05/09/2017
Pastor K.. Ashok
Every person who has ever been born has been given a dream from God and a destiny to fulfill. What's so exciting about this is that His dream for your life is always bigger than any dream you could ever come up on your own, just like His destiny is bigger than your destiny. The dream He gives you is your calling and His purpose is your destiny. Understand that the fulfillment of a heavenly call is not for the faint-hearted. There is an enemy out there who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour and you are in his crosshairs. What all this means is that there will be obstacles you must face and tests you must pass before the fulfillment of your dream becomes a reality. Yes, God is on your side but that does not mean you forget about the devil. You need to know who he is and how he works and the destruction he wants to bring to your life. Paul said in 2 Cor. 2:11, "Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices." The Message Bible says "we're not oblivious to his sly ways!"
One of the first things you'll learn about the devil is that he is very prideful. Ezek. 28:17 says, "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they may gaze at you." Pride brought about the devil's downfall and he will use it to try to bring about yours as well. This is why you never want to become arrogant and brag about the dream God gives you. Don't become high minded if God uses you to reach millions of people for the kingdom of God whereas some little ole grandmother is never seen in the public eye because she's off in her prayer closet for several hours a day. Don't brag, just be faithful in all He has called you to do. There is nothing wrong with giving God glory for what He has done but people who brag are giving themselves the credit and the honor for what is happening in their lives. This is why James was adamant when he says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights" (James 1:16,17).
People brag as the result of pride being in their heart. Matt. 12:34 says, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Pride always has to have a voice, it always wants to be heard, and it always interrupts other people. People with pride think their opinion is more important than the other person's opinion so they're always cutting into the conversation to make sure their voice if heard. You've got to learn to be more quiet than you currently are. Prov. 10:19 says, "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise." The Message Bible says, "The more talk, the less truth; the wise measure their words. The speech of a good person is worth waiting for; the blabber of the wicked is worthless. The talk of a good person is rich fare for many, but chatterboxes die of an empty heart" (vs. 19-21). Yes, you may have a dream that will make you well known to many but this is not the purpose of the dream. God's purpose for your life is that He can use you as a means of blessing other people. Your influence in the lives of those around you is for the glory of God, not your own.
James 4:10 says, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." It takes maturity to fulfill a God-given dream and humility is what helps make you mature. If you become prideful when God gives you the dream then you'll never have the maturity to handle the destiny. In fact, pride will cause the destiny to never come to pass. God gives you a dream that will put you on the path to maturity so you'll be able to handle the destiny when it arrives. As you grow and mature you will begin to see yourself through the eyes of God. Gone will be the insecurities you once had and this is how you defeat pride. All pride is rooted in insecurity. If pride is in your heart then insecurity is in your soul. You need to know who you are in Christ and trust Him completely because with every new challenge comes new insecurities. It takes maturity to handle the new levels of responsibility that are coming your way. The closer you get to the fulfillment of your destiny the more confident you must become in the Lord. If you know who you are in Christ and who your heavenly Daddy is, you'll defeat pride and the insecurity that goes with it.
It takes strength of character to fulfill a heavenly call and this is why most people live with their dreams but never step into their destiny. God will not allow these people to fulfill the destiny He has for their lives because they're not ready to handle the responsibility that goes along with it. Daily the cry of your heart should be, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. 139:23,24). Stop blaming other people for the rough times you've had in the past and grow up and take responsibility for the one life God has given you. Allow God to search your heart and He'll show you how to walk in integrity and develop an inward character that is both godly and transforming. He will deliver you from everything that holds you in bo***ge and will bring you into an even more closer relationship with Him. The Message Bible says, "Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for Yourself whether I've done anything wrong - then guide me on the road to eternal life."
Success comes as the result of being close to God. Gen. 39:2 says, "The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man." Vs. 23 says "whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper." The Message Bible says, "Whatever he did God made sure it worked out for the best." The key to prospering in life and to fulfilling your heavenly call is to forever be in the presence of the Lord. God wants to prosper you and make you successful in your life, your marriage, your health, and in the dream He gives you to fulfill. He wants to prosper you so you can help prosper others. In Hebrew the word "prosperity" means 'to push forward' and this is what God will do when you draw near to Him. He'll push you forward so you'll be able to accomplish all He set aside for you to do with your life. God never fails so, if you'll walk with Him, you'll prosper and will develop the character to succeed in whatever you set out to do. Deut. 29:9 says, "Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do." God wants to push you forward in all that you put your hand to do but first you must be in His presence at all times.
