borrow my lawnmower for a day. At the end of the day. Of course you bring it back right, because that's just respect. You don't abuse it while you have it. You use it for what it's used for. You bring it back to me, clean, the way I gave it to you and we're good to go.

Speaker 1: 14:17

Imagine if God took his breath back from you right now. He gave it to you so, alone. It's not your breath, you're just using it. It's not even your body. To be honest with you, you're just in charge of it. Imagine if he took his breath back from you right now. Do you understand what that would mean? Do you understand the ramifications of that in your life? If God took his breath back, do you borrow from him that you have on loan the things that you list in the priority of your life? Your daily routine, the three most important areas of your life is tantamount. I say this humbly because I recognize that everybody's not here, but the creator of heaven and earth, and I say this humbly because I recognize that everybody's not here, but the creator of heaven and earth as you being his creation. You definitely should have him as the number one priority in your life. I don't mean you go to church on Sunday. I don't mean that, because anybody can do that. Anybody does do that. I mean him being the top priority in your life. Before anything else happens, you and him are spending time together. You and him are in connection and relationship with each other. Before anything else goes on in your day, he should be the top priority in your life. Creation and creator, the gift and the gift giver he should be the top priority.

Speaker 1: 16:21

This is the passage of scripture in the book of Job, the first chapter. He talks about this to some degree, but we're talking about priorities. Just check this out. I'm going to read this really slowly. I want you to catch this. I'm going to read it slowly. I want you to catch this. Job, chapter one, verse one to three. Check this out. It says now, everything that's in scripture is written the way it's written for a reason. It's not an accident. It's not man just taking creative license to write this. This is all purposefully done and it has a purpose and a design behind it. Check out how this is read, how this is read about a man named Job. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 16:59

There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of us. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in the entire area. Check out how that went down. The first thing it started with was his name and where he lived, and then it started with his character. He was blameless and a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. After that it talks about what he had, how big his family was, how much stuff he owned, all the areas where he had business in the community, considered the richest person in the entire area. But the most important thing it was written first because it was most important was his character, who he was, what kind of person was he.

Speaker 1: 18:05

I'm saying this because I want you to understand today that God cares about your character. He's totally after your heart and he cares about that more than anything else that you could be talking about or that you're prioritizing or that you're doing. He's after the inward man. He cares about the inward heart. It matters to him more than anything else, and I really feel like that's something we have in reverse. We don't do that in the proper order. We look at our lives and our responsibilities and our goals and we sacrifice everything for our job. We sacrifice everything for the things that are not the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, but they're about us or about other people, and we don't have things in their proper alignment. We don't have things in their proper order.

Speaker 1: 18:54

This passage of Scripture said that Job feared God and stayed away from evil. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. 1st Samuel, 16 and 7 says this really well. It says for the Lord does not see as man sees. He doesn't see things the way you see them. He doesn't view things the way you view them. He doesn't put things in the priority or importance the way that you do as a man or a woman. And it goes on to say for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. He just showed you that in Job, chapter 1, in the first three verses of Job, chapter 1. He looks at the heart. Job feared God and stayed away from evil. He had complete integrity, he was blameless. The Lord looks at that. Can he look at you and say that you have complete integrity? Can he look at you and say that you're blameless? Can he look at me and say that I feared him and stayed away from evil? This is important. We need to understand. Are we in the right place? Do we have the right priority?

Speaker 1: 20:04

Proverbs 3 and 6 says in everything you do, put God first and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success. See, this is the kind of stuff that we know and we've heard, but do we deal with it, is my question. Do we handle this with the appropriate level of respect? Do we deal with this with the appropriate level of respect? That's the question. In everything you do, put God first and he will direct you and crown your efforts. So all the work that you're trying to do on your own, without him, is probably going to come to no effect. But if you trust him and do these things with his consent, you're going to prosper and be successful.

Speaker 1: 20:41

Matthew 6 and 33,. What does it say? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. You're going to prosper and be successful. Matthew 6 and 33, what does it say? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. You want to know that you're at a place where you're prioritizing his kingdom and what he wants more than anything.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Because, of course don't forget, the Bible teaches this as well that the clay can't tell a potter what to do. The clay can't tell the potter what to do. The clay can't tell the potter how to make meat. Put more over here on my backside over here. Put some over here on the front end over here. The clay doesn't have that kind of power over the potter. The potter has the power over the clay.

Speaker 1: 21:17

God is the potter and we as human beings are the clay. We don't dictate to God what he does for us. We don't demand that he does things like we do Santa Claus or, in some cases, our parents, telling them what we want them to do and how we want them to do it. I don't think so. God is the potter, we are the clay. We don't tell him what to do. We ask him with humility. He tells us what to do and we do it. That's the order of things in the kingdom. Can he talk to you where you are currently? When in the situation in the garden with Adam and Eve. When Yahweh, god, called Adam's name, he said where are you? It wasn't because God was blind and he couldn't see where Adam was. Adam's response was I heard your powerful presence moving in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked so I hid. Can he talk to you where you are currently? Are you in the right position?

Speaker 1: 22:20

One thing I taught on a while back and we'll end up closing the episode out with this today, but it's awesome. It's talking about the three Ps. I think I did an episode on this. I'm not totally sure I think I did, though, but it's awesome. It talks about the three Ps purpose, position and placement. Like I said earlier on in the episode, purpose is something I hear about so much, still do today. It's essentially, in short, the reason or the goal for our existence. Why are we here? Why was Adam here? The purpose of our existence, the reason for why we're here.

