A Divine Purpose

Grace and peace, Whosoevers! I missed you guys last week! A sister has been busy (even more so now that God has blessed me to go back to school), but I could not let another week pass without a post! Following is a sermonette I gave some years back. It's pretty lengthy, but I've been led to post it for your reading. Enjoy!

A few years ago, I spoke about my having to delve into my past as part of a family assessment program that I am going through on behalf of my daughter. It was important for the organization to understand my past in an effort to aid me in my supposed inability to deal with the problems I was experiencing with her in the present.

This process was not easy and I am thankful that my partner was there to hold my hand through it. Even though the caseworker conducted the interview on the telephone, I found it difficult to answer each of her questions. This was the first time that I had ever told my story to someone that I did not know and trust intimately. There were so many things that I had let fall deep into the crevices of my mind, never to be spoken of again. Uncomfortable, painful experiences - things that I now had to force myself to remember, because somehow, this was going to help my child in the end.
I had to tell her how I was conceived through the rape my mother suffered at the hands of my father, and how he beat her afterwards to try to get her to miscarry. That after I was born, he took me out of the hospital to spite her, moving me from place to place before shipping me off to Jamaica to live with his mother. That when I came back to live in the States, I was shunned and ridiculed by my brothers and oldest sister who called me ugly because I favored my mother and not my father, as they did. (I have nothing to hide and I don’t mind getting personal, but since this blog is public, I have omitted some happenings; not to protect the guilty, but to save the innocent from much pain.)

There was a lot more of my story that I ended up not being able to tell her that day because of time constraints; tales of being homeless, of having to sell drugs to survive, enduring rape, becoming a functioning alcoholic, suffering physical abuse at the hands of a partner, of more than a few suicide attempts. Yet, by God’s grace, I am still here.
Fortunately, there are many of us who have shared similar experiences. No, I didn’t slip, I meant to say “fortunately” because I’m still here, and YOU’RE still here for a specific reason, a divine purpose. I’ll get back to that later, but the fact that we have gone through trials and tribulations and are yet standing shows that we are living testimonies, a shining example of what life can be like once we give our lives to God. With Him at the helm, this is what we discover:

God is a Deliverer!

The Word gives us example after example of His delivering Grace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego learned this when they walked out from the fiery furnace unscathed. Upon seeing this, King Nebuchadnezzar had to bless God:
Daniel 3:28
28 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of deliverance in the Bible is the story of the Israelites who were slaves to Egypt. God saw their misery and heard their cry. He had compassion on them and sent his servant Moses to Pharaoh. Just as God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, he delivers us from the things that keep us in bondage, even the things we bring about ourselves. He sees and responds to the trials of his people. He alone can deliver us from all kinds of addiction, drug addiction, sex addiction, approval addiction. He delivers us from the things we do to ourselves that are detrimental to not only our physical and emotional, but also our spiritual well being. He snatches us back from the hands of the enemy who would stop at nothing to do away with us.  God’s deliverance is so great, it spans past, present and future. In Paul’s address to the Corinthians he speaks of God as the one “Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us."This shows us that the God who delivered us from the things of the past, and is delivering us from our current situations, will continue to do so for the rest of our lives!
God is a healer!

It is God’s desire that we are healed. As he delivers, he heals all levels of man’s being, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Exodus 15:26
26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
Jeremiah 30:17
17 But I will restore you to health
and heal your wounds,'
declares the LORD,
'because you are called an outcast,
Zion for whom no one cares.'

Forms of Healing

Physical Healing
When Jesus walked the earth, a major part of his ministry was dedicated to physical healing. He healed the blind man and the leper. He healed the man who suffered from palsy, and He healed the woman with the issue of blood. He was able to do this through God, and they all were able to receive the healing by faith.

Emotional Healing
He gives us peace beyond understanding and fills us with unspeakable joy. He mends the broken heart, takes away shame, guilt, anger and all forms of depression. He does this for us once we bring our cares to him through prayer.

Spiritual Healing
God heals us spiritually when we have an open heart and mind, and believe Him for what he can do.

God is a Keeper!

After he delivers and heals us, He keeps us.

Psalm 121:5-8
5The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 7The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

So one could ask the question, why does God allow His children to go through so much trial and tribulation? Does not He love us? Yes, He does, but He also sees the bigger picture. I came across a great analogy in my studying that gives a better example:

When a parent takes an infant to the doctor for a regular vaccination to prevent some childhood disease, it is because the parent cares for and loves that child. The young child however will almost always see things very differently. When the doctor's needle goes into that little arm, the child will often cry out and howl from the pain. It may look up at the parent, with those big innocent eyes, in the most pleading and pitiful way, as if to say, "Look at the horrible thing that's happening to me! Don't you care about my terrible suffering? How can you just stand there and allow this to go on? Don't you love me?"


The parent however knows better. He or she is aware that everything is going to be all right in a very short time (even though it almost always has an emotional impact on the parent to see the child distressed in such a way). A minor, brief pain is the price the child pays for a healthier life later.

So the pain and suffering we have gone through and are going through now in our daily lives help to shape us into the people God has called us to be. God delivers us out of bondage, but he also delivers us through trials so that He can be glorified. Remember, I said before that we were created with a specific purpose in mind, a divine destiny. Paul wrote as such to Timothy:

Jeremiah 30:17
Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began...

Before you were born into this earthly flesh, God had a strategic purpose for your life, and a strategic plan for the fulfillment of that purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Psalm 33:11-12
11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.

The enemy is privy to that information. He sees the greatness in us before we do, and will stop at nothing to deter us from entering into what God has in store for our lives. He does not want another soldier for God. It is the enemy’s job to block us, discourage us, make us feel inadequate and make us doubt our abilities. He is going to pull out all the stops, and that may include physical and emotional abuse, drug dependence, the taking away of all of our possessions, the loss of friends and loved ones. He will make the things that are not of God look wonderful to us, just as he will use our own weaknesses against us. If you are so desperate to be in a relationship that you cannot focus on much else, he will send you someone who will appear to be the greatest love of your life, while using that person to stop you from going to church. If you are money hungry, he will get you that promotion, but that job will keep you so busy that you are too tired to pray when you get home. He will make that other road look so good that we just have to walk down it for a while. Remember how he tempted Jesus in the wilderness?

Matthew 4:1-11
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." 4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."
7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test"
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." 10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’.” 11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

If Satan can tempt Jesus, how much more will he try to tempt us? Be assured, however, that even when we sometimes fall for the temptation, all things work together for the good for those that love the Lord.
We may not understand why things happen to us but God knows his plan for us. We all know the story of Joseph and his brothers. Their jealousy was so kindled against him that they sold him into slavery! Joseph realized much later that  it was allowed to happen so that eventually, he could save lives.
Genesis 45:3-8
3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

He has called us all to his purpose and will not allow anything to prevent us from coming into the greatness that is predetermined for us. Our experiences may sometimes be horrible and hard to bear but they are what make us the people we are today. They strengthen our testimony and enable us to help others. Recognize that our Heavenly Father uses them all for the good. When your trial comes, don’t worry! God is keeping you to do great things in Him.
Romans 8:18-21 and 28-30
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God...
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified…

Until next time, be blessed!
Sue