07/12/2025
"CONTROL YOUR DESTINY"
You've got a destiny to fulfill and you must be made whole in order to do it. It is God's will for you to prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. When His will becomes your will you can have the assurance that His plan for your life will turn out exactly as He predestined it long before you were even born. Is. 46:10 says God declares "the end from the beginning." When He planned out your life He started with your final day on earth. He started from where He wanted you to end up. The Message Bible says, "From the very beginning telling you what the ending will be, all along letting you in on what is going to happen." Jer. 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." The King James Bible says God wants to give you "an expected end." Your end has already been established. The Message Bible says, "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hoped for."
Jesus is the author and finisher and Phil. 1:6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." If you know you end up being victorious and made whole, you won't go through life being discouraged and full of disappointment. You'll stay in peace because you know in the end it's all going to work out. Sometimes on the surface it may appear that you'll never reach the fulfillment of your dream. There will be twists and turns on the road you're on, and many detours will cause you to go in the opposite direction from which you're supposed to go. Here is the test. Will you continue to do the right thing and keep your hopes alive even when the wrong things are happening? Will you keep knocking when one door after another gets closed in your face? The only thing that can stop you is you. Don't get discouraged and give up because like Joseph you can go from the pit to the palace in a single day.
Don't lose sight of your dream because of things you don't understand. Keep pressing forward knowing that nothing can keep you from your destiny if you don't let it. Remember this, the depth of your pain is an indicator of the height of your future. A tall skyscraper has a deeper foundation than the smaller buildings around it. The taller the building, the deeper the foundation will be. During times of great trial is when God prepares you to reach greater heights than you've ever imagined. The devil is trying to defeat you but God is using the trial to promote you. This is where faith comes in. This is when you take control of your destiny. This is when you tell God you trust Him even when you don't understand what's going on. God said He's supply all your needs but you just received word that the place where you work will be closing down at the end of the month. Comfort yourself knowing this is not the end of the story. God has an expected end for you and all the forces of darkness can not hold you back.
God said in Is. 14:24, "Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand." He went on to say in vs. 27, "For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?" God has planned out your life and established your ending. He spoke stars into existence and there is nothing that can stop Him from bringing His plan for your life into rich and complete fulfillment. Rejoice knowing that God has the final say. Stay in peace because your steps are being ordered by the Lord. When you know the outcome your perspective changes when things don't go the way they should. God always leads you to triumph and in the end all things will turn out in your favor. How you start is not what's important, it's how you finish that matters. The beginning does not determine your destiny, what matters is the expected end. Let your heart be filled with expectation of what God can do and how big He really is. He is a supernatural God and He has empowered you with everything you need. He has given you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus one day asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:15,16). That is a great confession. The revelation that Jesus is the Christ is the foundation on which the church is built. This is the door through which you enter into the kingdom of God. And once you're in, He gives you the keys of the kingdom. Jesus said in vs. 19, "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." In other words, your destiny is in your control. God gave the children of Israel the Promised Land but they didn't go in and possess it because they refused to take control of their destiny. God has great plans for your life but that does not mean you can sit back and do nothing thinking it will unfold before your very eyes. No, God does not work that way. There is a part you have to play and the first thing you have to know is that your life and your destiny is in your control.
This goes against the theology of millions of good, God-fearing believers. They believe God is in control of everything and has a divine purpose for whatever happens on the planet. They think He is sovereign and will do whatever He wants and there is nothing anybody can do about it. Little do they know that there is no verse in the Bible that supports this way of thinking. With diligence people need to examine everything they believe and with no exception find a scripture to back it up. Don't believe something just for the sake of believing it. Don't condemn the Bible if it doesn't line up with the words of a hymn you sang in church as a child growing up. Don't believe something just because somebody said it was in the Bible. Find out for yourself. People have selective hearing and will believe what they want no matter what's being preached from the pulpit. Their mind is already made up and this is how many false teachings come to the body of Christ. They take what they heard and turn it into something else. Discipline yourself to believe what God said and not what somebody said He said.
People say God is in complete control of everything. Is He? Was He in control of what happened in the Garden of Eden? Or how about you? Was God in control of everything you said and did yesterday? Was every word that came out your mouth planned and foreordained by the great God of the universe? Millions of years ago did He decide that you would eat bacon and eggs for breakfast instead of oatmeal? Did you decide what clothes you would wear or did you have no choice in the matter because it was already predetermined for you multi millenniums ago? People think that if they don't have a job then it must be God's will for them to lay around and watch television all day and play video games all night. After all, He is in control of everything, or so they reason. If something happens it was His will and if it doesn't it wasn't His will. When loved ones die preachers say God is in control and He must have had a reason for calling them home at such an early age. Those who say such things are speaking a language that reveals they don't know what they're talking about.
