Leader 2 Leader
The characteristics of the greatest disciples of Christ are not the characteristics of strength, but the characteristics of brokenness. God can entrust to these people His power and His calling. 

The DNA of Your Destiny

    Disciples

    God wants to give a greater sense of purpose to the people of God.  Regardless of the somewhat generic way the word “purpose” is often used today, there is no force or momentum in your life unless you know: why you’re here, and what you’re meant to be doing. 

    Psalm 139:14 “I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well.”

    Psalm 80:4 “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” The literal meaning of this text is “What is man that Your mind is so full of him?”, why does God think so much about/care so much about, us? Because He has great plans for us, and seeds of destiny in us.

    There are four areas of knowledge that are vital to success:

    1. Knowledge of God. You may have natural success, but you’ll  never be truly fruitful in things that matter and live on after you’re gone, unless you know God.
    2. Knowledge of yourself. You don’t decide who you are. You discover who you are. Then you must make a decision based to on the discovery of who God has made you to be, whether you’re going to be/grow in that, or not.
    3. Knowledge of other people. This knowledge helps in everyday relationships, and in appreciating the diversity of God in different people groups/cultures.
    4. Knowledge/understanding of the times. It is vital to understand the times in which we live, and our own personal times/timing and history.

    It’s a unique time in which we live. We are in a time that we have strong solid houses, but sick homes- we have lot’s of knowledge, but are not wiser. We can go faster but don’t get any where. We protect the whales, but kill the babies. We have more, but people are more distant from one another- often hiding behind technology. It’s easier for most of us to chat on facebook than to relate to one another face-to-face, communicate and have real relationships. Technology is helpful and can be a beneficial tool, but it does not take the place of relationships.

    Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”

    There is “a time to be born”.  We were born on time, in time.

    Acts 17:26 -26 “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,”

    God chose the generation in which you should be born, and where you would live. That’s why people have a natural affinity towards certain parts of the country, and certain types of culture. Even if your mom and Dad didn’t plan you, God planned you. There is “a time to be born”, and He chose your “preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings”.   There is a preworking  and shaping of God in your life, even a pre-conversion working. (John 1:13) God has brought every human being into the earth in a particular time- it could have been at any other time, but it wasn’t- it was at this time that you were chosen.

    Daniel 2:21 “And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.”

    Psalm 31:14 - “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”  My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,  And from those who persecute me.”

    Psalm 139:13-16  “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.  My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret,  And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”

    The Creator of heaven and earth planned ahead for you, your life is part of His plan. God knew us in our Mother’s womb, He even knew us before our Mother’s womb – and planned and fashioned days, seasons, and divine opportunities for us before we even existed. God is a sovereign God, the God of all flesh, He said there is nothing that is too hard for Him. Jesus said all authority in heaven and power in earth is given to Him. God is a god of history (His – story), the history of man is His story, the story of God working among mankind. Throught the Bible and unto today, God brings many peoples and people groups together- each made as they were intended to be made (Asian, African, Caucasian, Hispanic, etc.), from distinct cultures but with similar spiritual DNA. He’s gathering in the right combination of people, at the right time, to reap a national and international harvest.

    You are they way you are, because of why you are-

    Nothing is by accident. If you could transcribe the information from a single DNA cell, and line the words up end-to-end, they would literally stretch to the sun and back four hundred times! That’s how fearfully, and wonderfully, and intricately you are made. There is also DNA hidden in a seed, and through the right combination of: pressure, heat, darkness, moisture, nutrients and sunlight, it will start to blossom. God puts things on the inside of you that must be worked out in the right time.

    God put gifts and talents and unique qualities on the inside of each of us. You have a particular temperament type. Some are more aggressive, some are melancholy thinkers, some are phlegmatic and want to rest, and some are sanguine and want to party all of the time – that’s in your nature. You can’t make a sanguine into a melancholy, or vice versa- and you’d be frustrated if you tried. Your children all think differently, you like certain foods more than others, and certain types of movies more than others- because of the unique way that you were made. God does not want to change your nature or change your personality, He wants to heal it and temper it, and put Christ-like character on the inside of it- but there’s a purpose and a reason that you are the way you are. God has a plan to use us to help fulfill His redemptive purpose in the earth, and made us all uniquely for that purpose.

    He put the right thing in you, to do the right thing that He wants you to do, at the right time- but you can’t curse the journey that He takes you through until then. In order to take you high, He often has to take you low. He has to do something on the inside of you so your promotion won’t be your demotion- but that your promotion will have a redemptive purpose in it. God puts us in circumstances- the word “circumstance” means to be standing encircled- and we are intentionally made to stand encircled by an environment, a culture, and the uniqueness of the hour. The circumstances we are faced with are to evoke out of us, and demand of us, what He has put in us -to become the kind of Christians that we ought to be for such a time as this. As a child of God, with Christ in you the hope of glory, you have greatness on the inside of you- and God molds and works and shapes your life to bring out of you the greatness that He has put in you. Sometimes you have to be in unlovely situations to awaken the champion on the inside of you.

