December 24, 2007

• Not your ordinary Christmas message -The four D’s that stop your destiny by Pastor Don

  My notebook is a mass of paperclips denoting lessons that I have shared with you out of date order. I am sooo far behind in what I have in notes. Yet again, I am taking a message out of order, for Pastor Don gave an incredible Christmas message – not the usual one, but so timely. Guess I’ll add another paperclip (she says smiling). One day I will get caught up, but I would rather give you a complete set of notes, than to dash something off.

  Pastor Don always waits before he talks on Sunday until God gives him a scripture. We read that, sometimes discussing it, or sometimes just going into the study that Pastor Don has prepared (unless God tells him to change the message). The scripture for Sunday 12/23 was:

  Psalm 27:7-14 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek. Do not hide Your face from me; do not turn Your servant away in anger; you have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me.  Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries,  for false witnesses have risen against me,  and such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD  in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!

  This scripture was so relevant to what Pastor Don taught and what our visiting Pastor taught. We need to wait on God, not losing heart. Pastor Don pointed out that often we want instant miracles, but often God births miracles in us that grow slowly. We are not to lose heart.

  Then Pastor Don taught from Luke 1. He told us that the Bible translates Jesus’s mom’s name as “Mary” which is the Greek name for her, but in Hebrew it would have been “Miriam.”

  Luke 1:26-38 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

  Pastor Don told us that Mary was confronted with the Angel Gabriel, and we know that Gabriel does not play around. Zacharias questioned the Angel Gabriel’s message and because of his doubt, was struck dumb until the birth of John the Baptist. We are not to worship angels, but we do need to respect their messages from God to us.

  The presence of God introduces something unbelievable in the natural but not in the supernatural. For Miriam (Mary) this was a destiny designed for her in the natural – and it seemed unbelievable and impossible – that a virgin, who has not known a man, will conceive a child. But the Angel Gabriel informs her that in the supernatural it will come to pass. It is a supernatural destiny.

  Destiny comes on two levels.

  1. Natural destiny – the flesh goals, dreams, visions and achievements. Pastor Don talked about not just wanting things to acquire them, but that they have a purpose and a goal that will further your destiny. For example, many want to get married, but why? Do they just want a spouse – that could be a marriage that fails. Or do they have a purpose for their relationship. People need to define their purpose. Do they just want to go to college to get a degree, or is college part of what will further their destiny? Why do you do what you do? In the natural you have a destiny, a goal. In counseling a teen, one teenager told Pastor Don that he wanted to be a baseball player. He told that teenager that being a baseball player is a goal – but what you want to do with your goal is your destiny. What is the purpose?

  2. Spiritual destiny – you achieve a goal that God has implanted in you, so that when you get to the Pearly Gates (Pastor Don said that he doesn’t understand why people want Pearly Gates, he is just as happy going in the main gate, pearly or not.) that he receives the rewards for fulfilling the destiny God has for him. He wants crowns to cast at Jesus’ feet.

  To strive to be rich on the earth just to accumulate wealth has no value to Jesus – He doesn’t need your money. But if wealth is necessary to achieve your spiritual destiny, then you will receive the crowns and rewards to cast at Jesus’ feet.

  God will reward those who achieve their destiny in spite of not achieving accolades on earth. God looks at if we did what we were called to do, if we did it with a right attitude, if we maintained godly character. We are all called to be ambassadors for the Lord. Look for opportunities to be a blessing to others no matter where our mission field is – the job, the school, our family, among friends, at the store…

  Everything on earth counts for nothing unless it counts for eternal blessing and an opportunity to achieve great things for Heaven. Our earthly stuff will not amount to anything. Our spirit and souls matter to God. Everything else does not matter to God.

  Pastor Don says that the fact that he has three sons is not as important to God as the fact that he has raised his sons to have godly character, to love the Lord.

  We all have a destiny in Heaven that is to be achieved. This is a destiny that God placed in us before we were even in the womb.