Some people view success differently than how God views success. Joseph was a slave in Egypt yet scripture says he was a successful man. He had no goods or property of his own and had no money in the bank. These are the things the world says you need in order to be successful but Joseph had none of these. He was successful and prosperous because the Lord was with him. Likewise, the sum total of all the success you'll ever have in your life will be based on the presence of God being manifested wherever you go. The measure to which you allow yourself to be led by the Spirit of God is what determines if you'll deal wisely with the affairs of life. Gen. 39:3 says, "And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand." When the Lord is with you, success will come with little or no self-effort. Vs. 4, "So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had put in his hand." This was the kind of success that caused people to know that God's hand was in on it.
There is worldly success and there is success that can only be accredited to the presence of God in your life. You will be able to do things that other people on their own cannot do, things that are above the norm of everyday living. The Lord was with Joseph and the blessing that was on his life allowed him to be a blessing to someone else. Vs. 5 says, "So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field." The favor that was on Joseph was distributed to those around him. He was blessed to be a blessing. The last thing you want to do is store up and hoard the blessings God gives you. No, they are meant to be shared with others. This is why there is an overflow of all the good things the Lord gives you. The abundance of the blessings in your life will cause you to become a funnel through which the favor of God can flow into the lives of other people. Never forget that this is why you're being blessed. You're blessed to be a blessing.
God is not going to bless you so you can sit around and brag about all the nice things you have. When God blesses you, start looking around to see who you can be a blessing to. Allow God to use you to bless someone else all because they've been in your presence for a little while. Notice that Joseph was successful because the Lord was with him but the Egyptian was blessed because he was with Joseph. Prosperity and success is always based on who you're with and this is why you need the presence of the Lord in your life morning, noon, and night. When you're with Him daily His presence will be wherever you go. When you go to work, the presence of the Lord will be there. When you go to the store, the presence of the Lord will be there as well. In the presence of the Lord are blessings galore and this is why you need to leave a trail of blessings wherever you go. Do something that will cause people to say, "The Lord is in this place." And when you show favor to those around you, God will cause people to show favor to you. This is why Joseph was promoted and found success in whatever situation he found himself in.
If you want to succeed in life and fulfill your destiny, you've got to come up higher and obey God. This does not mean you won't have any trials but, if you'll obey your Daddy, He will take you through those storms that come your way. It is not hard to obey God if you trust Him and are daily walking in faith. You need to believe that there are rewards if you obey God and serious consequences if you don't. Heb. 3:18,19 says, "And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Faith produces obedience and this verse is saying that people don't obey because they don't believe. It takes faith to obey God. If these people had believed that God would reward them, they would have obeyed. Rom. 10:17 says, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Read your Bible daily and confess out loud those promises you're believing will come to pass in your life. Listen to as many sermons as you can that teach the Word accurately. Do this for in the Word is the power to change your life. It will produce in you the character to succeed.
Your character affects your entire life. Don't be like those who think they can sin and get away with it because those thoughts are delusional. Gal. 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." It is foolish to ignore the consequences that come with every decision you make. To ensure a long and successful life you need to decide to obey God at all costs, at all times. Obedience is one of the greatest character builders there is, so much so that the prophet Samuel once said, "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Sam. 15:22). Determine today to obey God at all times and leave all the consequences to Him. He'll open doors you can't open and take you places you could never go on your own. Obedience may not always be easy but you can do it when you realize that God is the sovereign ruler of the universe and He knows what He's doing and what's best for your life. Ps. 103:19 says, "The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all." Success comes when you allow your Daddy to be the absolute and final authority in your life.
