e listed last week the seven pre-ordained and predetermined issues of life by the Creator Himself for all human beings on earth, which no one has power to change or alter. The seventh and last decision about your life, mine and indeed, the life of every human soul that has been born or will ever be born in this world is your purpose or God's Will for your life. The Holy Spirit decides what you'll become and your earthly assignment right in your mother's womb. The purpose and will of the Lord God Almighty for Jeremiah was disclosed by the Creator Himself unambiguously thus: "The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah was the son of Hilikiah and his family was from the smallest tribe of Benjamin. He was in his early 20s when the Lord God Almighty revealed His purpose and will to him following the Balkanization of the nation into Northern Kingdom (Israel) and Southern Kingdom (Judah).
Esau and Jacob, the twin boys of Isaac and Rebekah were in their mother's womb when the purpose and will of their Creator, the True Lord God Almighty for the twins were communicated to their mother, Rebekah thus: "Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger" (Gen. 25:21-23). For the prophecy on the twins: Esau and Jacob to be fulfilled, someone or group of people must actualize the will and purpose of God for those two kids. That was why Rebekah did what she did later in Genesis 27:1-47. A perfunctory reader of the Holy Bible would think Rebekah scammed or committed what in Nigeria we call 419 on her husband, Isaac, which gave Esau's blessings to Jacob. Not so. Rebekah was the one that went to inquire of the Lord and the will and purpose of God for her boys was conveyed to her. She got the memo, but Isaac didn't. I indicated elsewhere in this column that there is nothing known as destiny in the Holy Bible. The will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life is not predetermined. His will and purpose is rarely done in many people's lives, even on earth, God's will and purpose is rarely done. That was why our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray thus in Matthew 6:9-10: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." The will and purpose of God for every human being is not certain and predetermined, until you discover it, make a conscious decision to embrace and fulfil it. Candidly, every human being has his or her own will and purpose too. In most cases, our individual will and purpose can and do differ from that of the Lord. But when you deliberately, willfully and of you own accord set aside your own will and purpose and then decide to embrace and fulfil the will and purpose o God for your life, it now becomes your destiny. Consequently, the Lord God Almighty didn't give us the Holy Bible as a book of destiny but of decision, period! That was the reason He told the children of Israel plainly in Deuteronomy 30:19b-20: "�I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, �"
Every blessing of the True Lord God Almighty as conveyed to us in the Holy Bible is a choice. All curses recorded in the Holy Bible are also not predetermined; they are choices individuals make. Obedience to His rules and commandments attract His blessings, while sins and disobedience attract evil and curses, period! So any one who tells you something is part of your destiny is not a true student of the Holy Bible. Just as salvation through believe and acceptance of the death, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a choice, so all other things and matters of the Lord God Almighty is a choice. But remember that there are corresponding consequences attached to the two diametrically opposed choices available to you, me and indeed, every human being on earth. In discovering and fulfilling the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life, you may need certain people, agents and support group, just as Jacob needed his mother, Rebekah or Samson, his parents. That was the reason I explained the spiritual law of addition and subtraction in discovering God's will for your life in previous articles in this column. For you to know the purpose and will of the Lord God Almighty for your life, you must take these three steps.
First, accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. A brother told me once that he would be a good lawyer, because he knows how to argue and he's a superb orator. I told him he must be accepted into a law school first and be trained and then certified. A friend called me few months ago and said I should help him buy a house in the United States. "Have you be given a US Visa to visit my country, the USA? I asked him. He said, no, he would apply for his American Visa after I help him buy the house. I told him that was awkward. A sister called me for prayer. I told her, if she was a born-again Christian before we could proceed to pray. She became feisty on the phone as if I had uttered an anathema. "I don't know anything about this being born-again stuff, but I'm a child of God." I told her we couldn't go further. In Matthew 15:26, our Lord Jesus Christ told the Canaanite woman: "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs." Sinners and unbelievers do not set the rules when they want anything from the King of kings and lord of lords, period!
Second, you do not choose the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life, but you discover His will and purpose for your life, period! As the King disclosed: "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'? Again, just as sinners and unbelievers do not have the right to set the rules of engagement with the Lord Jesus Christ, similarly, saved souls and believers do not have the right to determine what they should do for the Maker and Creator of all things, including us, Hallelujah! No human being can impress the Lord. He is not interested in what we do for Him either, but what pleases Him most is to do what He has prepared beforehand for us to do, because as Apostle Paul disclosed in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Paul should know as the true herald of the good news, for this was how he was called to do God's will and purpose according to Acts 13:2: "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them�" As I have stated numerously in this column, the Sovereign Lord God Almighty will never take directives or commands from His created beings. He is not impressed by what we do for Him, rather, He is interested in our obedience. Who is asking you to do what you are doing is the constant refrain that should be at the back of your brain when you are doing anything purportedly for the Lord.
