Personal Sense of Destiny
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 539 aired on December 27, 2015
Good morning and welcome to the FLOT Line. I am your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes I would like to invite you to stay tuned. It’s going to be a simple 30 minutes of
motivation, some inspiration, education, all done without any manipulation. That’s because we
don’t try to solicit money. We don’t try to ask you to join up, fess up, give up, we don’t ask you to
do any of that stuff. All we’re asking you to do is listen up. The entire objective of this show is to
give you enough accurate information, not human speculation but accurate information, so you
can identify God’s plan for your life. If you can verify and identify that plan by means of what
I’m sharing with you, and you have your own volition, freedom to orient and adjust to the plan if
you’d like to do so, that’s up to you. My job is to give you accurate information as I said, not
human speculation, and to do that we have to go into the Bible. I never intended to ever host a
radio show about the Bible but that’s what’s been going on now almost ten years and I consider it
a privilege and an honor to do this and to hear from all of you that write and encourage me.
Thank you so very much. I am not a pastor, I am an evangelist. My objective is to see you reach
spiritual maturity under a well-qualified pastor so that you can become part of the pivot that
stabilizes this nation in times of disaster and we are facing a future of uncertainty. As America
goes further into the abyss of denial, as we continue to demonize any Christian, marginalize
anything that has to do with God in the public arena, then we continue to sink into this abyss of
who knows what. We are here because of the grace of God who delivered us through two world
wars, who has delivered us through other conflicts around the world. Men and women sacrificed
and served so that they could remain free and yet now we have become preoccupied with the
gifts and we forgot who the Giver is and all of a sudden it’s wrong to talk about the Giver. It’s
more important to talk about other things, other people, their agendas you know. It’s just pitiful
the way this country is going and I guess, if you look at me, you would say, “Well you just don’t
understand, you’re just one of those old conservatives.” No, I remember how things use to be, not
that they were perfect but they were a lot better than they are today and if you’re listening, you
know exactly what I’m talking about. At one time we believed in the future of this country and
what was coming down the pipe and now we wonder, we wonder if we will be hit by terrorism.
We wonder if Christians will be arrested in the future for taking a stand for the Bible and teaching
what the Bible says. We wonder and yet we know that God has a sense of destiny for each one of
us and that is one of the unique problem-solving devices. You know, as we teach the FLOT Line,
we teach these 10 unique problem-solving devices and these 10 problem-solving devices make
up what’s called your FLOT line, your forward line of troops. That’s what the show was
predicated on, teaching you the 10 unique problem-solving devices found in the Word of God so
that you can put them in the front line of your soul. If you know them, and if you live by them,
then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they become the inside sources of
stress.
Adversity is inevitable, however stress is optional and so if you have a sense of
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destiny, then you don’t have to worry. You know that Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior
controls history and if He controls history, then we know exactly what we’re going to get.
We know as it is in the Word of God, as it is in the Bible, we know what’s coming down the
pipe.
We can read history, we can see, we have divine viewpoint, that’s the word I’m trying to say.
If you have divine viewpoint and you can orient and adjust to God’s Word, then you know
without a doubt where your future is and you know without a doubt what God has in store for
you, even this day. You have a sense of destiny. Every believer in the Church Age has a sense of
destiny and you are in the Church Age. We are not in the age of Israel, we’re in the age of the
church. The course of events in your life, the things that God designed you to do and He
equipped you to do with His grace, He has given you a grace filled course and if you discover
that course in your life and if you understand the appointment that God has for you, then it’s a
wonderful thing. It’s like walking through a door and when you go through that door, when you
come out the other side you leave your agenda behind and maybe for the first time in your life
you will now be on God’s agenda. What does God have for me? What does He want me to do?
You see, first of all, there is a destiny in time but there is also a destiny in eternity. We’re
confident about the destiny in eternity, we might not always understand the destiny in time, but
the destiny in eternity is clear in the Bible. The Bible clearly talks about that, eternal security.
God guarantees you an eternal destiny through Jesus Christ with the Father because of
what Christ did for you. Our Lord had a destiny, He went from the womb to the tomb and
the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, you take off on your fantastic voyage.
