Creflo Dollar - Discovering The Will of God
We're going to talk about discovering your destiny in the Lord because please understand that every life is headed towards a destination. You remember the anatomy of life. Whatever you expose yourself to is going to create your thinking. So what you're exposed to will create the way you think, the way you think will create the way you feel, how you feel will create the decisions you make, your decisions will create the actions, your actions will create your habits, habits will create your character, and your character will create your destination. So you are going to end up your destination based on starting off with what you've been exposing yourself to.
Now we talked about that when we were talking about "The 12 Steps of Change," but what you expose yourself to all the way to your destination. So your exposure is going to determine your destination. The way you think, the way you feel, the decisions you make, the actions you take, the habits you create, the character you make will determine your destination. Now, what I want you to understand is that God has already designed a destiny for your life. It's something that, you know, God's already figured out and God already knows. The problem is if you start creating your own destiny when one has already been created for you, not only are you going to spend your life just beating your head against the concrete because every time you decide that you think you're supposed to be here you'll find out you're not supposed to be here. And so I think tonight will really add some insight to you discovering your destiny in the Lord. Let's get right into it. I've got eight steps that you can use to discover your destiny in the Lord. Somebody says, "You sure are doing a lot of step preaching". Hey, that's the easiest way to probably get a hold of it, is in steps, breaking it down so you can understand it.
So the first thing I believe you have to do in order to discover your destiny in the Lord, number one, think about the real desire of your heart and not what someone else wants you to do. Think about the real desire of your heart and not what someone else wants you to do or some fleeting fantasies of your mind. In other words, I need you to ask yourself what is the desire of your heart? What is the desire of your heart? Because here's the deal. When you notice that this has always been a desire of your heart, God put it there. Some guy who says, "I really love mathematics". And I don't understand how anybody can love mathematics, but there are people that they, I mean, they're just born to do it, and they love it and they desire doing it. Well, God was the one that put it there.
So in essence, it's just a matter of locating the desires that have always been there. I've always had a desire to help people. It's always been there. What's the desire in your heart that's always been there, not what someone else wants you to do, but the desire you have in your heart? I'm reminded of a couple of Scriptures. Psalms 37, verses 3 through 4, if you'll flip over there, and look at Philippians 2:13. I'm going to look at it in the NLT and the NIV. I've shared these Scriptures before, but in Psalms 37 in verse 3 he says, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shall be fed". Verse 4, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give you the desires of thine heart".
There's a trusting in the Lord, then there's a delighting in the Lord. And then what happens is that desire that you have, God says, "I'll give it to you". I really believe that there's a desire that's been planted there by God and I believe that God wants to, more than anything, cause you to come to the place of seeing the manifestation of that desire. Now, I looked at this Scripture because I always use this Scripture when I look at desire. But in Philippians 2:13 in the NLT and then in the NIV, I want to see if you can pick this up. I saw this and I was like, "Man, this is interesting". He says, "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him". So there's a work of the Holy Spirit working on the inside of you. I believe the desire is there and the Holy Spirit is there, and enhancing that desire, making it clear to you, and then giving you the power to do what pleases God.
Now look at this in the NIV, same verse of Scripture. He says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose," look there. So this is talking about the destiny here. So God is working in order to fulfill his good purpose in you. There's a purpose, there's a destiny in your life, and God is involved and one who works in you to will and to act. And so eventually what happens, I believe by the Holy Spirit, you're going to want to. You know, that destiny is going to be reached because God knows how to put the right want-tos on the inside of you. And if God has put some want-tos on the inside of you, don't dismiss them because I believe by those want-tos you will find what he says here, the place to fulfill his good purposes. His purposes for you and his plans for you are good, and he wants you to begin to reach those purposes and plans for your life.
So step one, that's the key of all of those things that are working in you. You just have to just back up a little bit and say, "All right, so what's this, the desire that's been in me since I can remember"? I mean, you know, and then allow the Holy Spirit who will give you the will. He'll give you your want-to to start doing those things that lead you down that path. But sometimes if you open yourself up to what everybody else wants you to do and you start ignoring, "But no, this is what I really want to do," then you kind of miss the mark on some things.
Let's look at number two, step two in discovering your destiny in the Lord. Step two, determine what stirs your passion, your drive, and your zeal. What's the thing that just gets you going? I mean, the thing that stirs you up. What are you passionate about? What are you passionate about? And most of the time it's like you've been wired for that. What are you passionate about? I look at Scripture in John chapter 2, verse 17 in the NLT and I saw this in the NLT because... and this is my passion when I saw this Scripture. He says, "Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: 'Passion for God's house will consume me.'"
I know what that's about. Passion for God's house consumes me. Well, what is it that consumes you? It may not be passion for God's house that consumes you, but that passion for whatever that thing is, it consumes you. I'm consumed with that passion, with the passion for God's house, for God's people, for the work of the ministry. I'm consumed with that. I believe that if you will locate your passion and locate the thing that consumes you... someone says, "I don't know my passion".