  There are four things that stop your destiny – Pastor Don calls them the four D’s.

  1. DISTANCE  Satan tries to put distance between you and God; between you and the Church and the people of God. He will put ideas in our minds to cause us to not want to come to church. For example, people love to gossip, and when gossip causes hurt, people distance themselves from others and at times even the pastor. Pastor Don told us that when we run into trouble we need to run to Pastor and God, not run away from them. If we fall into sin, Pastor Don told us that his arms are spread wide to embrace us and help us get back to the right path. He will pray for forgiveness and put us in the right direction. If we are caught in a sin run to the Church, even if we are still practicing that sin. God would rather have us reeking from our sin – and in a place where He can help us. God sees us as we sin – even if our britches are down around our ankles and we are committing adultery in what we think is secret. We cannot hide from God – He knows. We need to keep coming to church, listening to spiritual teachings, praying to God, and getting godly counsel. Satan would rather that we are condemned, and that we distance ourselves from the very thing that can help us to get back to godly living. Pastor Don told us that we don’t have to feel clean to pray, we can pray when we feel dirty and filthy. Pastor Don asked us if our clothes are on a heap at the bottom of the closet and we pick them up, do we look at them and say that these clothes are too dirty to wash or to bring to the cleaners? Take our life to church, let God wash and clean us. Church is for filthy people. If we are depressed or in sin, don’t distance ourselves from God.

  2. DISTRACTION from your destiny. Many of our members are real estate salespeople, and Pastor Don pointed out that these people have to discern if a client is really a potential sale or just a distraction. Satan wants us to spend our time on distractions, not doing what is our destiny. The devil does not want us to achieve our destiny. Not all of what we do, even if it is Godly, is part of God’s destiny for us. We can get distracted doing good things for the Lord. We also need to wisely choose our friends, those who will further our destiny. Sometimes people are sent into our lives with an easily solvable problem, one that they already know the answer for, and all they need to do is just do it and get it done. We take our time and attention away from our destiny to help these people, or to help people who never take good advice and keep meeting troubles, and sometimes satan sends them into our lives just to distract us from what God really wants us to be doing. We need to discern God’s desire for us regarding these people.  At times, Pastor Don says that when he has to leave for something, people call him at 2 in the morning with an easily solvable problem or a problem that could wait or call him when he is walking out of the door.   We need to measure where we are spending our time and energy. There are people who love and who we love that are very negative. At times we are to reach out to them, at other times they are just placed in our path by satan to distract us from God’s destiny. What we need to do is make a list of things that need doing, and then do them without distractions. Don’t let our mind distract us, don’t get sidetracked into meaningless points. For example if you need to be someplace at 8 and you aren’t dressed at 7:45, don’t clean your kitchen before you leave, and then end up arriving late for your appointment. To be habitually late on purpose is a bad witness for Jesus.

  3. DEPRESSION can keep us from our destiny. The source of depression is fear. We can get caught in the paralysis of analysis which results in fear, and fear turns into depression. Pastor Don told us that we need to keep trying, even if it takes three wrong tries (or more) to arrive at the right solution. We won’t get to the right solution without trying. Pastor Don mentioned that if you are afraid to ask the girl you want out to the prom because you fear that she may say, “No,” you may end up not going to the prom. You have to ask, and ask, and ask people until you find a “yes.” Pastor Don shared that sometimes he catches himself running scenarios in his head about what people will say in response to a comment from him. And often when he plays those scenarios, they do not even occur. He said something very important. He said that we can worry about things that will never happen. But we can also worry about things that we want to happen, and they won’t happen. Worry opens the possibility of fear. Fear of rejection will cause us to be unsuccessful. We have to decide if we want to win or lose. To be depressed or afraid causes us to lose – and fear is a killer of destiny.

  4. DESIRE we can lose site of our destiny by having wrong desires. We need to know why we want something. Some things we might want just for our own desire, but it does not further our destiny. Why do you want what you want? We have to set our desires so that our destiny can be achieved. Our desires need to point to our destiny. What glory is God going to get from this desire? Make our desires meaningful.

