LIVING FOR THE PURPOSE OF GOD (5)

ENEMIES OF DIVINE DESTINY AND PURPOSE

TEXTS: John 6:38; Acts 26:16; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11

It is commonplace for people to tie every setback to the devil and blame some unseen spiritual forces, witches and enemies for their challenges. Esau would not blame the devil for the loss of his birth-right. He lost it because he could not exercise discipline in food matters. There are people whose obstacle to greatness is excessive sleep, laziness or procrastination, yet they blame the devil and witches for their woes.

When Paul was preaching one night, a young man (Eutychus) fell into a deep sleep (when he should be awake) and fell down dead. Paul got down and didn’t rebuke or cast out any devil. He prayed for the young man and he came alive (Acts 20:9-12).

Here are a few enemies of divine purpose;

i) Wrong Association

Some people end up in wrong destinies at the junction they met wrong persons. In as much as you need people to fulfil purpose, you don’t need everybody. There are people whose presence in your life constitutes distraction to God’s purpose for you and your Heavenly race.

ii) Arrival mentality

The point where a man thinks he has arrived is unfortunately his exit point from greatness. There is always a yonder to go for God and with God. Don’t let some little successes make you go to sleep and end as a failure.

iii) Discouragement

Many people give up just when they are close to entering true greatness in God. This is the phenomenal “near success syndrome”.

iv) Lack of vision

“Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).

When there is no vision, there is no future!

v) Lack of discipline

This involves excessive sleeping, love for food, disregard for time, lack of self-control, etc. Achan missed out because of lust for worldly possession. Samson, Esau, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira all lost out of God’s purpose for lack of discipline on issues ranging from dealing with the opposite sex, money and food.

vi) Spiritual forces

It is true that there are some demonic spiritual forces orchestrated from hell and delegated by Satan to attempt to oppose and nullify your pursuit to fulfil God’s plans (Ephesians 6:12). You must stand firm and engage spiritual weapons of warfare (2 Corinthians 10:4).

vii) Sin

Sin is the ‘god-father’ of nearly all these destiny enemies identified above. Sin cripples destiny and antagonizes God’s plans both for destiny and Heavenly eternity. It was sin that knocked Adam off divine purpose. When the devil went after Joseph, he (Satan) tried the strategy of iniquity through Portiphar’s wife, but it failed. If he had succeeded, Joseph would have waved divine destiny ‘good bye’. Sin punctures the virtues that God makes available for purpose such as communication, preservation, sustenance, provision, etc.

In my book, DESTINY FORCES, these issues were critically and insightfully x-rayed. I recommend DESTINY FORCES to every child of God with a heart for true greatness and Heaven at last.

Next on the purpose series we shall look at how to be effectively positioned for God’s purpose. God is working for you!