Speaker 1: 22:59

Position is about our standing in Him, our standing in God, our identity in Christ. Placement is our order steps, the direction that we've been commissioned and sent out from. The place of position, where are you supposed to be? Where are you being placed? 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles, 20, verse 17 talks about Jehoshaphat saying take your positions, stand still and see the deliverance of the Lord. Excuse me, it's about being in the right place, where God placed you.

Speaker 1: 23:37

Adam was placed in the garden. If he went anywhere else he'd be out of position, he'd be out of placement. He was commissioned to be there to cultivate and tend to the garden and then, of course, down the line, duplicate it, courtesy, to grow throughout the earth so that man can have connection and relationship with his creator. That was the ultimate goal. That was the ultimate goal. But purpose and position and placement are critical, because every day we get asked why is this happening to me? Why am I trying so hard to get this particular thing done and it's not working? Why am I struggling to accomplish this goal? It should have been done 30, 40 years ago. Why am I not able to get it done?

Speaker 1: 24:25

A lot of it could center on either purpose, position or placement. It could be we have the wrong reasoning behind why we're doing what we're doing. We don't understand who we are, so we're chasing something else that is not authentically us. Or it could be an identity crisis, where we don't know who we are. We don't see ourselves as who we should be. We let maybe our parents or people in our life speak things over us that were not true about us and we lost sight of who we actually are. Or it could be placement.

Speaker 1: 24:51

God could have sent you to a place and you decide. You know what. They don't treat me good over here, so I'm going to go over here instead. Those folks speak my language. They're more like me, so, even though it's not healthy for me to be here, I'm going to go over here instead. Purpose position, placement.

Speaker 1: 25:07

Philippians 3 and 20 says that we are citizens of heaven. Galatians 4 and 7 says that we are free. 1 John 1 and 9 says we're forgiven. 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 says we are a new creation. We're already being told in the word of God who we are. You got to ask yourself are you in the place where you're supposed to be? Can God speak to you where you are currently? Do you have the right priorities in place? Are you in the right place? Does he have to say Yusef, where are you Bob? Where are you Mary? Where are you Mary? Where are you? Have you abandoned your post?

Speaker 1: 25:49

We used to tell our kids all the time it's funny. But it's not funny Because I think it was valuable. I believe the Lord taught us this To teach them. But there were some times where our daughter we had three daughters at the time their thing was that they wanted to go out and spend time with their friends. They would tell us that they want to go to a certain location, whether it be a library, a mall, whatever it is to go spend time with their friends. Now, in a lot of cases we would say no, because we kind of discern their motives for wanting to do so. But there's some times we say you know what? You can go outside and play at so-and-so's house, whatever it is, and we know the person, obviously.

Speaker 1: 26:31

But we tell them don't forget now, where we send you out is the blessed place. So if you go somewhere outside of what we told you to do, that's not the blessed place. So if you're going to so-and-so's house and we already talked to their parents, we know it's good, that's the blessed place. If you don't go to their house and you have told us something that's incorrect or not factual or a straight up lie, and you actually plan to go to a party with people that we wouldn't want you to associate with, then you're outside of the blessed place and things that happened to you could happen because you left the covering that we set for you in our prayer life and even as our authority and role as your parents and as your guardians. It's the same place here.

Speaker 1: 27:15

If Adam was somewhere else that God didn't plan him, he'd be outside of the blessed place. If you go somewhere that God didn't send you, you'd be outside of the blessed place. I know God is everywhere. He's always with us. I get that. But when the blessings start flowing in the place where he sent you, will you be there for it? If you're outside of that blessed place and you're somewhere else, you can miss your blessing. Yes, it's true, you can miss your blessing and you can miss your opportunity. I don't want that for you, so I just want to just encourage you guys today. I hope this matters to you in the way where you will consider this and ponder this.

Speaker 1: 27:52

Joel was the greatest man of all. The people in the East at that time feared God and shunned evil, blameless and upright, and even he asked in Joel, chapter nine, verse 10 through 11, or even he said when God passes me, I cannot see him when he goes by, I cannot perceive him. Even he doesn't fully understand the wonders of who God is, the miracles that he could perform that are countless. Even he doesn't have a full understanding and concept of who God is, and he was considered blameless and upright and feared God. Even still, he had questions. Even he was still growing. So if you're not blameless and upright and perfect, what excuses do you have to not seek God and to want to be in the right place, in the right position, in the right priority, doing what you're supposed to be doing? This man was considered perfect out of the mouth of God himself and still in seeker mode. That should be a measuring stick for all of us. My question to you is why isn't it? Please be thinking about that as you review the episode.

Speaker 1: 28:59

Reach out if you have any kind of questions for us. In our show notes on Apple Podcasts there's a link at the top for fan mail. You can send us any questions directly to me and I'll answer them in our next episode, or offline if I can, but it allows you to send questions to me. Comments about the show. I'd love to hear your thoughts from the fan mail. Please send it out to us Be glad to hear from you guys and hope you enjoyed this. Hope it provoked some thought about having the right priorities in life Three most important areas of your life and are you in the right place? And thinking things out. Definitely appreciate your feedback on that, but hope you enjoyed what we brought forth today. I know I enjoyed sharing it with you. Get in the right place. You can't afford not to be Wherever you are. And however you listen to me, call me Mr U the podcast. Thanks a million for making us a part of your week. Have a great day, enjoy the music. I'm out.