You are a Person of Destiny

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

You are a Person of Destiny

God’s love has many facets and forms of expressions. Some of them we love and some of them we don’t fully understand. Through all of the elements of His love one principle holds true, all things are working for our good if we are among those that love Him. If we love Him it is because we have been called according to His purpose. In His purpose we have a destiny. The thing that we must understand about destiny is that it requires us to reach a destination. God has not promised us an easy road to that destination, even Jesus said, “in the world you will have tribulation.” Who is a better example of this than Jesus is? From the time of His birth satan sought to destroy Him. In natural life He was not a child of privilege and in His ministry He continually faced those who sought to undermine and destroy Him. Even the end we see that He endured the cross, despising the shame. Could we ever say that the Father did not love Him? There was no greater love; yet through His natural life He endured hardships and difficulty. Should we expect something different?
What is our destiny? Romans 8: 29-30 goes on to say, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Our destiny is to be conformed to the likeness of the Son of God who went before us. Christ is our destiny. Even now that destiny is at work in our lives. Day by day, as we walk with Him and in Him, we see His grace operating in our lives even through difficult circumstances.
The enemy’s job and purpose is to rob you of your destiny and to turn you off course. His mission is destruction and death. This is why it is so important to know who we are in the love of the Father and what our destiny and purpose are. We learn not to be distracted by the chaos, calamity and circumstances that present themselves contrary to our purpose. Our eyes and heart must be fixed upon Him. Financial meltdown is going on all around us, but God’s economy is unaffected, because it is not of this world. What you have invested in His bank is safe; moth and corruption cannot touch it. Many of us are facing difficult times, but our daddy is God and He can sustain us. In all that is coming upon this world it is critical that we keep our focus and not take our eyes off of the Lord. He does love us. He does care for us and He is operating in our best interest.
Romans 8:31-39 concludes by saying, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Even as the Father has loved the Son, He so loves us.
Beware of the distractions that will come at you. Watch that doubt and fear have no entrance. Set your face as flint upon the One who will bring us through. We are not here to escape our tribulations but to walk through them and overcome them in Christ Jesus. Meditate always on what you have in Christ and who He is in you. You a person of destiny.

#kent

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Knowing Him from the Beginning

Knowing Him from the Beginning

1 John 2:13-14
I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:1-5).”

What is it to know Him who is from the beginning? It is the dimension and place of Fatherhood that comes to know God from the place of initiation, purpose and being. It is a place where we go back into God before time, before place and before this existence. He was and we were there with Him in Spirit. Fathers are the procreators of life. Their place is to give forth life and then to nurture it to maturity. This is in them, because their Father is in them and they intimately know and have fellowship with Him who is the beginning. Not to make this too mystical, but the one thing that a father has is maturity. In that maturity there develops an intimacy of knowledge, not of just the intellectual kind, but of the Spirit kind; the knowing that comes as we are dwelling in His presence in a life that is filled with Him at the forefront of our daily existence.
There is a knowing of God that goes beyond the natural intellect into the eternal mind and heart of God. There is an exchange of life that takes place whereby, like Job who lost all of his children, a father is not shaken by the natural circumstances. Those aren’t His reality. His reality is rooted and grounded in the God and Father he has come to know from the beginning and that beginning is not limited to this natural life existence. It is grounded in the heavenlies and the eternal.
A younger person’s focus is on what is before them whereas a father’s focuses is on the big picture and on the whole counsel and plan of God. He is identified in Christ in listening to the Spirit for the instructions that are the heart, mind and will of God.
Fathers are necessary to the body of Christ because they possess vision, depth and a revelation that are needed to give grounding and hope as they live out lives of faithfulness in the fear of God. They possess the promises of God and walking them out. They speak and live out of a wisdom that is not their own, but rather it is the Anointing that guides them and leads them into all truth. You may not recognize them from their outward appearance, but you will recognize them as you begin to sound the depths of their spirit.
Little children know the God of salvation and forgiveness of sins. Young men know the place of spiritual battle and overcoming. The fathers know Him who is from the beginning. Their lives are lived out of the substance of the Word of God. Their existence may be in this world, but it is not their substance. You might say they have found their roots and they have become one with them. The beginning is a place of creation and bringing into being. God wants to bring us up and mature us into His beginning and His Being.

