We are going to look at the question of destiny in this teaching series. God created us for a destiny. He made us for a reason, and we only find a true source of inner satisfaction when we are actively fulfilling that destiny.
You may wonder why I am teaching on this topic in the prayer school, which is dedicated to prayer, intercession, spiritual warfare and building intimacy with God.
There are two reasons that I am writing this. The first is that, as intercessors and prayer warriors, we need to understand and fulfill our own call and destiny. The second is so that we can pray more intelligently for those who God assigns us to pray for. Let's look briefly at both reasons.
We can't be successful as an intercessor, unless we understand and fulfill our destiny. God created us for a reason and He has trusted us with certain kingdom assignments. Some of those assignments are in the realm of prayer and intercession, but others are not. We need to begin to get a handle on our destiny, so that we can walk in it.
Many intercessors know that their destiny has something to do with prayer, but they don't really have a very good handle on it. As intercessors, we need to be firmly rooted in out identity in Christ. The reason is because we are going to engage in high levels of spiritual warfare and enemy counter attack as a routine part of our prayer ministry.
Now here is the thing: it is easy for the devil to take out an intercessor who doesn't know who they are in Christ. The enemy will do what he can to play mind-games with them, trying to create a feeling of condemnation and rejection. He knows that intercessors are dangerous, and he wants to get them to stop praying. He knows that he can't take them out, so to try to get them feeling so bad about themselves that they end up disqualifying themselves.
But there is a confidence (an unshakeable-ness) that comes when we know what our destiny is, and we know that we are walking in it. long with that confidence, there is an inner joy and satisfaction that comes form knowing we are right smack dab in the center of God's plans and purposes for us.
The second reason that intercessors need to know about destiny is so that we can pray intelligently for those who God assigns us to cover in prayer. We don't just want to pray them through their crisis, carrying them form one emergency to another. We want to see the ones we pray for grow and mature into their full stature in Christ, so that they are less easily shaken. We want to see them because strong and unmovable in their walk with God, so that they can fulfill the destiny they were created for.
Three Big Questions
Most of the people who are alive today end up asking themselves at least one of these three questions, and many ask all three:
- Why Am I Alive?
- Does It Matter?
- What Is My purpose?
We will look at the each of them over the next few lessons. Let's start with the first one.
Question 1: Why Am I Alive?
The question is: why am I here? It is really is a question of existence. Why am I alive? That's not a new question; in fact, the Prophet Jeremiah asked this question. In Jeremiah 20:18, he asked, "Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?"
Does anybody ever feel like that? Have you felt like that recently, like maybe sometime this week? God does have a purpose for each one of us and I'm so glad that He does. There is a reason why we're alive. But how do you find that reason for existence? How do you search and find those answers?
There are a lot of ways that people search for answers. Some people take the mystical approach, where you turn inward. It is kind of like saying "I'm going to turn inward and find the answers from within." Have you heard of that? Does that work? If that worked, then everybody should have their answers. All you've got to do is be still and have answers... but doesn't work.
Some people try the philosophical approach and that, of course, depends on your philosophy. If your philosophy is a survivalist, then your purpose is simply just to stay alive. If your philosophy is a naturalist, you would say, "I just want to perpetuate my life here on this earth, and other things." If your philosophy is a hedonist, life is simply supposed to be pleasure: a one big-party-after-another-party type of thing. And if your philosophy is a materialist, then it's simply the acquisition or the accumulation of things. You've heard the saying, "He who has the most toys when they die wins." Isn't that the way it works? But the problem with that approach is that we all have to die, and when we do, it doesn't matter what you accumulate. We all have kind of the same end here.
Some people are trying to find their purpose through mystical things; some people are trying to find it through philosophical things, and some people have just gone the self-help route. They've gone to the bookstore, and pulled out these theme books on how to help yourself, how to help your poor self-image. Basically, most of these self-help things have the same end. In other words, if you're going to find your purpose, you've got to find it yourself. They'll say things like: "discover your dreams," "go after your goals," "have some ambition," "dream the big dreams," "aim high," "believe you can achieve," "have faith," "figure out what you're good at," "never give up," "involve other people"...and the list goes on. Some of those are good things, and those things might even help a person to become very successful, but there's a difference between being successful and knowing the purpose for why you're on this earth.
