1.2.1 Destiny (I)

1.2.1 命定（一）

Speaker: Carina

2018.7.15

The topic of destiny is of interest to many people. It is a very big theme to talk about. I don't think I can fully cover all the aspects, but I will try my best.

About a year ago, I asked God, ‘Many believers serve you in different ways, but everyone has a main area to serve you, someone may be called to preach, while others worship you. What is my calling, how can I serve you?’ There was an immediate response from the Lord, saying, ‘I want you to help others enter their destiny.’

I liked this calling that God gave me and when teacher Ming prayed for me the next day, she confirmed the calling and told me the same thing.

About two weeks ago, the Holy Spirit told me that I should prepare to start praying and preaching the message of destiny, and I said ‘yes’!

A week later, when teacher Ming talked to me about this topic, I said, ‘Great, I will listen to your sermon.’ She responded saying that I should share the message instead. Thank you, Lord, for giving me this opportunity, let us pray together before we start.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for calling us to come before you today, Lord, please cover us. May your Spirit move among us, let rivers of living water flow from my belly, put your words into my mouth so I can preach the message according to your Will. Let the Spirit of our living God move among us so that everyone of us would know our destiny. This is our desire; may you fulfill and answer.  I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

This topic is very special, destiny. Many people say they do not know the purpose of their life. In fact, this destiny is the most important goal of our life. It is the God given purpose of our whole life and it is also the mission we must fulfill. God gives people different destiny, just like we all look different, everyone's destiny and calling is also different.

Are our destinies predetermined by God? What if I do not like my destiny? Later, I came before God to repent for this thought. I was dissatisfied with the destiny and dishonored God. On the journey to find my destiny, God gave me many revelations and reshaped my character. Destiny is the most important thing for Christians to seek. If we don’t know our destiny, we are just wasting our life because we haven’t lived out the purpose God created us on this earth, and we haven’t lived out what God wants us to accomplish on earth.

In Hebrew, the original meaning of ‘sin’ is to miss the bullseye. If we do not hit that destiny, we are in sin because we have not hit the goal that God made us. Sin means that we have not lived out God's purpose for us， so I believe destiny is very important to us.

Destiny is something unique given to us by God, we must seek it carefully before Him. The intention is to satisfy God’s will, it is also something that satisfies our hearts. Many people asked me, ‘what is my destiny?’

My understanding is that everyone has a core destiny, Moses’ destiny is to lead Israel out of Egypt and enter Canaan. Abraham also has a destiny to establish many nations, so the core destiny of each of us has small things to support. It is a process to know one's own destiny and then enter one's own destiny. When these small things support this core destiny, then this destiny will be found.

Just like Moses was put in the Nile River when he was a child, he grew up in the royal palace of Egypt, passed through the wilderness, all of these small things are to fulfill his final destiny. David also went through many things, but in the end reached his core calling, in fact, each of us will know a little bit about your destiny. You will find it through your own characteristics, and your background will also point to that destiny. Using myself as an example, my close friends always ask me, “Why do you travel all around the world?” In fact, I’ve always traveled when I was young.

When I was kid, when it was summer, I always traveled and played with the group my parents were in. When I was young, my mother was in one company and my father was in another one. Somedays, I would go out and play with my mother's group and come back at 2am. The same day I returned home and went out to travel again with my dad at 5am. A lot of my parents' friends would wonder why I liked walking and traveling so much. Your destiny has a tendency: it is always related to your personal character traits.

After this trait gradually grew, someone prophesied to me that I would travel among the nations; including teacher Ming who also prophesied the same message to me. She said she saw me dragging a suitcase traveling around the world.

When you see your own characteristics and other people’s predictions/prophecies about you become clearer and more obvious, you must think deeply about it because it will point to your destiny. This is the first point I am going to make; Your calling/destiny will grow clearer starting from your environment, growth and characteristic.

I joined OM ministry to do spiritual warfare in America a while ago; in fact, the task was quite major, and I was very tired. Because of God’s protection, jet lag did not exist for me at all. I would get off the plane at noon and joined the team to wage spiritual warfare immediately in the afternoon, this shows God’s special grace and protection. I was completely exhausted, and I told God that I was tired.

After I finished speaking, God responded to me saying, “Don’t you like walking? Ever since you were a child you enjoyed it, now I’m letting you walk without stopping.”  