Blessings,
#kent

In Our Darkest Hour

Acts 16:16-29
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

In Our Darkest Hour

As we endeavor to walk the walk of faith we come to experience and realize that God doesn’t just rescue us out of every bad circumstance and trial. The experience Paul and Silas have here is a case and point. God had something more far reaching than an immediate rescue or even the avoidance of a very unpleasant experience for His servants. Like them, there are times when our reasoning might be “God, I am doing your will and I am in your service, why are you allowing these things to happen to me? Why didn’t you come through when I called upon You?”
Remember the words of Jesus in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” If Jesus, the Son of God, had to endure the cross, despising the shame, then know that there can and will be dark and difficult times when we follow in His footsteps. The question then isn’t really are we going to experience trials and tribulations, those are almost a given. The question is how do we respond when we are in the midst of these dark times? Will we blame God for failing us? Will we give up and forsake the faith or will we do what Paul and Silas did in there greatest and darkest hour of despair. They were praying, praising and singing hymns unto the Lord. If you want to talk about a time when they might have had zero incentive to praise God this could have been it. They have been wrongfully accused, convicted, beaten within an inch of their lives, thrown into the inner, darkest dungeon and put into chains. Everything in the natural declared that they were defeated and God hadn’t saved them. Just stick a fork in them cause they are done.
These are men that no longer walk by their feelings and emotions. These are men that have entrusted themselves into the hands of God whether for life or for death. Their faith and commitment have superseded their circumstances. This is where we have to be in our walk and in our faith in this hour. In our darkest hour we cannot be murmuring and complaining about how God failed us. God is God and does all things according to His time and purpose which may be in direct contradiction to ours. So what do we do in these times? We worship Him. It doesn’t matter what happens upon the earth or how bad it gets, God is still on the throne. He is still sovereign over the affairs of men. Evil men may prevail for a time, but in the end they must answer to the Almighty.
Job 13: 15 says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…” This must become the motto and battle cry of God’s people. We are His in life and in death. We are His in health and in sickness. We are His in prosperity and poverty. We are His in freedom and in prison. We are His in justice and injustice. In all our ways and with all of our hearts we must be His.
We see God showing up in the darkest hour in the midst of praise and worship. He shows Himself strong and sovereign even in a naturally impossible situation. Through this travail and sorrow, salvation and life are brought forth to the glory of God. We are pregnant with His life and often the bringing forth of that life comes with much travail and sorrow, but joy comes in the morning. Light triumphs over the darkness and life over death. There is no greater honor we can have than to lay down our lives for Christ’s sake. Many saints have not been rescued as Paul and Silas were this night and eventually they, also, came to a time when they gave their lives for the gospel. The martyrs are the color guard of heaven. They carry the standard of His righteousness and the banner of His love. They are His elite elect and faithful ones, because they loved not their lives even unto death.
Many of us are in dark times or will be in the near future. They may or may not be life threatening, but they won’t be easy. In these times we must enter into His rest. We must resign to the truth that our greatest victory is found not in self-effort, but through prayer, praise and worship. In Daniel 3 when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s idol they faced sure death for not complying, but this was their response, “16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” This is the abandonment of faith into the hands of God. This is something that everything in the natural cries out against, but for the ones who know their God this is the place of our peace.

Blessinsg,
#kent

God’s Process

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variation nor shadow of turning.

