Christian author and award-winning television host Beth Townsend shared her unique approach to helping people find their God-given purpose in life. According to an interview with CBN News’ The Prayer Link, Townsend explained that she spent a significant amount of time studying what the Bible says about discovering one’s purpose. Her studies led to the conclusion that the process of finding out who we are begins when we figure out who we are not.
Townsend described her approach as “backwards,” stating that “if you know who you’re not, who God’s not called you to be, who you are then begins to emerge and have complete freedom to walk in the giftedness, in the fullness of the Spirit.” She explained that the outside world and culture is so influential, but people need to “shrink back” and look to God for guidance in their lives. Once people eliminate the noise of everyone else and focus on talking to God, they can see much easier who they are meant to be and what they are meant to do.
In conducting interviews, Townsend shared that she learned more about how people set about doing “what God’s calling them to do” and inquired about how they knew. She explained that she found purpose to be a “mindset” and “faith,” adding her own story that when she began to “see Christ,” was when she began to understand her path in life. Townsend noted that everyone makes mistakes, but remaining committed on their path will allow people not to dwell on regrets but keep moving forward with faith.
While some may think that if they do what God’s calling them to do the path would be easy, Townsend suggests that is not the case. She explained her journey writing her latest book, Life On Purpose: You Must Be Led Before You Can Lead, that brought her to an understanding that the purpose of writing her book was not necessarily to be about the interviews, but what the interviews taught her which she would share with readers. Ultimately, Townsend suggests that discovering one’s purpose in life is a faithful journey that focuses on God, and identifying who we are not can help lead us to finding who we are.