  We want to be totally at peace, happy and successful for Jesus.

  We then went back to Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel. The Angel confronted Miriam with a message from the Lord, focusing her attention on thus says the Lord.

  The angel tells Miriam to NOT BE AFRAID. In the Greek Luke 1:30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. The word for do not be afraid is translated ”dismiss your fear.” When class is dismissed in school you leave the classroom. When there is fear in our lives we need to command the fear to be dismissed. Pastor Don told us to tell it where to go. Leave the mind, leave your house, leave your job. And also in verse 30 it mentions “Favor”- and that word “favor” is the Greek Word “Charis” which means grace, grace implies power to achieve. God will empower you to achieve your destiny.

  Luke 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.

  In Hebrew the name “Jesus” is Jehoshua (sp?)- which means Jehovah the healer. To achieve her destiny, Miriam received grace from Jesus, and her destiny will bring forth fruit, the birth of Jesus. And her son will fulfill His destiny to be a healer.

  Luke 1:32-34 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

  Her destiny was fulfilled. She didn’t know how. Sometimes we do not know how God will fulfill our destiny. The angel was not searching for an answer to how Miriam was going to fulfill her destiny, he was looking for a right response. God is looking for a right response for our destiny. God is wanting us to be willing to let God do what God wants us to do.

  Luke 1:35-36 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.

  Pastor Don said, “Destiny happens folks.” Destiny happens even when we think we are barren. Elizabeth also had a son when she was supposedly barren.

  Luke 1:37-38 For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

  The right response to destiny is, “LET IT BE TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD, LORD.” Destiny hangs on that. Destiny hangs on our right response. The Spirit of God is looking for someone who will respond this way. If Mary had refused, if she said that this was impossible, or pointed out the flaws in the plan, God would have aborted her destiny.

  We need to say, be it unto me according to YOUR word. We want to bring forth our destiny on earth, and make the destiny from the supernatural birthed into the natural. We give God permission. We cannot withhold our destiny. Don’t kill your destiny by fueling it with doubt and unbelief. With God all things are possible. We have to release our faith and don’t kill the seed.

  When God gives us a supernatural destiny, He knows we can’t accomplish it with our own talents, gifts and ability. Sometimes God is wanting us to develop our spiritual children, at times giving them precedence over our natural children. God will take us to places we can’t even imagine.

  We are to raise up spiritual children (not necessarily those who are our natural children) who will be able to withstand the events in these last days – we need to raise up healers, prophets, sons and daughters of the Lord who will make a difference.

  Why did Miriam produce a Son (not a daughter). The Son looks like His Daddy, and yet contains the heart of His mama. The Son looks like the Father and the Holy Spirit. A male penetrates the darkness and deposits a seed, to stir and give birth. To become a world changer, rightly dividing the Word of truth, and not afraid.

  In Mary, God says, I will place my seed and He will come forth and produce more seed.

  We all have divine appointments, a divine call to achieve our destiny. It is up to us to receive it and agree with the Word of the Lord, “Let it be unto me as you have said.”

  Pastor Don told us that we need to have our hearts prepared for what the Lord has planned for us in 2008. That God is going to open our wombs in 2008 and take us to our destiny. We need to just agree that we believe and receive what the Lord has for us (males and females). We need to open up to God and let Him deposit His supernatural gifts, so that we can give birth to what will change our world. Prepare our hears and minds, get ready to get pregnant and give birth. This is a time of divine appointments. To bring forth the spiritual goals. That not all miracles are fast, some take time to develop – to give birth to them.

  Everyone was instructed to put their hands on their wombs (or where the seat of the Spirit is) and the pastors went around and laid hands on each person’s “womb” blessing the seed that God is going to impart. (Heather’s note, I know God will be doing many wonderful things in 2008, and there will be many testimonies to what God has done.)

  Have a blessed Christmas.

  Heather

  • 9:32 am
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