Moses asked G.o.d to show him His glory.
Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!" And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pa.s.s before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you..." But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is pa.s.sing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have pa.s.sed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen" (Exodus 33:18-23).
In essence, G.o.d said that when He pa.s.sed by, He would let Moses see His exhaust fumes because if He allowed Moses to look directly at Him and His glory, Moses would not be able to live. It might be similar to being exposed to a nuclear reaction-Moses would disintegrate from the weight of what he experienced. This is why when you and I go to heaven, we will receive new, glorified bodies. These new bodies will be able to receive and experience G.o.d"s glory in its fullness.
Moses was allowed to see just a sliver of G.o.d"s glory on earth because a sliver was all he could handle. G.o.d"s glory is powerful. Something so powerful, important, and weighty should be taken seriously. So when G.o.d says we have been created for His glory, He gives us an awesome a.s.signment. We have an incredible privilege-G.o.d allows us, and in fact intentionally chooses us, to reflect His splendorous glory. Your purpose is to be a physical, visible, historical reflection of what will one day consume and embrace us in eternity. We are to touch heaven by radiating G.o.d"s glory on earth.
Glorifying G.o.d Through Sacrifice We best glorify G.o.d by doing what He tells us to do and not simply what we want to do. Jesus says, "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4). Glorifying G.o.d and fulfilling your destiny are directly connected.
Last year, G.o.d gave me the job of serving the Dallas Cowboys as their chaplain, and I gave Him glory by doing the work He gave me to do. But doing that work didn"t cost me anything personally. In fact, I was more than happy to fulfill the requirements of that task. I loved that a.s.signment. The tricky part is giving G.o.d glory by doing what He has asked you to do when it costs you something, such as your freedom, your personal wants, your comfort, or your pride.
As Jesus was preparing to be taken to the cross and crucified for the sins of all mankind, He said something very revealing about how we are to glorify G.o.d. "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, "Father, save Me from this hour"? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name" (John 12:27-28).
Jesus didn"t mince words. He didn"t sugarcoat His feelings. Jesus"s soul was troubled. He wanted to ask G.o.d to save Him from this hour. Jesus hoped G.o.d would not make Him go through with what was about to happen. But then He turned it all around because what He was about to experience was directly tied to His purpose and G.o.d"s glory. "Go ahead, G.o.d," Jesus said. "This is why I came. Glorify Your name."
Even though Jesus wanted a way out, He finished the work He had been sent to do because He knew that in His purpose-in fulfilling the work G.o.d had intended for Him, however painful it was-He was bringing glory to G.o.d.
Are you in a relationship with G.o.d for His sake or for your own sake? G.o.d will reveal your motives by allowing a day of trouble. You won"t want things to be going the way they are going. You won"t want things to be working out the way they are working out. You won"t want to go down that path. You won"t want to take that road. You won"t want to go there, do that, or experience that situation. You"ll know the steps ahead of you will be painful-but you"ll take them anyway because that is what He asked you to do.
All of us could glorify G.o.d if He were to send us a million dollars, give us new houses, solve all our problems, or make our work situations turn around in our favor. Anyone can do that. But G.o.d wants to know if we will glorify Him when we have to pick up our crosses and follow Him. What happens when we don"t get the promotion? What happens when we get overlooked on the job? What happens when our spouses walk out on us? Our children rebel? The doctor doesn"t give us the report that we wanted to hear? What happens then? Do we still do what He has asked us to do? Do we still hang in there? Do we still walk down the path He has shown us? Or do we throw in the towel, quit, and leave?
G.o.d wants to know-are you in this for you, or are you in this for Him?
The tragedy today is that most of us are usually in it for ourselves. When the pain and disappointments of life show up, we want to fix them, change them, or leave them altogether. All the while our faith and praise quickly diminish into a mere whisper.
