The Importance of Following the Path Ordained for Us

Ephesians 2:10

“For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].” AMP

Those of us who are mature in the knowledge and ways of the Lord our God know that we are in this world to do what has been predestined for us from the foundations of the world and continually seek Him to find out what steps to take that will help us follow the path laid for us.  But there are others that still stagger at the thought that they cannot control their lives and make them work according to what they envision for themselves.

But the truth is that we were put on this earth to do those precise things that God has given us the grace to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13) because by this, we can advance His Kingdom, expand it, and also conquer in our spheres of influence in His power and authority delegated to us. The Scripture says that we are God’s workmanship. This means that He has invested in us and has placed in us what we need in order to do what He created us to do. We are equipped, transformed, prepared, made in His image and likeness to say and do as we see Him saying and doing to be able to accomplish the greater works Jesus said we would do on the earth than Him.

This also means that we were made to take the paths that God has foreordained for us. By His Spirit He leads us and guides us to and through those paths so we live out everything written for us to accomplish for we are only a speck in His canvas compared to the panoramic view of everything He has planned for humanity and on behalf of His sons and daughters that He is using for such a time as this.

Psalm 37:23-24 tells us, ²³ “The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with his every step].

²⁴ Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord grasps his hand in support and upholds him.” AMPC

This Scripture is clear in showing us that God expects us to take those paths He leads us to take by His Spirit. This is essential for us because even if we stumble and fall from the path, as long as we recognize our mistake and with a humble heart cry out to Him to help us get back, we can be assured that He will send us help to get in the right position for us. But when we refuse to get back to the path, we are showing that we call ourselves our own god and our selfish ambition is more important to us.

The problem with that is that by choosing to do our own will we are forfeiting to do what we were created to do by our Creator and Lord and this causes those things we are refusing to do to put a demand on our destiny and challenge us until they turn against us because we refused to comply with what was only ordained and designed for us to fulfill on earth. Jonah is a great example of this. Jonah 1:1-4 tells us (I exhort you to read the whole chapter),

1 "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.

3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His prophet] and went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish [the most remote of the Phoenician trading places then known]. So he paid the appointed fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His servant and minister].

4 But the Lord sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a violent tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken." AMPC

The more we go astray from the path, the more we are blinded and deafened to what we are here to do. When we asked the Lord Jesus to come into our hearts and be our Lord and Savior, we also relinquished our will to do our own idea of things to instead take on His will for us. We were put on this earth to do only what pleases our Lord and Father. Apart from Him and His will for us, there is nothing we can do that will stand. John 5:30 tells us this,

“I am able to do nothing from Myself [independently, of My own accord—but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders]. Even as I hear, I judge [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision], and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me.” AMPC

This lack of discernment of the will of God for us and others around us is one important reason why many are weak, sick and others have fallen asleep (have died) as it is noted in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 which says, 

²⁷ “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. ³⁰ For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. ³¹ For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. ³² But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” NKJV

This is a hard word, but a necessary one to help us see that we are not our own and we do not design our own destinies apart from God’s will for us. Caring more for the things that make us look good to the world around us can cause us to lose our soul and forfeit our destiny if we do not surrender our lives completely to the Lord our God. Matthew 16:25-27 expands on this understanding by saying,

²⁵ “For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it[that is, life with Me for all eternity]. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory and majesty of His Father with His angels, and then He will repay each one in accordance with what he has done.” AMP

As long as we are on the earth we never completely “arrive” to the point where we do not need to maintain and fight to not only keep the levels of accomplishments we have achieved for the Kingdom of God. But we also are here to continue to grow and progress towards the new things that God has for us to grow into through the revelations we receive during our times of intimacy with Him. These times also give us the knowledge, understanding, and the renewing of our minds which change wrong mindsets and demolish strongholds that keep us from reaching the higher ways of God for us.

Isaiah 55:6-9 highlights the importance why we are to always aim to reach the higher ways of God in our life and every time we want feel the need to be enlarged in our sphere of influence and authority for His glory to be displayed in us and through us. It says,

⁶”Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call on Him [for salvation] while He is near.
⁷ 
Let the wicked leave (behind) his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion (mercy) on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
⁸ 
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
⁹ 
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” AMP

This is the only way we can continue to be used of Him as we declare and expect the end which is the manifestation of His promises made to our ancestors as stated in Isaiah 46:10 which says, “Declaring the end and the result from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure and purpose,” NKJV

In His faithfulness God has chosen to manifest in our generations the things He has planned for these end-times through our generations. Therefore, there is a price to pay to see those promises manifested in our lives, and like every good soldier in His army, we know that we are held by His hand as He goes before us and prepares the way for us when we find ourselves with obstacles we cannot remove by our own human ability because the battles are spiritual. Micah 2:13 tells us this,

“The breaker [the Messiah, who opens the way] shall go up before them [liberating them]. They will break out, pass through the gate and go out; So their King goes on before them, The Lord at their head.” AMP

In addition, we were also designed to always need Him because the promises He makes are always beyond our capacity and ability to realize for ourselves. If this was the case, we would never need Him to help us obtain those promises. This serves as an opportunity for us to recognize our insignificance apart from Him as we humble ourselves under His mighty hand until the time that He raises us to be honored in our place of assignment (1 Peter 5:6).

To Him alone be all the glory.▪

Images courtesy of Google Images

Sacrificing Your Past so you can Have a Future

Genesis 22:1-2

¹ “Now after these things, God tested [the faith and commitment of] Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” ² God said, “Take now your son, your only son [of ^[promise], whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

After Isaac, the only son of promise was born to Abraham and Sarah, some things had taken place. One of them was that Hagar and Ishmael (Abraham’s son with Hagar the maid servant of Sarah) were asked to leave the family that God had chosen to be conformed to Him and formed by Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac only. Those who were not part of the original plan were removed. But why did they have to do this? They did this because they had succumbed to their old ways of obtaining the things they sought after, before Abraham had a committed relationship with God.