God is very humorous, and you will also find your destiny from your environment. How else can you know your destiny? God himself can also speak or appear to you personally.

You can see that in the Bible, God appeared to Moses and said that he wanted him to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. This was God talking to him directly; the same was true for Abraham. God said to Abraham, I will make a covenant with you, and I will make you the father of many nations. It is the appearance of God. Another way is prophecy, just like the story of Saul, Samuel prophesied for Saul that he would be king, but Saul didn't know that he was going to rule at the time.

1 Samuel 9:19-21 

19 And Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer: go up before me unto the high place; for ye shall eat with me today, and tomorrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thine heart.

20 And as for thine asses that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them; for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father's house?

21 And Saul answered and said, “Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore then speakest thou so to me?”

At this time, Saul didn't know that he was going to be king, so Saul said, ‘am I not the smallest Benjaminite among the tribes of Israel?’ Isn't my home the smallest home in Benjamin's assignment? This is the prophet’s prophecy pointing out the destiny of this person. Just now we talked about your own characteristics, and you will discover your destiny, and then God’s revelation will directly speak to you.

Take me for example, I didn’t know that I was going to be preaching on the podium. When I just became a Christian and went to church, the pastor said to me, “You should go study theology to serve the Lord” I responded saying that I couldn’t, and that I just believed in Christ.

Then he said, “Don’t be in a hurry to reject me. If someone else tells you something like this within a week, you must think about preaching.”

So, I said OKAY. Near the end of the week, a fellow believer who had just been baptized came to our house and said, “You are quite like a person who preaches on stage.”  Since I was still very young, and I wasn’t mature in my walk of faith I didn’t take this matter seriously. This is a real-life example of a prophet’s prophecy indicating your destiny.

Around 5-6 years later, when a person was praying for me, he also said something similar; prophesying that I would share the word of God. Once again, I didn’t take the word seriously, because there was something inside of me that resisted those prophecies. My mother believed in the Lord for 30 years and when she found out the prophecy about my destiny, she couldn’t sleep that night. In her conception, preachers had to suffer a lot just to stand on the podium and share God’s word. My mom did not want me to be get hurt, but one night God personally spoke to her saying, “You don't need to worry about your daughter.”  That’s why she let down her guard and allowed me to fly around like this. For me, this is my destiny made known to me by a prophet.

Another year later, a prophet told me that you should teach and share God’s words. At that time, I became enraged and said, “I do not want to teach.” Later, teacher Ming said to me more directly; saying, “I saw you standing on a podium; however, God is not only going to use your mouth for intercession, but also for sharing His message.” At that time, I finally realized how rebellious I was and came before God to repent of my disobedience. This whole process of repenting took me about a year and a half.

We all know that finding out our destiny and living it out requires a journey. During this whole process, God is also shaping and teaching us for His purpose. By knowing your own characteristics, hearing God speaking to you and others prophesying to you; as you combine these things, you will be able to see your calling more clearly. But knowing one's own destiny also requires a response. Personally, it took me a while to give God a response.

When I first believed in the Lord, I saw a very vivid vision of Him: Jesus stood on my left and stretched out His right hand. I was very nervous at the time because I hardly understood what was happening, but somewhere in my heart I felt deep love and happiness and I started to cry. So, this is the way God invited me to respond to Him. After a few years, I began to experience a very difficult environment, whether it was my workplace or interpersonal relationship, or my family, I experienced a lot of pressure. At that time, I often cried to express my incomprehension, and all the doors of my life were closed; the only one door that was open was the door of equipping and serving. Because I did not respond to God’s call, I experienced many circumstances. At first, I didn’t understand what was going on, 5-7 years later the Holy Spirit told me to drive to the suburbs. He kept insisting that I went, so I did; ten minutes into the drive, I started crying. After all those years I finally understood why I first saw Jesus sending an invitation to me in the church. He had called me, and I didn’t respond, and I felt a deep regret for not listening to Him and following the purpose of my life. From then on, I responded to God, of course, the change did not happen immediately. I also thank God for molding me in this process, making me gentle, kind, and humble. Without this process, maybe I would not have entered my destiny.

We know our destiny is very important, because there will be an unshakable kingdom inside of you. You will know what to do with your life, and what the goal is, and you will not take your attention away. Like I said earlier, the meaning of sin in Hebrew is ‘not hitting the bullseye or to stray away from the bullseye.’ When you do not know your destiny, you deviate from that bullseye, you won’t know where to go. So, knowing your destiny and responding to it is a very important thing, for you will not stray left or right.

