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Introduction: Every one of us, at one time or the other has been pushed beyond our limits in life. There are times when we struggle with a closed door, failure, heartaches and pain that come all of a sudden. No matter what your condition, what your setback, God uses all your circumstances to thrust you to your purpose.
Psalm 37:23-24 23The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. 24Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
What God is saying is even if you have difficult times in your life, God has ordered those days and it will push you to your future if you are God’s child. I do not know what phase of life you are going through today. But I am here to tell you that God is using every minute details of your life to provoke you to your destiny. You are too good a creation for God to waste your life.
Some areas when God thrusts us to our destiny:
1. Circumstances.
God sometimes works through our circumstances to thrust us to our purpose.
Deuteronomy 32:11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft; the Lord alone led him. Once the eaglets come to a level of maturity, the eagle disturbs its nest, comfort and releases them from high. Then the eagle flies down and holds the eaglet. This way the mother is training the eaglets for something big; to fulfill the purpose of its creation. God is just like that. We always need a push for something new. When everything is good and comfortable we settle down in life. God will work through our circumstances that force us to stretch forward to help us grow.
Job in the Bible was a very successful man. God-fearing man, Great family; wonderful wife, and great business. Job once said: Job 29:18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand. He was very comfortable where he was and he wanted to just end his life in the success he had received. God had purposed something better and more for job.
We know the story. God disturbed his nest. He lost his children, his business, and everything he had. In the midst of all that he said: Job 19:25 I know that my redeemer lives. Job is in fact saying, “God has the final say in my life. This trouble is going to promote me. I may be uncomfortable, I may not like it, but I know God is using it to push me to a new level.”
Job 42:10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. God used that adversity to give him double.
Don’t be surprised if, like with Job, when you get comfortable, when you get everything figured out, if God doesn’t stir up the nest. It’s not to harm you, it’s to push you. God has new levels, more favor, more influence. His dream for your life is bigger than you can imagine. Every time I’ve seen major growth in my life it’s because I was pushed by God.
Illustration: Growing up I was learning the keyboard as a young man. I slowly started support playing for a vernacular service. My mentor would play they keys alongside me with my volume very low. A few months into it one day my mentor said, “I am leaving the city and you can carry on playing the keyboard.” Soon my pastor asked me to play the keyboard too. I was scared, not confident, fearful, not knowing what to do, how to find a scale, but the fact was that him leaving was a turning point in my life. That was God pushing me into my destiny. If he would have stayed that would have stunted my growth. Sometimes God will take away the people of comfort for your life to push you to your purpose.
In the Bible prophet Samuel had spent years in mentoring King Saul. He loved him so much but unfortunately Saul would not do what is right. God told Samuel, he was going to take the throne away from Saul. Samuel was heartbroken. He felt that he had wasted all that time. 1 Samuel 16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
God is saying, “Quit being depressed over who walked away, stop being sad over what did not work out. If they were supposed to stay, they would have stayed. I have found a new man. One of the sons of Jesse is going to be king.”
Notice the principle. If you stop being discouraged over what did not happen, who left, past failures, God will send the right opportunities ahead. But as long as you are complaining about what did not work, you will get stuck there. When you accept it and step out you will not only be pushed to a new level, but the David will show up. God’s promise will show up in your life.
For over 4 years I did the music ministry. Then worship leader of the church became very busy at his work. He was not available for practices. Soon I was pushed into the worship ministry. Initially I was hesitant but I slowly enjoyed the singing. I was so happy, my dreams and desires have been fulfilled. I was comfortable with the surrounding and set in my next. But in 1999 God took me out of the ministry. He created the circumstances where I had to leave.
It was not easy. I was like a bird out of the nest. I had to venture out all alone. Now God does not send the trouble, but God will use our difficulty to push us into our destiny. Today I am standing here because God provoked me through my circumstances and brought me to my destiny.
Illustration: In 1976, Steve Jobs co-founded of Apple Inc. The company grew but in 1984, there was a disagreement with the board of directors and Steve Jobs was thrown out of his company. Steve Jobs went out and started a company called NeXT, which he then renamed Pixar. By 1997 Apple was bankrupt, they needed Pixar’s help and technology. Steve Jobs was brought back as the CEO of Apple Inc. He saw his circumstances as a push to fulfill his destiny.
Maybe you lost a loved one, went through a breakup, business did not work out, you lost your job, there is a trouble in your life, your breakthrough is getting long. The enemy is going to work out for your harm, but God is going to use that for your good. God did not allow it stop you, but God allowed it to push you. Like job you are going to come out stronger, healthier, increased and better off than you were before.
2. Dear ones.
God uses our loves ones to thrust us to our destiny.
In life we all want to have the greatest support from our friends or from close family. One word from them will make your day. But most often they are the ones that hurt us the maximum. I want to tell you that those are the times God uses to birth out some great treasures in our life.
In 1 Samuel 1 we find the story of Elkanah. He had two wives: One Hannah (Grace, favor), and the name of the other was: Peninnah: (Jewel, ruby, precious). Hannah was barren, no children.
When Elkanah gave out portions he gave to Peninnah and her children portions, but to Hannah he gave a double portion. Hannah was satisfied with the circumstances because she knew she was the favored wife. She had Elkanah’s attention, affection, and everything was going fine. Hanna was blessed, favored, and graced but on the other side she was barren, fruitless, and nonproductive. God had destined Hanna for a greater purpose. God started putting her through the difficult path of insult.