Jesus taught us to pray in Matt. 6:10, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Why would Jesus teach us to pray this way if God's will was going to be done on earth anyway? In fact, why pray at all? If God is always in control and is going to do whatever He wants, then there is no reason for prayer. Jesus teaching us to pray for the Father's will to be done on the earth indicates that His will is not always being done. His will is completely fulfilled in heaven but it's not that way down here on the earth. Is it as good on earth as it is in heaven? Certainly not and this is why you need to pray that His will would be done here on the earth. Deut. 30:15 says, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil." God is giving you a choice. You can't leave up to God what He is leaving up to you. Some choices you have to make. The decisions you make determine the direction your life will go. The fulfillment of your destiny is based on the choices you make.
Decisions determine direction, direction determines destination. Where you're at today was based on the decisions you've made in the past and where you'll be tomorrow will be determined by the decisions you make today. You control your destiny by the choices you make. Deut. 30:19 says, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." The choice is yours and God is telling you what choice to make. Choose life. Choose blessing rather than cursing. God is telling you what to choose but He is not going to force you to make that choice. Yes, God is all knowing and all powerful and He declares the end from the beginning. Still, He is giving you the responsibility to make decisions based on what He told you to do. If you make the right decisions you will get the right results. Prov. 4:18 says, "But the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day."
Anything with a mind of its own can do whatever it wants. You can choose to do what God wants or you can choose to go completely against His will for your life. God made you this way. He gave you the freedom to choose life or death, blessing or cursing. There are many things you can control but won't do it unless you believe you can. The enemy is constantly working to convince people that they are helpless pawns, that they are powerless to do anything about their destiny. When something goes wrong don't think there is nothing you can do about it. There is. You've been given the keys to the kingdom, the right to access what rightfully belongs to you. The creator of the universe has destined you to leave your mark on this generation. There are seeds of greatness inside of you and God has given you a wonderful dream that He wants to see come to pass. Get rid of the excuses and start making the right choices that will govern your life. Your destiny is in your hands.
Many good Christians today are wallowing in destruction and want to change their lives so desperately but they don't think they can do anything about it. They want Jesus to resist the devil but He tells them to do it (James 4:7). They want Him to control their lives but He leaves that responsibility up to them. Mark 11:23 says, "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says." Who is speaking to the mountain? You are! This is not a prayer. You don't pray and ask God to remove the mountain. Many people are "praying" when they should be "saying." They're trying to get God to do something that He told them to do. You have the keys of the kingdom and whatever you bind will be bound, whatever you loose will be loosed. Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves. He spoke to the fig tree and to a fever. He's your example and you're supposed to take control the same way He did.
There are situations in life that won't change if you don't do something about it. Legally God can not intervene because He's given you the keys of the kingdom, the responsibility to take control of your life and destiny. God will not do something He told you to do. You have been given the authority to resist the enemy when he rises up against you. You can stomp on his head and command him to stop in his operations against you. Don't just sit there and let him walk all over you. Stand up and do something about it. Speak to your mountain and command it to be tossed into the sea. Be like Job who said in the midst of his trial, "For I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25). He was saying that nothing could change his expected end. Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Jesus knew His end had already been established. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He knew His destiny lay being seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father. The people could put Jesus in the grave but they couldn't keep Him there.
God has chosen not to control you but to put control in your hands. He refuses to force you to do anything. He created you with a free will and this should be one of the biggest reasons you love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. You are not a computer programmed robot but have been given the freedom to choose life or death, blessing or cursing. God has all this might and all this power and yet He hands you the keys of the kingdom and says it's up to you to decide what you want to do. The choice is yours. You can believe Him or not, you can serve Him or not. Don't be fooled by the wiles of the enemy. The devil is a deceiver. He tries to get people to believe God is in control so that he can be in control. If you believe God is in control of everything then when something bad happens you won't do anything about it. This gives the devil free reign to come in and destroy your life. God says you are in control but the devil tells you God is in control. By getting you to believe you have no control over what happens to you is one way the devil gains access to your life.
