BY DR. DAVID O.

OYEDEPO

Bible Sense for Destiny

The Commission
"The hour has come to liberate the world from all oppressions of the devil,
through the preaching of the Word of Faith;
and I am sending you to undertake this task."

Introduction
People have erroneously thought that fate and destiny are synonymous.
According to them, destiny is wherever you find yourself. But this is not so.
Wherever you find yourself in life is fate, not destiny.

Destiny is about driving towards a definite goal or destination. Unlike fate,

where you accept whatever comes your way, destiny is based on the knowledge
of your purpose on the earth. Your destiny is delivered to you by God.

God hasn't created you a purposeless being on the earth; you are a creature of
purpose, and have a clearly defined destiny. Hear what He says about you in
Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of
peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

God has an expected end for you; that is your destiny. But it is your
responsibility to discover it through a search.

Discovering your destiny in life begins with your identifying your purpose. To
be purposeless is to be powerless, because energy is only released when you are
driving towards a well defined goal or destination.
I once drove for 17 hours 30 minutes to Maiduguri and discovered that as long
as your destination is defined, no matter how long it takes, there is a constant
supply of energy to accomplish your goal. After every 100 kilometre, there was
always a fresh supply of energy urging me on towards my destination.

Nothing produces energy like purpose or goal. That is why a day without any
set goal is a very tiring one.

Destiny begins with an identified purpose; men of purpose are men of power.
Martin Luther King Jnr. said if a man has no purpose for living, he is not fit to
live. Life remains a burden to him, because he is a burden to existence.

God's Destiny For You

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called,
them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Romans 8:30

If you are born again, God has destined you for dignity. You are redeemed to
be glorified, not "shamified". God's purpose or destiny for you as a Christian is
not failure, frustration or mediocrity. So, if you fail, it's your choice, not your
destiny.

Some have chosen to fail because some fellows have told them that they are
jinxed or that they are being hunted by some witch. But my Bible tells me that
goodness and mercy are what follows you if you are following the Shepherd.

As long as you are born again and justified by the blood of the Lamb, your
destiny in God's scheme of things is glorification. He wants you to end your
journey on earth as a glorified and dignified Christian.

You must, therefore, locate where you are going in life, as that is the only way
to generate a continous supply of energy that will take you there.

God bringing you in contact with this book means that He has concluded that
you have a great role to play in your generation. You have an impact to make,
and your generation will thank God that you were born.

Let us now consider the scriptural steps to take in approaching the issue of your
destiny.

Catch It!
The first step to realizing your destiny is to catch it. You catch it by a Delivery,
Discovery or Desire. Let us examine them individually:

Delivery. This is when God directly unfolds to you where you are going.
You stand upon the tower and watch what God will say to you, and then you
write down the vision (Hab. 2:1-2).

This occurs often in receiving a call to ministry. It has nothing to do with your
natural abilities, but God's ability at work in you, because, "Faithful is he that
calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thess. 5:24).

Discovery. There are certain endowments in you, which when discovered

can be traded with. Jesus told a parable, in which the master gave each of his
three servants talents to occupy them till He comes. The first two traded with
the talents, gaining five and two more. To them, the master said, "Well done"
(Matt. 25:14-30).

Another way of locating your destiny is by your discovering the giftings of God
within you that can profitably occupy you till He comes. Hear this brother's
testimony:

"I came to Winners' Chapel in January, 1995. Miraculously, God led me into
doing business and I became a distributor of some foreign products. But in
1996, the business dwindled, because it seemed like the source of those
products had closed up.

This was about the same time the Bishop launched the Creativity Support
Scheme. So, I decided to apply for a loan, because I felt if I had money I would
be able to do some other things.

I came to church that day (the last Tuesday in November 1996) and sat in one
of the overflow classes, writing the application. As I wrote, God said to me,
`My son, it is not money you need; you need more ideas to shake the devil.' I
said, `God, I don't have ideas.' He said, `I will give you ideas. Now, turn the
back of that application paper.' I did, and He started dictating things to me.

The wonderful thing is that I studied English Language, but what God dictated
to me was how to produce and package food and spices. He directed me to
where to go for more information, if I needed any, and even told me what
should be on the labels of the packages.
To the glory of God, today, we have five products in the market, and more are
still coming!

Olafusi, O.

There is no ungifted person on the earth. Everyone is divinely endowed for a

profitable life. This brother's destiny would have been lost, if he had not
discovered it.

In case you have not heard a voice or seen a vision, look inward, with a view to
locating what natural endowments you carry, that can be profitably traded.

Desire. Your destiny may also be determined by what you desire; that is, a
particular area of life where you desire to make an impact. This is because God
respects your choice.

