A sneak preview of:
LIVING IN YOUR DESTINY
Chapter one
Where is that pot
of gold?
A DREAM BECOMES REALITY
As a child, my dream was to become a doctor.
Not just any doctor, but a brain surgeon.
I
recall joining the South African Red Cross Society as a small beginning. I went to every possible Red Cross meeting
and trained really hard to treat the injured. It was great fun. On Saturdays we
would report for duty at Maritzburg’s motoring racing track and sit around the
race track waiting in case something untoward happened. Very little happened at
my corner, I must say. But on one occasion, after the races were over, I
remember us receiving a call to help a lady who was giving birth. What
excitement! I was actually in an ambulance racing to the nearest hospital – and
I was staring at a miracle of God.
It is amazing how birth and death can bring
perspective into one’s life.I recall clearly what went through my young mind.
God had a purpose for me! He actually had a plan and a destiny that would bring
me to my inheritance…
What I was not aware of was that the enemy of
my soul (satan) also had a plan for my life. His plan was simple: he wanted me
dead.
At my birth, my parents dedicated me to God
and committed themselves to training me in the ways of the Lord. I have been
told how the devil then tried to kill me. At age four months, I contracted
diptheria (a disease that attacks the bronchia). The doctors gave me six hours
to live and even with a tracheotomy, I still had very little chance of
surviving.
Praise God for parents who walk in the ways of
God! Mom called the local pastor who prayed for me over the phone. An ambulance
was called and I was taken to hospital but by the time I arrived there, I was
completely healed. Doctors and surgeons were amazed when they arrived to
operate on me. God had performed a miracle instead and I was healed.
Seven years later I chose to follow Jesus and
serve him as my Saviour. I decided from that time to work for God, and that was
in fact the beginning of my desire to be a doctor and heal people. When I was
nine, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and knew that somehow, He had
called me to minister His Word. Trying to find out what God’s plans were for me
and trying to coincide them with my own desires was not a simple task. What I
did know was that my purpose in life was to minister life to people so I
attached myself to the most obvious path – I’d become a doctor.
When I entered high school, these dreams were
shattered. The change of schools and the influence of more senior pupils had a
negative reaction on me. Somehow, I backslid and my walk with God slowed down
and before I knew it, I was no longer serving God. This all had negative
behavioural repercussions during my final years at school. Bad decisions and
bad company did not help promote either my childhood dreams or my schoolwork. I
failed to complete my final year at school; I had to go out and find work and
the harsh reality of this brought me to my knees - but not yet in prayer.
After roaming fast and loose for nearly four
years, I finally accepted Christ back into my life. But though I had left God,
He never forgot me nor did He forget his
plan for my life. Soon, he gave me the loveliest lady I could ever have desired
and then he blessed us with our firstborn. My worldy ambitions however, had
taken a knock and after starting work as an apprentice fitter-machinists, I
also had to do compulsory military training. But between work and the military,
I was again serving Him with fervour. Somehow, my desires and dreams had
evolved from being a doctor to standing before God, receiving His word and
taking it to His people.
In 1998, I went to
On another occasion, God said to me: “I will
give to you the Gold. I will give to you the true Gold, the gold of the Land.
The Gold of the hearts of men and women…”
YOUR PERSONAL RAINBOW
We have all heard of the supposedly metaphoric
pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And if you look at what a rainbow represents
and apply the principles of of God’s Covenant to your lifestyle, then you will experience your own personal
blessing. Put another way, you can find your own pot of gold.
In Genesis 9 starting at verse 13, God gave a covenant to all mankind
starting with a sign: “ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it
shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a
cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every
living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to
destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be
in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting
covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”
This covenant was established after God had poured out his judgement and after Noah had given his sacrifice and burnt offerings.
This message is prophetic and
foretells the fact that God has judged sin by the death if His Son and that His
Son Jesus Christ has given God the greatest of all sacrifices and offerings –
His own life. All we are expected to do now is submit to his divine plan for
our life and we will receive our full
inheritance. Mankind will not again be punished on that scale. You can walk in
your own rainbow covenant with God and inherit your own pot of God’s Gold.
HOW TO
To walk
on the path that God has divinely plotted for you is as simple as breathing, if
you have belief. To achieve any form of success in life, you need to believe
that you are an achiever – as the saying goes, “believers are achievers”.
Every person has
some form of belief system by which they live their lives. The problem with
most people is that they hold negative belief values and therefore fail in
their mission and calling.
Everything
in life rises and falls on the word “belief’.
To live
a life of blessing and success, one needs to let go of old mind sets and create
positive change – through belief. Henry Ford said: If you think you can do a
thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” No one wants to live life as a failure. So,
to maximise all you have and all you do, you have to have a dream and a belief.
