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"Our destiny isn’t determined by our ability to get our will, intellect or emotions in line with what we believe our destiny is supposed to look like. Our destiny is determined by our knowledge of God."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 115.
Oh how my world would be different if I really understood and applied what I quoted. I have spent my life trying to get the powerful resources of my soul focused on making the destiny I want for my life to happen. How has all that worked out? Honestly, not all that great.
I can give you shining examples where my soul driven efforts have paid off in big ways. I can just as easily give you glaring examples where the opposite was just as true. Fact is that failures I have experienced have cost my soul way more than the success will ever be able to repay. That's the problem when we look to ourselves to make something as important as destiny happen in our lives. The identity focused aspects of destiny just can't work to our advantage by applying a "win some, lose some" strategy.
It is when we surrender to the notion that something bigger is in control of our destiny that the victories in life are so much sweeter and the defeats don't hurt quite as bad. I believe that we have taken this concept of surrender to an ends that just isn't true. Some mistakenly believe that surrendering to God means that our desires go out the window. I just don't see that to be correct. Who do you think put those desires there in the first place?
Sure we have done a lot to taint those desires with motives that aren't all that God focused. I just don't think that is an issue that God doesn't pay a lot of attention to. He knows our motives are going to be mixed at best. It is when we remember that God isn't concerned about the outcome as much as the process of getting to that outcome that we begin to live more fully as the victor He sees us to be.
You see, us getting things done isn't very concerning to God. He doesn't need us to get done what He wants. The Bible says He created all we see, know and experience by speaking everything into existence. Compared to that kind of power, why does He need such limited creatures as humans to do everything from this point on? It isn't that He needs us to make our destiny happen. It is that He wants to be in relationship as we work together to see destiny be all it can be in our lives.
I used a word earlier that made me think of today's Bible reading. Tainted is what happens when we let the world sway us into thinking we are on the hook when it comes to destiny and how it effects identity. Check out our reading with me now.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 (ESV)
There are only two things that God sees that we need to do to make religion be all it can be in the lives of a victor. The first is to visit orphans and widows. This has to do with relationship and compassion. God wants us to love Him and to love others. Love takes time. Love requires an intentionality about it that we sometimes just don't think we have time to let happen in our lives. Without this kind of love, we are but a clanging gong in the world we live in as far as religion is concerned.
The second thing God says keeps us pure and undefiled is when we keep ourselves unstained by the world. I believe this goes to motive. Why do we do the things we do? What is the real reason for wanting your destiny to happen in the first place? I said it earlier, that God knows our motives will always be mixed at best. What I think this verse is saying is that we too need to recognize our mixed motives and be open with God about them.
I was on a phone call with a friend today. I was telling him about a meeting I am having with a person we both have recently met. This person has proven to be kind of hard to get to know. I felt the need to reach out and schedule a meeting with this person. My friend asked me why I wanted to schedule the meeting with this this friend of ours. That kind of stopped me in my tracks. For once, I really wanted to know what my motives were.
After a couple minutes of discussion and reflection I came up with two very interesting and real answers to this question that goes directly to motive. My first answer is that my personality is wired in a way that needs to know I can trust a person before I even contemplate let that person into my life. I want to meet with this acquaintance to see if this person is safe and can be let in. I want relationship but on my terms. That's not a very good motive for a productive and impacting relationship to be brutally honest. The second reason for meeting is that this person has access to an organization that might be beneficial on other projects I'm working on. The fact is that my relationship with this person might benefit me directly. Again, not a great motive for relationship if that is all there is.
With all that in mind, I kind of wanted to smack my friend for asking me that question of "Why?". Thanks a bunch! Reality is, that I really do own this friend my sincerest gratitude. That question allowed me to dig into my motives in a safe and non-judgmental way that enabled me to take those motives to God. After our phone call, I was able to sit with God and tell Him where I'm at. God did just like my friend and listened in a safe and non-judgmental way that made it that much easier to see how to walk into this future meeting in as undefiled and pure a way as possible.