G.o.d didn"t save you just to take you to heaven. G.o.d saved you so that earth would have a living, breathing HD reflection of His glory. That is why Job said, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15). Job didn"t back down from stating his case, arguing his points, and making his complaints to G.o.d. But he also stood corrected at the end of the day. He was willing to be corrected because of what he affirmed: "I will hope in Him." In essence, he was venting to G.o.d. But when all was said and done, Job said, "I lay my hand on my mouth" (Job 40:4). I trust You.
Habakkuk also suffered. After enduring enemy oppression, despair, and scarcity, he summed up his experience by saying this: Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the G.o.d of my salvation.
The Lord G.o.d is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds" feet, And makes me walk on my high places (Habakkuk 3:17-19).
When you shift the way you view your purpose and G.o.d"s glory-just as Job and Habakkuk did-you gain G.o.d"s undivided attention. G.o.d restored more to Job than he had lost. Habakkuk walked on high places above the situation and the others around him. Jesus rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of G.o.d as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Glory to Glory Once you view all of your life-the good, the bad, and the bitter-through the grid of G.o.d"s glory, everything changes.
And look what happens next. "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Make this decision to unveil your face, heart, and spirit-your soul-before G.o.d. Remove the layers of self-preservation, protection, and pride, and authentically trust Him. When you do, you will be transformed. His glory will rest on you and thus become your glory.
You will be like Moses, who was transparent in G.o.d"s presence for an extended period of time. When he returned to his people, "the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses" face shone" (Exodus 34:35). G.o.d"s glory was all over Moses. The longer Moses stayed away from G.o.d, the more G.o.d"s glory faded, and Moses"s face would no longer shine as brightly until he returned to G.o.d"s presence.
Yet 2 Corinthians reminds us that we are not like Moses because we are living under the new covenant, and G.o.d"s glory now transforms us continually from the inside. G.o.d"s glory is to radiate inside of you so much that you will have a glow that does not depend on your circ.u.mstances. Your glow won"t have anything to do with your situation. Instead, you will glow because you are embracing G.o.d"s purpose in your life-to glorify Him by trusting Him even in situations you cannot understand and do not want to experience.
If you want to know your destiny, live for G.o.d"s glory even in the daily and mundane things of life (1 Corinthians 10:31). When you live for His glory, He"ll reveal your destiny. But He"s not going to show it to you if you don"t first respect His presence. Once you get that straight, you don"t need to knock yourself out trying to track down your destiny. You don"t need to go to the ends of the earth to locate your destiny.
Once you determine that you will live for G.o.d"s glory regardless of what you want to do, feel, or experience, G.o.d will bring your destiny to you. As we read earlier, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). Jesus didn"t say, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness [in other words, His glory], and then go and seek all the other things too." No, when you seek G.o.d"s kingdom and glory first, all the other things will be added to you. They come to you. G.o.d takes responsibility to provide all you need to do whatever He wants you to do. You won"t have to break your neck to get it. You won"t have to wear yourself out trying to accomplish it. G.o.d will cause it to flow naturally to you because, after all, He will receive the glory. G.o.d doesn"t mind picking up the tab to bring your destiny your way when He knows that you will do it no matter what and that He will get the glory.
Before you take another step toward discovering your destiny, you have a decision to make. For whose glory will you live? Will you live for your name, your reputation, your recognition, your exaltation, and your 15 minutes of fame? If that"s what you want, that"s all you"ll get, and trust me, 15 minutes of fame is still only 15 minutes in light of eternity. It"s not going to last that long.
Or are you going to live for the eternal King, who rules over an eternal kingdom? His destiny for you includes you and benefits you but has been designed to advance His kingdom on earth, bless others, and reflect His greatest glory.
Reflected Glory Many a man has walked a beautiful lady outside on a full moonlit night and pointed up at the moon. There"s something romantic about a full moon against the backdrop of a darkened sky. But if you will recall from your science cla.s.ses, the moon has no light of its own. The moon is dark 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When we look at the moon, we see the brilliant reflection of the even more brilliant sun. The radiant moon does no work on its own. Rather, it reflects the work of the sun in all its glory because the moon produces no light.
