What Am I Supposed to Be Doing While I Wait on My Purpose?

By Angela D. Thomas, DrPH, MPH, MBA

You're supposed to be collecting receipts. A season of preparation is not a season of doing nothing. It's the season where God grows the wisdom, the strength, and the favor you'll need the day your purpose finally goes public. So you pray for those things on purpose, and you let Him build them in you now.

Yesterday we said you're not late, you're in preparation, and that Jesus spent thirty years getting ready. Today I want to get practical, because "just wait on God" is not a strategy. Waiting well is active. There are specific things you're supposed to be praying for and building right now, and Jesus modeled every one of them.

Let me give you the phrase I want stuck in your spirit all week. Preparation produces the receipts you need for your purpose. Receipts. Proof of the work. The stuff you get to point to when your moment finally comes and say, I've been getting ready for this.

What Grew in Jesus During His Preparation?

Go back to the little we're told about His hidden years and read it slow, because every word is a receipt. Luke 2:40 (NKJV) says, "And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." Then Luke 2:52 (NKJV) says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Look at everything packed into those two verses. He grew. He got strong in spirit, and when you look it up, that is the Holy Spirit. He got filled with wisdom. Grace was on Him. He increased in stature, which is maturity. And He grew in favor with God and favor with man.

That is the receipt list right there. That is exactly what a preparation season is for. Not just killing time until the door opens, but coming out of the season with more wisdom than you walked in with, more spiritual strength, more maturity, and real favor.

So here is your prayer list, and I want you to actually pray it and quit waiting for it to fall on you like fairy dust. Pray for growth. Pray for strength through the Holy Spirit. Pray for wisdom. Pray for grace. Pray for maturity. Pray for favor with God and favor with man. Those are not small, cute little church words. Those are the tools you will not be able to walk in your purpose without.

And catch that last one, because it's actually two different things. Favor with God is your vertical. It's your prayer life, your obedience, your relationship with Him in the secret place. Favor with man is your horizontal. It's the doors people open, the recommendations, the relationships, the folks who vouch for you. You need both, and a preparation season is where God grows both at the same time. So don't you dare treat this stretch like it's empty. God is building your resume in two directions while you're convinced nothing is happening.

Why Do We Skip the Receipts and Just Beg for the Door?

Because we want the open door more than we want to be ready to walk through it. So many of us pray one prayer on repeat. Use me, Lord, use me. When's my season? When is my window going to open? And we completely ignore the preparation God is trying to hand us for that very door. You are so busy asking Him to hurry up and crack the window that you're missing all the wisdom He's offering you right there at the windowsill.

Let me say something that might sting a little. If you can't be faithful to grow in the quiet, you are not ready for the noise. The receipts you refuse to collect in your preparation are the exact receipts you'll be missing in your purpose.

Think about those actors again. Every one of them had decades of receipts before we ever knew their names. Radio, small stages, forgettable roles. When their moment finally came, they were not scrambling to get good. They were already good. The preparation had already produced the proof. That is what God wants for you.

The Need for Preparation Never Goes Away

And hear me on this, because it's the part we don't want. Preparation is not a phase you graduate out of and never see again. I don't care where you arrive. I have been doing this a long time, and I still never show up to teach without preparing. Never. Weeks of preparation. Slides done. I've run through them once or twice before I ever hit that live button. When you watch somebody teach like it's just falling off the top of their head, I promise you they ran through it. When you see a praise team sing, they didn't just walk up and sing. They rehearsed those songs all week long.

So don't you ever get so arrogant that you think you'll just show up and God will hand you the words in the moment because you're gifted. That is not how it works. Don't ever be so full of yourself that you walk into your purpose feeling like I got this, I got this, God is just going to give it to me when I hit the live button. No. There is seeking God. There is wisdom. There is work. There is always a place for preparation, even after your purpose is in full swing. The receipts never stop mattering.

Take this to the Word yourself. Luke 2:40, Luke 2:52, Proverbs 4:7.

What This Means for You

Which receipt has God been trying to build in you lately, wisdom, strength, maturity, or favor, and have you been praying for it or just praying for the door to swing open?

Yesterday we saw that you're in preparation, not behind. Today we built a real prayer list for the wait. Next up, we deal with a question that trips a lot of us up: why God prepares you in one place and calls you to use it somewhere else entirely.

I teach God's Word weekly inside the SheShed Community, and this is exactly the kind of teaching that hits different when you're in the room for it. The replay of this teaching, “The Amazing 30,” is available inside the community as well. Come sit with us.