S5 E1: Awakening To The Destiny God Planned For You
Hey friends! If you were part of the Sacred Sunday’s of September live this past weekend then you know in this episode we are talking about DESTINY and the fact that God had a plan and purpose for our lives before we ever took our first breath on this earth! You had some homework to be working on so hopefully you are setting aside some time this week to water the seed that was planted this past Sunday and we are going to be going a little deeper this week and talking about the difference between identity and purpose. It’s going to good so try and catch the live at 7 PM EST this Sunday night or you can jump in on the replay! And all that is taking place in our SHE IS PODCAST COMMUNITY, private FB group. So come on over and join in the conversation!
One of my favorite scriptures about destiny and purpose is found in
Ephesians 2:10 {NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
{THE PASSION TRANSLATION} We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
The new king James version uses the word workmanship where these other translations use masterpiece and poem.
That word workmanship comes from a word that in the verb form means “to make” a design produced by an artisan.
Loved these notes A life without Christ can have no rhyme or reason. But following christ beings us balance, symmetry, and order.
We are God’s poem...his work of art!
I love this analogy of a poem… because I don’t know about you but life can sometimes have you all over the place… so I love the idea of as we follow Christ he has a way of bringing symmetry and order to all of our messiness.
I don’t know all of your religious backgrounds listening but I grew up in church and “finding God’s will for your life” was a common statement.
It was super common to hear people especially young adults say I just want to know what God’s will is for my life. Sometimes it could feel like this elusive aha moment that we all were in search of that always seemed to be right around the corner.
I can remember thinking it was this big one time event or revelation and then I would know for sure what God’s will was for my life. (and for some people it is) but I was fearful that I could take a wrong turn in life and totally mess up the whole plan God had for my life!! haha.
I knew the desires I had in my heart and I kept trusting and looking to God for his direction and taking steps forward but I’ll be honest deep inside I kept waiting for this burning bush experience (Moses)
Don’t get me wrong...I wasn’t sitting around waiting for the bush on fire or a specific sign. I was moving forward and living a life of faith as diligently as I knew how and I experienced God working in my life. And even though I experience many blessings over the years and saw God at work in my life, I still felt this underlying disappointment that I was missing something… like i hadn’t fully stepped into who I was designed and created to be.
Can you relate to any of that in your life?
Sometimes I resented the dreams and desires I had in my heart because I felt like nothing ever turned out like i’d hoped for.
It wasn’t until a major disappointment I had years ago around a door I believed God had opened that suddenly was slammed shut that I had what many refer to as a rock bottom moment.
I was hurt, I was mad at God and I let him know it...and I realized he could handle ALL OF ME!
And in that season I found freedom to stop living for God’s approval and learned to live from His approval.
In that dark place when honestly I wasn’t even interested in hearing what h had to say because I felt like he had let me down. But instead of feeling judgement for crawling up under the covers and binge-watching Netflix, it’s like he crawled right up there with me. And was just there. Like a friend does when you’re having a moment...or a month haha… they just show up with the cookies and the whatever it is you like and they don’t have to say anything...they are just there.
If you think God can only love you when you “have it all together” you are missing out.
For one he knows we will never have it all together.
Even in all of our messiness, he sees us. the person he knit together when we were inside our mother’s womb...he sees us standing strong in all of the purposes he had in mind for us.
And all we see is our circumstances...
I think most people can believe there is a God that loves them, but I think it’s a lot harder for people to believe that there is a God that really likes them!!!
You were His idea!!
To live out who we truly are takes bravery!
It’s so much easier and comfortable for us to go with the flow
Do your agree with??
It’s become trendy to say YOU BE YOU and all those beautiful catchy sayings that speak to this issue of believing in yourself and don’t get me wrong...I love a lot of these saying...I’ve made art using some of them.
And maybe it’s me but I started to feel like some of them were just scratching the surface…
It was almost like us buying the cute notebook with the empowering quote of the front or hanging up the inspirational wall art was the “Action step” of us being who we were created to be. When as great as that is in inspiring us that surface-level stuff and you and I are going to have to dig deeper for the good stuff! The stuff that brings forth all of the goodness and the glory of God within us.
This deeper level stuff is exactly why I’ve created “THE SHE IS AWAKENING COURSE” because I would have loved to have had a framework to help guide me in this process of awakening to all God. I will be sharing more in the next few weeks about how you can get your hands on that! It’s something I”ve been working really hard on and I”m so excited to share with you guys.
Ok let’s look at another scripture
Ephesians 1:18
{the message} I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
Gods wants us to have clarity around what he has purposed for us...
I think sometimes we struggle with what he has for us because we haven’t seen it exactly. AND I’M HERE TO TeLL YOU I THINK THERES A REASON FOR THAT!!
I think you are seeing a different way to do something, a different way to live..because YOU are the one to bring it to the world. (marriage, family, workplace)
So don’t try to talk yourself out of something...just because it’s not “the Norm” so what!
BRING IT, BABY!!
*He has provided us with the power we need
It’s not in our own strength!! We are not on our own
*but we have to renew our mind to the truth
How many of you are ready to renew your mind to the truth about what God says about you and the destiny has planned out for you?
In closing this out I want to go back to where I mentioned that rock bottom moment..and tell you something else I learned out of that...in that season
i saw that all those things that had felt like disappointments, rejection and closed doors where often times God giving me the desires of my heart.
He knows stuff we don’t know but he knew what he had placed in me and what I desired and was praying and asking him for and he knew some of those things I thought I wanted I really didn’t want…
So I’m so thankful today for the rejection and the closed doors...they were the faithfulness of god to me.
HW: I want to take notice of rejection and closed doors in your life and can you see where maybe they were redirection for you and that was for your good?
Take time to reflect and write out some things in your heart that you feel God planted there.
If you feel comfortable making a post or even share it live in our group.
I have a podcast coming around this conversation and will be asking others to do the same.