The third thing to do after discovering the purpose and will of the Lord God Almighty is to use His wisdom to identify those who you need in order to fulfil His will and purpose for your life. Simultaneously, you must also identify those you should eliminate from your life, in order to accomplish the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty. Not everyone is in your life to increase you. There are some relationships that you should terminate instantly and immediately for you to walk into your Godly destiny. There are some people that you should no longer hang around with, if you really want to fulfill the will and purpose of God Almighty for your life. There are certain things and people that Satan and his demons have arranged to be in your life in order to kibosh the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty as you will find below. You must identify those things and people and steer clear of them. You do not need everybody to be in your life in order to become what the Lord God Almighty has purposed and willed for you. Similarly, there are certain things and people the Almighty God had already arranged ever before you were born to assist you in reaching the finish line. Your duty is to identify those things and people through Godly Wisdom in fulfilling your Godly purpose.
7 AGENTS INVOLVED IN GODLY DESTINY IN YOUR MOTHER'S WOMB
After the seven issues and matters of life known as "purpose in election" (Romans 9:11) which we disclosed last week are settled, the following seven agents now come in. These agents are responsible to ensuring that the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty are either fulfilled or aborted in the life of each soul. In achieving or non-fulfilment of God's purpose and will for a life, much depends on the individual, because each human being is not an automaton and robot either in the Hands of the True Lord God Almighty or Satan. Yes, Satan has much to do too in the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of God's purpose and will in a person's life.
The first agent of course, is the True Lord God Almighty Himself. He is the repository of Wisdom, the Source of life. He decides who should be born or sent into the world. We all came from Him. Of all His creation, the human race is too dear to Him, because He created us to have fellowship with Him. As the Word of Life says "For in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). If Satan can create, he would have created his own beings too to be worshipping him instead of struggling with the Lord God Almighty for the human soul, but unfortunately, Satan is also a creation. He is not independent of the Jehovah Lord God Almighty, Hallelujah! Thus, the Lord God Almighty Himself decides what each individual He created in His own image is sent to the earth down here to accomplish. He set the tone at creation when He said: "Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground" (Gen. 1:26). This is the main reason you and I and every soul was created by the Lord God Almighty. We were made to be co-Creators. Anything that you are doing in life here on earth that cannot be tied or traced to the accomplishment of His broad Will and Purpose stated in Genesis 1:26 above is not of God. The Psalmist could not be unambiguous in Psalm 8:1-9: "LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth...what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" There is a matter, problem, or an issue on this earth that the Jehovah Lord God Almighty wants to solve or see attended to and He has created you and I to solve that issue. If you cannot explain in a sentence what you are doing with your life on this earth to accomplish this, then you're not fulfilling the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life, period! Every soul that has been redeemed on earth must ask this life-defining question as Apostle Paul asked immediately he gave his life to the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ, our Creator: ""'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked. " 'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do" (Acts 22:10). By the way, your assignment is the same as the will and purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ for your life here on earth.
The second agent(s) you need in order to accomplish God's will for your life here on earth are two angels known as "guardian angels." These angels are assigned to every human being that has been born, now on earth and those that will ever be born. In Hebrews 1:14, the duties of angels were spelt out broadly thus: "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" By and by, we read of this account in Acts where Rhoda was chastised for confusing real Peter with his guardian angels, whereas Rhoda was right: "Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!" "You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel" (Acts 12:13-15). The children of Israel were assigned an angel by the pillar of cloud and by the pillar of fire to chaperon them through the wilderness to the Promised Land (Exodus 23:20:"See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared"). The duty of your guardian angels were to assist you in all possible ways to achieve and fulfill the plans of the Lord God Almighty for your life throughout your stay here on earth. They fight your battle for you; protect, guide and guard you. You weren't put here on planet earth to be by yourself. That was the reason our Lord Jesus Christ assured you and me in John 14:18: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." If you walk faithfully and resolutely pursue His will and purpose for your life with monomaniacal commitment, once in a while, the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see your guardian angels. I say two guardian angels, who are the first two at minimum, but their numbers increase as you need them in carrying out the will and purpose of the Jehovah Lord God Almighty. I first saw my guardian angels in 1997 but I didn't recognize them until much later.
