Message for Sunday the 30th of July, 2017
Theme: Understanding the Pursuit of our Purpose
Topic: Some Enemies of our glorious Destiny
Introduction: Last week, we saw in brief how to actualize our divine destinies and I intended to build on that thought today. Our intention today is to look at some enemies of destiny to show us how some choices can actually rob a person of their God given destinies. Any choice a person makes that causes them to fail in actualizing their God give destiny is a bad choice that could be seen as an enemy of destiny. Today, we shall be looking at some examples of bad choices people could make that could rob them of their God given purpose.
Enemies of Destiny: We have established in the course of this series that destinies are either glorious of woeful. A woeful destiny is one lived without God and a glorious destiny is one lived being governed by God. Like we also saw earlier the kind of destiny a person experiences is choice determined. Therefore, the issues that become enemies to our glorious destinies are also issues determined by the choices we make in relation to the word of God.
The following are some choice related decisions a person can make that could prevent them from fulfilling their God given destinies. These are therefore some of the enemies of our destiny we would be looking at today. They are as follows:
1. Rejection of the offer of Salvation: Since the fall of man in Genesis 3, God went about to work on the promise He made to them in Gen.3:15 by providing the messiah for the rescue of man from sin. It was sin that cut us off from God in the first place. We learn from Rm.3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The implication of this was that mankind inherited the sin of Adam so that every man born into this world is automatically a sinner. To solve the problem of sin, Jesus Christ was born with a destiny to save us from sin. See Matt.1:21 and Heb.10:6-10. He fulfilled that destiny when He hung on the cross and said it is finished in Jn.19:30. See also Rm.6:23; Jn.17:4 and 1Jn.3:8.
Genuine repentance activates salvation otherwise you are a hypocrite: Every time a person hears the gospel of salvation preached, he/she is being given an offer of salvation at the time which God expects them to accept through genuine repentance. Let me quickly say that saying the sinner’s prayer and baptizing is the first step which is activated by genuine repentance. To repent is to make conscious effort to stop living the old life and start the live like Jesus Christ. This is why anyone who truly repents is called a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. If a person continues in their old ways, they are not really born again. They are simply being hypocritical. It is people like this who fall into the erroneous grace message trap going on that once a person is saved, he is ever saved. In other words, once they have answered the altar call, they are saved eternally. To these kinds of people, Apostle Paul asks: “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” He answered His rhetorical question by saying “God forbid”. You will find this account in Rom.6:1-2 and more is said about this in subsequent verses of that text of scripture. What Jesus said about true repentance could be found in John 8:30-36. When we believe in Him, we must continue in His word until we know the truth and are made free. The proof that you have known the truth is reflected in your life style. So over time as we steadily continue in his word; reading, meditating on and doing it, we are transformed from glory to glory to the point we begin to live and speak and act like Him. See Rm.12:1-2; 2Cor.3:18; Jas.1:21. A further study of Jas.1 precisely verses 21-25 would disclose to us that it is only the doers of the word of God that are blessed. Please note also that in Rev.3:5, Jesus makes us understand that names can be blotted out of the book of life if we do not continue to follow Him until we overcome.
Grace is Divine Ability to do the word of God:
We must therefore seek the grace of God to do His word. In Heb.4:16, we are invited by God to the Throne of grace to seek His help and find grace in time of need. The truth is that as long as we are on earth, every time is a time of need. This is why we are told to pray without ceasing. See 1Thess.5:17; Lk.18:1 and Eph.6:18. It is in the place of prayer we receive grace to help us live the life of a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please understand that grace is divine favour and the supernatural ability to do what you cannot do naturally. As you continue to press in walking with God, He would begin to dress you with His gift of graces. When you walk with him at this level, He comes to make His abode with you because He finds you always obedient to Him. This is when you can begin to impart the graces of God to others so that other people will also enjoy God’s grace that you are enjoying. This is the reason for the fivefold ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ. The intention of God for setting it up is for the Church of Jesus Christ to grow into maturity so that each of us can add value for the general good of the body of Christ on earth. See Acts.3:19; Eph.4:7-16.
2. The next enemy of our glorious destiny is the choice to be Carnal minded: So far, we have seen that whether or not we are spiritual or carnal is based on the decisions we make in relation to the word of God. See Deu.30:19 and Rm.8:5-8. When people truly repent, as they take the journey of discipleship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the devil begins to come up with alternatives to the ways of God that provides the person the opportunity to either choose life or death. The ways of God lead to life but the ways of the devil powered by the flesh leads to death. Through the new birth experience, we receive grace from God to be able to say no to the devil and yes to God. This is the real war we are involved in. there is grace to do the word, but the flesh which are things that may even be legitimate needs but become lust when they are placing undue pressure on us. By this I mean desiring something God has made for us to enjoy at the wrong time and within the wrong confines. For instance sex was created by God and forms a legitimate need at the right time which is a reason why people get married. The word of God says it should be done within the confines of a marriage God sanctions. But the devil tries to get people to do it outside marriage and even have children within that confine thereby bringing curses on themselves and the children. Their destinies cannot be glorious that way.
• Please note that carnality makes you
• An enemy of God and therefore your prayers cannot be answered and the Holy Spirit cannot teach you anything.
• A carnal person would run around blindly seeking help where there is no help.
• A flesh ruled life will always want to please the flesh even at the expense of their eternal destinies.
• A carnal person would manifest all the works of the flesh in Gal.5:18-21 [Please take time to read and meditate on this and compare with Gal.5:22-23].
How to overcome carnality: To overcome carnality therefore, we must walk in the spirit. This is the only way we can truly be spiritual. Apostle Paul gives us this key in Gal.5:16 where we are told that if we walk in the spirit we would not fulfill the desires of the flesh. The reason is that there is a constant war between the flesh and the spirit and both of them can never agree. Gal.5:17 and Rm.8:5-8.
What does it mean to walk in the spirit? To walk in the spirit is to walk in all of the ways of God regarding your life. The ways of God aligns with the heart of God reflected in the scriptures.
How can we walk in the ways of God?
1. We must first know the ways and we become acquainted with the ways of God by first reading our bible from cover to cover. Knowing the word is however not enough we must go to the next step of understanding it. It is understanding that determines the quality of faith that a person can walk in which in turn determines the quality of life you can live. See 1Tim.4:13-16 and 1Pet.2:2.
2. To understand the word we must spend time in meditating on it to the point where the Holy Spirit can begin to enlighten us on the mind of God giving us understanding. When we understand God’s ways, it empowers us to depart from evil because to depart from evil is understanding. Jas.1:21; Jos.1:8; Ps.1:1-3; Job 28:28; Pr.16:6; 1Cor.2:12-14 and Jer.9:23-24.
3. Build up your most holy faith by praying in the Spirit always: When we build ourselves up spiritually, we grow up from babies to adult believers and become entitled to leading God’s people. See Jude 1:20-21; 1Tim.4:14; Rm.8:26 and Eph.4:18.
When we live this way, we can renew our minds and therefore not conform to the ways of the world but walk in the ways of God. As long as we are walking in the ways of God, we would fulfill God’s glorious destinies for us in every area of our lives.
As we bring this theme to a close today we want to call for all who have been living carnally to repent and really be saved because the works of the flesh cannot take you to the beautiful life you look forward to. This is your day of change. Also someone may be reading this that has not made a decision for Christ yet, we want to provide you with the opportunity right away and invite you to say the following prayers out loud in faith to God and receive eternal life and begin to walk in all the ways of God:
Heavenly Father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.
Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email: jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.
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