A Date With Destiny

3/27 Be a Rebel: Embrace Your Inner Trailblazer

Daniel 3:27: “When they came out, the fire had not harmed them. Their hair and clothes were not burned and they didn’t even smell like smoke.“


There are times when you are called upon to take a stand, just like the three Hebrew boys in the book of Daniel. You may be urged by the Spirit to go against the masses and follow your conscience, rather than the demands of a narcissistic bully.

As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the flames for following their divine direction, you too, will sometimes walk through fire as the result of your convictions.

In the same manner that Jesus appeared in the fiery furnace with those boys, He also appears to you when going through the fiery trials of your own faith.

Some will try to tell you what’s best, and condemn you for standing your ground. At times, you may be criticized for doing what you know is right, by those who are more comfortable taking the path of least resistance.

Lots of Hebrews bowed the knee to the golden statue because they were told to do so. Some of them were friends and family members of the three rebels who refused.

Those who bowed were not named. God did not reject them, or send fire from heaven to consume them. They simply bowed to the golden statue, and went on to live their lives of quiet desperation.

Those who bowed missed out on having a conversation with the Son of God in a fiery furnace. Those who bowed never had their names listed in Sacred Text. Those who bowed never became part of a story which would be told for thousands of years to come.

From this passage, you conclude there are two types of people: those who bow and those who stand.

Bowers are compliant. Standers are defiant. You have been called to be a stander.

Not everyone is called to be a rebel and a renegade. You are.

You go on high alert when you can right a wrong, stand up to a bully, or defend the defenseless.

You are a rebel at heart.  You are wild and adventurous. You do not take the path of least resistance. You find that path boring and dull.

You are a trailblazer. You create paths which never existed and inspire others to follow your lead.

Long after you are gone from this planet, your imprint will remain on those trails. Your courage will call to future generations, inviting them to join the rebel cause and reject the status quo. The echo of your voice from a faraway dimension will call to those select few, willing to risk it all for a chance to come up higher.

A Date With Destiny

Living as a Citizen of Heaven: Embrace Your Dual Reality

1 Peter 3:22…”Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God. All the angels and powers accept his authority.”

You are becoming more and more enlightened about who Jesus is, where He came from, and where He is now, preparing a place for you.

While it is true that your physical body is aging, your mind is being renewed every day. Each step of the way, the Holy Spirit is taking you to new heights of enlightenment.

Fueled by living water springing up from within you, your spirit rushes like a river, creating the power and energy needed to carry your physical form into each next heavenly assignment.

Partnered with the Spirit of God, supernatural energy is infusing you with a heavenly mindset.  As you focus your attention on heavenly pursuits, you are simultaneously improving the natural world in which you reside. 

In this way, you are living in two realms at once. You are a citizen of heaven, and an ambassador of Christ. Your heart is set on things above, and your days are filled with bringing heaven to earth.

Maintaining a heavenly focus creates melody in your mind and harmony in your heart. This music of heaven shifts your gaze away from your human struggles and toward the throne room of heaven.

Experiencing the power of Christ in this dual reality, His Kingdom is as real to you as the world in which you live.

A Date With Destiny

3/21 Finding Freedom in God’s Grace: Letting Go of Guilt

1 John 3:21…”Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.”

You lead a carefree life because you release your mistakes and weaknesses into the safe grace of God.

When regret or guilt trouble you, they immediately become the next topic of conversation with God. You talk with your Heavenly Father throughout the day about the issues which plague your thoughts. As you share your memories with God, you find a sense of release. Your thoughts are turned toward His forgiveness and mercy, rather than your own failures and remorse.

You receive clemency from Christ, which wipes the slate clean. You understand this is not a once-in-a-life-time free pass, but it is a gift of grace, providing you with a fresh start whenever you need one, throughout your entire life.

When you talk things out with God, regrets are resolved, and guilt is eliminated.

Knowing that Christ has liberated you from any past mistakes, you are overwhelmed with gratitude rather than guilt.

A Date With Destiny

The Stability of Living in Christ’s Love

 Ephesians 3:19..."Christ’s love is greater than any person can ever know. But I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God."  

You know the love of Christ in ways that are difficult for some people to comprehend. Your trust in His love creates a bond of confidence between you and your Lord.

While you may have difficulty trusting other people, there is no doubt in your mind that God can be trusted to guide and protect you, no matter what.

You understand that pure love is not an emotion.  It is a commitment. You see the way God’s love has supported you during some of the most difficult and wayward times of your life. You realize that this love is not fickle. He does not withdraw His love to manipulate or punish.

You enjoy living in the love of Christ and you seek to demonstrate that love to others.

This life of love is not an emotional roller-coaster of feelings, but rather, it is a higher level of stability.

The presence of Christ’s love in your life creates an atmosphere in which you are difficult to offend, easy to approach, and quick to forgive.