That's what I mean by our destiny being determined by our knowing this God that loves us. It is because I have come to know this God as a safe and approachable person who wants to relate to me that has made it possible for me to come to Him with all my hidden motives. What that does is to help me realign my thinking, my actions and my intentions in a way that let relationship be as pure a part of my personal religion as it can be.
Will this business contact be safe to me in a way I can let them in? Will they be willing and able to open a door for projects I'm working on? Who knows? All I can bank on is that God wants relationship more than he wants results. I can now go into this meeting with that fact in mind knowing that God knows my motives and loves me all the more for my honesty with Him.
As a victor we have to realize that we are not perfect. At the same time we have to realize that our perfect God knows that fact and, for reasons I really can explain, doesn't see that fact as something that gets in the way of His love for us. It is in that place of love that we have the best chance of seeing destiny be all it can be in our lives.
Don't get trapped thinking that it is all up to you. Don't let your hidden motives stay hidden. Bring God into all you do and let what you put your hands to today be exactly what needs to happen as destiny is being shaped by this God who calls you His child.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 (ESV)
There are only two things that God sees that we need to do to make religion be all it can be in the lives of a victor. The first is to visit orphans and widows. This has to do with relationship and compassion. God wants us to love Him and to love others. Love takes time. Love requires an intentionality about it that we sometimes just don't think we have time to let happen in our lives. Without this kind of love, we are but a clanging gong in the world we live in as far as religion is concerned.
The second thing God says keeps us pure and undefiled is when we keep ourselves unstained by the world. I believe this goes to motive. Why do we do the things we do? What is the real reason for wanting your destiny to happen in the first place? I said it earlier, that God knows our motives will always be mixed at best. What I think this verse is saying is that we too need to recognize our mixed motives and be open with God about them.
I was on a phone call with a friend today. I was telling him about a meeting I am having with a person we both have recently met. This person has proven to be kind of hard to get to know. I felt the need to reach out and schedule a meeting with this person. My friend asked me why I wanted to schedule the meeting with this this friend of ours. That kind of stopped me in my tracks. For once, I really wanted to know what my motives were.
After a couple minutes of discussion and reflection I came up with two very interesting and real answers to this question that goes directly to motive. My first answer is that my personality is wired in a way that needs to know I can trust a person before I even contemplate let that person into my life. I want to meet with this acquaintance to see if this person is safe and can be let in. I want relationship but on my terms. That's not a very good motive for a productive and impacting relationship to be brutally honest. The second reason for meeting is that this person has access to an organization that might be beneficial on other projects I'm working on. The fact is that my relationship with this person might benefit me directly. Again, not a great motive for relationship if that is all there is.
With all that in mind, I kind of wanted to smack my friend for asking me that question of "Why?". Thanks a bunch! Reality is, that I really do own this friend my sincerest gratitude. That question allowed me to dig into my motives in a safe and non-judgmental way that enabled me to take those motives to God. After our phone call, I was able to sit with God and tell Him where I'm at. God did just like my friend and listened in a safe and non-judgmental way that made it that much easier to see how to walk into this future meeting in as undefiled and pure a way as possible.
That's what I mean by our destiny being determined by our knowing this God that loves us. It is because I have come to know this God as a safe and approachable person who wants to relate to me that has made it possible for me to come to Him with all my hidden motives. What that does is to help me realign my thinking, my actions and my intentions in a way that let relationship be as pure a part of my personal religion as it can be.
Will this business contact be safe to me in a way I can let them in? Will they be willing and able to open a door for projects I'm working on? Who knows? All I can bank on is that God wants relationship more than he wants results. I can now go into this meeting with that fact in mind knowing that God knows my motives and loves me all the more for my honesty with Him.
As a victor we have to realize that we are not perfect. At the same time we have to realize that our perfect God knows that fact and, for reasons I really can explain, doesn't see that fact as something that gets in the way of His love for us. It is in that place of love that we have the best chance of seeing destiny be all it can be in our lives.
Don't get trapped thinking that it is all up to you. Don't let your hidden motives stay hidden. Bring God into all you do and let what you put your hands to today be exactly what needs to happen as destiny is being shaped by this God who calls you His child.
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