Where will
this voyage end up? It will end up in the presence of God the Father and hopefully it will end up
with Him saying,
“Well done My good and faithful servant.”
Make no mistake about it, the
Christian life is a supernatural life. There are supernatural powers involved with it. I’m referring
to the filling of the Holy Spirit and the dynamics of the Word of God. I’m referring to the ministry
of a qualified pastor who teaches God’s Word. I’m referring to you as a believer and a spiritual
gift that God imparts to you. These are supernatural things and when you explore this and learn
this and understand this then, as Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12,
“I know whom I have believed and I
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
There’s no way God will ever forget about you. There’s no way God will ever lose you. I don’t
know what circumstances you’re going through in your life right now especially at this time of
the year, the holiday season when we celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes people get depressed during this time because they’re without family members,
thinking they’re without anyone that loves them or anyone that cares for them. I’m aware that
there are people right now listening to me that may be in that very situation and let me assure
you, God loves you. He knows where you are, He knows what you’re going through, and He will
hear your prayers.
So don’t forget that. In John 10:28-29,
“No one can take us out of the Father’s
hand. My Father which gave them to Me is greater than all,”
Jesus said,
“and no one can take
them out of My F
ather’s hand.”
In Jude verse 24, the little small book of Jude before the book of
Revelation,
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
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before His presence
[before the presence of His glory]
with exceeding joy.”
Yes, He is able to
keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His presence. Why? Because we don’t
stand in our own righteousness. We stand in the righteousness of Christ and there will be a time
in your eternal destiny when you will be welcomed home. You will be welcomed home and you
will be received by those that went before you and you will be received by your Heavenly
Father. That’s the wonderful thing about this, God loves you. God has prepared a home for you.
God has not forgotten you but that does not imply that we will be successful in our spiritual life,
it doesn’t mean that.
You see success in our spiritual life, understanding our destiny in time,
depends on our attitude toward the Bible, the Word of God, Bible doctrine, not on God’s
faithful provisions of eternal life.
Yes, God is never going to fail you but it is possible that you
could fail Him. And at the Judgment Seat of Christ, 1 Corinthians 3, that wood, hay, and stubble
there, those are all the right things we did in the wrong way. In other words, we fail God. We fail
to utilize His assets. We fail to understand the program. Let me make this clear, organized
religion is not the program. Organized religion is the enemy of God. Jesus Christ invites you to
have a personal relationship with Him. Being a Christian is a relationship not a religion. So
remember that because if you could do something to lose your salvation, then you must’ve done
something to earn it and not lose it. Thus your salvation or your eternal destiny would be based
on something that you did, not based on the grace gift of God. As the Bible says,
“For by grace
are you saved through faith. It’s a gift of God and not of works lest any man should brag about
it.”
There is no sin that you could ever commit that would cancel the 40 things God did for you
at salvation. People will tell you, “Oh, you can lose your salvation if you drink beverages,” or
“you could lose your salvation if you do this or do that.” You know, I could come up with all
sorts of goofy illustrations. Well if you could lose it based on what you do, then you’re keeping it
based on what you do and we don’t get it based on what we do. We get it based on what He did.
That’s why the Bible says,
“He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we may be made
the righteousness of God through Him.”
When you enter into the plan, you enter into the
royal family of God, and God has a destiny for you, a plan for you, a provision for you,
promises for you, it’s all there.
See we live in the dispensation of the church. This is the calling
out of that royal family, the calling out of the royal family for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
the Son of God, that’s His divine royalty, the son of David, that’s His Jewish royalty; and the Son
of Man, that’s His human royalty. As man He was hypostatic union, it’s a big word, it’s a
theological word, hypostatic union. That meant that He is God and He is man in one body
forever, undiminished deity and total humanity in one body. That’s our Savior and because we
were placed into the royal family, we are now in His body and we have a destiny. In 1
Corinthians 12:13,
“We are all baptized into one body.”
In Ephesians 4,
“One Lord, one faith,
one baptism.”
That’s not water baptism it’s talking about. This is talking about the baptism of
you into the body of Christ by means of God the Holy Spirit. Actually there are seven baptisms
taught in the Bible, a
lot of people are not even aware of that. The Bible, get your pen, read these.