Well, what's the thing that's consuming you? I believe you will find some steps towards your destiny in life; the passion that consumes you, and that's what passion is. You find a person doing something that they're not passionate about, they need to quit. They need to get out of the way because they're probably not supposed to be doing that. Or, you know, they're just, I don't know what it is, but it's, you know, I don't care how I feel. I don't care what's going through. I don't care, you know, some of the hellacious stuff that I have to look at and deal with. I still have passion for God's house. In other words, none of the stuff in the world seems to snuff out that passion. Allow the passion; that passion now begins to consume you. If you can discover that and understand what that is, if you can determine what stirs your passion, if you can determine the drive, if you can determine the thing that you're zealous about, then that's bringing you to the place of your destiny in the Lord.
Number three, know what gifts and talents flow naturally through you, the thing that you can do naturally. Somebody's gotta to school to do it; you just naturally know how to do it. And I always thought that was just fascinating, how somebody could just naturally know how to do something that somebody else had to go to study. Discover now and know what gifts and talents that flow naturally through you. There may be some kids who just know how to take things apart and put it back together again. I mean, he's just a natural candidate to be an amazing engineer. He just knows how to do that. He knows where every spring goes and all that stuff. He takes it apart, puts it back together again. He just naturally knows how to do that.
Look at Romans chapter 12, verses 4 through 6. Are there gifts and talents that flow through you, flow naturally through you? Are there gifts and talents that flow naturally through you? Because if you will discover those, that will help you to find and locate your destiny in the Lord. Look at what he says here, he says, "For as we have many members in one body," there lots of members in the body, "and all members have not the same office. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us". So the gifts are different according to the grace given to us, and that's fine. You can see that God says they are different. "Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith".
And so they're going to be different talents. They're going to be different gifts that you flow in naturally, that God gave you that you're going to be needing to be equipped with in order to be successful in your destiny, and that's something you ought to think about. You ought to think about, "God gave me this for a reason". That gift that you have, it was given to you for a reason; and you're going to have to have the Holy Spirit to help you not to use it in the wrong way, or for the wrong reason, or for the wrong motivation. Everything that God gave to you was given to you so you can serve somebody and so you can serve the kingdom, and unfortunately people don't recognize that and they end up using their gifts and talents the wrong way. Locate those gifts and talents that flow naturally through you and you're going to find yourself discovering the destiny that God has for your life in the Lord.
Number four, number four, now, this is pretty cool. Seek counsel from mature Christian friends and leaders. You're discovering your destiny in the Lord. There's nothing wrong with seeking counsel from mature, mature people, okay, people who are not emotionally immature, people who are not babes in Christ, people who are not babes in understanding how to use their righteousness. You're not just talking about somebody old that's been going to church for a long time. Okay? Look at Proverbs 11, and 14. This is why this is one of the steps to seek counsel from mature Christian friends and leaders, people that know God, people that spend time in the Word and walk with God. Verse 14 says, "Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety".
So you might be thinking, "Well, maybe I'm supposed to do this," but you kind of like going back and forth a little bit. Well, get counselors. Get some mature Christians and y'all get the mind of God on that thing, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I encourage that. I encourage that. There are so many people who step out on a whim and they start doing things, and in some cases if they'd got counsel from any mature Christian, they would have told them that, "You're missing that. Yeah, you might be able to do that, but it ain't for this. So you probably want to pray about this or that or this". There's safety in the multitude of counselors. Counselors and people giving you counsel should not be something that's avoided. It should be something that you pursue. It's something that will assist you in locating that destiny for your life.
Step five, now, this is important. This is vital in my life. Listen to the witness of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. Listen to the witness. You're trying to discover the destiny for your life, listen to the witness. You know, the Holy Spirit will say amen to it. You know, you're stepping out, you're thinking, "Well, I believe this is the destiny for my life". I tell you, there's nothing like discovering the will of God for your life and knowing, "That's what I was born to do". Listen to the witness in your life. Look at Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. And a lot of people don't really believe that the Holy Spirit can provide leadership, and we need leadership in discovering that destiny for our life. Look what he says: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God".
Notice, you can be led by the Spirit of God. I'm confident that the Spirit of God can lead you to your destiny, but you got to be sensitive to that. You've got to be the kind of person that says, "You know what, I'm going to spend time with God. I'm going to develop intimate relationship with God. I'm going to know God so that I can hear God, so that I can listen to the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit will tell you when it's right, when it's wrong. The Bible says the Spirit of God will tell you things to come. He'll tell you things to come. Your destiny for your life is a thing to come and the Holy Spirit wants to be involved in telling you about the things to come, but, man, you know, you've got to get him involved. You have access to the directions of the Holy Spirit, you have access to the leadership of the Holy Spirit; but if you don't get him involved, if you don't acknowledge him in all your ways, look at that Scripture. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will what? Direct your path. Well, that's exactly what this step is all about. It's about knowing that you have someone who can direct your path and bring you to the place of the destiny that God has designed for your life.
