The Goal Is Life: Hear God’S Voice Become the Man God Sees in You

By Michael Mavromatis

If the gospel is intended to set us free, help us discover life, and become more than who we are right now, then why is it that many men struggle with Christianity? Why do so many good men find church so unattractive? Why cant I as a man find my place in this life?

Forget about tips and techniques; they are fine if you want to create a spreadsheet, bake a cake, or fix your engine. What we need is to rediscover our design. What was God thinking when He created you as a man? What is His offer? And once we find it, how do we become the men God intended us to be from the very beginning?

The gospel is a message of restoration. What we need most is to see our relationship restored with our true Father if we are ever to become the men God sees in us. We must learn to hear His voice.

Christianity was never intended to be a religion. However, it was always meant to be a relationship, originating from the heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512730999

Michael Mavromatis

Michael Mavromatis lives in a small town in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia with his wife, Landa, son, Joshua, and daughter, Aimy. The Goal Is Life is Michael’s first book. He is also cofounder of THE GOAL IS LIFE ministry, a small fellowship dedicated to helping men and women find the life God intended for them as His children. Michael also has a passion for portrait painting, snowboarding, riding his Harley, and nature. To find out more, visit www.thegoalislife.com or www.michaelmavromatis.com

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Copyright © 2016 Michael Mavromatis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, Today's New International Version, TNIV copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society® and the New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011.

Book cover design: Michael Mavromatis

WestBow Press

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-3100-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3101-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3099-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016902385

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/24/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Message from Michael

Introduction

Chapter 1 Design Meets Destiny

Chapter 2 Made for More

Chapter 3 The Church

Chapter 4 The Goal Is Life

Chapter 5 Agreements and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Chapter 6 Brokenness and Healing

Chapter 7 The Enemy

Chapter 8 Adoption to Sonship

Chapter 9 Hearing God

Chapter 10 An Intimate Relationship

Chapter 11 A Gentle Whisper

Chapter 12 Freedom, Finally! Becoming the Man God sees in you

Epilogue

About the Author

We are created for an intimate relationship with God our father. Without it, we simply cannot function properly and the true meaning of life shall always elude us.

---Michael

For Joshua.

You are the apple of my eye, and you have what it takes.

For Aimy.

You are my delight and joy, and I adore you.

For Landa.

You are my personal gift from God the Father. Words do not suffice to express my love for you.

Acknowledgments

My loving thanks to:

Landa, Joshua, and Aimy for standing by me, loving me, and always being patient with me on my journey.

John Eldredge for writing Wild at Heart, the single most important book I have ever read in my life.

Craig, Bart, Morgan, and all at Ransomed Heart Ministries for their inspirational lives.

Jean-Michel for being the Ignition.

Gerald for being the one man who pushed on when others did or could not.

Message from Michael

I started this book from behind my desk in 2012, when I was an entrepreneur simultaneously running two companies in the building-chemicals industry.

God had already set things in motion so that I could make time for this endeavor: the sale of both my companies.

To be honest, I had no idea what was going to come out of it. I had no previous experience with writing, nor did I have any proper education that qualified me in English literature or language. I did, however, have this compelling urge to get these words on paper, to have my voice heard. Not because I had the notion that anyone has been waiting for me to finally write a book full of my opinions. My motivation for writing this book is based on a simple yet disturbing truth: we are not taught how to find life, the life God wants us to live.

We fill our heads with knowledge by studying books on how to become a better father or the seven steps to a stress-free life or whatever the topic might be. We listen to our church leaders for years and years as they speak on many good subjects and give in-depth explanations of Scripture.

But when we take a closer look at these authors and spiritual leaders, we find that many of them also struggle with the same issues all men face. There are too few spiritual leaders, authors, and father figures who can actually show you how to become the man you are meant to be and discover the life you are meant to live.

Out of sheer determination and a growing passion to help others, I have made this choice: to show you as a reader how to find life and discover what it means to be a son of the living God.

Now, I can already hear you asking, What qualifies you to write this book? The answer is simple. Although you and I are not related and our fathers have never met, our hearts are connected. There is something unique that all men have in common. It is the ability to have a conversational relationship with our heavenly Father. This long-forgotten treasure is not exclusive to the happy few; it is there and within reach of all who seek it.

In writing this book, I have a deep longing to make a difference in the hearts of men who are struggling with their place as Christians in the same way I struggled for many years. I recognized a feeling of displacement that was always evident to me and others around me, but never understood where it was coming from.

It is my hope that you don't read this book with your mind only, but rather with your heart. It is my deepest desire that you will discover something sacred during this journey that you are about to undertake. It is my prayer that you will encounter the living God, discover all that He has in store for you as His son, and find the life He has set out before you.

