Destiny's Child: Chapter One: You are Destiny's Child
INTRODUCTION
Are you attracted to some particular things, people or places? Are you sensing the sudden pull to those particular things, people or places?
That inner seed that burns inside of you ready to be born is what you are gifted at doing and born to do. It is your purpose in life. It is what pulls you to those particular things, people or places.
If you take a flashback, you will come to realise that there were some circumstances that crept into your life suddenly to push you through life’s journey.
Your seed is your tool, it is what you will use in fulfilling your destiny. Stepping into your destiny means fulfilling the role that you were born to play in life. You will find great joy and contentment when you work towards fulfilling your destiny.
Be ready to give more of you and life will give back more to you. Destiny involves a series of events that requires the use of your seeds which are your skills and God-given talents.
Destiny will allow you to focus on your strengths rather than on your weaknesses. Your strength will display how real and authentic you are.
Through Christ Jesus, we are strengthened and can do that which we were born to do.
You Are Destiny’s Child
We were all created here on earth for a reason. We have been destined to fulfill our individual purposes in life. We are not by chance, neither are we here on earth by accident.
I listened to the Destiny Series by Bishop T.D. Jakes, and I got it. I want you all to get it too. As I listened to Destiny's Series, I instantly knew that there was a reason why God led me to listen to it. It was as if Bishop T.D. Jakes viewed my entire life through a magic mirror.
I had goose pimples and tears running down my face. I watched the whole series over and over again, and each time I listened to it, it felt new and it hit me hard in a new way too.
It was just what I needed to listen to. It was just a perfect way for God to say, “Child! I hear you, you are not alone”.
Destiny can be described in a way, as a magnetic force that pulls you and attracts you to certain things, certain people, certain places and certain desires that will help you fulfill your purpose in life.
And just like a magnetic pull, I could feel the pull of God on the inside as I listened to Destiny Series. It was almost all about me. But I soon realised that, it was all about you too.
I had the instinct to quickly share my story. I felt the need to make other people understand that, if I could make it through the toughest times in life that anyone could make it too.
If everyone could just rely on Jesus Christ like I did, we would all be on a perfect path to fulfill that perfect plan that God had pre-planned for us.
I see Jesus Christ as my backbone. Knowing that Jesus lives in me gives me that confidence to step out of the boat and walk on the waters. Such confidence also gives me the strength to walk through the fire, knowing that neither will I drown nor burn into ashes.
As a Registered Nurse and as a Disability Support
Worker, I understand the significance of the spine to our body.
The spine runs from the base of our skull to our pelvis, and it is a pillar to the body. The spine gives the weight of our body a firm support.
Jesus Christ is our pillar. He supports us, making us unshakable in times of trouble.
If you take a good look at the picture of a spine, you would agree that it gives our body the function of flexibility, which allows us to move and do things in a range of movement without collapsing.
The spine provides specialist expertise when it is needed and where it is needed in the body. It provides an assurance to the body to indicate that all is well.
Just like a backbone, Jesus Christ is our assurance of support anywhere and anytime.
It is so comforting to know that there is someone to rely on when hell breaks loose. You will not know that Jesus Christ is all that you need, till you realise that Jesus Christ is all that you have.
People would always be around you in difficult times, but just to prove that the word of God is true, they will all leave one by one till you are left with Jesus. Only Jesus will help you fulfill your destiny with ease.
Your Destiny Is Your Purpose
To live a life with a purpose, you have to be aware of what, who and where you are attracted to and be ready to move and work towards those attractions. That sudden pull and attraction will be from your instinctive thoughts.
When you lack a sense of interest in anything, you would have nothing less but a sense of confusion. A sense of confusion is, finding your identity in the wrong things, in the wrong places or in the wrong people.
A sense of confusion can involve seeking an applause from people, craving for people’s reassurance or being a people pleaser instead of pleasing God.
Not until you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, you really cannot identify who you are in Christ.
You really cannot know how much authority you have got and how to exercise your authority. And if you do not know who you are in Christ, you will most likely not know how to use your God-given talents to fulfill your true purpose in life.
It will be your responsibility to make sure that you live a purposeful life. When you live with a purpose, you will have no time to waste on worry or envy. You will not be seeking what other people have because you will be busy working on yours.
Everyone has been blessed by God in different ways, with different gifts, and with unique abilities to use the gifts.
It will be your duty to seek God to help you figure out exactly what your own gifts and abilities are. Gifts and abilities are not tools for oppression and greed but rather they are tools used to complement another.
Your gifts should be used to enhance the growth and development of another person or an organisation.
Some of the things that cause distractions or the lack of concentration in the journey called destiny are, trying to compare yourself with others or trying to be who other people are.
You may be attracted to other people who have similar purposes in life but you don’t have to be who they are.
You are supposed to work towards being the best version of you, ensuring that you are always better than who you were yesterday. You are supposed to compete with the former you and not with anybody else.
Some people were destined to reap greater, and so, they will put in more effort to be greater. Some people, on the other hand, were destined to reap small for a reason.