So let’s start by dreaming and believing the truth. Only faith in the Truth can
set you free to walk in victory.
First
things first: Positive change in your life will never happen as long as you
entertain negative thinking. You cannot even start to walk with any level of
success if you do not have a positive outlook on life and have a positive
belief in your faith.
So,
what is belief and faith?
§
Belief
is to have confidence in something.
§
But
faith is a two-fold verb that is either passive or active. Passive faith is to
believe in the fidelity or trustworthiness of the One who is your source.
Active faith is to live in and by that trust and to devote your life to the One
you trust.
There
is a saying that goes – “The poorest of all men is not the man with no money
but the man with out belief and faith.” But what is man to believe in? And on
what is that faith to be based?
Surely
it is better to believe in God who created you and knows the plans He has for you
than to lean on, and believe in, your own understanding that, in the end, only
leads to death? God has plans for you, plans for success and even prosperity.
God has a divine blueprint. God has a rainbow covenant that will cause you to
live daily in your own inheritance.
The
significance of the rainbow is not only to remind you of God’s covenant way
back in history, but also to tell you that if you live according to God’s
principles and statutes you are guaranteed a life that will be ordained by
God..
Just as
there are seven colours to the rainbow, so there are seven names for God and
seven keys to God’s plan for success in
your life. They hang together.
The seven colours of the rainbow (with their figurative meaning
and biblical references)
1) Red – sin, death,
judgement, redemption, passion (Ezek. 48:35)
2) Yellow – shining
gold, peace, death, leprous spot (Judges
3)
4) Violet – victory, abundance,
repentance, provision, (ex.
5) Blue – faith, royal
colour, wounds, heaven, the Holy Spirit, used for the rich, colour of the sky,
clear vision (Gen. 22: 13, 14)
6) Green – prosperity,
new life, things eternal, everlasting, growth, regeneration, hope, freshness
(Rev4:3)
7) Indigo –
restoration, healing, redemption (Matt
God’s seven names
1) Jehovah-SHAMMAH Ezek 48;35 I
AM there
2) Jehovah-SHALOM Judges 6:24 I AM your peace
3) Jehovah-RA-AH Psalm 23:1 I AM your shepherd
4) Jehovah-JIREH Gen 22: 13,14 I AM your provider
5) Jehovah-
NISSI Ex 17: 15 I AM your banner
6) Jehovah-TSIDKENU Jer 23:6 I AM your righteousness
7) Jehovah-Rapha Ex
15: 26 I AM your healer
God’s seven-fold plan for your life
1)
Acknowledge
that you are a sinner
2)
Accept
Jesus Christ as your saviour and be baptised.
3)
Follow
his precepts and statutes
4)
Worship
God with all your heart and follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit.
5)
Invite
the Holy Spirit t o renew your mind and transform you into the image and
likeness of Jesus Christ.
6)
Submit
to God and resist evil in every form.
7)
Stand in
front of God with no shadows: be transparent to man.
If you
live in the presence of God and in the image of Jesus Christ, for all the world
to see, and submit to God’s seven-fold plan for your life, then all the things
you desire will be added to you.
In
essence, the desires of your heart will become God’s plan for your life. How?
If you give your desires to God – and if your first desire is to be known to
God – then he has the power to make your desires become his plan for your life.
Do you
know your own desires? You need to know and to identify them, for yourself and
for God. So…
- Desire first to
know God and to have God know you
- Next, identify
your desires
- Next, write down
each of these desires. Not in numerical order, for this will place a
priority on them. Rather write them in point form but not numbered.
- Ask God to bless
the desires of your heart and then give them to God in prayer.
Psalm
20:4, 5 – “May he give you what you desire and make your plans succeed. Then
you will shout for joy over your victory and celebrate your triumph by praising
our God. May the Lord answer all your requests.”
Scripture
reads:
But
seek ye first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all these shall be
added to you. (Matt
The Reign of God is not meat and drink; but
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom
And the root of righteousness is fear of God.
And the root of peace is a renewed mind in
Jesus Christ.
And the root of joy is being filled with the
Holy Spirit.
If you walk in fear and reverence before God; if you have your mind renewed in Christ (as the Apostle Paul says: “I am a new creation. I’m a brand new man…”), if you are filled with the Holy Spirit and are aware that the Holy Spirit lives in you, you will show the Joy of the Lord in all circumstances and you will walk in victory on a daily basis.