    You don’t become who you are in God, in the comfort zone. We are a generation that is born for spiritual battle. The devil has come down having great wrath knowing that his time is short (Rev 12:12),  but where sin is abounding, grace is much more abounding (Rom 5:20). There are two streams of prophecy working in these times.  According to scripture, the darkness will get darker- and we are in hard, fearful, perilous times with a lot of pressure that is hard to bear up under (2 Tim 3:1-5)… but at the same time, Isaiah (60:2) said that in the midst of darkness, even gross darkness, the glory of the Lord will shine upon you. His glory will come from you, and the things that were meant to take you out, God will use to bring out of you the good things that He’s put on the inside of you- and cause you to stand, and get to the plate, grab the bat, and swing away in your hour- in your time of history!

    People God uses greatly tend to go through some unbelievable things in their shaping times. You can’t know that you are a loving person until you are called to love unlovely people- you can’t know that you have patience and persevering character until you go through some extended, tough times.

    Churchill is an example of this trend. He was born two months premature in 1874, independent and rebellious by nature and generally did poorly in school and was punished for it. Just a few weeks into his military education he became a part of the rifle corps and a fencing champion- his aggressive nature was working it’s way out from the inside of him. He was rarely visited by his mother, and wrote letters begging her to visit or let him visit home, and his relationship with his father was a distant one. He once remarked that they barely spoke to each other, and his father eventually died at the age of 45, leaving Churchill convinced that he’d also die young – so he felt he needed to be quick about leaving his mark in the world. The last of his four children died of illness, and Churchill himself suffered a mild stroke. He lost his first bid for election, sunk into a deep depression, and spent ten years building a stone wall around his father’s estate. He likely had a stutter, and described himself as having a speech impediment, working for years to overcome it.

    Often a strength and a weakness are two sides of the same coin.

    Churchill was very belligerent and combative in personal relationships, but strengths can be hidden in weaknesses. In WWI, he was taken as a POW. Churchill escaped, and went over 300 miles to get a company of people to go back, and liberate over 53 different prison camps. He seemingly could not wait to get in the fight, and even as a war correspondent always found himself at the front lines. He had an abnormal amount of energy, preferring to work from 8a.m. until between 2 and 4:30a.m. the next day, and usually kept three shifts of administrative staff rotating across every 24 hours (because he just flat wore them out). He stated that war was “the normal occupation of man”- the way he viewed life was not to back down from a battle but to engage in one wherever possible. That was the way he looked at things, and others see things differently, and it is all by design.

    There was a character formed in Churchill from the hardship and depression, until he got to the place where what he believed and what he spoke, people who heard also believed. He had a genuine convictional boldness and confidence about him. Even when the odds were tremendously stacked against them, Churchill truly believed that England could win the war. He said “we will meet them on the shores of our borders, we will meet them in the streets of our cities…” and in his famous last speech, as the bombs were pummeling his country, out of the depths of his resolve he simply said “Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never, never give up!”... and that resolve was transferred to the nation, and eventually to winning the war.

    We are not called to be a subculture, but a counter culture.

    We are called to stand out, not blend in. We are called to be different and to make a difference. We are called to love people right where they are at, but to lead them on a journey to where they need to be in God. We are living in a time that needs people of conviction, boldness, and who have a central belief system- who know what and why they believe, and won’t be shaped by media, or  ruled by culture, but who will be governed and directed by the word of God.

    1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

    God  wants to use the greatness He has put on the inside of each and every one of us - and that is why some of the challenges we face have come, to press flesh out and require the character of Christ to rise.

    Acts 3:2-5 “And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.”

    Expectancy is important in your relationship with God, even if you feel like you’ve got debilitating lameness.

    Even if you were dealt a bad hand- the man at the gate was lame from birth, yet he looked at the Apostles expecting to receive something. Sometimes we have to go through very difficult things so that we become a very grateful people. People carried the lame man daily (to ask alms at the temple), and God will allow people to carry your lameness to a point (sometimes even empowering your lameness)- but there comes a point when people have taken you as far as they can. When people have carried you to their end, God meets you at their end, and gives you a brand new beginning!  When man’s lameness met God’s power, the lameness ended, and a new destiny began- the lame man left leaping and rejoicing, and a whole move of God opened up. There is a move of God’s spirit coming when He is going to heal our lameness! What God has planned for you is a great plan, and He has better things ahead of you than the bad things that are behind you.

    God wants to awaken in us Jesus Christ, the hope of glory.

    In increasing dark times, when the devil has come down in great wrath and is releasing unprecedented oppression on prophetic believers - our chief Apostle is saying to us, “Body of Christ- never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never, never give up!”