You see, there are a lot of successful people out there that don't know why they're here. In fact, a lot of the things coming out lately that are asking the same question. "If I'm so successful, how come life isn't fulfilling?" It's because you can only get that answer from God. Proverbs 16:4 says, "The Lord has made everything for His own purpose." God made you and He made you for His purpose.
There's not anything here that doesn't have a purpose. Look outside; everything's got a purpose. The trees have a purpose and you have a purpose if you're still alive. You'd better check yourself out. Do you feel your heartbeat? If you do, then you still have a purpose; God has a purpose for you.
Let's look at a couple of verses, Ephesians 1:4 says, "Long before He laid down the earth's foundation, He had us in His mind, and settled on us as the focus of His love." How long ago was that? That was a long time ago. Just let that phrase "focus of His love" soak in. That is the kind of a key phrase I want to draw attention to. The focus of His love is to be made whole and holy by His love. Why did God create you? Why are you alive? The answer is so that God can love you.
If you get nothing else out of this teaching series, I hope you will understand that God made you because He wanted to love you. It is not like God was lonely. God's not up in heaven saying, "Oh, I'm so lonely. I just need somebody." He didn't create you because He needed to; He created you because He wanted to. God is love, so He wanted us to love; He wanted us to be here so He could love us.
Why did God make you? Why do you exist? The answer to the question, "Why am I alive?" is so that God can love you. It is so you can be the object of His love and affection, and God wants you to understand that.
Does My Life Matter?
In our first lesson, we talked about how important it is for us as intercessors and prayer warriors to know our purpose and destiny. It is also important for us to understand how destiny and purpose effects those who we are praying for.
We talked about three questions that a lot of people ask, that are related to destiny.
- Why Am I Alive?
- Does It Matter?
- What Is My purpose?
We looked at the first question in our last lesson. Now it is time to tackle the second one.
Question 2: Does My Life Matter?
The second 'big' question is: "Does my life matter?" This is really a question of significance. Well, that's not a new question either. Isaiah asked the same question. In Isaiah chapter 49, Isaiah said he was looking at his life, and looking at the things that he'd done and said, "my work all seems to be useless. I've spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all. "
There had been a lot of water under the bridge for Isaiah to this point. When you look at all that Isaiah had done up to this point, he had done a lot, he had accomplished a lot. But throughout those times, regardless of where you are in your life, have you ever sat back and you ask, "Have I done anything?" I'm looking in the back my own life--I'm what you call in a 'midlife crisis.' You get to the halfway point and you think; it's half over. You look at the back, and you ask: "Did I do anything with that?" Then you look at the front and you go: "Am I going to do anything with that?" I think Isaiah was having a midlife crisis here. Sometimes that's how we feel. Does my life matter? Does my life have significance?
When people go through life, they go through one of three levels. The bottom level happens to be the lowest level--the survival level It is simply doing enough to get by from day-to-day, where you think, "I simply want to get through. I'm just going to live from paycheck to paycheck, from day-to-day. I just want to get through today so I can get to tomorrow, and then tomorrow I get through it so I can get to the next day, and then to the next day. I might advance to where I'm just looking forward to the weekend, or I've got a couple of days before I have to go back to work. I have a life of drudgery." For a lot of people in the world, that's where they live.
The next level up would be the success level, and most of us may fall in that category. It's like "I'm just going after success, I just want to be an overcomer." Many of us have achieved that and most of you live in someplace mostly decent. You may not drive the best car, but a lot of you do. You do well, you have a good job. Many of you have a good income; in comparison to the rest of the world, we're rich. Even the poor in this country are rich. And if you don't believe that, you need to visit some other parts of the world and you'll know that's true. That's the success level.
