Now, one of the prayers that I’ve encouraged you all
to pray at the beginning of this year is the
prayer of Ephesians 1, where it says that:
“God will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation”
“in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding”
“being flooded with light, being enlightened that”
“you may know what is the hope of His calling.”
“What is the hope of His calling, His purpose for your life.”
You were born with a destiny!
There is a purpose for which no one else can fulfill but you.
And if someone doesn't fulfill his purpose, it is a loss!
It is a loss to heaven.
Heaven doesn't just say: “You know what, it's just one loss.”
No, no, no. For the Lord,
if out of 100 sheep, one sheep is lost,
He considers it a loss and He will seek for it.
I love this: “Until He finds it.” Hallelujah!
That's how God esteems you.
It's a real loss to heaven if you don't fulfill that purpose.
So God has a purpose for you and that purpose wasn't
something God decides later on as you observe
your obedience or your lack of it, then He gives you a purpose.
No, the purpose is from your mother's womb.
When you were there, when God placed you there,
you were given a purpose, a destiny if you would for your life.
Now, watch this. “And we know.”
Do you know it?
Not just a theory in your head. Not: “I hope to know it.”
“I hope to believe it.”
But “we know that all things work together for good.”
Say: “For good.”
Say it 3 times! “For good, for good.” Amen.
Say: “For my good, for my good.” Hallelujah.
Say: “For my family's good.” Amen.
So God is working everything, even though He's not
behind everything, especially when they are bad stuff. Amen.
God is a good God but He is working all things
for your good. Amen.
And then it goes on to say: “For good to those who love God,”
“to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Now, some people might jump on this and say:
“Notice it's only for those who love God.”
No, friend. All those who are born again, they love God!
And all of us love God the moment we know Him
because all our sins are forgiven.
In the new covenant, it says:
“All of us know Him, from the least to the greatest.”
We all love Him although our love is at varying degrees.
God doesn't say:
“When your love is 80 percent there for me, then this promise”
“will work for you.”
No, no, no. It's saying every believer loves God.
It is a characteristic of people who are born again.
People who have eternal life, people who are saved
and redeemed by the work of Jesus.
“All things work together for good to those who love God,”
“to those who are called according to His purpose.”
And the next verse tells us the purpose.
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be”
“conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus, that”
“He might be, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Notice the purpose is tied up with what God foreknew.
It is tied up with predestination, to be conformed to the
image of Jesus. And what it means is this.
Some people who teach foreknowledge and predestination,
these are big words, I know.
Maybe some of you are not interested in these things
but there are a lot of believers who ask me also.
“What do you think about predestination?”
“What do you think about foreknowledge?”
So I think it's a good time for me just to share with you,
right, what it means in a simple way.
Foreknowledge is actually prognosis.
“Fore, before.”
Knowledge of the future. You know it before.
So God, of course, has foreknowledge.
But “predestined” means God has destined you by,
I was going to say: “by hook or by crook”
but the ways of God is “by straight and by straight”,
you'll end up with the good intent that He has for your life.
But some people have taught predestination in such a way
that they say: “You are either predestined to be saved or”
“you are predestined to be lost.”
Now, I don't believe that.
I don't believe the Scriptures bear that out.
I believe that God foreknew that you will accept Jesus Christ.
He foreknew.
Now God did not manipulate your free choice.
He gave you the free choice.
If God had manipulated your free choice,
He would have done it with the first man and woman,
Adam and Eve in the garden.
When Adam was about to partake of that tree
that He was not supposed to, God could have stopped his hand.
Right? And make it into a a little flat hand that will go
a great velocity across his own face and slapped him. Amen.
Slapped him 3 times.
If God wants, God can manipulate His free choice.
No, God did not manipulate his free choice, my friend.
God could have done that, God could have made
Adam kick himself even.
But God did not stop Adam from partaking of the very tree
that He knew was going to bring death to man.
So God will not manipulate your free choice but
God foreknew that you, by your choice,
would accept the Lord Jesus Christ. God foreknew that
long before you were born, God foreknew in that
timeless eternity.
God foreknew that you would come forth into this world.
God foreknew what you would choose even before
you have chosen. That's why He is God.
