God’s Plan For Your Destiny in the Kingdom
Have you ever wondered why you were born?
What about the timing of your birth? Why were you born when you were born, and even where? Perhaps your parents told you that you were unplanned, or you’ve had the thought that you were somehow an accident. Regardless of the natural factors surrounding your birth and your life, you were no accident to God. He has known you from before the foundation of the world, and he has both a purpose and a plan for your life.
In preaching to the Athenians, Paul stated, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands” (Acts 17:26 NIV). If God can mark out the appointed times of nations, what about individuals? You can believe that your life is nothing more than a coincidence of some kind, but the Bible makes clear that God has known you and has had a plan for your life even before you were born.
Consider some of the Scriptures that paint an amazing picture of God’s foreknowledge and omniscience.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed (Psalm 139:16 NLT).
I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5 NLT).
But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace… (Galatians 1:15 NLT).
…God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (2 Timothy 1:8–9 NKJV).
You are no accident, and God is not figuring things out as he goes along.
Another passage about God knowing us ahead of time and establishing a plan and purpose for our lives is what Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it! (Ephesians 2:10 TPT).
This is both an encouraging and sobering thought. When I read this, I am encouraged to know that I am foreknown by God and not an after- thought. God is not looking at me and trying to figure out what he is going to do with me. This verse is challenging in that I am responsible to fulfill what God has assigned me to do. I don’t want to stand before him and realize that I never tapped into his plan or purpose for my life—that I did my own will throughout life, not his.
It also gives me great comfort just to realize that God knows the end from the beginning. He spoke the following through Isaiah: “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please’” (Isaiah 46:10 NIV).
Nothing is going to happen in your life or mine—or in the world at large—that is going to take God by surprise. God will never have to recall the Book of Revelation because he overestimated his ability to rule and reign through all eternity. The way God described the climax of the ages and the onset of the eternal state in the final book of Scripture is exactly the way it will transpire!
While we don’t have to concern ourselves with God’s ability to manage the universe and all that is within it, we should be diligent to make sure that our lives are yielded to him, his will, and his purpose. Our salvation is not based on having perfectly followed God’s will; only one person (Jesus) has ever done that flawlessly. We are saved by grace through faith. How- ever, the welfare of others can be connected to our obedience and our cooperation with him.
The story of Esther provides one of the most remarkable lessons in the Old Testament. While the Jews were in Persian captivity, an evil man named Haman tried to orchestrate the extermination of the Jewish people. At this time, a beautiful young Jewish woman named Esther had found favor in the eyes of the Persian king. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, learned of Haman’s plot and realized that God had strategically placed Esther in a position where she could be used to intervene and intercede on behalf of the Jewish nation.
In coaching young Esther, Mordecai said:
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14 NKJV).
This idea of coming “to the kingdom for such a time as this” speaks powerfully to destiny and divine purpose. We may never have as dramatic of a moment as what Esther had, but what all of us do is important in God’s overall plan. We may not single-handedly save a nation, but God can use all of us at strategic times as part of a team and in the lives of others.
Don’t miss the simple opportunities in front of you every day because you are waiting for some magnificent, large-scale project. If God gives you a big assignment, great. But don’t miss the small things in the meantime. Charles Dickens said, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.” Similarly, Helen Keller stated, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
If you don’t have specific clarity on what you’re supposed to do, find out how the Bible tells us to treat and serve one another, and look for opportunities to carry out those directives in your regular, daily life. I wrote the following in another book, and it is appropriate to repeat here:
There are three lies in particular that the devil tells to keep you from answering God’s call to become a vessel fit for His use. He tells you that if something great is going to be done, it’s going to be done a) by someone different than you; b) somewhere different than where you are; and c) with gifts different than what you have. In other words, he’ll tell you that great things are different, distant, and difficult.
Some believers seem to have “other-itis.” They say, “If certain circumstance were different, then I could serve God effectively.” In a slightly different context, Paul told the Corinthians, “And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there” (1 Corinthians 7:17 MSG).
To keep believers from being effective here-and-now, the accuser often tells them the following type of lies:
God could use you if you had a better education.
God could use you if you had a better pastor or were in a different church.
God could use you if someone would just give you a big opportunity.
God can only use people who are smarter than you, speak better than you, sing better than you, etc.
God could use you if you were in full-time ministry.
God could use you if you were younger (or if you were older).
God could use you if you were single (or if you were married).
Another lie that the enemy tells believers is that God can’t use them because they’ve messed up too much, because their past sin is too great.
When I consider the idea of our past sins, I think of Peter. Not only did Peter mess up, but we discover that Jesus knew ahead of time that Peter was going to fail, and he called him anyway. As a matter of fact, Jesus told him he was going to deny him, and then told him what to do after he got back on track. Your past sins did not catch God by surprise. He knew you would fail, and he loved you anyway, sent Jesus to die for you anyway, and called you to be his child anyway. Don’t use this as a pretext for continuing in sin, but realize that your past does not negate God’s plan for your future.
Though the Lord knew that Peter would fail, and even told him of his upcoming denial, Jesus still said, “I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32 NLT). Jesus wanted Peter to know that his failure did not change God’s mind. If you are being harassed because of past sin, remember that Jesus talked to Peter about repenting—about turning back to Jesus—and then re-iterated his calling and assignment.
Don’t let false guilt keep you from serving God. If your past sin is haunting you, humble yourself and let God do a deep work in your heart. Allow yourself to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus and restored by the Spirit of God. If you have hurt and offended others, make sure that you have truly repented and made amends to them in whatever way you can. Don’t just seek forgiveness, but seek healing for yourself and for those you have injured. Do whatever is necessary to re-earn trust and re-build credibility.