But there's a higher level, and that's the level of significance. It is higher than survival, and it's higher than success. It is significance; it's living a life that is significant. How do you know that you are there? Well, one thing is that you know the meaning of life and that brings significance. You know how much you matter to God--and if you know that, that gives you significance. You know God's purpose for your life, and you're living that out. When you do that, it gives you significance. If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Isaiah 44: 2, He says: "I am your creator. You were in My care even before you were born." God thought of us before there was an "us."
Now look at Psalm 139. This is the Psalmist talking to God, and he says, "You scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in Your book." God didn't just look down on earth one day and see you, and say, 'Where'd you come from? I've got to pull out My book here and see if your name's in there." God doesn't do that. God thought about you and He planned you--before you were born. Before the earth was even created, God was already thinking about you. You are not an accident, you are not some divine joke. God didn't say, "I think I'm going to play a joke on the world" and then create you. That is not God. He has a purpose, He has a plan.
God said, "Okay, I know this person. I planned him and I designed him. These are the parents. I'm going to bring this person into being because of My purposes in their life. Then He put you on this earth, and He chose the time that you're going to be born. He put you here, and He did so with purpose and with intention. God thought a lot about you. You need to understand that you're going to be on this earth for a long time and then you are going to be in eternity for a longer time. God created you. He created you to be eternal beings.
Part of your time is here on planet earth, and the rest of the time will be with Him in eternity. God created you for a purpose. Does Psalm 33:11 say that His plans endure a week or two; or that His purposes last for a month? No, it says that His plans endure and His purposes last forever!
Does His purpose for you stop when you die? No, they do not. His purposes last for an eternity, and that means His plans for you and His purposes for you do not stop when you die. God's plans and purposes for your life not only include this time on this earth, but it includes eternity. And what you have on this earth is simply preparation for eternity. You are going to be on this earth 60, 70, 80 years, some of you 90--some of you longer, some of you shorter. You're going to be on this earth for a small period of time, but it's just a small measure (a small unit) in comparison to eternity.
For example, if you measure from here to the moon, and you take that measurement there as a measure of eternity, your life is like the first millimeter there. It's just the beginning part of it. Scripture says that it's like a breath of air, like breathing, or it's like grass. Psalm 90:5-6 says, "It is like grass that grows up and then it dies, or a flower and that bloom, and then they're dead." Life is like that. If we understand the measure of our life in light of eternity, we're just a whisper, we're just a breath, and we're here for a very short time.
But, remember God made you for eternity. The purposes of God do not stop whenever you die. The purposes of God last forever and ever and ever. What God is doing on this earth? He's getting you ready to spend eternity with Him. Now I don't know what eternity looks like because I haven't been there--but it's there. We may have a concept of what it will be like, but it is probably wrong: wings, harp, sitting on the clouds. No, it's not going to be like that. I don't know what it's going to be like, but all I know is that God didn't bring you this far in building your stature just to go up there and sit on a cloud. Sometimes I think, 'why did God go to all of this work to do stuff and bring you to maturity and full stature now?' I mean, it's a lot of work, isn't it? Why does God do that?
He goes to a lot of effort to bring you into maturity in this life, and I believe this: what you carry from this world in the way of stature, you will carry throughout eternity. Once you get into eternity, you don't get a second chance to become mature. Do you understand that? You might go to Heaven. The Bible says that in Heaven you're going to have knowledge like He has knowledge. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says that we will know as we have been known. We will know a lot. The way God knew us--we will have that knowledge in Heaven. But knowledge isn't maturity, and knowledge is never stature. It is not how much you know, it is your character--and God is working stuff in us for eternity.
I don't know how that thing works, all I know is that this is the only chance you get in order to be mature--and if you don't get it now, you are not going to get it there. This is it, and God's going through a lot of work to get you built up and get you mature because He has something on the other side that He hasn't even filled us in on.
So how are you handling it on this side? God says that He made you to last forever. This life is nothing but a preparation for eternity; it is only the first step. 2 Corinthians 5:1 says when this tent we live in, our body, on this earth, is torn down, we will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home He Himself, has made, which will last forever. So God wants you to live this life with meaning and purpose. He says in Proverbs 9:6, "leave or forsake confusion and live and walk up into the freedom of life with Me."
