What really is destiny? Is it just about anything that happens to you along the path of life? This is what I believe, I believe that destiny is what God in heaven has predestined or preordained for an individual long before the person was born. Yes God knew you before you were conceived!

That’s what He told Jeremiah, ‘I knew you before you were born’

The Lord gave me this message:

 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.

Before you were born I set you apart

and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

Jer 1:4-5

What I think throws a lot of people off this God thing and destiny is the question ‘if God has a destiny for me, why do so many difficult things happen to me?

The answer can be found in these statements:

1. Whatever happens on earth is not just up to God, people have a part to play too. God gave us a will.
2. There is a devil (some people don’t believe in one) out there absolutely committed to wrecking God’s plan for your life.
3. The introduction of sin in the very beginning of creation altered the original state of creation and injected death and its consequences to the earth.

In the issue of destiny, you have a part to play, you need to cooperate with God to establish his purpose in your life, if you do this it doesn’t matter what the devil or other people do, you will find destiny and fulfill it.

Tonye Oliver

Fulfilling destiny is not an event, it is a journey, a path often strewn with hurdles, and contradictions, sometimes the journey seems smooth and uneventful, at other times not so smooth, at other times the journey seems so fast and swift, we wonder how time seems to be zipping by us, then again there are times of great patience and even seeming ‘stagnation’ but all these if we are on the right path is the story of destiny and its fulfillment.

By the way is destiny for only ‘Christians’? No, I don’t think so, but I believe that finding Jesus and choosing to follow him is indispensable to finding and fulfilling destiny. When you find Jesus, it is as if God presses the reset button on your life, you literally begin life afresh, that is as far as God is concerned. The bible calls this the ‘born again’ experience. It doesn’t matter how old you may be, you return to a default setting with God.

Apart from that the relationship you begin to develop with God through Jesus enables you to be led by Him towards your destiny in Him.

There is no ordinary destiny but there are some that may by their very nature seem spectacular but make no mistake about it, every destiny or purpose is supernatural and important.

Think about Susannah Wesley, the mother of the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, all she did was to raise a generation of godly men who impacted their world for Jesus, but her children, every one of them never failed to give her credit for how they turned out. As she often said, it was her duty to pray one hour daily for her children, theirs was no accidental success, it was programmed success!

Whatever you do, stay on the path of your destiny, but to do so you have know what it is, you have to come to that inward conviction that this is my calling, my purpose and that conviction must be firmly rooted in what Jesus makes plain to you by His Spirit!

The only way to find and stay on that path is too keep looking at the One who called you, think about this, the wise men in scriptures could only find the baby king by following a star, there was no predefined obvious path to where he was, they had to be led to him. The Children of Israel also had to depend on the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to find their way to their destiny, the Promised Land, there were no road signs or GPS to rely on.

This is something this generation will need to learn, we like to have all things figured out, we set goals, write out mission statements and prescribe processes and all that is great if they were all predicated on the revelation of his purpose for us. However many times, it is just us taking charge of our lives and determining a path we have desired to follow. Please don’t get me wrong, we need to plan and pursue our plans but we must first be sure of the direction the Lord wants us to go.

We need to keep seeking the Lord at every junction in our lives, asking questions and seeking to be led by His Spirit. Not every open door is of the Lord, no not all, some are death traps, how do we know which is which? Simply by asking ‘Lord is this you?’

I want to emphasize the necessity and the power of commitment, we need to rediscover the power of commitment, some people say, if it is not ‘working’ ditch it and try something new, we need to be careful about statements like that.

Sometimes the greatest lessons you will learn will arise out of your deepest struggles and even greatest failures. Stay committed to the Word, to Jesus, to what has been put in your hand, to the relationships that God has brought your way, there are some people that will rub you up the wrong way, don’t be too quick to cut them off your life, they may just what you need to work out Jesus in your life. Have you considered that the irritation about some people you feel may speak a bit more about your lack of Christian love and maturity than of the personality issues that person may have?

Your destiny is not only what you do, it is first what you become, never forget that!

Another thing that crosses my mind to share is this, you cannot measure your progress along the path of destiny by comparing yourself to another, you don’t know what is written for the other person, so how can you assess success or failure? Others may encourage or inspire you to press for what God has for you but never feel good or bad by comparing yourself with another. Your destiny is unique to you.

Some people are very successful doing the wrong thing, while some seem to be struggling doing some ‘insignificant’ thing but they are going to receive a ‘well done thou good and faithful servant’ from the Lord.

When he heard this, this brother bowed his head and wept, he remembered that the Lord had called him and his wife to serve as missionaries in Africa but you see, sometime after they got married, she became pregnant, well meaning friends advised them to stay back and have the baby, then after the baby was born, she (the baby) was not too well and it seemed that it was not just proper to do mission work with a child that would need good care. Over the years the Lord would bring the call to mind but the time never seemed right, more children came and the years just slipped by. So they decided, ‘well we can raise money and support the mission field’ and so they did. Many years later in the twilight of his life, as he reflected on his life, the voice of the Lord came to him. It was too late but this brother has been going round everywhere urging people, ‘do what God says to do, pay the price, obey God’!

I don’t want to be like that, I want to stay on the path of destiny and fulfill it, it is possible and you can do it. Listen, it is not only behind the pulpit that destiny is fulfilled, whatever it is, stay on the path!

This is something important, your destiny is not just about you or your personal happiness; it is about God, Jesus and the people that they have set on your path to impact and influence by the good works that have been ordained for you to walk in. If you make your personal happiness your goal or objective in life, you will fail and not fulfill destiny, however if you make His will your life goal, you will succeed and find ultimate satisfaction.

Another thing, many people when they think of destiny, they think of things like preaching and church work or ministry, but it is not all there is to it, destiny involves every facet of human activity. God wants to come into our sports, entertainment, families, business, education etc. People of destiny carry the kingdom and its life wherever they go, the Lord created all things for himself and He wants to be all in all in all things.

Jesus said of himself, I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him that sent me’ this may not seem as easy as it sounds, there are so many distractions; friends, legitimate needs or desires, seeming opportunities, societal expectations, peer pressure, public acclaim etc but it is our responsibility to cry out to God for grace to stay on that path and then to stay on it regardless of the cost.

Destiny calls, will you answer the call?