You Are Not An Accident!
I have heard many preachers say many things, but one thing in particular has had a profound effect upon my life. Simply that we are the result of three things - sovereignty, predestination and purpose.
We are not the result of sex, but of sovereignty. Before you were a seed in your father's loins, you were a seed in the heart of God. Before you were formed in your mother's womb, you were formed in the mind of God. The sex that brought you into the world may have been illegitimate, but you are not. You were known by the sovereignty of God and He chose you to be born here - on planet earth. It's amazing that out of millions of sperm, you were one little tadpole fighting for the prize. Only one sperm would have the amazing privilege of penetrating the egg that was being formed ready for life on earth - that tadpole was you!
Don't ever say that you are an accident. Don't ever feel stigmatised and inferior because of the way you entered this world. Your arrival on planet earth was not an accident; it was planned by God's sovereignty. What God said to Jeremiah, I believe he says to us all - (Jeremiah 1:5) 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations.' You are not a result of your parents, but predestination. David wrote, 'Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.'(Psalm 139:16)
Many people look at their background, their upbringing, the colour of their skin, the family they were born into, their lack of education, or their past circle of friends and say to themselves, ' If I had been given a better start in life my destiny in God would be much more effective.'
Perhaps you feel you were never wanted as a child, perhaps you were made to feel useless; perhaps, all your life you have lived with a crippling sense of inadequacy - the result of negative words being continually spoken into your life, or maybe the result of deplorable acts made against your person. It could also be that your childhood was a happy one, raised in a Christian home and surrounded by love, protection and Godly parents. To others it would be an upbringing to be envied, but to you it seems a disadvantage. You feel you've been too sheltered, wrapped up in cotton wool and shielded from the real world.
I recently heard a preacher say that he sometimes wished he had been a drug addict, or a pimp or a gangster; so that when he got saved his gratitude and love for Jesus would have been greater. He was thinking of the prostitute who had been forgiven by Jesus, and outwardly and openly, showed her gratitude and love before a religious crowd, washing Jesus' feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair. Jesus turned to the religious crowd, who were appalled at such a show of affection and that Jesus should receive it from such a woman, and said 'She loves much because she has been forgiven much.'
You may feel like that preacher. What testimonies have I got? Compared to others, what have I got that can contribute to changing this world? I'm just so ordinary, so predictable, so boring. If I had a different start in life my influence would be so much more effective and powerful.
One of the most important lessons that I have learned as I look back over my life, is that I am special, I am important, I am a unique individual with a unique destiny to discover. I am not an accident, I am not the result of sex or people - they were just the means to get me here. My real sense of value comes from the knowledge that He knew me before I was even in my mother's womb, and my days were written for me; waiting for me to live, even before that. The purpose of this book is to encourage you to realise that you were uniquely prepared, and even at this moment are being uniquely prepared for the next season of your life.
As I think about my own upbringing in the light of how God is using me now, I stand and laugh at how God took my early years, even before I knew Him, and weaved them into the fabric of my destiny. You don't need to waste your time wishing you had a better start in life or a different start in life. You are not an accident, what you see as useless, unattractive and unspectacular, God sees as potential to be released and channelled. If God has sovereignly predestined you to be here, then there must be a reason and a purpose, for God creates nothing without a purpose or reason. That reason or purpose is your destiny, your calling - it's wanting to be discovered, enjoyed and released.
I read a story of an old sculptor who was passing a friend's farm. He noticed an old gnarled tree stump just lying there. Shouting to his friend, he asked if he had any need of the old tree stump. ""Oh no"" replied his friend. ""I'm cleaning my garden of all the old rubbish. Why? Do you want it?"" ""Yes"" replied the old sculptor and carefully lifted the old piece of wood onto his shoulders and carried it to his workshop. He placed the piece of wood in the centre of the room and paced around it, his eyes dancing with delight, as he spied something inside that old piece of wood that was of great value. Finally, he started to work on the wood, cutting with great passion and deliberation, as if he was trying to free something that was trapped inside. All through the night he worked and as the early morning sunlight streamed through the window into the room, the old gnarled, unwanted piece of wood was nowhere to be seen. In its place stood a beautiful sculpted eagle. The old man placed the eagle with pride outside his house. The following day the farmer from whom he got the old stump passed and commented on the beautiful sculpted eagle. He offered to buy it from the sculptor and carried the eagle back home to his farm, giving it pride of place for all to see. It was the same lump of wood, but it took someone with insight, love and patience to release its potential.
It doesn't matter what material God has to work with. It doesn't matter how polished or how ugly it is; He can take it, mould it, shape it and release what He desires it to be. Your background, upbringing, culture, nationality, history or colour is no barrier or obstacle to God. Once it's placed into the hand of the Great Sculptor, He can produce something that can amaze and bless the world.
You were born for a purpose. You were born with a predestined plan from God, and whatever stage of life you are at, God is able to take the good, the bad and the ugly and work it into something amazing. Life is not a patch; it's a quilt. The desire of my heart is to encourage those of you who may be going through a bad patch, to step back and see the big picture.
Satan wants to convince you that the bad patch you are going through right now, is your lot for the rest of your life. He wants to convince you your destiny is through and God has no more purpose for you. It may be bereavement, divorce, a failure, a mistake or even a sin, but Satan will seek to convince you, you're too unusable, too unforgivable, too devastated, too destroyed. God says, step back and see your life is more than just a patch in a quilt. He's able to take the good patches and bad patches, the bright colours and the dull colours and with the thread of His sovereign predestined plan for your life, sew them together to produce the quilt of your destiny. Look at what Romans 8:28 says 'And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.'
Nothing in life is wasted. God can and does use everything you give Him - the hurts, disappointments, mistakes and failures; and somehow, amazingly embroiders these experiences into the tapestry of your destiny.
What the devil has designed to cause a stink in your life, God uses as fertiliser to produce new growth. The seasons in our life that we thought were pointless, God used as preparation material for where we are right now. David killed Goliath and became famous in a day. David was elevated from shepherd boy to a national hero in one afternoon, but the process of preparation God planned for David was essential for him to secure his victory. Using this incident in David's life, I want to show you how God prepares us using everything in our past to see victory in the present. Right now, whether you believe it or not, God is preparing you for the next season of your life. One thing is certain; your life, calling and destiny have not only been predestined and sovereignly designed, they have been meticulously prepared.
© 2004 Ray Bevan
Ray Bevan is senior pastor of King's Church in Wales, UK. This article is taken from the Introduction to his new book 'Prepared for Greatness'. For more information visit www.kings-church.org.uk.
|