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine
heart.
Psalm 37:4

...I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose
life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Deuteronomy 30:19

God made man a creature of choice, so He respects the desires of a man's heart.

If your destiny is not delivered to you through God's call, and you are unable to
discover one for yourself by locating the giftings inside you, you can locate
your destiny by a choice. This is especially in areas like academics, business
and professional practice. Your career can take you to your place of destiny.
And your desire is as potent as the delivery of God's plan.

So, God has not left you purposeless. You are a creature of purpose, and you
can catch it by delivery, discovery or desire. You cannot just go about saying,
"I'm waiting for what God will say to me." The same way He has given you
profitable talents, He has also given you the right of choice, to desire a
productive goal.

Which ever way, your discovery, delivery or desire are equally potent in the
determination of your purpose or destiny, so catch one! After this, you move on
to the second stage.
Believe It
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell
the stars...So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it
to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:5-6

It is not enough to catch a purpose, you need to believe it before you can
become it. What you don't believe, you can never become. The Bible says:

And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those
things which were told her from the Lord.
Luke 1:45

So, no matter what you have seen or heard, there is a demand on faith. Until
you believe it, it may never be performed. Abraham believed God, and today
we are children of Abraham by faith. As Isaac was, we also are children of
promise. We are the fulfilment of all that Abraham saw up there when he
counted the stars in the sky.

Prophecy often go unfulfilled in many people's lives because they do not know
their faith is required for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

It takes faith to fulfil your purpose, whether it is received by delivery,

discovery or desire. You are going somewhere, but you need God to get there,
and it takes faith to get God. To get faith, you need the Word of God, for faith
cometh by hearing and hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).

The faith required here is not the one that only confesses, "I know God will do
it", particularly when your confession is not based on any discovered truth. The
faith needed for the actualization of your purpose is the one based on the Word
of God.

Men of faith have the greatest accomplishments in life. All the great deeds
recorded in Hebrews 11 were produced by men of faith. Therefore, if your
journey must end with good report, you require true faith as oppossed to mere
mental assent, for the just shall live by his faith (Hab. 2:4).

So, catch it and believe it, as you commit God by laying hold on His Word, and
you are on your way to the third step.

Understand It
God says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hos. 4:6). They
know where they are going, but they don't have an understanding of what it
entails to get there.

Every outstanding result in any field of human endeavour is a function of the

operator's understanding. Your understanding of a business, for example, will
determine how outstanding you will become in it. This, therefore, calls for the
acquisition of relevant information that will help give motion to your purpose.

You need to invest time to get detailed and up-to-date information on that
career, job or profession. It will make the difference between your succeeding
or failing in it. The Bible says:

Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.

Proverbs 13:15

Hardship in the realization of any goal is, therefore, a function of inadequate

understanding.

For instance, as a minister of God, I knew I was going to be very rich, because I
had a good understanding from Scriptures of what it takes to be rich. I knew
that a pastor didn't have to go from house to house, looking for someone who
God has laid in his heart to give his ministry something. Such hardship is
unnecessary, if you have the understanding that divine provision operates on
the basis of impact.

When your ministry begins to touch the lives of men, God will move them to
communicate material substance to you. That is the whole essence of Galatians
6:6:

Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all
good things.

When Jesus was going about ministering in Luke 8, the Bible says the people
He ministered to ministered back to Him of their substance.

And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village,
preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve
were with him, And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and
infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, And
Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others,
 which ministered unto him of their substance.
Luke 8:1-3

Prospering in ministry doesn't require running about town. It takes running

around God to impart men and command abundant supply that will change you
from a beggar to a distributor of every good thing.

As large as our church is, and filled with loving people, I have learnt not to
knock at anybody's door. With good understanding, I am able to command
supplies from heaven with dignity, simply by doing my work from my heart. I
have so many sons and daughters with big ministries all over the world today,
who come to greet me with heavy substance because of impact.

A long time ago, the Lord said to me, "I sent you TO them. You're not sent BY
them, you're sent to them.

So, if you carry out My assignment to them, you won't need to look unto them
to enjoy the best of life."

Nothing is outstanding without understanding. You need good understanding to

enhance the dignity of your destiny. That shame around you is not programmed
by God. Its source is inadequate understanding.

If somebody knows the way to where you are going, even though he may be
younger than you, ask him to show you the way. If you are going into a
business, be humble enough to sit under somebody who is ahead of you in that
same business, and let him educate you on the things you need to know.

The truth is, if you refuse to use your brain, no matter how born again and
anointed you are, you will soon lose value. God said to be spiritually minded is
life and peace. That means to be spiritually mindless is death and crises. Not to
use your mind to appreciate and logically analyse and understand what God is
asking you to do will keep you on the same spot.