I don’t have time to read all of them but the baptism of Moses is in 1 Corinthians 10:2. The
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baptism of the cross that our Lord endured, Matthew 20:22. The baptism of the Holy Spirit which
all of us enjoy as we’re placed into union with Christ, that’s Ephesians 1:13 and Ephesians 4:5.
And there is the baptism of fire, this is something that you will not partake in. That’s not sending
people to hell, this is something else, in Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16. There’s the baptism of John
in John 1:25-33 where water represented the kingdom of God. There’s the baptism of Jesus in
Matthew 3:13 and then the Christian baptism, Acts 8:36 and 38 and Acts 16:33. So baptism is
taught in the Bible in a lot of different ways. Sometimes when I’m talking to teenagers they’ll say,
“I was baptized,” well that’s not when we get saved. When we get saved is the moment we
believe in Jesus Christ and if you are baptized, it is an identification, it’s you showing those who
observe the baptism that you have died with Christ and risen in new life, new hope of the Father.
You see, after the Church Age began, there’s not a whole lot of talk about it. You don’t find many
of the disciples writing about people that they baptized. As a matter fact Paul said,
“I thank God
that I baptized none of you except Chrispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas,”
and he
said,
“If there are any others I don’t even know who they are.”
And then he went on to say,
“God
didn’t send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of
Christ should be made of none effect.”
It’s a controversial subject and people get angry about it
but that’s what the Bible says. Having a sense of destiny, if you know your sense of destiny, it
will destroy all the boredom in your life. It will take away all of your self-pity and self-induced
problems that you focus on because you focus on God’s plan, God’s will for your life. See when
He put you into His family, that’s when the voyage began and if you learn God’s Word, if you sit
under a well-qualified pastor who will teach you something. I’m not talking about a cruise ship
director that is going to take you on a fantastic cruise, make sure you have fun and entertain you,
seems to be that’s what happens in a lot of churches nowadays, at least that’s my take. I’m talking
about a man that can stand in the pulpit and teach Bible doctrine and exegete the Scripture, break
it down, tell you what it says and show you the application. Then by means of God the Holy
Spirit and put it to work in your life. You have to understand the voyage.
We all have equal
privilege and equal opportunity. We have the privilege to receive Christ as our Savior and
we have the opportunity to take in God’s Word and learn it and use it and become the
person that God the Father intended us to be.
Since we have this privilege and this
opportunity there are things that He wants us to know. We are for example ambassadors. That’s
right, we are ambassadors to a dying world. Our home is not here. Our home is as the Greek
word says,
ouranos
, or heaven, that’s where our home is. We are said to be sojourners, we are
passers-through. So we represent God to a dying world and we represent ourself before God.
As
an ambassador we represent God to the dying world and as a believer priest, we represent
ourself before God.
We don’t need someone to go to God for us. We can do it for ourself. We can
pray, we can stay filled with the Holy Spirit, we can confess our own sin. We don’t have to go to
someone to confess our sin. This is how we serve the Father as believer priests, as ambassadors.
So in your eternal destiny, here are two key things you must know.
Your destiny in time means
that you are an ambassador of your Heavenly Father and you are a priest, a believer priest.
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But none of this can be a reality to you if you don’t learn it and apply it into your life.
So
having an awareness of your destiny I hope will motivate you to seek to fulfill your destiny. What
does that mean? Your destiny starts with from zero to hero, let’s say, as you start out as a believer
in Jesus Christ. I remember when I accepted Christ as my Savior and the fascination and the
interest that I had in the Bible. It’s never left me, learning the Bible, understanding the Bible. I
had a great young pastor that was teaching me the Bible and as you learn the Bible you begin to
develop some spiritual self esteem. You begin to realize who you are, what you have available,
what your assets are. You begin to have that self-consciousness, cognitive self-consciousness of
yourself in God’s plan. See we start out as baby believers, still on the bottle. The writer of
Hebrews said in Hebrews 5, “I’d like to feed you some steaks but you can’t chew it up. You’re
just babies, you need the bottle,” and that’s where we all start. We all start as baby Christians on
the bottle until we develop some spiritual self-esteem and then as we grow, we become
independent. We develop some spiritual autonomy. We become cognitively independent. We
know that we are believer priests. We know that we are ambassadors and as we continue to grow,
we eventually reach spiritual maturity. This is where God wants you to be, to have that cognitive
invincibility, to have the mind of Christ, to be saturated with divine viewpoint. Now I can assure
you, through spiritual self-esteem, through spiritual autonomy, and all the way to spiritual
maturity, the enemy will never let up. You have three enemies, don’t forget it, the world, the flesh,
and yes, the devil. And I remind you, why would the devil even worry with you if you can’t get
past the world or the flesh?