A Date With Destiny

Finding Divine Guidance for Life Success

Proverbs 3:6…Seek God’s will in all that you do. And He will give you success.

Seeking and following the will of God empowers you to succeed.

The fear of failure may drift through your thoughts when you take on a project you feel inadequate to manage.

However, as you seek God’s will, and are gently led by His Spirit, you are empowered to succeed. Knowing that you are following the design for your life, set forth by the Creator of the universe, you reject fearful feelings and face each challenge head-on.

Being led by God, you see His supernatural power at work in all your efforts. You realize that He is able and willing to make a success out of anything – even things you thought were failures.

Empowered to succeed, you rise each morning with new energy, anxious to find your divine assignment for the day.

Sometimes your successes do not appear very successful at first. There are times that your initial attempts at success look a lot like failures.

But, you live by faith, not by sight. You do not view failure as the end, but rather, the beginning of a new approach.


Tetelestai Recovery

Mastering Emotions That Control Us: A Biblical Perspective

We know that our emotions can be a powerful force that affects us, body, mind, and soul. We also know that Jesus has made a way to escape being controlled by our feelings, which can range from pesky to obsessive or even frightening. We are told in the Word that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. This flies in the face of feelings that indicate something is wrong with us. Our feelings are no match for the Word of God. If the Creator of the Universe says we are righteous, then our emotions have no right to dispute it.

We have been made right by the blood of Christ which was donated as a divine transfusion to heal us from the inside out. The emotions we feel, the sounds we hear, the words we say, and the images we see, must all defer to the words of our King who has decreed tetelestai over all that is wrong with us…

Tetelestai Recovery

Walk with Confidence


Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Proverbs 4:25-26

Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Hebrews 12:13


Both verses spoke of walking level paths which offer firm footing and stability. There was no demand to scale mountain ledges, hike over rocky terrains, lose ground on shifting sand dunes, or trudge through marshy swampland. We were not told to look down, closely examining each next step with caution because the journey was so treacherous. We were simply instructed to seek out level paths and keep our focus upward.

In other words, we had to stop making it harder than it needed to be. We were simply to ask God for direction and trust that He would deliver us to exactly the right place at exactly the right time. We simply needed to keep walking. One foot in front of the other. Forward motion. No fear. One step at a time. No looking down and no looking back.

A Date With Destiny

Navigating Conflict: Finding Peace in Turbulent Times

  
2 Timothy 2:25
The Lord’s servant must gently teach those who do not agree with him.

In a world filled with humans fighting for the upper hand using insults and clever arguments, you choose to exhibit the power of peace instead.

You stand out as a beacon of light to those who are lost in a swirling sea of conflict. You are a peacemaker.

The Spirit of God enables you to create a safe space in which differences can be addressed and forgiveness can flow. You are able to make peace when there is conflict and hold the line when peace starts to slip away.

Others rely on your logical input when settling a dispute or searching for a reasonable compromise. As you walk in the peace of Christ, which passes all understanding, you are able to guide others toward common goals.

The peace you bring to a situation is often the glue which repairs broken relationships and holds organizations together.

It is one of your most intriguing gifts, and even you don’t know exactly how it works. All you know is, you are delighted to see peace win, and you are thrilled to be a part of making it happen.


A Date With Destiny

The Power of Discernment in Building Trust

  John 2:24  
But Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew what was in their hearts.

You do not trust others easily or quickly.  You believe that trust must be earned, and it can only happen over time.  It took you a long time to trust Christ, and you often struggle to believe.

Fortunately, He understands trust issues better than you do. Therefore, He patiently continues, time after time, to alleviate your doubts and prove Himself to be true.

Your gift of discernment and your trust-hesitancy serve you well as a protective force- field in your faith based service.

You are able to reach out and serve those who are untrustworthy, in ministries where a more trusting person might fall victim to their dishonest schemes.

You do not reject those who can’t be trusted, but rather, you accept and love them anyway. 

Jesus ministered to the outcasts and the undesirables, yet He did not trust them all. He was still able to minister to them, because He had the spiritual gift of discernment. You too have this gift. You may have thought it was a flaw in your personality. But, based on your birthday verse, this attribute is actually a Christ-like trait which may be a valuable clue in discovering your destiny.


A Date With Destiny

Embracing Your Divine Calling for a Meaningful Life


1 Peter 2:21
To this you were called, for Christ Himself left you an example, so that you would follow in His steps.

A solid connection to the Divine is the foundation of your emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. You sense a deep longing for the companionship you left behind when you entered the human realm.

You have been chosen by God to accomplish specific assignments on this earth. Your call is to change the course of history in both ordinary and extraordinary measures.

You were called to exhibit the grace of God. You have been chosen to speak, write, and live in a way that delivers light in the face of darkness, and hope in the face of despair.

You know that it is the Creator’s desire that all of His children know the safety and security found in the bonds of His unconditional love.  You share that love through your everyday life experiences and thus prove that His decision to call you was a good one!