Note: Before I get started today, I want to let you know that Isabella and a team from RIPMinistries will head to Haiti tomorrow on a Missions trip. I did not do a funding campaign, but I am now led of the Holy Spirit to make you aware of this. We dipped into our general fund to pay for this trip. If you would like to be a partaker of the blessing associated with this trip, by partnering with us on it, please visit this website to make your tax deductible donation: http://ripministries.org/missions/haiti. Thank you for helping us share the love of God.
Today we continue our series entitled, “God Loves You”, under the overall theme for the year of, “Supernatural Manifestation.” In yesterday’s message I dealt with the challenge of believing what God believes about you. As I continue to teach about this, I want to use the scripture we have been looking at for weeks, and another scripture as well.
The Apostle John said:
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
(1 John 4:16, 17 KJV)
King Solomon said:
God has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
(Ecc 3:11 AMP)
The Bible is clear that God made plans for us before the world began. The challenge for us, when we are born and begin to walk through life is to: (1) accept Jesus as Lord, because our journey begins with Jesus (2) receive the revelation of God’s plans through the Holy Spirit, (3) fight the urge to feel unworthy and to disqualify ourselves before we ever get started, (4) renew our minds to believe what God believes about us, (5) wait on God’s timing for the things He revealed to come to pass, and (6) launch out to experience what God revealed when the timing is right. Now, what I just said in these six points is much easier said than done, but the pursuit of it becomes the joy of the journey with Jesus. I could teach on these six points for weeks. But I will attempt to summarize them in today’s message and the next.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
- Your journey down the path to your destiny begins the day you make Jesus your Lord. Some confuse salvation to be the destination. Salvation is actually your starting point. Once Jesus is your Lord and you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are then, and only then, in position to start down the road to your purpose. Prior to salvation you lived your life without the Holy Spirit. So you were not truly in position to receive revelation from God and without this spiritual connection, you could never become the man/woman God called you to be. Yes, God wants you to make it to heaven. But He also wants you to enjoy the rise — making the impact in this world you were born to make.
- Once you are Born-Again and God’s Spirit is living inside of you, He begins to reveal the plans He made for you before the world began. Our text (Ecc 3:11) tells us that God literally plants eternity in our hearts and minds. God does not reveal everything about our future, because we must be processed to be able to handle the revelation. So God reveals things to us in increments. He gives us enough revelation to be able to maximize the season we are in. As He does, the glimpse of eternity that has been planted in our hearts and minds (in time), creates a divinely implanted sense of purpose, which the Bible says, nothing under the sun, but God alone, will be able to satisfy. Once God’s purpose is planted in our hearts, we live our lives in pursuit of it and we will never be satisfied until we become what we saw. Once we do, God reveals the next glimpse and we start the process all over again, for the next season and stage of our life.
- When God reveals His plans to us, they are SO good that we, as humans, most of the time feel unworthy. This is why you see example after example in scripture, where God tells someone to do something (which is what they are called to do), but the human responds with nothing but excuses, as to why they can’t do it. God’s plans for us are so good, that it is human nature to feel unworthy. Because this world teaches us that we must earn everything we get. People say, “Nothing in life is free”, “Everything in life must be earned”, “If you want something, you must go out there and work hard for it”, “No one is just going to GIVE YOU anything!” Now, I am NOT saying that you will not have to work hard to accomplish what God called you to do. But I am saying that, unlike the world, in God’s Kingdom you have to believe and receive it first. In the world people say, “I won’t believe it until I see it!” In God’s Kingdom, He says, “You won’t see it manifested until you believe it!” This is why you must believe what God believes about you. You must get to the point where you see yourself “As Jesus is, in this world!” Because at that point you will be convinced that God wants to do it, not because you are so good, but because He is!
I was only able to cover the first three today. I will cover the last three in the next message.
Closing Confession: Father, this is a year of Great Victory for me. You made plans for me before the world began. You reveal Your plans to me in increments. The incremental vision I receive is enough to maximize each season and stage of my life. I receive the vision and I walk it out in Your timing. Everything happens at just the right time for me. As I maximize one season, You give me revelation/vision for the next. Season by season, stage by stage, level by level, I walk out my purpose. Living this way I am convinced that I will arrive at Your overall expected end for my life, because as Jesus is, so am I, in this world! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
