Moving Into Greater Destiny

One of the most revealing stories of destiny is the story of the Exodus. God delivered the Israelites from a situation of slavery and murder to bring them into a land rich and prosperous. This is my favorite account in all of scriptures. It is the first account that the Lord ever used to speak deeply into my heart as a young man, and the one I have continually compared my heart to as the Lord has attempted to move me from places of emotional, mental, and spiritual slavery into places that are rich and prosperous. In every season of life I find some aspect that relates to this difficult journey of faith of the Israelites through the desert.

But until this year, I could never understand why the Israelites would be worried and complain about their desert exodus and demand to return to the harsh conditions of Egypt. From the reader’s standpoint, we assume that the Israelites knew and understood that God was bringing them to a better place. But their initial experience was exactly opposite of what God had promised. God had said he would take them to a land flowing with milk and honey. But after the first 3 days of walking through the desert, the Israelites could not even find water to drink. Immediately upon their journey of faith they feared that God had brought them out into the desert to die. Their default thinking was that God was using them as pawns in some sort of sick, torturous game of death. As my pastor recently revealed, the Israelites knew God was powerful because they had seen the plagues in Egypt…they just didn’t know that he was GOOD. That is the challenge for all of us in times of difficulty, is it not…to believe that God is good when every circumstance around us seems to be bad or hopeless?

Anytime we take a step in the direction of God’s intended destiny for our lives, we will be met with similar difficulties, whether real or perceived. Like the Israelites, often after a three day journey into our destiny, we too want to give up and return to the slavery we tried to escape. Destiny always comes with responsibility and sacrifice, which are things our natural mind doesn’t want to accept. Will my destiny require me to move? Will it limit my time with friends or loved one (like Abraham)? Will I have to give up my job or change my spending habits? Will I have to begin studying again like when I was in school? Will it require me to be busy for more hours of the day, or not allow me to sleep in on the weekends? Will I have to give up my Friday hang-out time with the guys? As we take steps into true destiny, every bone in our natural body will often want to tuck tail and return to the comforts that we have sacrificed and left behind. But each one of those comforts came with a price – slavery; slavery to a system or a mindset or a habit that kept us from entering into the full purpose of God for our lives. To step into destiny, we must uncover the fear and distrust of God’s love and faithfulness when times are hard and when no one seems to be on the journey with us. We must battle the ridiculous irritations and conflicts that come up in our families caused by the irritation of losing our comforts. Many will long for the “old days” when everything was better. This is the ultimate lie - to believe that everything was better when we were not free and living in the purpose that God created us to have.

From my limited experience, stepping into destiny is a messy process. It is like an uncoordinated child taking his first steps. There is utter reliance on his father to help him stay up and walking, or at least to fall gracefully without getting injured. As we’ve taken steps toward this end, I’ve had to let go of the idea that every plan will go without a hitch and that I will look like I know what I’m doing. By definition, stepping into destiny is something new with which we are inexperienced. If everything felt natural, I would question the greatness of my destiny. I started out wanting to amaze everyone with my faith, but now I’m just excited about the adventure and what my Heavenly Father is thinking and saying to me.

Where is your destiny and adventure? What will you have to do to enter into it? If God has shown you what to do, then act quickly in faith. If not, ask the Lord to show you what he has in store. Invest prayer into uncovering the purpose of God for you life. There is always more than you can see on the surface. Another thing my pastor always says, is that “God hides things FOR you, not FROM you.” God loves to see his children embracing the adventure he has prepared for them. Happy Trails!