Your greatness is not to oppress the less privileged, it is to pull them up and assist them to be great too.
Your much might be too much for some people while at the same time, your much might not be too much for others. Some are destined to sow while some are destined to eat from the seeds that other people have sown.
We all are never going to be at the same level, some will be great while some will be greater, but all of us regardless of what we do or who we are, are the apple of God’s eyes.
God made it that way so that people can learn how to love, to be content, to endure, to tolerate and to complement each other with no strife.
You have to be content with the way God has made you and with what God has given you. Don’t let people’s opinion of you change your Godly path.
You don’t need to feel intimidated or oppressed by anyone. Knowing Jesus Christ will give you the clarity and the confidence to exercise who you really are and what you do.
God did not bless us with gifts to look and feel good only. We will all be accountable and will be judged based on all the gifts that God has blessed us with.
We are not and will never be accountable for the gifts of others. If you live your life based on comparison, you will never be at peace and satisfied with anything and your life may be miserable.
Using your God-given talents should give you joy, peace of mind and satisfaction, so be comfortable with yourself and with what you do.
If you have to compete with everyone and with everything that you do, you may not fulfill your destiny. You will be too busy being who you are not meant to be.
Paying attention to the person running behind you, in front of you or beside you can distract you from reaching the finish line. Run your own race gracefully with Jesus Christ.
Be Yourself
Who have you been dressing up to be like? It had better be you. Dressing up as who you are not may make you feel uncomfortable for the rest of your life.
Do you remember the story of Saul, David and the Goliath in the scriptures? Saul, a king in his own time dressed and equipped David, a young boy for a battle against Goliath.
King Saul dressed David in his own armour, helmet, and coat of mail but David felt really uncomfortable because he did not fit well into them, it was someone else’s garment and he was not used to dressing up that way for a battle.
David was going to fight Goliath, the giant. Goliath was over nine feet tall dressed in his physical but strong weapon.
Goliath wore a bronze helmet, a coat of armour which looked like the scales on a fish, an armour made with bronze which weighed over a hundred pounds, bronze protectors for his legs and a javelin tied on his back for a battle just enough to scare anyone.
Now, young David on the other hand, an ordinary man who will not fit into the battle equipment of a king, trusted in the king of all kings (Jesus Christ) to fight his battle.
All that David used to eventually defeat Goliath was his faith in God, a stone, and his shepherd bag.
Goliath can represent any difficulty that you are facing in life, and if you focus on how huge the problem is, you will develop fear.
Fear is a negative feeling that gives birth to a negative situation. If you can just bury your fear and exercise your faith in God through His word, you will melt down that mountain of difficulty right in front of you. (1 Samuel.17. 38-50).
As we all know, it is not by might, neither is it by power but by the word of God to defeat the enemy. The word of God is active, living and sharper than any kind of physical weapon you can ever think of.
So you see, do not weigh your success with another person’s success. Do not turn your work and walk of destiny into a desperate need to measure up with others. Don’t let people influence your true definition of success and accomplishment.
The true meaning of success is you knowing what you were born to do, you doing it with excellence and you fulfilling your destiny.
True success is using all of your God-given talents to make a positive change in another person’s life. It is all about you being a change agent that will help other people grow and develop positively enough to keep the cycle of change going on (Luke 6.38).
We are not supposed to emulate people who are proud, we are not supposed to imitate people who measure themselves by themselves, for themselves or with others for selfish interests.
We are to acknowledge that God is the giver of all gifts and that we are strengthened to do all we are able to do through Jesus Christ (Philippians. 4:13) for the sake of others.
Do Not Settle For Less
Be happy. Avoid being a miserable person and do not hang out with miserable people either. Do not settle for less.
Do not be okay with just anything. We were born to be great, so live a life that reflects greatness. Don’t live a life that reflects a fig tree that all of its leaves have withered. Be a tree that produces good fruits when it should (Ps. 1.1-3).
Do not be afraid to fly and reach out for the sky. God will only lift you to the tolerance of your pain and adaptability.
God will not promote you in an area where you will not be able to stand the pressure or where you will not be able to put in your effort.
You need to know who you are. You need to establish your identity in Jesus Christ. Who God has created you to be should fit you easily.
Who you will ever become in life is already in you and no one and no circumstances can take it away from you. If you are a creative person, no matter what your circumstances are, you will still remain that creative person you were born to be.
On the valley, you will be creative, and on the mountain, you will also be a creative person, so activate the creativity that God has put inside of you. Don't let your circumstances define who you are.
Believe in yourself and believe in your intuition. You will sense it and know it when you are right on your destiny path.
You will also know it when you suddenly look back with reflection, and all you can ever say after some ups and downs is that “Now I know why this and that happened”
You will come to realise that it all went bad so that it can all turn good and even better (Romans. 8.28).
Struggle Strengthens
Life can be a struggle, so know that all that you are going through in life is for a reason and for a season. Do not lose heart.
All your difficulties will teach you how to be patient and how to endure in life. It is to help equip you holistically (Spiritually, emotionally, socially, physically or financially) for the future.