The problem is that sometimes something gets in the way. Actually, the earth gets in the way. Whenever only part of the moon is lit up, Earth is blocking the sun"s glory. The sun is still there to light the whole moon, but because of the way Earth and moon rotate, Earth sometimes blocks the sun"s light from reflecting off of the full moon.
Friend, what are you allowing to get in the way of G.o.d"s glory and reduce your ability to be a full reflection of Him? What is standing between you and G.o.d"s desire to have you reflect full hope, full direction, full power, and full peace? Only after you realize that you are created to reflect G.o.d and that your life is about Him will you be able to fully live out your destiny. If you don"t, you will join the countless millions who simply go through life existing day by day and who will one day stand before their Creator in heaven, only to hear Him say, "I had so much that I wanted to accomplish through you. I had so much that I wanted to do through you. I had so much that I wanted to show you, but I never could get you to focus your full and undivided attention on My glory. You wanted your own."
Friend, it"s really all about His glory.
And in case you didn"t hear me (it"s so important I"m going to say it again), your destiny is about His glory.
15.
Future I have talked with many people over the years who seem to be living with a sense of hopelessness. Questions like these bounce around in their heads: Am I ever going to get where I"m supposed to be? Am I ever going to do what I"m supposed to do? Is life ever going to work for me? These people have lost a sense of hope. They have lost a sense of destiny.
Friend, if that sounds like you today, I have a good verse for you to encourage you on your journey. It"s located in a difficult chapter of a difficult book-a ray of hope surrounded by clouds of discouragement. Perhaps that is how you feel today. You may feel as if you endure bad day after bad day, bad year after bad year, or even bad decade after bad decade. Yet even though this verse is surrounded by despair and hopelessness, it offers just the opposite. It offers hope, meaning, and purpose. You too can discover your destiny even in the midst of despair.
""I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope"" (Jeremiah 29:11). That is G.o.d"s promise just for you.
Many of us make New Year"s resolutions, and most of us break them. They may include being a better person, eating better, working out at the gym, memorizing Scripture, or watching less football. A resolution is simply a firm decision to do something. It"s a decree or a promise. Every January, our resolutions resound with determination and the hope of new beginnings. By May, their nagging presence reminds us that we didn"t quite reach our goals. By December, most of us have forgotten what we resolved to do.
You may or may not join with the millions who make New Year"s resolutions, but I want to remind you that there is One who has kept every resolution He has ever made. He keeps His promises. He keeps His Word.
And even if we are not able to stick it out in the gym, stay away from the chocolate, or bite our tongue rather than beat others with it-He is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we could ever imagine. And He has resolved that your life is going to be a great life. It is a life filled with "a future and a hope." The surest way to live out your destiny is to fix your eyes on the unchanging faithfulness of the One who has promised that goodness and loving-kindness will follow you when you follow Him (Psalm 23:6).
Your life may hold some surprises, but I know who holds your life. And He says that you are to be of good cheer because He has already overcome it all. If He has overcome it, then you, His child and as His heir, have overcome it too.
I understand how easily we can get caught up in the circ.u.mstances of life. Things can seem overwhelming. I understand how easily we can lose hope. But if you will keep your eyes fixed on the Lord and not on your circ.u.mstances, you will see that He who began a good work in you will also complete it.
People lose hope when they can"t see a future. Yesterday was bleak, today is still bleak, and tomorrow doesn"t look any better. The weather report of their lives says, "No sunshine." Nothing out there has their number on it or seems related to their calling or destiny.