Believing God is in control and doing nothing is all you have to do for the devil to bring chaos to your life. But rejoice for you have been given the keys of the kingdom. You have control. You can bind and you can loose. To bind means you can stop something. You can shut it up and turn it off. To loose means you can permit something to happen. You can set something in motion and allow it to bless your life. You can do this in faith with your words and by using the power of the Name of Jesus. When you do this heaven will back you up all the way. God allows what you allow and prevents what you prevent. You are in control and this should make you feel good. People in authority rejoice because of the power given to them by the Lord. One thing that you have control over is your mind. So many people say they can't help how they think and feel. That is a lie and is the reason they're in the bad situation they're currently in. They have control over what they think about but so many don't know they have it. They've been deceived by the enemy and are on the road to destruction.
It is God's will for you to have a firm grip on your mind and your emotions and this is why in Phil. 4:8 He tells you to think on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of a good report. It matters what you think about if you are to rise up and control your destiny. Guard your mind. Be careful what you listen to and what you watch on television. If you will keep your mind focused on the Lord and things that are praiseworthy He will keep you in perfect peace (Rom. 8:6). Rejoice for you are in control of your mind and your emotions. Nobody can make you think about something you don't want to. Nobody can make you doubt and worry. You don't have to be grumpy until you've had your first cup of coffee in the morning. Knowing this will set you free. When you're led by the Spirit you're no longer moved or controlled by feelings. You won't be up one moment and down the next. You'll be just like Jesus who's the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8).
Eph. 4:23,24 tells you to "be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness." Who puts on the new man? You do! You can put on joy and peace and love. You can walk by faith and not by feelings. You are in control. You can be angry and sin not (vs. 26). Your feelings are your feelings and you can control them. Never say you can't control your anger because you can. There are many who don't do it but they can if they choose to. The problem is the more you yield to something that is bad the worse it gets and after a while it will appear as if you've lost control of the situation. People do what they can get away with and it's a lie and a deception to say you can't help being the way you are. Nobody has to yield to their temper. You are responsible for every idle word you speak and even more so for words spoken in anger and hatred. God will hold you responsible for words you say that hurt people. Control your emotions. Control the words you speak. Be led by the Spirit and not the flesh.
Ps. 131:2 says, "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me." Wean yourself from yielding to the flesh. If you don't control your feelings God will not control them for you. When you're having a bad day smile and say out loud, "This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." If you do this you will never have a bad day. You're walking in faith and God will honor that. You will not fail. Believe that you are in control and don't have to act based on how you feel. You can feel mad but act glad. You can feel like you don't like somebody but act like you love them with all your heart and soul. You can do this because down in your spirit you really do love them. It's the flesh that's making you feel like you don't. Refuse to let your feelings control you. You are not a helpless victim. You yield to the feelings that are good and don't yield to the ones that are bad. You do have control. The Lord has given you the right and the authority to control your destiny. He has given you the keys of the kingdom.
Another thing you are supposed to be in control of is your body. Your body is your body and if you're in control you can make it do what you want it to do. Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:27, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection." The NLT says, "I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do as it should." Paul saw to it that the inner man dominated the outward man. 1 Cor. 6:13 says your body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. When you make a commitment to use your body to serve the Lord, He will make a commitment to you that He will be for your body. He will quicken your body and give it strength. He will raise it up whole and complete when symptoms of sickness and disease come on you. Your body is not to be used to fornicate with or to eat jelly donuts all day. Bringing you fleshly pleasure is not what your body is for. You are to use your body to serve the Lord and to bring Him glory. 1 Cor. 6:15 says, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" You need a revelation of how valuable your body is.
You are a one of a kind masterpiece. Even in its mortal condition your body is important and it is wrong to say you don't like your body. Your body is the most valuable physical possession you will ever have. You can have ten million dollars but if something bad happens to your body all the money in the world will do you no good. God has entrusted your body to your care and you must always be mindful of 1 Cor. 6:19,20 which says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." The Message Bible says, "Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for?" People who smoke and take drugs and commit fornication don't realize how important their body is. They think it's plain and common but God calls it wonderful. Ps. 139:14 says you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
1 Thess. 4:3,4 (NLT) says, "God's will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor." This is something you do. God will help you but He won't do it for you. Don't abuse your body but treat it with dignity and respect. You should treat your body with more care than you do your clothes and your car and your house. You have a right to live a long life and you need to take control of your body in order to do so. Ps. 91:16 says God will satisfy you with a long life but this won't happen if you've got lung cancer from years of smoking or you've lost your mind because of drugs and your body is riddled with sexually transmitted diseases. Don't yield your body to the lusts of the flesh and do things you're not supposed to do. Take charge of your body and do the right things that will preserve it and make it strong. Eat the right foods, exercise, and get plenty of rest. To fulfill your calling you will need a strong, healthy body and you control your destiny by treating it with tender loving care.
