Like Caleb, Contend For Your Unfulfilled Destiny

Announcer This is the Truth Network. Because the more we do, the more we understand the demonstration of His love for us, poured out in demonstrations of His power, His interventions in our lives. You could call those miracles, you can call those signs, divine interventions, whatever. But this is the realm that belongs to God alone. You know, lots of conversation right now about alien invasions.

You know, isn't it comical how people can believe that, that there is an entrance from another dimension that is totally unexplainable and out of the blue, but they have a really hard time believing that God would introduce Himself in a supernatural way into your life and into my life to bless, encourage, strengthen, hey, rescue, heal, deliver so many manifestations of the love of God that come in such a powerful way. How could you say enough about that? Right? So we're in agreement. Today, this character from the Old Testament, Caleb, remember, he and Joshua had the good report, and they believed and were refusing or actually refused, not were refusing, they refused to be denied the inheritance and the blessing that they were promised. So like Caleb, we want to have that same spirit. So overall today, we just want to make every effort to learn all we can about the intended destiny that God has for your life so that you know what that means and what it looks like. The future holds so much. But not only do we have the future to look forward to now, but also a present reality. You know, this future promise includes, I love this out of Isaiah 25, is the removal of blinders from the people and a lifting of the veil that is over nations.

Well, what is that about? Well, the blinders and the veils, that is the thing holding back people and even nations from truly seeing and therefore receiving the Lord. And as we add to that understanding, an imitation of Caleb, see this different spirit is what you and I want to have. It's part of our discipleship growth.

Caleb refused to be denied. Speaking of discipleship, this is point number one, we're always learning, we never stop. We're growing in our understanding.

And like Caleb, who at the age of 80, and again, Caleb and Joshua, they knew that there were giants in the land, but that threat would not deter them from what was promised to them. So like Caleb, we contend for the unfulfilled part, that which has not been realized in our lives, that pertains to our destinies. Now, you understand you have a destiny, right?

Did you know that a lot of people have no clue that that is the case? Well, I'm telling you, every little baby conceived in the mother's womb has a destiny. So you and I have one, that is for sure.

There's no question about it, right? And many times, we think that there are promises, there are predictions, or you might say prophecies about our lives, we can see those for what they are, they belong to the fulfillment of the destiny that is in the heart of God, not something we cooked up or imagined, it is in his heart, and we are on our way to a complete fulfillment of those things. So even now, like Caleb, we pursue, here's the goal, we pursue everything God has promised, as we build his kingdom in every way that we know, we give of ourselves to it and receive from him an inheritance that is so vast.

You know, it's unlimited. It's what I mean when I say these demonstrations of the power of God. And this is both now and in the future. This is our discipleship. We're growing, we're learning, we're maturing. Why do we do that? Because we're training. The day will come when we will occupy, we will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ when he returns at his second coming, and we'll be doing this forever. What we're practicing now, rehearsing, you know, it's like the Feast of the Lord in Leviticus 23. These are rehearsals.

We are rehearsing what it's going to look like. Can you imagine what it would be to live life and not know the reality of our need for a Savior? And yet not only do we need him, but he comes to us with our destiny.

That means some things are meant for us, some things not so much, and we get to excavate all that God has for us. So even now, as we build his kingdom in every way that we know, we just give ourselves to that. And then we disciple others. Why do we do that? It's this training.

It's training for reigning. We'll be doing it forever. One thing is for sure.

I mean, this is for sure. At some point, somewhere along the line, everything is going to shift. Isaiah 25, verses 6 through 8. God says, I will destroy the veil that is upon all nations. So we go and disciple the nations.

Why? Because they have a veil over them. So you, you want to give yourself to helping remove the blinders from the eyes of the people, and the veil that is on the nations. And this is prophetically speaking.

This is over in the Millennial Kingdom, the Millennial reign, but we're progressively moving that way. Verse 6 in Isaiah 25. It says, Isaiah said, in this mountain, what is this mountain? The mountain of the Lord in Jerusalem. In this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people.

He's speaking of all people. He will destroy on this mountain, the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, the rebuke of his people. He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. Underline that, for the Lord has spoken. You see, it can't not be that way.

He has spoken it. So as Isaiah prophesied, from the mountain of the Lord, at that future time, in that future day, God will destroy every veil, every blinder, and swallow up death forever. That means every tear is wiped away. Now, that is the ultimate destiny. But along the way, we also have ingredients, you might say, installments of God's revealed destiny to us. So ultimately, all of this will be fulfilled following the second coming. But right now, we know that is where we're headed. It's where we're going. It's what we mean when we say destiny.

And listen, if we are destined, then for sure, God expects something of us. I mean, we're not just operating out here, just kind of here and there, up and down. We're not.

Up and down. We're not. We are tuned in to the requirement that God has, what He expects of us.

Requirement sounds a little harsh. Let's change that to the expectation. It's actually the way we get to participate with Him. And as one of my favorite teachers in the whole world has said, how do we know how to do this? How do we know that this is true? Because we have a whole book, the Bible.

It's the manual that we follow. It gives us a better picture and understanding. You know, the puzzle pieces come together here to make the full picture. And it's the reason why you play a role, I play a role.

This one has a part, that one has a part. Everything comes together to create the big picture. That's why we need each other. That's why we also are destined to be together as God's people, each with an assignment, our plural assignments, each with a task, each with a purpose, each with anointings.

Put an S on each of those words, because it's so so multiplied. You see, this is vast. This is a major thing that God does in and through us. And don't forget, and this is point number two, and this is major, discipleship connects us to wisdom. And see, that's how we discern. That's how we discern God's voice.