THERE
IS
The pot
of gold really does exist – but it is only as true as you believe it to be. The
Bible says: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Pro 23:7
You can live in your own destiny and
enjoy the pot of gold while you are on the journey. If all your desires are
earthly, it helps to be “born with a silver spoon in your mouth”. Sure, some
people are born into old money and others are born with the ability to smooth
talk their way with everyone and in almost every circumstance. But for most of
us, we have to work hard, change old habits and paradigms and create new
mindsets that really do cause the desires of our hearts to come upon us.
In this
process, the ability to believe in yourself is a precious asset. It is the
inner belief, feeling and desire that can turn your inner experience into your
outer experience.
Gold
cannot buy happiness, but it sure can help. But money, remember, is only the
means of transferring ownership of something to someone else. The wonderful
advantage we Christians have is that for us, the price has already been paid and we now need to apply
God’s word to our daily walk in order to experience His Divine blessing. “Joy
begins to last,” wrote John Gray, “when we realised that our happiness is not
dependant on our outer circumstances”. Wealth, marriage, children, work,
status, recognition, intelligence etc are all outer experiences that can and do
add to happiness, but the emotion they evoke does not last for ever. You have
to experience an inner peace and joy to gain effective and successful living
that is lasting.
Put
another way, if you want to experience your lasting inheritance right now, you need
to have the peace, joy and righteousness that comes through being filled with
the Holy Spirit.
This
will mean you can be enthusiastic about life. And the word enthusiasm derives
from two Greek words: entheo
which means “God within”, and en-
theos which means “in God”.
So, if
God is within you, and you live your life in God, you will be filled with
enthusiasm that will sharpen your mind, boost your creativity, motivate you and
have the same impact on others
Be a
believer and get enthusiastic about today. Live today with passion and joy.
Believe that you can maximise your full potential and purpose right now, today,
for today will never return. So maximise it, and it will be a memory to build
on.
You
can, in this way, accomplish your desires and enjoy true gold every day. Walter
Chrysler said: “A man can succeed at anything for which he has unlimited
enthusiasm.” And Apostle Paul said: “I can do all things through Christ, who
strengthens me.” Apply Chrysler’s dictate to Paul’s faith and your pot will surely
overflow.
Count
you blessings
You should also
take some time out to look into your pot of gold and list your assets. For
example (and here are some fundamentals):
- I am alive
- I am blessed because I breathe
- I live in a free country
- I have clothing on my back and have been fed good food
- I have an education
- I have a hope and a dream
- I have a future
Now carry on and list some other things that are in your own pot
of gold, things that are particularly precious to you. You will be amazed to
see how blessed you are when your bring your life into this positive
perspective. This is a simple but highly rewarding exercise. If we do this with
a sincere heart and give God the praise for each and every blessing in our pot,
you will delight at the result. God will then cause his blessing and rain to
fall upon us. (Zech 14:17). Give God the glory and you will be amazed at the
increase in your blessing and even at your capacity to hold blessing.
Take some time out to give thanks to God. Thank God for the gold
that you have. Ask God to help you change the old mindset and increase your
ability to grasp, visualise, believe and hold on to the blessings of today.
Following these exercises, the end of the
rainbow is only as far away as your next decision.
Allow a power energy thought to flow through you – you have
heard it said that you are what you eat, well you are also what you think and
what you decide. So make choices that will positively impact on your destiny.
Decision-making is an inescapable task in life and cannot be
avoided. If you do not make decisions, then decisions will make you. And if you
are going to make quality decisions that will produce quality, positive
results, then these guidelines will help:
- Watch your words
– before you speak
- Prepare yourself
– before you speak
- Have a
systematic approach to all decisions
- Focus on
important decisions
- Watch out for
the tyranny of time
- Be aware of the
consequences of your decisions.
- Do not become a
victim of analysis paralysis
- Base decisions
on facts, inner convictions and core biblical values
- Be bold
- Learn from any
mistakes you make
- Be creative in
decision-making
- Once a decision
is made, move forward
- Remember the
power of the tongue
God’s
Word says that His Word is the light to your path and the lamp to your feet.
Live by His Word and you can live in your destiny today and know that by the
power of a positive decision, a positive action is formed; through repetition
of positive actions, positive habits are created; when you have positive
habits, a positive character will be formed and a positive character will lead
you to your golden destiny which you have entrusted to God.
Summary
|
Your
pot of gold is not §
A
wishful thought §
Or
an illusion |
Your pot of gold is real
|
Your pot of gold holds §
The
promises §
God
made to you. |
|
Walk in God’s Divine plan §
For
your life and you §
Can
enjoy each §
And
every one of §
God’s
promises today! |
Apply God’s 7-fold plan for your life. §
Write
out your desires §
Putting
God first. |
Ask God to bless §
the
work of your hands. |