Once you respond, and start carrying out your destiny, you will know what works must be done and what are not your works. At the end of the day, the work of gold, silver and precious stones and what is the work of grass, wood and stubble, will be separated when we give accounts to God. Let us reduce the work of grass, wood and stubble, we have heard many testimonies of elderly people taken up to heaven, and when the fire of the Holy Spirit burned, most of their works were of rocks and wood. Therefore, it is very important to know your goal, just like Paul said “7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

If you do not know your destiny, you cannot say you are faithful to His Will.

After we believe in the Lord, there will be many battles in the spiritual field, the main purpose is to regain our destiny. The original text of sin is to deviate from the target, so the devil’s attack is mainly to make you deviate from God’s purpose. The reason for the war is to reclaim your destiny from Satan.

Destiny is also about rewards; you will only be rewarded if you complete what God has asked you to accomplish. This is contrary the Chinese saying, ‘we at least deserve credits for efforts.’. The rewards in the Kingdom of heaven will not be the same, so Destiny is about rewards, (Revelation3:11), I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The crown mentioned here is talking about your rewards, if you fail to hold on, the rewards will also be taken away.

As some of you know, I just came back from spiritual warfare, and I am very tired. So, when the next one came up, I decided I would not go. That night I had a dream:

I came to the foot of the mountain of the LORD. I knew this mountain is the mountain of rewards, but this mountain was very high and sharp. Many people came to the mountain of the LORD, but these people all traveled lightly. One of the men was only carrying a small green backpack. His body was full of muscles, which probably meant that his spiritual muscles were relatively strong. My companion beside me said ‘it is too tiring to climb the mountain with so many things, let’s not go.’ I did not want to go either, because I thought it would be too much work. I dreamt I also saw one of my spiritual elders, and very next morning he sent me a WeChat message saying that he wanted to pray with me. In the message he said, ‘I feel that you must climb the mountain of the Lord, after you cross the mountain, you will reach the promised land. Only then did I realize that the dream was very important, and I prayed before God. It turned out that I had come to the foot of the reward mountain. If I didn’t climb this mountain due to exhaustion and didn’t pay the price, my reward would be lost. That also meant I couldn't enter the promised land, so I wanted to climb it and get to Canaan, so God granted me with strength.

When God gives you a destiny, He will give you the support accordingly. He is not a God who makes things difficult for others, but sometimes we are a little afraid of our destinies. Destiny is about rewards, so it is one thing that you play your own part: whether you pay the price or not, or will you lose your destiny. It is another thing that God will test us during the journey towards our rewards. If you are particularly interested in a certain field, then you know that you are destined for it. When I believed in the Lord, I first learned the two topics about destiny and prophecy. So, I was not surprised when many prophets sent me similar prophecies, so God will also give us such preparation and equipment, and He will also give us many tests during the way.

When I was doing spiritual warfare in Montreal, I happened to be fasting and praying for those three days, and I needed go out to serve others, but it’s amazing that I was full of energy with God’s leading. In the past three days, I have been travelling by trains and serving in small services. In these three days, I am neither tired nor hungry. Many people remarked that they were surprised, I was not hungry after such a large consumption of strength.

Immediately after Montreal, there was an opportunity to go to Indonesia, but this was different since the timing was conflicting. A lot of people including different prophets all said, ‘You should go to Indonesia.’ I didn’t feel that I could go because of the battle in Montreal, therefore I didn’t want to go to Indonesia. When it was time to leave, they all asked, ‘Are you not taking your passport to leave?’ I responded saying I would not go. In fact, going to Indonesia was very edifying for me. On the one hand, it is to serve others and build them up, on the other hand, I will also be served, it will be beneficial to my spiritual growth. Personally, it was a very good opportunity for me. At that time, I knew very well that this was a test given by God. I had to choose between my needs and the kingdom of God wanted from me. What is more, another friend of mine even dreamt of me taking an exam. In my own dream, I dreamt of teacher Ming saying to me, ‘If you answer your question like this, I can only give you one point’. I ended up not going to Indonesia, I felt like God was not calling me to go to Indonesia, although there were so many personal benefits and plenty of areas to grow. Right after the Montreal battle ended, I dreamed that I gave birth to a pair of twin boys very clearly.

