DESTINY IS FOUND IN ASSIGNMENT
The example of the Exodus shows us that God has A PLAN, a plan to “prosper us and not harm us”, a plan to “give us all a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). For in the Exodus, God had set before His chosen people a beautiful inheritance and a destiny. But as we have all come to also know, an entire generation of God’s people missed out on their destiny. Which tells us plainly that our destiny is not a foregone conclusion, that we cannot confuse destiny with fate (as many a false religion does), and that living and walking in our destiny requires us to all “DO” our part. For it is written: “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23). And, as we will see, our destiny is incubated and birthed in the furnace of “good works”, and will never be found in the idleness or futility of “good intentions”. For it is in our good works, that the Word is made flesh.
This notion of God having a plan for each of us individually, not just corporately, is further outlined in Ephesians 2:10. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” So just as with Proverbs 14:23, the unerring consistency of God’s word once again reveals to us that our destiny — being that which pertains to the reason for which we were created — will be discovered in the fruit of the “good works” He has planned for each and every one of us long before the foundation of time.
And just like God prepared a destiny beforehand “for all of Israel”, that they should be a Holy nation, a royal priesthood, a light on a high hill unto ALL THE WORLD, being a light on the high hill of God, being a light that cannot be hidden — one made visible through the fruit of good works according to God's commission for the Israelites “TO DO” (Joshua 1:1–9) — God has likewise prepared beforehand that we too should walk in the destiny of the good works for which we have been created. For we see this blueprint of God’s heart of “planning beforehand” also in Jeremiah 1:4-5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe TO DO according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe TO DO according to all that is written in it. For THEN you will make your way prosperous, and THEN you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:7-8).
In other words, only if we DO, not just HEAR, the word of God, shall God make our way prosperous — which is the prosperity that is the providence of walking in the “fullness of our true destiny” — for it is when we DO and not just HEAR that we make the Word flesh. Which is when the words that I speak are not only Spirit, but then they are also life. For it is only when the Word is made flesh that it can produce fruit, and it’s in the fruit that we find life. Which is why of Jesus it is said, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” For it is the seed of the fruit released that sows righteousness and continues the cycle of life. And are we not the seed of Christ?
Which is the model patterned after the good works that the Father likewise planned beforehand for Jesus. For it was through “the assignment” of the good works which the Father pre-purposed for Jesus that Jesus fulfilled His destiny. And just as Jesus had to be strong to complete His assignment in full, when God says, “Only BE STRONG”, He follows that up with “that you may observe TO DO”. In other words, in telling us to BE STRONG, God is referring to the strength of resolve, of determination, of character to be DOERS, not just HEARERS, to see through to fruition the good works which He has planned for each and every one of us as His own before the very foundations of time.
For we know from the word that not only does “all hard work bring A PROFIT” (or a destiny) (Proverbs 14:23), the Spirit of God says: “But BE DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and CONTINUES IN IT, and is not a forgetful hearer but A DOER of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25).
As such, if our destiny is richly intertwined with good works, which is a function of DOING, and not just the busy-ness of any random kind of doing, but specifically doing the right things, which are those things according to His will, so that just like His Son, we may PROVE His good and acceptable and perfect will (Romans 12:2), our destiny is ultimately worked out in ASSIGNMENT, and only birthed in INHERITANCE. For our inheritance is what we RECEIVE. But our assignment (good works) is what WE DO with that inheritance. For whilst we all have “an inheritance” in God - which, as in the natural, is something we RECEIVE in the event of our father dying, so too have we received our inheritance through the death of Christ - “our destiny” in Christ, on the other hand, is about what we DO with the inheritance we have received. So when it comes to assignment versus inheritance, although they are separate things, it’s not a case of either or, but of both working together as one, in a step-by-step manner of “from glory to glory”. They are two parts of the whole assignment. For without first receiving our inheritance in Christ, we cannot then begin to move into our destiny in Christ. Because God’s blueprint of relationship is that unless we connect, we cannot collect. So unless we connect in relationship with God our Father, we cannot collect our inheritance - being the deposit of the Holy Spirit (seed). And unless we collect our inheritance, we cannot be released into our destiny (the word made flesh through a fruit-bearing tree of righteousness — being a branch of the tree of life “bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”. (Revelation 22:2)). So unless we first connect with Matthew 22:37, we cannot collect on our destiny of connecting with Matthew 22:39 through our good works seeded in Christ. Which is why all the glory is always His. Because “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36).
