Destined for a purpose

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! (Ephesians 2:10, TPT)

Jesus is coming soon! This has been my motivation throughout my entire life. I believe God has a plan for our lives, a purpose to fulfil. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians teaches that God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and pleasing in His sight. Paul introduces this theme in his letter to the Ephesians verse 1:3, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’! We don’t have to wait until we get into the Kingdom of God to become ‘seated in Heavenly places’. The most important part of Jesus’ whole teaching was the Kingdom of God. - We need to be reminded that the message of Jesus was focused on HIS Coming Kingdom, and all the blessings of that Kingdom! Not the kingdoms of this world! Jesus said, “My Kingdom is NOT of this world!” It’s a heavenly Kingdom. And Paul is reminding us that God has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, while we are still down here! As we experience the blessing and the love of Jesus through our relationship with Him in our hearts, that translates us into a spiritual, heavenly place – even while we’re still here!

We read on in v4, God chose us in Christ – before the foundation of the world! That we should be holy before Him in love, having predestined us to be adopted by Jesus Christ, as children of God Himself, according to the good pleasure of His Will. This is remarkable! We were chosen BEFORE the world began! Jesus Himself is referred to as the ‘Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world’! 1 Peter 1:18‐20, Revelation 13:8. Only God, as a Heavenly Father, could make a way of escape from sin, BEFORE we commit the offence! It gives me such a sense of joy and blessing! This is a new aspect of God’s foreknowledge, BEFORE we sinned, the way of salvation was made!

BEFORE I was put in prison in 1972 by the communists, BEFORE that happened, God had ALREADY made the way of escape! We have to understand the foreknowledge of God! BEFORE we were born, when we were in our mother’s womb, God has foreordained a plan and a purpose for our lives! That we should be ‘holy and without blame before Him in love’!

Nothing happens by accident, by chance. To us, maybe, what’s going on is an accident or by chance. Maybe we don’t understand why. But God does. Psalm 139 verse 16 says in The Message paraphrase, ‘Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.’