Will your destiny be lost? Yes, because when your destiny is clear, you must also hold to it, just like what Paul said, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept my faith.’ Moses lost his destiny, although he brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he did not enter the promise land. Solomon also lost his destiny, he lived a very good life but, in the end, God said, “I will take your kingdom away.” Many characters in the Bible lost their calling, so let us not to lose ours, we must stay vigilant.

It's like a jigsaw puzzle, you are a member of a team, you are part of a ministry, the ministry is like a whole picture puzzle; the connection and coordination between multiple ministries can reveal or form a bigger plan of God. When Rev. John Mulinde of Uganda was fasting, God told him about this revelation, and God used around half a month to teach him about the connection between ministries, the purpose of these connections is to fulfill the perfect Wills of God and help people to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, so people can see what God is going to do in the nations. The destiny of a ministry is connected to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and when us, as part of a ministry, fulfilled our personal destiny, that will help the ministry to fulfill its destiny. It is very important for us to find out which ministry we were called by the Lord to be part of. There are examples in the Bible we can refer to.

The tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Dan, they chose not to cross the Jordan River because they thought it would be a good place to graze their livestock, but Joshua ordered them to fight along with other tribes, and even though they fought the battles, they didn't fulfill the covenant that God had made for them. You can see that those two tribes were the first to be taken captive as recorded in the Bible, and they were the ones that didn't cross the Jordan River. So it's very important to find out what ministry you're going into.

I don't think that all the people of the two tribes did not want to cross the Jordan River, the decisions must be made by their leaders who chose not to cross the Jordan River. When we are called to join a ministry, you have a responsibility and an obligation to pray for the leaders and the ministry, so that we won’t repeat the tragedy of not fulfilling destiny.

The ministry or the organization will help you to have a kingdom level (macroscopic) vision and you will know what God is doing in the nations. This kingdom level vision will open and expand your spiritual eyesight, when you join a team, not only your own destiny but also everyone's destiny and the ministry are united together through prayer, so you must have this macroscopic vision.

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I believe all who joined Omega ministry are individually called by God, because of our desires is broaden our own horizon and to understand God's will.

God honors us greatly, and He sees our destiny as being related to eternity, just as when He created the world, it was made to connect with eternity, this is God's great honor for us. I hope that brothers and sisters will be able to find their destiny in God.

I heard an international speaker shared a story before. God entrusted him with a task, which is to lead a country to revival, and this speaker asked God, “if I didn't do the task, would someone else do it?’  God answered him  "You're my first choice, and I'll only choose the second person if you don't do it,"   God will surely fulfill his will and purpose and he has many people to choose from, but it is a great honor for us to be part of his eternal plan.

Teacher Ming's response to the message:

There are three levels of destiny: individual level, collective(group) level, and kingdom level.

The destiny of each person (individual level) is also connected to the collective level. What is collective level destiny? Your family, your ministry position, your organization, and finally the Kingdom level. Your family will also enter their destiny because you have entered yours, but if you cannot step into your destiny, your family will not enter theirs. Sometimes we ask, ‘why my family suffers from so many bad things?’ it is because you have not entered your calling, the solution to the problems is that you have to enter your destiny first and then lead your family. Eventually your family enter their calling collectively, then you can move higher to the kingdom level destiny, all the different levels are interconnected.

What is God's destiny and Will for Israel, what is the destiny for the Gentiles? How do you find your destiny?

We have to listen to God's voice, by doing this will lead you into your destiny. There are ten ways God speaks, you must understand the key and the link here. You learn how to listen and you surely will hear, then you ask 4 questions, we call them the “4 Ws”:

Where?

When?

What?

Who?

The key word is ‘WHERE’, the first question you should ask God is, ‘where should I be?’ This is the first part of your destiny, because God has a predetermined plan for all the nations, and also has a predetermined plan for individuals. In Acts 17:26-27 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. Psalm 2:8, Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. God gave the nations of the earth to His sons as an inheritance. I have no choice in which family I was born in, but I can ask which ministry should I join?  What area I am called to serve? When you know all this, the rest comes smoothly because your destiny is connected to the organization, which naturally leads you to your correct path, and of course you can continue ask the following questions.

WHAT, what is my career going to be, what is my service going to be, what is my education going to be, this is about personal calling. If you are a student, you should seek what major to study; if I am called to join a school of business, I pray which university I should be in?  The same principle applies for ministry. If God has given you a calling that specializes in hosting people, you just open your home and you host people.

