The Messiah Mindset [PART 2] - Be a Man With a Plan

Greetings, my friend,

Welcome to The Arsenal, your bi-monthly resource for training and equipping you to live a set-apart lifestyle.

And welcome to part two of the “Messiah Mindset” series, where we’ll be diving into the life and earthly ministry of our Savior and gleaning the wisdom found within it to help you live a set-apart lifestyle.

If you missed the first part, or if you’re a new subscriber, click here to catch up and get the foundation for what we’ll be discussing in this article and the next.

Let’s roll.

If there’s one thing we know about Yeshua, it’s that He always operated with a plan. He was THE Man with the Plan. Specifically, a divine plan to accomplish two things:

#1: Redeem all of mankind from their sins and offer eternal life through belief in His once-and-for-all atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the dead.

#2: Re-educate His people Israel (especially their religious leaders) on how to properly obey, serve, and worship the Father through tearing down their traditions/oral laws and bringing a new focus on the heart condition of why you keep Torah in the first place.

We never saw Him simply flying by the seat of His pants and leading His disciples on as to what His next move was (although He was often misunderstood/His teachings went over their heads due to their spiritual immaturity). But rather, in every situation we read about in His life through the Gospel accounts, there was always a deeper meaning behind His teachings, actions, or miracles He performed that pointed at and contributed to this bigger, divine plan He had to live out the Father’s will for Him.

An amazing fact is that this is true even from when He was as young as twelve years old, when He spoke to His parents after being found in the Temple discussing theology:

Consider for a moment the daily life, attitude, desires, and priorities of the average, modern American twelve year old. Now, contrast that with the priorities of our Messiah at twelve years old and the attitude He had towards the things of the Father and how that would add to His life and His mission. If that’s not a stark contrast, I don’t know what it is! And that enthusiasm for the Word and portraying the Father’s heart through His life only grew from there, and allowed Him to do some crazy things! Here are a few of the biggest:

• Being tempted by Satan himself and rebuking him with Torah (Matthew 4:1-11)

• Casting out demons (Matthew 8:28-32, Mark 5:1-18, Luke 4:31-35)

• Raising the dead (Mark 5:21-43, John 11:1-44)

• Openly and publicly rebuking the religious authorities (Matthew 23:1-36)

• Dying an excruciating and humiliating death on a cross (Matthew 27:27-56, John 19:1-37)

• Raising from the dead Himself (Matthew 28:5-10, John 20:11-18)

These are things that no one in our Messiah’s time would’ve expected Him to do! But amazing things happen when we’re passionate about what The Father has for us, as Yeshua was. And whether you believe it or not, structuring your life around using your gifts for building His Kingdom will have you finding yourself doing things you also didn’t believe were possible thanks to the Helper sent by Messiah Himself, the Holy Spirit within you. As it is written:

At this point, you might be thinking: “That’s all super inspiring, but how would I even begin structuring my life like Messiah’s? I don’t even know where I would start…” Allow me to help.

Through reading the accounts of Yeshua’s life and earthly ministry, it’s important to notice a key pattern that we can learn from: Because of that passion He had for His people’s righteousness and their salvation, He had a clearly-defined goal of saving all who believe from eternal punishment. And subsequently, He developed a plan that would allow Him to reach that goal. It’s a simple, logical process that we can apply to our own lives to not only help us reach our goals in working for the Kingdom, but also in helping us imitate Messiah in yet another aspect.

So here are some actionable steps you can take based on this pattern that will help prepare you to live an effective life:

#1 - Embrace Your Passion: Discovering what you’re naturally good at and also enjoy doing is essential to becoming truly excited about building the Messiah’s Kingdom and being fully empowered by the Spirit to do those big things. If you don’t already have even a general idea of this nailed down, ask Yahweh to reveal it to you first and foremost (Philippians 4:6). Then, as you begin to figure it out, see how what you’re finding out about yourself aligns with the spiritual gifts to get an even deeper clue about where the Spirit is guiding you (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). And once you understand what your mission is and begin to get excited, it’s full-speed ahead from there.

#2 - Define Your End Goal: Once you understand the talents and abilities The Father’s given you, you must ask yourself: What do I ultimately want to achieve through these skills? Or more specifically, what does Yahweh want me to accomplish through these skills? This is a key mindset to have in order to avoid misusing what’s you’ve been given and not being a good steward of it. In an example for us, Yeshua Himself mentioned what His mindset was in conjunction with his end goal:

Ultimately, you should ask yourself this question: “Where is there a spiritual need I can fill with my unique skills and passion?” Once again, as you search for the answer to that question, pray to The Father that He would open your eyes to the world around you and lead you to right place where you can reach your full potential and achieve the ultimate goal you’ve set for yourself to advance His Kingdom and spread the Good News.

#3 - Put a Plan Into Action: Finally, after finding something you’re passionate about and defining a goal you have to serve the King with that passion of yours, naturally, you’re left asking: “How do I get to that place of playing my part and fulfilling my God-given purpose?”

On my martial arts journey of earning my black belt, I learned a “personal development creed” that gave me some great pointers on how to put a plan into action. Here are a few of them I recommend considering to help you understand what your next steps are to getting involved in Kingdom-building:

• Why do you truly want to achieve this goal?

• What are the obstacles preventing you from reaching your goal?

• Who can help you, even with overcoming those obstacles?

Something else I’ve also learned over time is that as you take these steps, be honest with yourself, and don’t be afraid to reach out to others, especially those closest to you. Lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Those people around you may have valuable life experience/advice or connections with those who can help you that you may have never even known about unless you swallow your pride and ask the important questions.

But the beauty of this process is that with all three of those plan-development pointers I provided, The Father is always there to help with all of them along the way. It’s critical that first and foremost, you surrender your plan to Him, and allow Him to be the first one you consult. After all, Scripture tells us:

So even as you use the wisdom He’s given you to begin planning out how to live out your calling, don’t forget He’s ultimately in control and sees all. Let Him be your Good Shepherd along the way.

Be blessed.