Abraham and Sara, (Abram and Sarai before God transformed them), had a background linked to sorcery (witchcraft), manipulation, and control. Genesis 11:28-31 talks about his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were people known for their idolatry. Their religious system was sorcery/the occult (worship to other gods of astrology and magic). God wanted to remove Abraham from that type of background in that territory, but He also wanted to help him renew his mind by teaching him to trust Him completely as the source that could supply every need he could ever have.

The spirit behind the Chaldean religious system is the Antichrist spirit that God swore He would fight in Exodus 17:14-16 and utterly wipe out its memory from under heaven in every generation. Amalek was the king that represented the Antichrist spirit—a violent spirit that sets itself against everything that is of God and Christ, and of His Kingdom because it seeks to steal His worship in the hearts of the people, and replace it with worship of idols (all types of man-made things/created things) and uses a religious system where all kinds of abominations take place and where the people that are ruled by it seek to manifest this replacement in the earth. It says,

¹⁴ “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this in the book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek [and his people] from under heaven.’ ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar and named it The Lord Is My Banner; ¹⁶ saying, ‘The Lord has sworn [an oath]; the Lord will have war against [the people of] Amalek from generation to generation.’”

We will see one example in Isaiah 47:1, 11-13 of how God is determined to do away with the idolatry, sorcery, and demonic doctrine of the Antichrist spirit (Babylonian system) that has even permeated His Church. It says,

¹“’Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground [in abject humiliation]; there is no throne for you,
O daughter of the Chaldeans,
For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

¹¹ 
“’Therefore disaster will come on you;
You will not know how to make it disappear [with your magic].
And disaster will fall on you
For which you cannot atone [with all your offerings to your gods];
And destruction about which you do not know
Will come on you suddenly.

¹² 
“’Persist, then, [Babylon] in your enchantments
And your many sorceries
With which you have labored from your youth;
Perhaps you will be able to profit [from them],
Perhaps you may prevail and cause trembling.
¹³ 
“’You are wearied by your many counsels.
Just let the astrologers,
The stargazers,
Those who predict by the new moons [each month]
Stand up and save you from the things that will come upon you [Babylon].”

Because of Abraham’s former background of idolatry, God sought to test him to see if he would treat his promised son as an idol. Remember that Abraham and Sarah tried to come up with their own way of producing this son of promise. Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to sleep with him. From this sexual union that was not what God had planned for them, Hagar became pregnant and had Ishmael.

Many of us know the consequences that today still manifests among some Middle Eastern nations of violence and persecution against Israel and other nations due to the entrance to the Antichrist spirit that Abraham and Sarah opened themselves to through his union with Hagar. This entrance came when they moved ahead of God and tried to make something happened, that although it was promised to them, they tried to achieve it by the same system of control and manipulation they had known in their upbringing.

To make matters worse, Hagar also had the same type of background. But God wanted to remove all of that wrong thinking from Abraham and Sarah and sought to eliminate idolatry from them and replace it with complete trust and confidence in Him alone to give them the son they had waited for so long, even years after Isaac was born, free from any trace of idolatry. That is why the Lord asked Abraham to kill Isaac. Thankfully, Abraham had learned to trust the Lord, God of all the earth, who had made many wonderful promises to him. Some of those promises are highlighted in Genesis 12:2-3 which tells us,

² 
“And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you [abundantly],
And make your name great (exalted, distinguished);
And you shall be a blessing [a source of great good to others];
³ 
And I will bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you,
And I will curse [that is, subject to My wrath and judgment] the one who curses (despises, dishonors, has contempt for) you.
And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed.’”

Abraham had learned to deny and renounce all allegiance with his former background of idolatry and instead, chose to trust and have confidence in the Lord that if He told him to lift his knife against his son, He had the answer to how he would get his son back. In the same way, God the Father, gave up His only begotten Son, Jesus (John 3:16), who took the sins of the world upon Him (Isaiah 53:5). He also took the place of the Antichrist spirit the people were guilty of worshiping, and paid the penalty of being cursed He did not deserve, for the Bible says that cursed is he who is hung on a tree. Galatians 3:13-14 explains,

¹³ “Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the Law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs [crucified] on a tree (cross)’— ¹⁴ in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might also come to the Gentiles, so that we would all receive [the realization of] the promise of the [Holy] Spirit through faith.”

So would you trust Him, instead of trying to control and manipulate your way out of our circumstances with idolatry of any kind, and allow Him to transform you by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:1-2) so you are not conformed to this world and its system of wicked idolatry? You can start this process by asking Jesus to become your Savior and Lord, and confess that you have sinned against Him and His Kingdom, and choose to renounce any allegiance with idolatry and the occult.

Next, seek to go to a church and be baptized in water. Also, ask the Lord to baptize you with His Spirit so it is by His Spirit that you are led to live a life filled with Him. Study the Word of God with people that can help you understand it and teach you to know Him through His Word.

You can go to my Facebook page “Live as Citizens of Heaven” or “24/7 Prayer Warriors and Intercessors” and leave a message. We will direct you where you could go to learn more about God, His Son Jesus, following the leading of His Holy Spirit, and that way not only get to know Him, but also know the purpose for which you have been placed on earth and called by Him.

To God alone be all the Glory. ▪

Images courtesy of Google Images

Scriptures taken form the Amplified “AMP” version unless otherwise noted.