The third agent you need to carry out the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life here on earth is the Holy Spirit. As soon as you gave your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and have taken Him as your Personal Lord and Savior, you are different in the sense that, your assignment will now be conveyed to you by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Lord God Almighty Himself Who created you and put all things together. You can't be living your life the way you want and expect the Creator to show you His will and purpose for your life, because the world cannot know Him. "If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you," (Acts 14:15-17). As aforesaid, you don't decide or choose your assignment here on earth, you discover it. You cannot discover your assignment, if you haven't given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and if you have not taken Jesus Christ as your Lord and Personal Savior, you can't have the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you can't discover the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life, because, "For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:11). The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit and, if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you are not even a Christian, period! "You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:9).
The fourth agent is your own spirit. The Lord God Almighty is a God of order and peace. He rules by order. He will never barge on us and will never force His will on us. The way He has set the system is that, He wants every human being He has created to come back to Him willingly, freely and without compulsion. Love is not rude and there is no compulsion in love and the True Lord God Almighty is the epitome of the Agape Love we quote all the time in I Corinthians 13. You must use the free will He has given to you to seek His Face and discover your earthly assignment. But you do not have the power to dictate the rules and the form of engagement with the King. He doesn't delight in half-commitment either. He is either the total Lord of your life or He isn't. He is either in total charge and control or isn't, because as He warned us: "I am a jealous God�" (Exodus 20:5).
The fifth angel is Satan. Yes, Satan is a factor in carrying out your Godly assignment. He is the bad guy operating on the other spiritual spectrum to ensure you do not give your life to Jesus and thus will not carry out His will and purpose for your life. Don't underestimate the "god of this world"-Satan-who is "�your enemy the devil (who) prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Satan is your and my, indeed the world's most formidable foe, who will do everything right from your mother's womb and those nine months you are in the womb to abort you and the will and purpose of God for your life. Chew this, if you're feigning ignorance of Satan's malevolent enterprise in your mother's womb: "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born" (Revelation 12:1-4). At times, Satan succeeds inside the womb through abortions and still births. According to the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control (CDC), over half a million kids were aborted in the United States every year. We are not talking of teenagers that lose their lives yearly from abortions gone wrong and many more that are procured illegally. The worldwide data can be staggering indeed. The spiritual warfare over your soul, mine and indeed every human being on earth commences right from the mother's womb. In order to sustain his relentless war against your very soul and abort you and the will of God for your life throughout your stay here on planet earth, Satan has some fiendish accomplices known as demons in this diabolical mission. This brings us to the sixth agent.
Demons and principalities are here as the really bad guys; evil creatures poised to stop and abort the will and purpose of the Lord God Almighty for your life. These are ferocious foes, malevolently pissed off with their Creator and eternally incensed with us His loving children created in His image and likeness. Apostle Paul could not be more direct in Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." I have explained in details how these spiritual forces of evil operate in order to ensure that you, me and indeed anyone will not discover the will and purpose of God for their lives and fulfill those purposes in my co-authored book: "The Kingdom of Satan Exposed" and will not repeat them here again.
Finally, the seventh agent(s) that play prominent roles and parts in carrying out the will and purpose of God Almighty for your life are your parents. Some children have had their futures destroyed by the choices their parents made while the children were still in their mother's wombs. A sister called me complaining of settling down to a married life. She had prayed, fasted, kept night vigils upon night vigils and journeyed to many mountains to pray but all to no avail. She is beautiful, a medical doctor and able to support herself so why are prospective suitors not forthcoming. Actually, men approached her and really wanted to marry her, but as soon as she starts dating, anything bad and awry that could happen begin to unravel in the lives of her dates. So the relationship would die. The sister didn't understand what was going on. So she called us. The Holy Spirit said her problem was not prayer. We asked the sister certain questions and the spiritual revelation was instant. Her problem started right from her mother's womb. No wonder the Psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit opened our eyes in Psalm 51:5: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." I was privileged to attend to a young kid afflicted with cancer in another country. The parents sent for me pleading with tears for us to come and heal the tot. How could a young kid be afflicted with this deadly cancer at such a young age, considering the fact kids are innocent and haven't sinned. The Holy Spirit directed us to ask the father who he was sleeping with at the same time the kid was in the womb of the mother? The demon entered through the philandering husband into the pregnant wife/mother and the warfare began over the soul of that kid and the destiny of the Lord for the child. Actions invite reactions and actions have consequences. There are billions of people suffering "innocently" for the bad actions and choices of their parents, for after all, didn't the Lord God Almighty Himself say in Exodus 20: 4-5: "�You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me�?" The last time I checked, those sacred commands haven't been edited out of the Holy Bible.
Next Week: There are three broad categories all the blessings and wills of the Lord God Almighty can be analyzed; His Acceptable, Permissible and Perfect Wills. We will examine how to figure out which category your own falls into next week in Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.
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