WHO, that is who surrounds you, who are your spiritual parents, who are your authority figures, who are your brothers and sisters, that's what Jesus said.

WHEN, is the time to enter, because everything has a season, so you need to know when to enter the destiny, usually there will be a sign, that is, when you meet the pillar of cloud and fire. What does it mean by meeting the pillar of cloud and fire? In the Exodus, when did the Israelites know their destiny and calling? Is that when they move in Egypt ? No, because when they went into Egypt, they were in a bad situation, and they didn't know their destiny yet. When did they know their destiny? It was when they received God's very clear guidance and the pillar of cloud and fire appeared. When you are sure about your calling and you can step into it. When you are sure about your personal destiny and you also join the ministry which the Lord assigned to you, your individual level destiny starts to connect with the collective (group level) destiny; the ministry’s group level destiny is also connected to the kingdom level calling.  All those different levels of destiny and calling are like a straight path for you. So, we emphasize that you must find out what God has entrusted to you and what God has equipped you with? All these gifts, experiences, equipment are related to your destiny. Only when you clearly know your destiny, you will stop wandering aimlessly. This is the fastest way I can teach you.

Prayer:

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God is moving among us, we really want to know what our portions are the Lord designed for us, otherwise I don't even know which area I should be faithful, and I'm not sure what service I should be focus and pour my heart. Many times, I thought I am serving the Lord and I'm busy with my works, but I finally realized through today's sharing that I should be faithful for my destiny and calling, and I have to find the portion that God has entrusted to me then I can step into in and be faithful. Otherwise, I maybe like a foolish man who busily raise children for 18 years and then find out that they are not even my own children.

Lord, we don't want to do such things, Lord help us today, let us know where we are called to serve, where is our future, where do you lead us to go, what is my portion, so that we can concentrate on your calling, so that we can seek your guidelines.  None of us want to be like those two tribes of Israel who didn't cross the Jordan River, none of us want to lose our portions in these last days, none of us want our names to be erased by you. Please help us Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit, open our vision, open our spiritual senses, whether it's a voice, whether it's a memory, whether it's a human face, that you may give to us so we can start to understand our destiny.  Brothers and sisters, Hallelujah, thank you Lord, because the period of desolation is coming to an end, and the heavenly callings and purposes are revealing. Just like the Israelites in the Old Testament, when Jeremiah prophesied the 70 years of desolation is fulfilled, the hour of sorrow is finishing, and the heavenly destiny is coming. We don't want to be like the examples we just heard, King Saul died before he had fulfilled his life span, and the older generation of Israelites didn't enter the land of Canaan, even Moses didn't enter the Promised Land.  Help us God.

I also don't want to be like King Solomon, who had a close relationship with God for 20 years at the beginning, and was clearly into his destiny, but at the end he fell.

Prayer:

Lord I thank and praise you.

We know that in Jesus' time, 5,000 people ate the fish and loaves of bread that Jesus miraculously provided and then 4,000 more people ate the food and experience the same miracle and countless people experienced the healing of Jesus Christ, but do you know how many people watched Jesus ascend to heaven? Only 500 people! These 500 people watched the ascension of Jesus Christ. God indeed has prepared the best blessings for people, but not many people got it. How many of these 500 people were able to wait for the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem? Only 120 people. These 120 people were the ones who spread the gospel and brought the church into revival and step into the destiny. We are so amazed by the facts that 5000 people ate the food, where did they do? Didn't 500 people see Jesus' ascension to heaven? Why did only 120 people enter destiny and where did the remaining 380 go?

Later, these 120 people turned that era upside down, and the influence continues to affect us even now. Likewise, what happened before will happen in the present day, many people have experienced miracles, many people have seen God's works and even had personal encounter with God, but not everyone can enter that destiny. Why? Because many people had gone into sleep. What’s the result of losing your destiny?  Someone may be robbed or plundered by the enemy, some may be prematurely pass away, some maybe losing the God given authority and replaced by other.

Spiritual authority connects with destiny. When people can’t get real spiritual authority, their eyes will turn to look for the worldly authority as a replacement. We can see that many people who have worldly authority may not have spiritual authority. This is because people often make substitution of real spiritual authority for worldly authority when they can’t get one. The spiritual authority is real!