God's Purpose And Destiny For Our Lives

We are going to look at the question of destiny in this teaching series. God created us for a destiny. He made us for a reason, and we only find a true source of inner satisfaction when we are actively fulfilling that destiny.

You may wonder why I am teaching on this topic in the prayer school, which is dedicated to prayer, intercession, spiritual warfare and building intimacy with God.

There are two reasons that I am writing this. The first is that, as intercessors and prayer warriors, we need to understand and fulfill our own call and destiny. The second is so that we can pray more intelligently for those who God assigns us to pray for. Let's look briefly at both reasons.

We can't be successful as an intercessor, unless we understand and fulfill our destiny. God created us for a reason and He has trusted us with certain kingdom assignments. Some of those assignments are in the realm of prayer and intercession, but others are not. We need to begin to get a handle on our destiny, so that we can walk in it.

Many intercessors know that their destiny has something to do with prayer, but they don't really have a very good handle on it. As intercessors, we need to be firmly rooted in out identity in Christ. The reason is because we are going to engage in high levels of spiritual warfare and enemy counter attack as a routine part of our prayer ministry.

Now here is the thing: it is easy for the devil to take out an intercessor who doesn't know who they are in Christ. The enemy will do what he can to play mind-games with them, trying to create a feeling of condemnation and rejection. He knows that intercessors are dangerous, and he wants to get them to stop praying. He knows that he can't take them out, so to try to get them feeling so bad about themselves that they end up disqualifying themselves.

But there is a confidence (an unshakeable-ness) that comes when we know what our destiny is, and we know that we are walking in it. long with that confidence, there is an inner joy and satisfaction that comes form knowing we are right smack dab in the center of God's plans and purposes for us.

The second reason that intercessors need to know about destiny is so that we can pray intelligently for those who God assigns us to cover in prayer. We don't just want to pray them through their crisis, carrying them form one emergency to another. We want to see the ones we pray for grow and mature into their full stature in Christ, so that they are less easily shaken. We want to see them because strong and unmovable in their walk with God, so that they can fulfill the destiny they were created for.

Three Big Questions

Most of the people who are alive today end up asking themselves at least one of these three questions, and many ask all three:

1. Why Am I Alive?
2. Does It Matter?
3. What Is My purpose?

We will look at the each of them over the next few lessons. Let's start with the first one.

Question 1: Why Am I Alive?

The question is: why am I here? It is really is a question of existence. Why am I alive? That's not a new question; in fact, the Prophet Jeremiah asked this question. In Jeremiah 20:18, he asked, "Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?"

Does anybody ever feel like that? Have you felt like that recently, like maybe sometime this week? God does have a purpose for each one of us and I'm so glad that He does. There is a reason why we're alive. But how do you find that reason for existence? How do you search and find those answers?

There are a lot of ways that people search for answers. Some people take the mystical approach, where you turn inward. It is kind of like saying "I'm going to turn inward and find the answers from within." Have you heard of that? Does that work? If that worked, then everybody should have their answers. All you've got to do is be still and have answers... but doesn't work.

Some people try the philosophical approach and that, of course, depends on your philosophy. If your philosophy is a survivalist, then your purpose is simply just to stay alive. If your philosophy is a naturalist, you would say, "I just want to perpetuate my life here on this earth, and other things." If your philosophy is a hedonist, life is simply supposed to be pleasure: a one big-party-after-another-party type of thing. And if your philosophy is a materialist, then it's simply the acquisition or the accumulation of things. You've heard the saying, "He who has the most toys when they die wins." Isn't that the way it works? But the problem with that approach is that we all have to die, and when we do, it doesn't matter what you accumulate. We all have kind of the same end here.

Some people are trying to find their purpose through mystical things; some people are trying to find it through philosophical things, and some people have just gone the self-help route. They've gone to the bookstore, and pulled out these theme books on how to help yourself, how to help your poor self-image. Basically, most of these self-help things have the same end. In other words, if you're going to find your purpose, you've got to find it yourself. They'll say things like: "discover your dreams," "go after your goals," "have some ambition," "dream the big dreams," "aim high," "believe you can achieve," "have faith," "figure out what you're good at," "never give up," "involve other people"...and the list goes on. Some of those are good things, and those things might even help a person to become very successful, but there's a difference between being successful and knowing the purpose for why you're on this earth.

You see, there are a lot of successful people out there that don't know why they're here. In fact, a lot of the things coming out lately that are asking the same question. "If I'm so successful, how come life isn't fulfilling?" It's because you can only get that answer from God. Proverbs 16:4 says, "The Lord has made everything for His own purpose." God made you and He made you for His purpose.

There's not anything here that doesn't have a purpose. Look outside; everything's got a purpose. The trees have a purpose and you have a purpose if you're still alive. You'd better check yourself out. Do you feel your heartbeat? If you do, then you still have a purpose; God has a purpose for you.

Let's look at a couple of verses, Ephesians 1:4 says, "Long before He laid down the earth's foundation, He had us in His mind, and settled on us as the focus of His love." How long ago was that? That was a long time ago. Just let that phrase "focus of His love" soak in. That is the kind of a key phrase I want to draw attention to. The focus of His love is to be made whole and holy by His love. Why did God create you? Why are you alive? The answer is so that God can love you.

If you get nothing else out of this teaching series, I hope you will understand that God made you because He wanted to love you. It is not like God was lonely. God's not up in heaven saying, "Oh, I'm so lonely. I just need somebody." He didn't create you because He needed to; He created you because He wanted to. God is love, so He wanted us to love; He wanted us to be here so He could love us.

Why did God make you? Why do you exist? The answer to the question, "Why am I alive?" is so that God can love you. It is so you can be the object of His love and affection, and God wants you to understand that.