So whilst the kingdom of God may have gained much ground through many souls stepping up to receive their inheritance through salvation in Christ, the kingdom of God has also lost a lot of ground due to a great many of God’s children being saved from slavery to sin (Exodus), but not entering the promised land of their pre-purposed destiny. For the church has been successful in bringing many to THE FOOT of the mountain of God (through salvation - which is what we receive in Christ as HEARERS of the Word), but has failed in showing people how to take up their cross and follow Christ UP the mountain (through discipleship - which is transforming the incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit received at salvation into the fruit of good works through being DOERS). Where what we DO is a function of what we BECOME in Christ. Which is a function of maturing from the glory of “a babe” in Christ (saved) into the greater glory of “a son” or man of God (disciple). For has the wisdom of God not declared that at the appointed time of the final reckoning, that all men, whether as the sons of the light, or as the sons of darkness, shall all be known “by their fruit”? And is the fruit of our good works not a function of what we have become in Christ? Which is a function of “our new nature”? Which is a function of the “divine nature” becoming second nature?
As such, destiny is not about RECEIVING. It’s about RELEASING. It’s about BEING — and then through that being — RELEASING. Which all begins with first “RECEIVING” the seed of living water (Holy Spirit), and thereafter allowing the cup of that living water to fill up our vessel and to then OVERFLOW (to be released) as “rivers of living water from our bellies” (John 7:38) into loving our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). And we see this pattern of RECEIVING and RELEASING throughout the scriptures. For instance, Daniel 12:2-3 tells us two things. Firstly, in verse 2, it tells us: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these TO EVERLASTING LIFE, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” And then, immediately thereafter, in continuation, it tells us in verse 3: "Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, like the stars forever and ever.“ In other words, those who sleep in the dust of the ground but awake to everlasting life, are those who hear and RECEIVE the gift of salvation. On the other hand, those who HAVE INSIGHT, who lead the many TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, who will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and like the stars forever and ever, refers to those who have not only HEARD the Mark 16:15 call of “PREACHING the gospel of salvation” to all the world (INHERITANCE), but who then follow this up with being DOERS of the Matthew 28:19-20 commission of “go and make DISCIPLES” of all those who are saved, by “baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by TEACHING them to obey everything” God has commanded (ASSIGNMENT), so that they may turn the glory of “the seed” of their inheritance in Christ into “the fullness” of a destiny of glory. Which is to follow the spiritual maturing cycle of being changed “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) until we arrive “at a measure and stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
So the purpose of “preaching” is to receive our inheritance. The purpose of “teaching” is to walk in our destiny. Which we can only do when, “We speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God DESTINED for our glory BEFORE TIME began” (1 Corinthians 2:7). Which is when we pick up our cross and follow Christ up the mountain, so that we may not only become what we behold, for “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15), but so that we may become disciples and lead “many to righteousness” by making disciples of all nations, so that our LORD our God may then “forgive their sins and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14), and so that “all the earth may then be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD” (Habakkuk 2:14).
Which is why we are called to both “salvation” (Mark 16) as well as to “discipleship” (Matthew 28) - that we may first “receive” through salvation, and then “release” through discipleship - and as a disciple, we can walk in the assignment to make disciples of all nations, which is to then RELEASE out of our being the good works that God planned for us before time through the leading of His Lordship and the indwelling of His nature. Which is why a son is one who is led by the Spirit. A son is not one who has received the Spirit. That’s a babe. That’s salvation. A son is one who is lead by the Spirit, which is one who is a disciple - who follows the leading of the Spirit, and does what the Spirit teaches, so that in him the word may become flesh. Not only in his own life, but in all the nations and all the earth. Which is to go far beyond inheritance unto the destiny of assignment.
Lead us, O Father, forever true,
Into the everlasting of Your love profound...