That's how we hear Him clearly. It's how we discern the difference between good and evil so that we can obey Him and not another Master. So we're going to follow this manual. We're going to obey God's written Word and His spoken Word to us. And we do that so that we can interpret our circumstances according to the Word. Read the Word and then interpret your circumstances accordingly.

And you see, it's not the reverse. We don't interpret the Word of God according to our circumstances. In other words, this is happening to me, so this must be the way that it's supposed to be or has to be, and woe is me.

No. Anything that takes place in your life, you can interpret according to the Word of God where you will find God's deliverance concerning a difficult or harmful situation, His blessing in the time of need, His provision for you in every way, His supernatural ability to deliver and to heal. You see, we get that from the Word and then we cause our lives to align with the Word, not the opposite. We don't expect God's Word to align with our lives. I align my life with His Word. And you know that means that we're going to guard against any belief system that establishes a theology, you know, that's what we believe about God, according to something that I wanted God to do but He didn't or hasn't or according to something He did or did not do.

Because see, in order to make that kind of judgment about Him, I would really have to be like Him. I mean, I would have to know everything. You don't know everything.

So when something has not happened the way that you wanted it, expected it, etc., that is not to say that God has changed or that He is deficient in any way. It is only to say that He is God. We are not.

He knows everything. We do not. And so we conform to Him.

We don't expect Him to conform to us. This is the wisdom that comes with discipleship, that comes with time in God's Word. It's how we know how to live. So consider this. Consider this. Point three, as it were.

If you're counting points, this would be number three. Without these foundations, Psalm 11, what would we do? What can the righteous person do without these sure foundations that God Himself has dictated and we know that the coming day is much to look forward to and has great expectation for us because Ecclesiastes 7, the end is better than the beginning. You know, the beginning was pretty good. In the beginning was God.

And the Word was with God. In the beginning, they were together. You know, this is the way it goes. This is the progression. It began very well in the beginning, Genesis 1-1, but the end is even better.

You see? And on the way, we are discipled in the in-between. We are discipled. We learn. We mature.

We grow. And we understand that the ultimate fulfillment is ahead. And we are getting installments. That's my word. Installments. I think of it that way.

All along the way. So I don't get uppity when things don't go accordingly. You know, according to me. To my, well, God said He would give us the desires of His heart, of our heart, so that is a promise.

But don't get all out of shape when you don't have everything the way you think. Because again, we just don't know everything God does. He knows what's coming. He knows the downside and the pitfalls. And listen, along the way, Satan is out to deceive, the Word says, the very elect, if possible.

If you're thinking you are the elect, then you can be the subject of his deception, if possible. You see, if possible. That's why this discipleship and this discipline in the Word is so important. You see it all the time. You see people who should know better. They've been taken captive in their understanding.

And in a sense, in their heart, they are sad, because they believe God has failed them on some level, in some way. That is the work of Satan. You see, that's his job to get those that he doesn't have. Those he already has, he already has.

You know, the people he has blinded and has held captive. Yes, he's got them, but he wants you. He wants me. He wants us to open that door He wants me. He wants us to open that door and let down our understanding that God is good all the time and receive some other report. So consider, first of all, that the foundations that have got you established are how you can live righteously.

And ultimately, the end is better than the beginning. And secondly, something else to consider, Jesus' return for his bride church in the parable Matthew 25, in Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13, we've talked about this earlier, concludes, this is our conclusion, watch therefore, for we know neither the day nor the hour of his return. Well, if we don't know the day or the hour of his return, what do we know? We know he's returning.

It's guaranteed. It's a promise. We don't know the day or the hour, but we know his return not only is certain, but we know it's soon. What does soon mean? That those closing verses of the book of Revelation, even so, Lord Jesus, come. He said, I'm coming soon. Soon. What does that mean? That means suddenly.

Suddenly. So we don't know the hour or the day, but again, Isaiah 25, verse 9, and it will be said in that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him and he will save us. This is our Lord. We have waited for him.

We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So you see, we are responsible to know these things. As a disciple, we cannot not know them. So we want to check these things out. We want to study them for ourselves.

Things like the second coming of the Lord, the return of the Lord for his bride church ahead of a tribulation period and ahead of that second part of the day of the Lord, of his return, when he comes with all the saints, that includes us, for the battle of Armageddon. See, you and I are to watch, therefore, to know these things. So as we respond, like Caleb, see, we're not going to be denied. We understand we have a promise and inheritance.

And although we do have certain teachers and leaders that we trust, it is up to each one of us to check it out, study it for ourselves. You do not have to take anyone's word on your eschatology, what you believe about the prophetic scriptures, the scriptures that are prophesied in the Bible, about this apocalyptic time that's coming, about the end time verses. You want to own the finishing touches on what you fervently believe about these prophetic end time scriptures. And that's really true of everything in the word. 2 Timothy 2, you need to study, show yourself because you've studied, prove it to yourself. Listen, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I have all of this. And we need to encourage each other this way. And if we do not reflect the scripture, if you and I, as the church, do not talk, teach, and in every way possible, trumpet these truths about number one, discipleship. Number two, that we have a book, a manual, we have these foundations that are established.

And also, thirdly, what and why all of this is for. See, it's because you have a destiny. It's because of that preparation for the future.

Some people say it looks pretty blurry to me. Well, it may, but it doesn't have to stay that way. Because still, you can know it.

Because why? We have the book, we have the scriptures. So, again, if we do not reflect what scripture says about these days, about His promises, and about the destiny that we each have, then we are definitely missing, among other things, that excellent spirit that Caleb had. But you can have it, Father, in Jesus' name. We pray right now that we have, will have, will continue to have in this season, in this important Bible season, historical season, end time period, we will have the excellent spirit that trusts you and believes you in all things. And we refuse to be denied of anything that you have said. Thank you, and we'll see you next time. Thank you. you