Pursue It!
Catch it, believe it, understand it, and then pursue it.

...Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth
it.
Habbakuk 2:2
It takes physical input to attain outstanding results. The vision you don't pursue,
you never obtain. The race of life answers to runners (1 Cor. 9:24-26), not
sleepers or idlers. If you must win a prize in athletics, you must have very good
legs, which must be put to work in constant exercises long before the day of the
contest.

Life becomes very exciting when you start pursuing your destiny. So put your
feet on the ground, knowing that you never accomplish a purpose you don't
pursue. It is pursuit that culminates in accomplishment.

God told Abraham to get out of his country and his father's household to a
place He will show him. In addition, God promised to make of him a great
nation, to bless him and make his name great, and to bless them that bless him
and curse them that curse him (Gen.12:1-3). And the next verse says, "So
Abraham departed, as the Lord had spoken..." In other words, the pursuit of his
purpose began immediately.

Pursuit is the mystery behind accomplishment. You don't just sit down, waiting
for your discovered destiny to accomplish itself. Some people took delivery of
visions many years ago, but today, the visions have died, and they are still
celebrating stories around it. They tell you, "Do you know what I had in mind?"
I don't want to know what you had in mind, I want to see what you are doing
now!

When Paul discovered his purpose, he said he immediately arose in its pursuit,
not conferring with flesh and blood (Gal. 1:16). When Jesus called Peter and
Andrew from their boat, the Bible says "straightway" they forsook their nets
and followed Him (Mk. 1:18). He called Matthew from the tax collection point,
and he arose immediately and followed Jesus (Mk. 2:14). Distinction answers
to men of action, not story tellers.

In case you have disappointed God in time past, start afresh in the pursuit of
your glorious destiny, and stop telling stories all about town. Pursuit is what
gives life to purpose.

The next thing to do after pursuit is to persist.

Persistence
Persistence in the pursuit of your destiny is what breeds prominence. Don't stop
until you achieve your goal, for the Bible says:
 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we
faint not.
Galatians 6:9

Every notable man in any area of life is a man of persistence. He has

encountered challenges that would have discouraged others, but he stayed on.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not
lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Habakkuk 2:3

The vision shall only speak at the end, not at the beginning or at the middle. So,
while it tarries, you are to tarry as well, because it will surely come. Don't
disappoint destiny by giving up before the appointed time. There is a due
season for your reaping, if you faint not. That due season is not when you are in
need, but when you are considered due.

For instance, if you are the boss of a company, and one of your staff has a
financial need on the 10th day of the month, are you obliged to pay him his
salary? No! You owe him nothing, since he is not due for his pay until the end
of the month.

So, your due season is not when you are in need. Your times are in God's hands
(Ps. 31:15). He is the One to determine when you are due for the next phase of
life. He assess what you have done with the pursuit of your purpose to
determine when you are due for a lifting.

Psalm 75:6-7 tells us that promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the
west, nor from the south. But God is the judge. Your reward will only come to
you when God judges that you are due for it. But before it comes, keep on
going. Persistence is a requirement, if your destiny in life must be realised.

Accept Responsibility
Now you know what to do to realise your destiny. All these goalless utterances
such as, "God will do it" have kept many down for ages. It is true God will do
it, but He has left you with some responsibilities. He has given you the brain, so
you can give Him rest. If you refuse to use your brain, no matter for how long
you have been born again or how anointed you are, you will lose value on the
earth.
Someone says, "When I first gave my life to Christ, things were happening for
me of their own accord, but it's not so anymore." Things are not working the
way you expect them to because you have not accepted responsibility. God
now considers you old enough to take steps on your own; so He watches you,
and won't step in until you first take a step.

When a new baby is born, the feeding bottle is held in his mouth for him. After
some time, he is left to hold it up by himself. And as time goes by, the bottle is
no longer put in his hand; he is told where his food is, so he can help himself
when he is hungry. As the child grows older, he is simply told where the food
stuff is, so he can cook for himself when he returns from school. Finally, a time
comes when he is not even told anything, but left to take decisions for himself.

So, destiny is where your purpose in life is concerned. If you don't accept
responsibility for your destiny, you will live like a destitute and liability.

You are a child of destiny, so accept the responsibilities. Please make these
declarations:

"I am a child of destiny, I stepped into my destiny the day I met Jesus. No
one can come to Jesus except the Father draws him. The Father has drawn
me, because I'm a child of destiny. He justified me, so He can glorify me. I
will not disappoint destiny, in Jesus' name!"

I curse whatever makes you ineffective in the pursuit of your purpose, in the
name of Jesus!

I curse whatever drains you of energy and makes you weak in the pursuit of
your purpose, and command a restoration of health and vitality to your body, in
the name of Jesus!