What Is My Purpose In Life?
We have been talking about three questions that a lot of people ask; questions that are that are related to destiny. They are:
- Why Am I Alive?
- Does It Matter?
- What Is My Purpose?
We already looked at the first two in previous lessons, so let's tackle the last one.
Question 3: What Is My Purpose?
This is not a new question, is it? Other's have asked it throughout history. Even the heroes of our faith have asked this question. David did. David had a lot of good stuff to say, but he also had some bad things to say as well. He was a hero of the faith, but he was also a fallible human who had his moments of weakness. You can identify with that, can't you? And in those moment's of weakness, he asked himself questions about why God had created him and put him here on this earth. The reason for that is because we have to understand the purpose we were created for in order to fulfill it.
Let's step aside and look at that in the natural for a bit. For example, let me ask you a question. What is an automobile magnet? That is not something we use all of the time in our everyday lives, is it? If you saw one, you would probably have no clue what it was, and you would not know how to use it.
If you don't know why some things exist, or the purposes for some things, the odds are you might misuse it and abuse it. Have you ever seen a faucet wrench? For those of you who work under the sink, the things that tighten under the sink. But if you don't know what it is, you might try to use it as a hammer or something. If you don't know the purpose of a given item, you are likely to abuse it.
You might be asking yourself, "why would someone abuse or misuse it just because they don't know the purpose?" Let me give you an example. This comes from a humorous but true article about some interesting computer technical support calls. One of these calls came from an elderly gentleman who was inquiring about how he could order a replacement retractable coffee cup holder for his computer. The Tech Support representative never heard of a "coffee cup holder" accessory for desktop computers, and he told that to the man.
"Oh no, you are mistaken," the older man assured him. "It came with my computer and I have been using it for two months before it broke." So the Tech Support person asked him to better describe the unit. It turned out to be the CD ROM reader. The elderly man had no idea of what a CD was, so when he accidentally pushed the eject button on it, he thought he'd discovered a retractable coffee cup holder. It worked as one for him for a short while. But the weight of the coffee cup weakened the unit until the retractable CD tray snapped off.
If you don't know the purpose of something, there's several ways you could find out. The first thing you could do is go to the inventor or the creator of it. Secondly, you can read the owner's manual. If the elderly man had taken the time to read the manual that came with his computer, he probably would not have misinterpreted its function and broken it.
Ok, I think you are following me here. It makes sense read the owner's manual or find out from the inventor what he created it to do. Now, let's bring this back to our lives. Who is your creator? What is your owner's manual?
If you want to find out your purpose for being here, where do you go? You've got to go to God. The bible says this in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Note that it doesn't say 'you'...it says 'God.' In the beginning, there was God. If you're going to find out your purpose in life, you're going to have to get it from Him. Proverbs 9:10 says, "Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding."
Once you start with God, then you get to know God, you're talking to the creator. You're talking to the inventor--the one who wrote the owner's manual. If you're going to find your purpose, where are you going to find it? It's going to be found in God. You will find your purpose in getting to know God. It all starts with God and it all ends with God. There is no other place besides God. He is the beginning place, He is the ending place. Scripture says this in Colossians 1:16, "for everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him." It only comes from Him.
Ephesians 1:11 says, "in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for." We are part of the overall purpose He, as God, is working out in everything, in everyone. If you're going to find your purpose in life, there's only one place that is. It's going to be Him. He's the one who created you, He's the one who wrote the owner's manual. It all comes down to Him.
Over the rest of this teaching series, I will be helping you to discover God's purpose for you. We're going to spend a lot of time in the owner's manual--the bible, His written word. You will do better in this course if you plan to spend a lot of time with Him, if you will just begin to develop the habit of a quiet time.
If you understand why God put you on this earth, and you are in your place fulfilling why God put you on this earth for, you're going to be doing great damage to the devil. And he doesn't like that. In fact, he doesn't like you. It may be news to you, but he doesn't. In fact, he hates you. He wants to destroy you. So he will do everything within his power to keep you off track from fulfilling this process. Now many of you may have been feeling the affects of spiritual warfare, and you've not recognized that's what it is.