The apostle Paul says it like this:
“God separated me in my mother's womb.”
But we all know that he grew up and became
a pharisee of pharisees.
He sat at the feet of Gamaliel and he was instrumental
in many believers being tortured, being persecuted.
And even was there giving his tacit approval to the
stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the church
in the book of Acts. We saw that!
And yet it was misdirected but he was separated
in his mother's womb, separated to the calling
in his mother's womb.
What does it mean then, Pastor Prince?
Does that mean that God has predestined
some people to be saved and some not to be saved
from their mother's womb?
No, my friend. It is not saying that.
What it is saying is when God separated him,
God separated him to become a Jew,
not another race because a Jew in that day and age
will have the accurate knowledge from the Scriptures.
God caused him to be sitting at the feet of Gamaliel,
one of the best Bible teachers of that day.
He (Gamaliel) was a pharisee but one of the best teachers
of the Bible.
He was privileged to sit at the feet of Gamaliel.
Not only that, he knew the Bible. He knew Greek and Hebrew
back to back.
He knew Aramaic and he was an intelligent man.
God allowed him to have all the teaching.
that he would have all that, okay? So that he's prepared, not to
rely on these things because later on he considers
all these things as dung, right?
But it was to prepare him to see that all these things
cannot achieve the greatest revelation (Jesus).
When the truth comes, you know it! Praise God!
The things you've been looking for in your hedonistic pursuits
of pleasure or fulfillment through wealth accumulation.
All those things.
When you find that you have those things, it doesn't mean much.
When you have little, it means a lot to have things, right?
But when you have a lot, as testified by those people
who have a lot, even billions, all of a sudden, it doesn't mean much.
It is so true that you were created for greater things.
Your heart is too big to be satisfied by wealth, fame,
by pleasures of sin. Right?
Your heart is too big!
It can only be filled with divine things because
you were breathed in, your real person (the spirit)
was breathed into your body by God Himself. Amen.
You are a spirit being. Amen.
Things that are of the flesh, material things can never
truly satisfy you the way the Lord Jesus can.
That's why He's called the bread of life. Hallelujah
So before you have chosen to accept Christ or to
believe on Christ, God foreknew that you would do that
and those whom He foreknew would believe on Christ,
He predestined these.
Not others to go to hell. No, He predestined those
who would believe on Christ, whom He foreknew would
accept Christ, He predestined them to end up, conformed
to the image of His Son.
The Son that He loved, that He loved dearly. Amen.
When we look at Jesus, how beautiful He is, isn't He?
We look at His moral beauty, His moral glory.
You look at Him, His eyes full of love for sinners.
He sees things that others don't.
He sees beauty where others see ugliness.
He sees the cry in a sinner's heart whereas
others see the filth and the sin and the uncleanness.
Jesus would welcome you with open arms because He loves you
and He sees you as His sheep. Hallelujah.
He loved you.
He loved you long before you knew Him.
So God's purpose is that everyone that would believe
in Jesus, whom He foreknew would believe on Christ,
He predestined every one of them, those believers to end up
being conformed to the image of Jesus.
So everything in your life, good things and bad things,
small things and big things, whatever it is, all that is
happening in your life so that, it's all predestined.
You are predestined.
No, those things are not predestined but you are predestined.
Those things are working towards the predestination for you to
end up just like Jesus.
You will end up looking like Jesus, you'll be conformed to the
image of Jesus and my friend, I'll tell you this.
Jesus is no failure.
Everything He touched prospers.
When He touched the leper, ugliness becomes beauty.
He gives garments of beauty for the ashes of the leper.
When there's little, in His hands,
he touches the 5 loaves and 2 small fish and
they become plenty to feed the hungry. Hallelujah.
He touches the poor and the poor becomes rich.
He touches the sick and the sick body becomes healthy.
Not just healthy, vibrant with health, with the energy to serve Him with.
Just like Peter's mother.
She rose from her sick bed to serve them. Hallelujah.
I'm telling you, friend. Whatever Jesus touches, prospers.
And to be conformed to the image of Jesus, with His character,
His beautiful person and to have the results that He has,
that itself is true success.