It was through obedience that Joseph ran away when Potifer's wife tried to seduce him. God had the final authority in his life and he said to her, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9). Joseph did the right thing yet he was thrown into prison anyway. Even so, God was with him and vs. 21 says, "But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison." The character to succeed was being developed in his life through these trials and, because the Lord was with him, he was able to persevere through each and every one of them. Rom. 5:3,4 (NLT) says, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation." It takes a person with spiritual insight to rejoice and be happy when something bad happens but this is what Paul is telling you to do. You can do this if you'll trust God and believe that at the end of every storm is a beautiful multi-colored rainbow.
You don't rejoice because the trial has come, you rejoice in the midst of it because you know something good will come as the result of it. James 1:2-4 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the resting of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Trials produce patience and tribulations produce perseverance. Patience is the ability to wait on God with contentment, to do the right thing and display a godly character while you wait. Perseverance is the battle you fight while you wait. A trial is brief but tribulations are long and difficult yet this is the only thing the Bible says will produce in your life the character to succeed. It is so important that this character get developed in you for it is your response to the trial that oftentimes determines how long the trial lasts. A trial in the life of a mature believer does not last as long as the trials in the lives of carnal, lukewarm believers. They have developed perseverance in their life and now have the character to obey God and trust Him to deliver them out of whatever they're going through.
One of the worst things that can happen is for you to get delivered out of a trial that God is using to build character in your life. No trial means no character. David said in Ps. 23:4 that he was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. He didn't say he was delivered out of this valley. No, he was walking through it with the Lord forever by his side. In prison Joseph interpreted the dreams of the chef and butler and then said to the butler, "Make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house" (Gen. 40:14). The butler then forgot about Joseph and the Lord did not give Pharaoh his dream until two years later. Why so long? Because Joseph tried to manipulate his way out of prison and God never rewards this type of behavior. At that time Joseph's character was not quite ready to support his destiny and if he was released right then he wouldn't have been successful in what God called him to do. God never promotes people until they have first developed within themselves the character to succeed. It took Joseph two more years in prison to get to the point where God could use him successfully.
Character is not only based on how you act in certain situations, it's also based on how you react when things don't go the way they should. Many times in life you will do the right thing and be persecuted for it. How you react in those situations reveal whether or not you have the character to succeed. Rom. 5:4 says that character produces hope and vs.5 says, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Hope is not given to help you believe that God will deliver you from all your trials, it's given to help you believe that He will be with you as you walk through your circumstances. As David walked through his valley he said in Ps. 23:4, "I will fear no evil; For You are with me." This hope in God is needed because your heart can grow weary if your trial is not resolved in a timely manner. When your hope is in the living God, you can believe that this hope will produce for you a divine appointment that will allow you to step into your destiny.
It takes a certain type of character to fulfill a God-given dream and, to prove you've got what it takes to do so, you can know with certainty that your character will be tested. Ps. 105:19 (NLT) says, "Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph's character." There are many people who will not fulfill their destiny because their lives don't line up with the Word of God. James 1:22 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." You need to read your Bible and do what it tells you to do. Paul wrote to Timothy about "having faith and a good conscience" (1 Tim. 1;19). You receive faith by hearing the Word (Rom. 10:17) but you have a good conscience by doing the Word. You can't fulfill your destiny if you don't have the character to do the Word of God. It's the Word that will mold you and shape you into the type of person who will run the race with endurance and stand strong when trials come your way. When you show God that you will always be a doer of the Word, then and only then, will He allow you to step into your destiny.
Tests come to all believers and where your destiny is concerned many of these tests come through the avenue of success. A lot of people dream of success but when it comes they fail the test that comes with it. They're fine being under authority but for some reason they step out of character when power and authority is handed to them. Promotions can sometimes come very quickly. Joseph went from the prison to the palace in a single day. This is why prior to promotion you need to develop inside yourself the character that is needed to properly handle success when it comes and the power that goes with it. It will help to know that you have no power of your own but that all power comes from God. Ps. 62:11 says, "God has spoken once, twice I heard this: That power belongs to God." Pilate told Jesus that he had the power to either crucify Him or release Him to which the Lord responded, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above." You can work as hard as you want to fulfill your destiny but without the blessing and power of God in your life it won't happen.