The world will distract you. The flesh will destroy you. Satan will
deceive you. These are the three D’s, your enemies, as an alliteration.
The world will lure you
and distract you with the details of life. The flesh will lure you and destroy you with the lust that
is thereof. And Satan, if you get past those two, he will seek his best to deceive you with false
truth.
The most powerful thing in the world is the truth of the Word of God.
That’s why the
Bible says,
“The Word of God is alive and powerful,”
dunamis
is the Greek word for power. The
Word of God has power and Jesus our Lord taught in Luke 12 that because of Him many families
would be split. You can read it for yourself around Luke 12:52-53, you’ll see where father will
turn against mother and mother against daughter and in-law against in-law. See when people buy
into the truth, once they believe the truth, it is the most powerful thing in the world that motivates
them and encourages them and endues them. However there is a secondary power that’s almost as
powerful and that’s called the lie. When people go for the lie they will do the same thing. They
will desert family. They will desert friends. They will leave what they’ve always believed and go
to something else that is not true because of the power of the lie. The lie has a lot of power. I have
seen it in my own life, people that I’ve known for years that turn away from the truth to the lie
and that was the end. They walked away from me and I walked away from them, that’s the way it
happens, the power of the truth and the power of the lie. It’s unbelievable. So you have
a destiny
if you learn God’s Word, if you reach spiritual maturity and it’s going to take some discipline.
It’s going to take you staying filled with the Holy Spirit, problem-solving device number two,
when you know you’ve committed a sin, you’re going to have to rebound that sin immediately,
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problem-solving device number one. Don’t put it off, don’t wait, immediately go to the Father
and admit the sin. Then it’s going to take you setting aside some time so that you can study
God’s Word daily, not just a 30 minute radio show. Listen, every day I sit down under my pastor
who teaches four hours every week, I sit down and I listen. I don’t live where my pastor lives. I
live in another city but I get the MP3s and the DVDs and I study in my home learning, listening,
growing, and you can do that also.
But until you come to the point where you are ready to set
aside time every day to listen and learn God’s Word, you’re never going to reach spiritual
maturity. You will probably never get to spiritual autonomy because you’re not willing.
You’re too distracted with the details of life.
Just look at yourself and look at your day and
look at everything you have to do and tell me you’re not distracted with the details of life. When
could you even find time to sit down and listen to someone teach you God’s Word? And if you
can’t learn God’s Word, how can you ever reach spiritual maturity? How can you ever reach
spiritual autonomy? You won’t, you can’t and so you’ll show up in heaven, you will have eternal
life but you sure will not hear,
“Well done My good and faithful servant.”
If you reach spiritual
maturity, that personal sense of destiny will outweigh any problems that you face, any disasters
that you go through, any heartaches that may come your way, you’ll be able to deal with them
and handle them and not let them destroy you.
Psalm 40:8,
“I delight to do Your will O my
God.”
That should be your verse. Do you delight to do the will of God? The Bible says,
“Study
to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the Word of truth.”
You want to do His will? Start there, that’s where it starts. John 4:34 Jesus
said,
“My food is to do the will of the One that sent Me and to finish His work.”
That should be
your will, to do the will of the One who provided for you, who gave you salvation, who
establishes you and sustains you daily. He can finish what He started if you allow Him. If you
rebound on a consistent basis and stay filled with the Holy Spirit and if you will consistently get
under the teaching of a well-qualified pastor, you can finish what God started at the cross with
you. Colossians 1:9, Paul said,
“Since the day we heard of you we don’t cease to pray for you
and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding and that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him.”
That’s what
God desires for you and that is my prayer, that you would walk worthy of the Lord and fully
pleasing to Him. Until next week, this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening
to the FLOT Line