If you are one of those people, memorize and meditate on Jeremiah 29:11. This great verse from a difficult chapter in an equally difficult book is for all those who feel they are having bad lives. G.o.d brought a promise of hope to the Israelites while they were still in captivity in Babylon. Verse 4 tells us, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the G.o.d of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon..." The Israelites had been sent into exile. They would be under G.o.d"s judgment and disciplining hand for 70 years. To make it worse, the place they had been sent to was as pagan as could be. Babylon was not where the believers hung out. It was an evil and idolatrous place, a terrible place to live-particularly if you were an Israelite. These people were in a desperate situation full of negative circ.u.mstances, pagan influences, and divine judgment. Yet in the midst of this discouragement, hopelessness, and pain, G.o.d shows up and says, "I know the plans I have for you."
Why is that so important? Because when G.o.d says He has a plan, you know the story isn"t over. In fact, you are still here, so your life isn"t over. Your destiny is not over. Your purpose is not over. Your calling is not over. You are still living, breathing, and functioning on planet earth, so G.o.d still has a plan just for you.
You may be saying, "But, Tony, you don"t know about my past. It"s messed up-G.o.d would never use me." Well, Israel had a past too. Yet G.o.d still had a plan for them that included a future and a hope. Remember, some of your greatest lessons about faith and humility will be learned in the dark. These are the times when you feel so hopeless that you don"t know what in the world G.o.d is doing, how He is doing it, and why He is taking so long. G.o.d may be silent, but He is not still. When you feel furthest from Him, He is the closest He"ll ever be. One of the key components of a life of destiny is trust in the Lord in times that don"t make sense.
I know your life may look dark, the path may seem unclear, and you might have no idea where G.o.d is taking you. In fact, it may be pitch black outside. But if you are in one of those times right now, hold on because when G.o.d moves, you will move. Maybe He"s stopped at the corner of your life right now because there is too much traffic coming. I don"t know the reason why He has allowed you to be stuck, delayed, or seemingly hindered from living out your destiny right at this very moment. But if He has, I do know this-He has a plan for you, and it is a good plan to give you both a future and a hope.
In the Meantime G.o.d tells you what to do while you are waiting to realize your destiny, just as He told the Israelites. Earlier in the chapter, He instructed them, "Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce... Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare" (Jeremiah 29:5,7).
Waiting on the timing of your destiny is not the same as sitting back and doing nothing. G.o.d says to become as productive as you possibly can where you are. Do all that is in your hand to do. Maximize everything that is set before you. Seize the moment right where you are. While waiting on G.o.d for your destiny, promote the well-being of the people around you now. Even if you are not where you want to be or if you are not doing what you want to do, benefit those around you. Invest in them and increase the well-being of their lives. Surely the Israelites were not happy about their captivity in Babylon, but G.o.d instructed them to pray for the Babylonians and work for their betterment. He told them that in the Babylonians" well-being they would find their own. G.o.d would bless them for being a blessing to others.
Many of us choose to do nothing while waiting on G.o.d to bring about a change in our lives or get us out of difficult situations. But the only time you are to do nothing is when there is nothing to do. If there is nothing you can do, then do nothing. But if G.o.d has given you something to do where you are right now, do it with all your might. Invest in your surroundings right now. Seek the well-being of those around you. As you become a blessing to others, you set yourself up to be blessed. As you help others locate and live out their destinies, you set yourself up to discover your own.
People often lose hope because they are concerned only about themselves. If you are messed up and all you can see is you, you are perpetuating your own decline. In spite of the Israelites" circ.u.mstances, they were to be productive on behalf of others. They were to invest in other people"s lives. And G.o.d promised to invest in their own lives as well.
"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you," declares the LORD, "and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile" (Jeremiah 29:12-14).
Many Christians read and quote Jeremiah 29:11 without fully understanding the context. What brought G.o.d to the point of saying what He did? Without knowing the answer to that question, readers throw out the principles in the rest of the pa.s.sage, and they don"t experience the truth of verse 11. Rather than searching for G.o.d with all their hearts, as verse 12 tells us to do, people search for the solution to their problem or meaning in their destiny with all of their heart. They search for the wrong thing, so they don"t find it. G.o.d says that He has the plan. He has your plan. He doesn"t want you to go looking for the plan-He wants you to go searching for Him. When you find Him, you will find the plan as well because He knows what it is and wants to give it to you.