You need to recognize that God's blessing and His power will come on you when you respond to the call on your life and do the right thing. It is not wrong to desire this power if you have the character and humility to use it in the proper way. This power is not to be used selfishly for your own good but rather to be used to bless other people. Joseph was given authority over all of Egypt and he used this power to prepare for a seven year drought that was soon coming upon the land. He understood what the authority was for and he used his power correctly and was able to feed multitudes of people. It is not wrong to want to be great and powerful in God's kingdom as long as you have the right motive for doing so. Jesus said in Mark 10:43-45 that "whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Serving others is what power and authority is all about.
It is a good thing to desire power for the right reason. If you will humble yourself, God will lift you up by giving you power and authority with which you'll be able to fulfill your destiny. The formula for spiritual success is less of you and more of God. He gives grace and power to the humble for the purpose of being a blessing to others. This is what happened with Jesus and you are made in His image. Acts 10:38 says "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." God is looking for humble stewards through whom He can channel His power and His resources through to other people. Deut. 8:17,18 says don't "say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day." God does not bless you just so you can get a new car, He gives you the power to get wealth so that His covenant of blessing can be manifested throughout the world.
Showing the world how good God is should be your main motive in life, the reason you get up each and every morning. God has a purpose for everybody yet most people wander aimlessly through life not knowing if they're coming or going. Therefore, in order to fulfill your destiny, you've got to first believe that there is a purpose for your life. Eccl. 3:1 says, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven." Everything God created has a purpose. He created the sun and moon for a purpose and He created trees and rivers for a purpose. To find out what the purpose is for these things you've got to discover how God created them. For instance, He made the sun big, bright, and very hot. This tells you that the purpose of the sun is to give the earth warmth and light. God also created you for a purpose and to discover what that purpose is you've got to look how God made you. You are unique and there are special qualities in you that are different from anybody else in the world. This means there is a specific purpose that only you can do to the degree that God wants it done.
Inventors design things with a specific purpose in mind and this is what happened when God designed you. He created you with a divine purpose in mind and it is your responsibility to discover what that purpose is. You don't decide what your assignment is, you discover it and then you spend the rest of your life fulfilling it. Never desire to die early just so you can go to heaven sooner than it was intended that you should go. That's selfishness. People need you down here and you can't help them if you're in heaven. Rest assured, heaven will be there waiting for you when you've fulfilled your destiny and it's the proper time for you to go. In the meantime, discover how God created you and then go out and do what God designed you to do. While you were yet in your mother's womb He knew you and spoke His word over you. Is. 55:11 (NIV) says, "So is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." God's word has the power to produce the purpose for which He sent it.
The Message Bible says, "So will the words that come out of My mouth not come back empty-handed. They'll do the work I sent them to do, they'll complete the assignment I gave them." God has spoken a word over your life and, if you will develop within yourself the character to succeed, you can have the full assurance that His word will not return until it accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it. God is telling you here that He is on your side and that no weapon formed against you will prosper (Is. 54:17). Once you realize this, you next need to understand that the gifts and purpose God gives you has to do with serving other people. Equally important is that you start today. Don't wait until you get some kind of promotion to start serving other people. If this is your attitude then you'll never come up higher and get that promotion. Start today. Actively look for ways to bless those around you. When you do this consistently, before long bigger doors will be opened to you and greater opportunities to serve will come your way.
Setbacks will come but you must remain faithful at all costs. Don't serve God half-heartedly but press forward and give it everything you've got. Eccl. 9:10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." The Message Bible says, "Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!" No matter what it is you're going through, always be conscious of the needs of those around you. Take your eyes off of yourself and help other people knowing that what you make happen for others, God will make happen for you (Eph. 6:8). Doing this is what causes you to step into your destiny. Remain faithful and keep moving in the direction you know you're supposed to go. As you do this, you can have the confidence that God will direct your steps. Ps. 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." You may not always see a bright light at the end of the tunnel but for sure God will give you enough light to take the next step. And when you take that step, more light will be given and eventually you will be put in a position to influence thousands of people. Rejoice for God has taken you from your dream to your destiny. Hallelujah!