Introduction

Oh no, you might be thinking. Tips and techniques ... not again! Not another book on being a better Christian or the six steps to becoming an effective father or the seven principles to deep and meaningful relationships.

Although there are a lot of helpful resources, training programs, and books out there, another self-help countdown is the last thing we need if we are to find life and discover what it truly means to be Christian men with purpose, strength, and dignity.

This is definitely not a book about tips and techniques. This is not a book on becoming a better anything, for that matter. This book is not intended to raise your personal bar and apply pressure for you to achieve higher standards, only to fail miserably. Because---let me be honest---that is the result for most Christian men who try their best to follow programs.

The main reason Christian messages for men ultimately fail is simple: they completely ignore what is deep and true about a man's heart. Tips and techniques are designed to reshape a man. They add more responsibilities or restrictions to a man's to-do list. In the end, this only increases the pressure and stress on him.

Don't get me wrong. Learning new things can be very useful, even meaningful. But to find our place in life, we need something else. Books cannot tell you your real passions, your deepest longings, or your heart's desire. There are no programs to take away your deepest fears, your pain, or your suffering. If there is any awareness of the brokenness of the masculine heart, it's treated through meetings that adopt principles similar to those of Alcoholics Anonymous. There are those who seem to believe a man's brokenness will go away just because it is shared with eight total strangers who have gone through their own share of troubles.

Come on. You can't be serious.

What is very clear to me is that the church, for the most part, has no clue about how to help a man find his calling and ultimately his place in life as a man. A man's life is meant to be lived without all that religious stuff that makes the Christian life boring. Men are no longer interested in becoming something they are not.

I am convinced that men are tired of listening to others tell them how to be good Christians. We have grown numb to the twenty-five-minute Sunday morning lecturing. I think many of us have given up on the hope that there is something more to be found in Christianity. We no longer believe that our faith can provide true meaning to our lives as men---that it can give us something useful we can actually live out during our weekday lives.

It goes terribly wrong for most of us from the very beginning. Because, let's face it, most of us look for our inspiration from within the church and from its leaders. The truth about the majority of our spiritual leaders is not that they lack the desire to tell us how to be Christian. Rather, they simply do not know how to show us.

It is one of man's core desires to be something more. There is a deep and profound longing within every man's heart to become something more---not different, but more than he is at this moment. If you don't believe me, go and ask a few buddies. Try it. Just talk honestly to any guy in church and ask him this question: are you the man you are meant to be, as you are right now?

As the title suggests, this book is about life, only not as you would perhaps imagine. It's all about the lost and, sadly enough, the rarely found.

To navigate through life, to find our purpose and get a sense of direction, we depend on and are influenced by the examples we find before us. When we are young, we depend on our parents for love, nurturing, safety, guidance, and character building. We rely on our teachers in school for basic knowledge and understanding of how things work in the world around us. And we trust in our spiritual leaders, when or if we join a church, to encourage our faith and inspire us to develop a deeper understanding of Scripture so that it is relevant and helps us find trueness.

Men can seek out meaningful advice if they are lucky enough to have a father figure who has the wisdom and knowledge to provide direction. Though this approach is common, in my experience a man rarely finds the answers to his core questions, his longings, and his true desires.

Men, for most of their Christian lives, are dissatisfied with the fruits of being Christian. We don't know what it truly means to be Christian men. To be honest, if there is any understanding among men of what Christianity is, our view is so horribly twisted that we think being Christian doesn't matter much anymore. Ultimately, many men find Christianity very unattractive.

The reason for this is pretty straightforward: modern Christianity doesn't speak to our hearts. It is as if, somewhere along the way, Christianity has become about joining a church, helping out, and being dutiful.

Let's consider a few basic Christian principles and see if they sound familiar:

• Step 1. Salvation---we have our ticket to heaven. If we were blessed to have grown up in a Christian household, we have already cultivated and adapted to the church culture, so step 1 is basically covered.

• Step 2. As all good Christians do, we get involved in a church or community and find a place where we can serve and be dutiful. We follow a few courses for spiritual growth so that we can flourish in our roles and be a better ... whatever (just fill in the gap).

• Step 3. We join a small group or Bible study because that is where we truly are church, as the saying goes.

• Step 4. We read our Bibles and pray every day. That's it; we're set. That is the Christian life.

I realize this sounds a bit sarcastic, maybe even offensive, and I don't mean to be. The truth nevertheless is that this is the standard view of what being a Christian looks like for many of us as men.

If this is what the Christian life offers, then we will--- We will what? This is my question! Reach our goals in life? Become the men God had in store for us from the beginning of time? I doubt it very much.

I don't know about you