G.o.d has a plan for you. He has a destiny for you. Maybe you should have gotten it earlier in your life. Maybe you shouldn"t have done this or that or the other thing that got you off track. Or maybe if someone else hadn"t done something to you, you would have gotten it earlier. Maybe if you had gotten saved earlier, hadn"t married that person out of G.o.d"s will, hadn"t sought a career out of His will, or hadn"t just been plain rebellious, maybe you would have reached your destiny earlier. Regardless, G.o.d has a plan for you. And it"s a good plan, filled with a future and a hope.
Israel would not see G.o.d"s plan for 70 years. The prophets were falsely telling them about their deliverance (Jeremiah 14:14; 29:8-9). But the prophets didn"t know what they were talking about. They just said whatever the people wanted to hear. G.o.d knew the exile would last longer than they thought. That"s why He told them to be as productive as they could right where they were until they saw Him do what He said He would do.
The Israelites didn"t like being in bondage, and I"m sure you don"t like being in the dark about your destiny. Your best course of action is to seek G.o.d. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to G.o.d must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). If you don"t know which way to go, seek Him. If you are in pain, seek Him. If you are confused, seek Him. If you are waiting, seek Him. If you track me down and ask me which way you are supposed to go, I"m going to send you back to Him because He has not told me His plan for you. Seek Him, and in the process, you will discover your destiny.
Sometimes G.o.d will seem to be doing nothing. Yet He often works invisibly-behind the scenes-by turning yesterday"s pains into tomorrow"s peace. G.o.d is asking you to take hold of His hand and never let go because He knows where He is taking you. He is leading you to a good, wonderful place because it has a future and a hope. What G.o.d starts, G.o.d finishes. What G.o.d begins, G.o.d ends. What G.o.d initiates, G.o.d completes. You may be saying, "Tony, I"m in a bigger mess right now than you can imagine." To which I reply, "My G.o.d is even bigger-bigger than you can imagine."
If you forget everything else you"ve read in this book so far, remember this verse: ""I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.""
You have a destiny-a good destiny. Seek Him, and you will find it.
CONCLUSION.
Soldiers, looking more like robots than men, lined the streets and the stadiums. Not by the thousands who would later attempt to conquer the world, but by the dozens. Just enough to send chills down the spines of anyone these would-be rulers deemed unfit to be called human.
But even these soldiers couldn"t prevent the gathering of athletes from a myriad of countries to take part in the largest global athletic compet.i.tion, the Olympics.
The year was 1936. Going to a movie would cost 15 cents-a car, no more than $600. Babe Ruth had recently laid down his bat, and a young man who would one day be known as Joltin" Joe had carried his to the plate for the first time. Greta Garbo dominated the screen, and FDR continued trying to pick up the pieces of the US economy after the Great Depression.
Despite rigid segregation in the United States, a black man now stood on enemy soil as his country"s top contender for three gold medals.
By Hitler"s definition, he wasn"t human. And maybe Hitler was right because what this man had accomplished a year earlier in Ann Arbor-setting three world records and tying a fourth in 45 minutes-had seemed superhuman. No man has come close to doing the same again.
Born the grandson of slaves and the son of a sharecropper, he was named James Cleveland Owens after his father in 1913. James"s name was changed, however, to Jesse when he told a teacher it was J.C. His new name, Jesse, interestingly enough, is derived from the Hebrew Yis-hai, which means "G.o.d exists" and "G.o.d"s gift."
Jesse was no doubt a gift to those he represented in America and to his family in 1936. Grabbing gold medals in the long jump and the 100-and 200-meter sprints, he mastered his race in front of the man who had made the claim that there was only one master race in existence.