The bible says we wage war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. Some of you have forgotten that, and you're fighting on the wrong battle, and the enemy's just beating you up. If you fight back by fighting a person, then you're going to lose the war. You will get waylaid; beat up one side down the other. That is because you're like just beating the air, and all you're doing is you're slaughtering somebody else in the process. If you do that, all you are doing is letting the enemy win. God wants you to know today that you're not winning; you're cooperating with the enemy. It's time to fight the real enemy here.
People are never your enemy, right? You may not like some of them, or you may not like what they've done but your problem is not people. And if you spend your time fighting people, you will lose. What is the power that's manipulating that person? That's where you need to be focusing your energies, or the power that's manipulating you. Do you understand?
Many of you are under a cloud of depression. All of a sudden it's just kind of hit you in the last few weeks, and this is why--the devil knows you about to go into greater intimacy with God, and he is trying to stop you. You can't give up, and you can't quit, and you can't stop, and you can't let him win.
Some of you are taking "final exams" in areas that you've been tested in this last year. In other words, you have been taking the test all year long, but you've been taking the daily quizzes. Now it's time to take the finals, and in the midst of it, we're going to see whether or not you're going to pass the test or go have to re-take the grade. Understand?
Remember, you never fail one of God's tests. You just keep re-taking them until you pass. Are you passing? Some of you don't realize that some, okay, a lot of the struggles you're going through are because God is trying to bring you to the next level. He is trying to get you to the next grade. He's trying to move you up to the next step. And the very things that have taken you out in the past, the very things that have side swiped you, the very things that have knocked you down and nailed you, that pulled the feet out right from under your feet, that you've been going through in this last year, those very things you're getting hammered with in the last three to four weeks. He's doing that because, you think that it's the devil, but God saying you're going to pass the test because He is trying to bring you to the next level.
Are you going to let those things rule you and dictate, dominate your life, or are you going to let me do it? Or are you going to let man determine how you feel and how you think and how you react? Are you going to let man do that, or are you going to let God do that? Have you learned that your battle is never with people, it's always with spiritual demons, and principalities and powers and things like that? God wants to get you focused.
I'm going to pray for you. For those of you who need to recommit yourself, this would be a good time to do it. But I want to pray specifically for the people who simply have just been waylaid by the enemy. Let's pray.
In the name of Jesus, and the authority of Jesus Christ that You've given us as we stand with You. We stand crucified with You, buried with You, raised with You, resurrected with You, ascended with You into the heavenlies. We stand in Your name, and in Your authority. Lord Jesus, we stand together.[Next Article]We say the enemy will not win; he will not rule; he will not have a victory over my life. Man is not my enemy, the devil is my enemy, and I need to land punches that hit him in the face--through righteousness, obedience, and love ruling my heart.
Dear Jesus, we're choosing today to forgive and not retain offenses. We're choosing today to release those into the hands of Jesus, who hurt us, wounded us, smashed us, bashed us, knocked us down, and pulled the rug underneath our feet. We release them right now in the name of Jesus.
We place them in His hands, and we declare Your presence to come upon us. In Jesus' name, I come against depression, I come against darkness; I come against the onslaught of the enemy that would try to stop and try to hinder the work of God. I crush the power of darkness in Jesus' name, and I say you have no place in our lives. I speak hope, hope to come and to penetrate, Your hope to penetrate our heart Your hope to fill our heart. Your hope, Lord, Your hope.
Lord, we know the great passion in you, and , and I pray that You will give and create within us a passion for You; a love for You. Give us an increased desire for You, a wanting of You, that we'll see You. And let Your heart, and Your compassion rule in our lives.
Lord, in Your name, I come against every I come against every demon, against every spiritual force that would try to stop us from fulfilling Your purposes that You created us and designed in us. May we live this life fulfilling your purposes. We ask this in Your name, Lord. Amen.