Jesus said in Rev. 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." God will not make you open the door. He has prepared blessings for you before the world began but you must choose to open the door and possess those blessings. There's a part you have to play. You must choose to participate in the plan of God and take control of your destiny. If you don't open the door and invite Him in He's not going to be there. His power and His influence is reserved for those who submit their will to His. It's easy to be religious and do the same things people have been doing since generations past. Doing what is a common tradition does not mean God's stamp of approval is on it. Be aware of mindless phrases that say God is always in control and that He has a purpose for every bad thing that happens. They say what God wants to happen will happen and there is nothing you can do about it. That's not true. You have a choice in the matter. Choose wisely.
God is a good God and He has chosen to give man a free will to make their own choices. He even allows people to choose to do things that are completely opposite from His plan. He allows you to choose life or death, blessing or cursing. It should bother you when people make the wrong choices and when something bad happens say God must have had a reason for it happening. They shift the blame onto God instead of taking responsibility for the wrong choices they've made. Speak up and say something when people dishonor God by saying He is in control of all the evil in the world. God is good and has never done an evil thing but still He is blamed for all the bad things that are happening. A tornado wipes out a small town and people call it "an act of God." People are saying wrong things about God all the time and it's keeping people away by the groves. Why serve a God who controls the actions of drunk drivers and su***de bombers? These people fail to understand that if God is doing evil, then how can He judge evil? The bottom line is that people are not taking control of their own lives.
Ps. 115:16 says, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; But the earth He has given to the children of men." There is no crime in heaven or any sickness and disease. Why is that? Because God is in control of heaven. If He was in control of the earth wouldn't the conditions be the same down here? Men being in control of the earth explains why chaos ans calamity are running rampant on the earth today. Because of sin there is a curse on the earth and the enemy is roaming about seeking whom he can devour. He is looking for those who have made the wrong choices. The earth is a very dangerous place to be. There are enough germs in the air to kill you ten times over. Divine protection is needed and when Jesus knocks you must open the door and invite Him into your life. Ps. 100:5 says, "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." God is good and when he is involved something good will happen to you. You will hear from Him and you will know what to do. You will then choose accordingly.
Matt. 16:19 says that what you allow on earth will be allowed in heaven. Too many believers are allowing too many bad things to happen on the earth. Never ask God why He is allowing so much evil in the world. He's not allowing it, people are. They're not resisting the devil like they're supposed to. Things that are happening in your life are connected to the choices you make. What you prohibit won't happen and what you allow will. When bad things happen many people make the choice to blame God. They stop going to church and want nothing more to do with the Christian way of life. This makes them a fool because God was not the problem to start with and He is the only help they've got. They become prideful and shake their fist at God accusing Him of not doing something He should have done. In arrogance they are judging God and accusing Him of letting them down and not caring. They refuse to consider the fact that in times past they made some wrong choices that did not line up with God's plan for their life. They reason that it's easier to blame God than to point their finger at themselves.
You have been given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Keys give you entrance and the privilege of access and use. It gives you control to bind up and stop something and to loose and start something. The devil wants you to believe God is in control of everything so that you won't believe you're in control. That is a lie. Jesus did not say He had all the keys and that He would take care of everything for you. He said you had the power. He said you had authority. He told you to preach the gospel and heal the sick and make disciples of all men. He told you to speak to the mountain. He gave you a calling and told you to control your destiny. He told you to do all these things and when you do them He will back you up. What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. What you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. If you permit it on earth, God will permit it in heaven. God allows what you allow. You need to accept this responsibility and operate in it to the full extent of what has been made available to you.
God does not control anybody but rather wants you to willingly yield to Him. He does want access to your life but that only happens when you take control under Him. You control your life and destiny according to the way the Bible teaches you to do it. When you do that then He really will be in control of your life through you. Your mind is your mind and you control what you think about. Your body is your body and you control what you do with it. You are in control. Just like S***m and Gomorrah people today are abandoning themselves to the lusts of the flesh. Sin is overtaking the world because people are not taking control of their lives. Their attitude is, "If it feels good, do it." These people are on the road to destruction and their lives demonstrate the need to yield to the will of God every day of your life. Unless you rise up and take control of your life then your destiny will be the same as theirs. You need to be the caretaker of your life and not let it be defiled by sin and rebellion against God. You are in control. You must make this happen and when you control your destiny, God will satisfy you with a long life.