Number six, this is pretty good. Number six, understand what you can and can't give yourself to 100% in order to accomplish it. The thing that, understand what, "I can give myself to this 100%. I can't give myself to that 100%". What this is talking about is your level of devotion and commitment, your level of devotion and commitment to a thing. So if you're thinking that, "This is the thing that I'm destined to do," he says you can measure the accuracy of that with the devotion and the commitment that you give towards it. You see, if you're destined to do this particular thing, you know, you're not going to do it 20% effort. Your commitment, you're going to be committed and devoted to that particular thing. You're going to do it rain, sleet, or snow, I mean, no matter what it is, that's the kind of devotion you will give to that.
Now, most people say that they are, you know, this is the thing that they've been born to do, and you know it's not true because look at the devotion they give to it. You can't say you were born to do something and you only have 20% or 30% of commitment there. And so this is understanding what you can and can't give yourself to 100%. And to say you are destined to do this thing and you only give 20% of yourself to it, I mean, that's just evidence that you're not, that you're not. Listen, I know I was destined to do what I'm doing today. I give my life for this thing. You understand? My devotion to what I do is at a level that sometimes I have to question my sanity sometimes because it's like, "Wow".
I'm telling you, I mean, one time I was so devoted to this, I was preaching four services on Sunday. That's not a easy thing to do; starting at 6 o'clock in the morning and ending at about, you know, 1-something in the afternoon. And I'm telling you something, folks. When you're destined at doing something, you're going to give 100% of yourself to that thing. So I'm not convinced that a person comes to me and he says, "Oh, I found what I was born to do," and you only give 20% of yourself doing that. That's not so. So that's something you can use to measure, 'cause you don't want to walk in deception and deceiving yourself thinking that you're supposed to be doing this thing for your life and you're not doing it, thinking that this is your destination for your life and, you know, you're giving 10% at it, and that's not how it works, that's not how that works.
So let me show you some things here real quick. The first thing I thought about is this Scripture in Proverbs 16:3, Proverbs 16:3, if you'll look there. In Proverbs 16:3 he says, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established". Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. And in Romans 12:1 he also talks about, you know, dedication. "Since I've given you all this mercy, then the least you can do, the reasonable thing you can do is to dedicate yourself, give a sacrifice". Not just, "I'm there in spirit," but spirit, soul, and body to be involved in your dedication to God. And he wants all of you involved in your dedication to God; your spirit, your soul, and your body. "Commit thy way unto the Lord, and he'll cause it to come to pass". And so how much of yourself are you willing to commit to that thing? That's normally a sign of whether or not you're headed down the right path that leads to the right destination for your life.
Let's look at number seven. Number seven, know what produces good fruit in your life. In other words, notice what thing you do that produces good fruit in your life. Notice the thing that you do, you know, that produces good fruit in your life. In other words, I like to say it like this. Locate your tree that will produce good fruit. Let me show you where I'm getting this from. Matthew chapter 12 and verses 33. What's the thing that you do that produces good fruit in your life? I know for me when I was, you know, when I do what I'm destined to do and called to do, I always got great, great results, and then when I started doing other things 'cause I could do it, I didn't get good results. Just because you can do a thing doesn't necessarily mean that's the destiny for your life. Man, I had to learn that. There were a lot of things I could do, but none of them compared with the thing that was my destination for my life.
And so I noticed this Scripture here in Matthew 12:33. It says, "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit". And what he's saying here is you're saying this is your destination, but look at the results. Look at the results. "Oh, I've been called to be rap singer". And nobody, not one person has bought your music. It's like, okay, you're saying, "This is my destination," but he says, "All right, please check the results out. It's not working". "Oh, I know, my destiny is to pastor". And you and your grandmama still there after 30 years. Look at the results. He's saying, "Look at the tree and see if it's fruitful".
And, you know, people are still, you know, pursuing, you know, "I'm supposed to be famous. I'm supposed to be a actor. Well, you know, God called me to model". And you hadn't gotten one gig. Look at the fruit. And I'm not trying to be funny; it's kind of sad because I've seen people waste their good portion of their life and not understanding that, dude, you're obviously not supposed to do this because it's not working, it's not working. Know the thing that you do that produces fruit in your life. So all right, so what is the thing that you do that produces fruit in your life? What is the thing that you do that seems to be pretty awesome? And don't ignore it. Don't throw it away.
You see, the thing that God has destined for your life may be in conflict with, you know, the thing you want to do because you've been exposed to everybody else doing it. So you decide, "Well, I want to do that too`". And, you know, that happened to me. I'm like, "Well, I'm not going to be a preacher. You know, I'm going to be a lawyer and a doctor. I'm not going to be a preacher". You see, you have to make sure you can unravel those desires that you picked up by being, you know, exposed to what everybody else wants and the fact that you have not been very exposed to the things of God, and now you're picking some destination that you're supposed to go past. And so I think you got that. All right?
Let's look at number eight. Step eight, follow the peace of God inside of you. Follow the peace of God inside of you. Look at Colossians chapter 3 and verse 15. Follow the peace of God inside of you. In other words, let peace become your umpire.