Out of nowhere Peninnah starts to provoke Hannah over her barrenness. All of a sudden Hannah is provoked in her spirit and she is disturbed over the fact that she is barren. Elkanah tries to comfort her but Hannah has been awakened. She has become dissatisfied and discontent with things as they are. And now the frustration and insult change into a desire for more. Hannah begins to realize, “There’s more than this, I was created for more.”
The point is Hannah had more in her but she was satisfied with little and it took somebody to provoke her to get to her best.
Hannah was bitter, burdenred, she went to the temple, fasted and prayed. God heard her and in due time blessed her with a son called Samuel. One of the greatest prophets that ever lived came out of Hannah’s womb because somebody provoked her.
Remember what I told you Peninnah means? (Jewel or precious). In other words what I’m saying the most valuable one in Hannah’s life was the one that provoked her to cry out to God for more.
Somebody here listening to my voice you’ve been like Hannah, you have been provoked by your friends, your loved ones, every word goes inside of you like a sword. Don’t give up. God is using those provocations to thrust you to your purpose. I am not the man of God I am today because the world had been good to me. I have seen great insult and provocations in my life but thank God it brought in the destiny out of me.
There are ministries, songs, books, gifts, and talents springing up out of you. There are anointing, dreams, and visions that are locked up in your belly. And God is here to open your spiritual womb. There’s something about God that hates to see waste, God is disturbed when he sees so much potential lying dormant (going to waste).
When Nehemiah and the people started building the wall around Jerusalem, they faced criticism from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gershem. They mocked and ridiculed them but it is amazing that half the wall was built during those tough times. Criticism, provocation, and insult are the ones that give the child of God the push to your destiny.
Illustration: I heard about a man centuries ago who was business failure at the age of 22. That same year he ran for the legislature and was defeated. In 1833, he was a business failure once again. In 1836, he was said to have suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1838, he lost in an effort to become Speaker of the House in the State Legislature. Five years later, he ran for Congress — again it was in vain. In 1846, he ran for Congress and won — only to lose his re-election bid in 1848. He ran for the Senate in 1854, and lost. He ran for the Vice-presidential nomination in 1856, and lost that too. All the way he was criticized and mocked upon. He never gave up and in 1860, he became the 16th President of the United States, he is Abraham Lincoln.
Don’t quit when people criticize you and demoralize you. Continue to do what God has called you to do in spite of your circumstances. Don’t stop.
3. Enemy.
God even uses the enemy to thrust us to our destiny.
Psalm 27:11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
As a young boy David was anointed king of Israel. Life did not change much for him. Soon, he was back in the wild taking care of the flocks. One day his father asked him to take some grains and bread for his brothers in the war camp. As David reached the camp his brothers were already in the battle line. David was bold; he kept the supply aside and walked straight into the battlefield. As he was talking with his brothers; Goliath, the Philistine, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. David was confident and bold. He was provoked in his spirit by the enemy’s challenge. I like his response, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” David took up the challenge and killed Goliath just with a slight and a stone. Soon, King Saul appointed him as a soldier. The provocation of the enemy brought a king out of a shepherd boy.
Look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar asked them to serve his gods and worship the image of gold. They enemy provoked them to do wrong. These men were very bold. They never bowed down to foreign gods and accepted the punishment. Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and he ordered them to be thrown into the blazing furnace.
Daniel 3:22-25 22 The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 23 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” 25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
They went in bound and came out loose. When you boldly and courageous stand for Jesus he is there with you in the midst of your enemies. Daniel 3:30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
In Acts 8, persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. All the believers were comfortable in Jerusalem, but the enemy scattered them throughout Judea and Samaria. My attention goes to Philip. Until this chapter, he was taking care of the poor in the church. When persecution broke out Philip didn’t have a choice; he was forced him out of his hometown. He was pushed out of his comfort zone to Samaria. It’s interesting; God could’ve stopped the opposition. He’s God; He closed the mouths of hungry lions for Daniel, it would’ve been no big deal. But the persecution was for a purpose; He allowed that opposition to get them into their destiny. It was in Samaria that Phillip saw all his greatest days of ministry. If he had stayed in Jerusalem, he wouldn’t have reached his highest potential. Maybe Jerusalem has closed up for you, so to speak; a bad break, a disappointment, a betrayal. Don’t be discouraged; Jerusalem may have closed, but Samaria is about to open up.
Conclusion:
God is constantly working in our lives to push us to the purpose we were created for.
When a baby is in the womb it is very comfortable, food is taken care of, do not have to do anything, gets carried around all day, can sleep whenever he wants to. For a season that is good, he is growing, he is maturing, that is where he is supposed to be. But if he stays in that womb too long, instead of being a blessing the womb will become a curse. It is too small for him to grow. It will keep him from his destiny. He has to get out, birth is not easy for a baby but that is the process. In life too if you have to reach your full potential, God sometimes uses our circumstances, friends, and enemies to thrust us or provoke us to our destiny.
Every difficulty you have been through, every bad break, every person that did you wrong, that was not meant to stop you it was meant to push you to mature you. God uses circumstances that is tough or provocation of the loved ones or sometimes even our enemies to thrust us to the new levels in our life. So no matter what your condition today, God is working to make your life purposeful in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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