“Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”
Do you believe in ‘Destiny”?
I do, but probably not in the way that you imagine I do.
The Person of God
My perception of destiny is simply this: My God, whom I see as all-knowing, present everywhere at the same time, and all-powerful, is without any form of boundary. In other words, God is without limitations, whereas you and I have a life of constraints.
Let me explain. The sun will rise tomorrow morning and set in the evening for you and me – we will classify this as one day. After seven of these days, we will say that was a week. Fifty-two weeks later, we will say, ‘A year has passed.’ For God, one day is like a year, and a year is like one day.
2Pe 3:8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
In other words, God is not limited by time.
Using this statement as a foundation for our discussion, let me take the matter of destiny further.
How My Destiny Began
When I, as a little spirit, entered my mother’s womb and was linked to a body and soul produced by my Father’s sperm and my mother’s egg, God could see way ahead to my life on this earth. God could see my journey forward from my birth to my coming entry into eternity.
Now, here is the crucial point, so read very carefully.
How God Sees My Journey
God could see my life’s journey, from birth to death and onwards to eternity, as if it were in one picture frame.
God could see the choices I would make along the way, some for my benefit and some that would be to my disadvantage.
Based on the outcome of the journey ahead, which only God could see and so determine my destiny. (Remember now – all in one picture frame.)
God would do this by placing people and circumstances in my path, which would couple with God’s best advantage for my life. Even when God could see that I would not accept the best people and circumstances for my life, God would continue to give me beneficial opportunities, even knowing all along that I would reject those. The reverse is also true. As I accepted all God’s beneficial opportunities, I would then gain from the people and circumstances God sent my way.
This, then, is destiny. God affords us beneficial opportunities, whether we accept them or reject them, even though God sees ahead to the outcome of our lives on this earth.
Even though I would often reject these offers, God would continue to place beneficial opportunities in my path until I took them. This situation would continue right up to the point of my death.
How I Learned to Choose Which Way to Go
While listening to an online seminar by Harv Ecker, I heard him say something that significantly changed the direction of my life.
Harv said that there comes a time when we reach a fork in the road ahead and must decide which way to go. I can no longer recall what was ahead on each of the roads Harv had up on his whiteboard, but we had to choose; we chose to take the left fork as that was the road that had the best opportunities for my partner and me.
Now that I think of it, the road ahead in my life has been filled with forks, and I used to randomly choose without giving too much thought to what the cost, in terms of loss or gain, would be for me.
How I Choose Today
But today, it is different for at least two reasons:
Firstly, when I arrive at a fork, I ask God, “Which way?” the voice within my heart says, “Left fork, “or “Right fork,” and then I move accordingly.
Isa 30:21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
Secondly, I openly thank and express my gratitude to God each day for coaching me on how to communicate in this way. To look out for the signs God shows me along the road of the destiny for my life and wisdom to interpret them. Then, how to hear the words God speaks to me and understand those as well. Confident that I know the signs and words to me, I act. When I reach the many forks I encounter along my life journey, it only takes me a short while to know which way to go.
What about my Past Choices?
You may ask, “What about the forks before you heard from God? Those that might have been wrong turns.”
Let me reassure you that there were never any ‘‘wrong turns, just many, many turns that led down a road that had no benefits for me. But all that experience was God’s Road of destiny for me.
Finally
All the while, God had the advantage of seeing ahead of me and knowing that one day, I would hear God’s inner voice and start taking the correct fork because I would see God’s Direction signs and hear God’s Guiding words.
Until we meet again…
Love and blessings
Peter-James.