Later, the host country pressured the Americans to pull their Jewish compet.i.tors from the final relay. So a few days after Jesse had earned what he had thought was his final gold medal of the 1936 Olympics, he was penciled in to run the first leg of the 4 100 men"s relay.
Neither Jesse nor his teammate, Ralph Metcalfe, had practiced pa.s.sing the baton the entire time they had been at the Olympics. The relay wasn"t a common race for either of them. Yet with little time for preparation, they took to the track, determined to do the best they could with what they had. They were determined to fulfill their destiny.
Jesse not only managed to stay in his lane and run faster than his compet.i.tors, he pa.s.sed the baton seamlessly on his way to grabbing his fourth gold of the games and another world record.
Jesse had competed both personally and corporately in a hostile foreign realm, yet he had come out on top. Battling in enemy territory and despite harsh segregation from within and without, Jesse stood on the highest podium more times than any of the others. His unwavering confidence in who he was created to be and what he had been created to do gave his family and his nation a reason to be proud. In fact, the host country recently honored this man"s prowess by naming a street after him.
Friend, you may never run in the Olympic games the way Jesse Owens did. And most likely, you will never own your own Olympic gold medals. But just as Jesse represented his country in a hostile nation, you have a destiny that involves representing G.o.d"s kingdom in a hostile world. As a believer, you have been called to run your race in enemy land. You have been chosen to aim for the gold, having been given everything you need to get it.
The leader of the enemy coalition stands by watching. He declared your defeat before your race even began. His followers line the streets and the stadium of your heart and mind, daring you to prove their leader wrong. They don"t think you can.
And now, as one of G.o.d"s chosen people grafted into His body, you have been asked to subst.i.tute in the relay. You have been called on to run-not just for yourself or for your country, but for all who come after you in this race.
To pa.s.s the kingdom baton.
When Jesse jumped at the 1936 Olympics, he jumped for himself and for his country. When he ran the two sprints, he did the same. But when Jesse darted down the first leg of the 4 100 men"s relay, he also ran for those who came after him that day. Because the key to winning any relay is to pa.s.s the baton well. It is to connect with the next runner seamlessly. Victory is in how well you position him to run.
Living out your destiny involves your personal races in life. It involves your family and your church. But after you do all of those things well, it also involves pa.s.sing the baton, helping members of the next generation to live out their destinies as well in the kingdom of G.o.d.
Your destiny is about much more than just you. It is part of the puzzle that includes others living out their destinies too. Had Jesse not run in the relay that day, the other three runners may not have grabbed their gold. Living up to your destiny is a G.o.d-given responsibility that includes your talents, skills, pa.s.sion, experiences, and so much more. G.o.d links all of these together as His gift to you in order to enable you to live your life as a gift to Him and to others.
You have a destiny. Seize it. It is yours for the taking.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND PERSONAL REFLECTION.
Introduction.
1. Dr. Evans says, "Many of G.o.d"s children have turned on their Creator. Rather than live for Him, they choose to live for themselves." Are you ever tempted to live for yourself? In what ways?
2. Have you ever tried to be someone else? Who? How did you try to be like that person?
Chapter 1: Concept.
1. "G.o.d placed mankind on earth to serve as His stewards over His creation... G.o.d has designed you to have all that you need to productively rule your world." In what ways can you be G.o.d"s steward in your world? In other words, what does it mean for you to productively rule your world?
2. You are rare, special, valuable... G.o.d"s masterpiece! List a few of your unique characteristics.
3. How might G.o.d use those characteristics to spread His kingdom? What hints do these give you about your G.o.d-given destiny?
Chapter 2: Kingdom.
1. In what ways can you personally seek first the kingdom of G.o.d?
2. Do you ever struggle with seeking other things before seeking the kingdom of G.o.d? What things?
3. "If He is truly before all things, He will hold all things together." What is G.o.d holding together in your life? What do you need Him to hold together?