God’s Process

In the light of day there is no darkness, but shadows still move away from the direction of the light much the way our hidden sins move away from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is when we come into the noon day of His presence that there is no shadow of turning and there all things are exposed to the light. When the light of God is put directly over every area of our life then whatever shadows were there fall beneath you and are no longer projected from you.
A fire will seek to consume everything combustible and the hotter the fire the more completely combustibles are burned. All that is considered of the sinful nature is combustible and subject to the fire. When we pass through the baptism of the fire of Christ’s love He is not rejecting you, but accepting you and promoting you. What His love is burning up may be very grievous to our flesh, but it is purifying us from all the flesh and defilement that has held us back from a deeper walk in His presence. When we don’t understand the process we can become angry, disappointed and offended with God. We don’t fully understand the principle and concept that before a seed can bring forth much fruit it first must fall into the ground and die outwardly so that the life within it can spring forth and bring forth much fruit. If we want to be fruitful there is a process.
It wasn’t in the natural desire of Jesus to suffer what He had to suffer and die like He had to die. He prayed and asked the Father, ‘If there is any way let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done.’ When we make our commitment to fully give our lives to Christ, we probably don’t really grasp what that might entail. Father is gracious, He doesn’t confront us with everything at once, but He begins to take us through the process of refinement. He begins to expose those shadow areas in our lives and desires to bring the light of His purification to illuminate them, dispel them and consume them. In a lot of this process we have our will to submit or withdraw from this process. In others we go through experiences that are beyond our control and often through those difficult times we may find God in a greater dimension than what we had previously known Him. Sometimes in the things that we must pass through, they are not just for us, but they are to train us up and make us forerunners for those who must pass through similar circumstances. We then have the experience and the grace of God to speak into their lives from a heart of empathy and understanding just as Jesus was tempted in all areas just as we are.
There are many different types of terrain that we pass over as we journey with Jesus. The truth we must always keep close is that we don’t journey it alone. Even though all others would forsake us, Father never will. In Hebrews 13:5 we are given this exhortation, ” Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
6So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
7Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Jesus has never changed His mind toward you. His love for you has never wavered. His faithfulness is always the same and steadfast.
Father is taking us through the process of purification. It is not by our works or efforts, but more by our submission and obedience to Him. We co-labor in the process of purification that is taking place within us. Romans 8:12-17 shares with us, “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” The power of overcoming is by our partnering with the Spirit of God within us, to put to death the misdeeds of the body. It is not by just our strength, but neither is it by our passivity. We are in the midst of a commitment to Him to allow the DNA of His Spirit to transform us from what has been put to death into what is of His life and godliness. Thereby we are called the Sons of God if we are led by the Spirit of God. You also notice that it is in sharing the suffering of Christ that we also share His glory.
At every juncture, at every turn, at every circumstance and in every encounter may we have the heart to say, “Yes, Lord Jesus, have your way, whatever that entails and whatever that takes me through. I just want to be conformed to You.”

Blessings,
#kent

Buffet

Buffet

2 Corinthians 12:7
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

The word buffet means to strike with the fist, give one a blow with the fist, to maltreat or treat with violence. This is one of only two places where this word occurs. In both cases the outward violence is prompted by a spiritual influence. Here Paul speaks of the afflictions in his flesh brought about by a messenger of satan. The implication here is that God permitted satan to afflict or beat up on Paul for the purpose of keeping pride in check.
The other scripture deals with Jesus, when the religious leaders are examining Him. “And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands (Mark 14:65).” We might observe that these buffetings were physical afflictions or attacks brought by satanic influence, but permitted by God.
The question then becomes why does God allow bad things to happen to good people. Why would God allow Jesus or Paul or any of us to be buffeted by satan, especially in light of the fact that he is a defeated foe. Hebrews 5:8-10 tells us of Jesus, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.” The one principle we learn here is that in the place of suffering we learn obedience and submission. Paul says this in Romans 8:18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” When we desire and press in to rising above our earthly state we are often met with great spiritual resistance. Of course we cry out to God, but God doesn’t always immediately remove our trial and test. Perfection in us is not brought about by our deliverance from every unpleastantry, but by our steadfast fast faith and obedience to overcome in the midst of trial and testing. It is counting God faithful even in the face of failure, defeat or loss.
Why would God be so hard on us? The condition of every precious jewel and precious metal, in it’s raw state, is mostly earth and dross and impurities, that’s us. God is the master jeweler, the great potter and the master craftsman of His creation. What He is working in you and I are nothing short of perfection and stunning beauty in His eyes. What we feel in the process is often rejected, persecuted, abused, afflicted, cast down. We are not so unlike Paul’s description in 2 Corinthians 4:7-8, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” Satan is simply a tool or hammer in the left hand of God. While Satan may have delusions of destroying our faith, God’s intent is to test it, try it and temper it, dealing with it and burning away all of the impurities. He is giving us eyes for only Him, so that no matter our circumstance, rich or poor, sickness or health, success or failure, Christ is all and in all. Like Paul, we cry out for God to deliver us, but often His answer to us is the same that He gave to Paul, “My grace is sufficient.”
You are not enduring this buffeting because God hates you, or despises you, or is mad at you. You have been counted worthy to suffer the cross. You have been called to come into the ranks of the saints who ‘overcome by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb; and they loved not their lives unto death (Revelations 12:11).’ Revelations 12:17 says, “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This is you and I.
If you are buffeted today rejoice in the love of God and that He has counted you worthy to be the ultimate instrument of His victory, glory and praise. “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Romans 8:37)”.

Blessings,
kent