Your difficulties will teach you how you are going to handle your achievements and failures in a better way.
You will eventually be able to look back and thank God for all your good and bad times. You will eventually have so many reasons to appreciate your difficulties as well as learn how to trust in God fully and wholeheartedly when next you face other difficulties in life.
All these lessons of life should teach you how to identify your strengths and weaknesses. It should also teach you how to be comfortable and satisfied with your achievements.
Do not be in a haste to be successful in a wrong area. Remember that the big things in life are made out of the very little things in life. So appreciate your small beginnings.
Naturally, there is no way you would hate cooking and enroll into a master chef competition. But if being a great chef is what God has created you to be, God Himself, will prepare you with little cooking steps that will lead you to be that great master chef.
So trust and appreciate the little things that God does in your life. Every day of your life is a lesson, pay attention to it.
As another example, if you were created to be a great cook, you will be nurtured from being able to make scrambled eggs to being able to bake a cake. You can also improve from being able to bake cupcakes to being able to make wedding cakes.
The more effort and time you put into practicing anything, the more positive outcome you will get out of it.
Remember that God blesses people back in abundance based on the measure that they have used and the time that they have spent on a particular thing.
Greatness starts with desires and thoughts. When you accept Jesus Christ, it is the Holy Spirit that God has given to you as a gift that will place these desires in your heart.
The Holy Spirit works with us in different ways. He may show you the end picture of what you were born to be, maybe through dreams, visions or perhaps through your thoughts. Make sure that you hold on to your vision, it will keep you keeping on.
Let us say that God placed it in your heart that you will become a manager in your workplace. That sounds good right!
You don’t expect to just get promoted instantly when you do not have the required skills or academic qualification to match the job description and role. It will be your responsibility to step up to what God has called you to.
Having a dream indicates that you can be that person which you have dreamt about. It will be your responsibility to agree with your thoughts. It will also be your responsibility to discern which dream is from God and which one is from the enemy.
Step Into Your Destiny
Begin to fulfill your destiny in steps. Your destiny steps is a series of good and maybe some challenging events.
To take a step, you have to take an action. Most people these days like magic or always wait for things to happen. If you do not act, nothing will happen, you have to work hard and move for things to happen.
Appreciate and do not despise the days of your small steps, they are your learning curves. When your destiny seed is still small, appreciate it and nurture it to the level that God has planned for it.
Even if you try, you cannot grow past the level which God has ordained you to reach in life, so do not be afraid to take big steps too.
To maximise what God has given to you, you have to be you and do you. Be responsible for what you have been given.
You have to be consistent and continue in the race till you eventually get there. There is no doubt about it, if you take God’s steps, you may stumble but you will never fall (Psalm. 37.23).
Be An Example
You cannot be trusted to be a ruler or a leader over many when you cannot be trusted to rule or lead a few.
If you do not see God’s glory and appreciate Him in your practice or rehearsal times, you cannot see God’s glory and will most likely not appreciate God when you are blessed with the finished product.
Whatever you give is what you will get back and even more of it. If you give God your life He will give you His life in return and you will experience His goodness beyond your imagination. You cannot be hungry for a heavenly reward or blessing and live an earthly life.
Do not starve the seeds and steps in your destiny by not giving it attention. You need to be committed to it.
Jesus Christ called all the people that were willing to be committed to Him, people who were ready to leave their past and carry the cross to walk all the way with Him.
Jesus Christ did not pick the lazy ones. Most of Jesus’s disciples were working on something before they were called out of it, like Andrew and Peter who were fishermen before they became fishers of men.
So if you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, if you want to live the kind of life that Jesus Christ lived and if you want to lead as an example, you cannot be laid back.
You have to be serious about it, it is about you, and it is also about your destiny and those that are tied up to your destiny, so get into your destiny journey. Do something meaningful now.
Each step you take in life is similar to each floor that you pass by when you are in an elevator. Even though you may still be on the same elevator, you are either moving upward or moving downward depending on the decisions that you make and where you are going.
As you take each destiny step, you either go higher and higher or lower depending on how committed you are in escalating a process which is already in motion.
Be aware that the processes will be similar but the effort and results will be different based on how much you put into it.
What you will be in the future is already inside of you in form of a seed that needs to grow daily. Some of the things that you will also need to grow it with are also inside of you.
The best people to be around are the people who see that good seed ready to grow in you. They are the people who will be willing to help you nurture and water your seed to grow more.
Avoid dream killers, they are the people who will most likely kill your seed or pass by you, pretending not to see you and your growing seed.
As you grow your destiny seeds according to your capacity, you will eventually bring the tree out of you and your tree will also eventually produce good fruits for you and for others.
Appreciate and enjoy every step. Do not fall in love with tomorrow and neglect today.
Only the experiences that God gives you can teach you something you don’t know, so pay the dues to be great before playing great. Remember that you will eventually be a master at what you love doing best.
Seek to know God first and every other thing will be added onto you (Matthew 6:33).
