I’m currently involved in a study of Genesis.  The first nine chapters have turned out to be fairly controversial as nearly every writer and commentator tries to make the narrative of Genesis align with current scientific views of the beginning of the universe and the beginning of life on planet earth.  There are a number of ingenious efforts to do so…the gap theory, theistic evolution, progressive creationism, etc.  All of these are ways to try to adjust what seems to be the natural reading of Genesis to the age of the universe and earth as projected by many contemporary scientists and to find a place where evolutionary theory can also fit into the Genesis account.  Some of these attempts have some merit and are possible interpretations of Genesis, as scholars study possible meanings of Hebrew words, etc.   But many of these attempts seem to be a result of giving science more authority or, at least, the same authority as scripture.

The question arises…what if you cannot marry current scientific views with the Genesis account in any satisfactory way?  Do you choose science over scripture or do you keep insisting that science find other explanations for their observations and theories until they can match the Genesis narrative in satisfactory ways. By the way, there are a number of high caliber PH.D’s out there who do hold to the natural reading of Genesis. They assign dating miscalculations to results of a world-wide flood and point to many geological and paleontological observations that don’t fit the evolutionary model.

I really don’t want to try to evaluate all the views that arise from the first few chapters of Genesis, but I do want to point out the danger of letting culture have so much influence over us that we begin to choose the current views of intellectuals and influencers over scripture.  When it comes to faith, it is imperative that we constantly align our thoughts with God’s thoughts.  It is imperative that we give God’s word more authority than the words of men.  Does that mean that natural science, history, archaeology, and so forth cannot inform our understanding of scripture? Of course not.  But we dare not begin to ignore scripture that conflicts with those views or do violence to a text in order to make it fit the “current scientific view.”

I keep saying “current view,” because science is always changing, while the word of God is eternal.  If you scan the New Testament, you will find dozens of scripture warning, us to be directed by heavenly wisdom, rather than the wisdom of the world.  You know the old propaganda adage that says if a lie is told often enough and with enough conviction, people will begin to believe it is true.  What we see in our culture, in our schools, and in the media is a steady promotion of anti-biblical views and values designed to desensitize us and indirectly make us believe that a cultural stance is true because we see it and hear it all the time.

In our culture, theories are regularly presented as proven facts, as if, no one with any intelligence even questions what is being presented.  Many are “following the science” because it lends credibility to their narrative, rather than because it is true.  Evil is called good and good is called evil so often that we begin to wonder if we have misread our Bibles.  If we don’t read our Bibles, we are certainly easy prey for the world’s propaganda.  There is always danger in coming into agreement with Satan…the prince of this world.  Adam and Eve adopted his view of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and their alignment with Satan ushered sin and death into the world. Alignment with Satan, in any part of your life, will open a door for his activity in your life and the life of your family and the results will be destruction.

I am simply posting a warning here that choosing between the values and positions of the world and God is a serious thing that has real consequences.  As believers, I think we need constant course corrections in our thinking because we are so inundated with lies from the enemy with every facet of culture as his vehicle. With the steady drum beat of culture everywhere we look,   we can slowly but surely be drawn away from God’s truth.  When we feel the pull to agree with something that doesn’t seem to agree with God, we need to slow down and pray for wisdom.  Perhaps, our biblical understanding needs to be tweaked but, perhaps, we are being drawn away from truth in the name of science, education, religion, art, or tolerance.

Paul wrote, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:26-31).

This verse suggests that much of what the world presents as wisdom, intellect, and truth are just the opposite of heavenly wisdom, intelligence, and truth.  So, evaluate what you are hearing, seeing, and being told by the voices of the world.  Do not be afraid to disagree and do so without being disagreeable. Do not be afraid to stand on biblical truths and values, even in the face of criticism and ridicule because you will be receiving praise from heaven.

Destiny

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  Psalm 139:14-16

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

These two familiar passages affirm a very important principle in the life of every believer.  God had a direct hand in making each of us with a design that reflects an ordained purpose for each of our lives.  According to the psalmist, God wrote, in a book in heaven, all the plans that he made for our lives before one of those days came to pass.  The “good works” mentioned in Ephesians are the works ordained for each of us to accomplish.  In summary, he equipped each of us to fulfill our destiny with just the right  natural abilities, temperament, and spiritual gifts.  Even though this is a well-documented biblical truth, it seems that many believers have difficulty discerning what their destiny might be.  Let me suggest two reasons.

Each of us has been designed for greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  However, we must remember that God’s view of greatness is not the same as the world’s view.  The world’s view of greatness is measured in fame, possessions, power, the number of people who serve you and fawn over you, an extensive Facebook platform, and the number of celebrities with whom you keep company.  If we take those standards as indicators of our destiny because they appeal to us, we may chase something that causes us to miss God’s purposes all together.

In fact, by those standards, Jesus was a colossal failure while he walked on this earth.  He had no bank accounts.  He had no palace or even a home to call his own.  Most people did not know who he was or what he looked like.  We still don’t know what he looked like. He served others rather than being served and shunned celebrities as well as celebrity status.  In the only popularity contest in which he participated, his own people chose a murderer named Barabbas over Jesus.  Any yet, by heaven’s standards, he was the greatest who ever lived or ever will live.

God’s desire is that we find and fulfill our destiny. I think many of us miss it because we are measuring opportunities to advance by the world’s standards rather than heaven’s.  We choose the career path with the highest earning potential instead of the highest serving potential. We pick a path that we anticipate will impress or please people we know rather than impressing our heavenly father.  We often seek the spotlight on earth while Jesus tells us to do many things in secret, seen only by God.  Jesus even warns us of missing a reward in heaven because we have already gotten our reward on earth.  As we seek our destiny, we need to measure it by heavenly values, not the values of the world.  We need to teach our children that same principle.

As much as God wants us to fulfill the destiny he has written for us, Satan wants to prevent us from fulfilling it.  First of all, he will misdirect us in our choices and, perhaps. highlight the motives for career choices that the world offers so that we end up not pursing those things that would have actually given us the most fruitful and most fulfilling life.  

If Satan hasn’t been able to set us on the wrong path, then he will simply oppose those things we are trying to accomplish in order to convince us that we are on the wrong track after all.  In his book, Unlocking Destinies from the Courts of Heaven, Robert Henderson says that Satan feverishly hunts for curses that can be activated in our lives so that he can use them to oppose our destinies.  Curses give him a legal right to hinder, oppress, or torment people and he does so to hinder our progress and effectiveness in the kingdom.  That means we must be aware of areas in which we are not flourishing and scan our lives to see if something in our own life or family line is giving the enemy a legal right to oppose us month after month and year after year.  When we find it, we must remove it so that we can begin to fulfill our written destinies as God intends. 

What is critical is that we do not ignore the reality that God has chosen a destiny for us and part of our reward in heaven will depend on how much of that we pursued and accomplished in this life.  Too many believers choose career paths, relationships, and priorities without any thought as to whether or not they fit into God’s plan for our lives or we abandon his plan altogether as soon as resistance comes our way.  As a result, our lives do not live up to our expectations for joy and fulfillment.  

If we could add a beatitude to the Sermon on the Mount, we might say, “Blessed is the man or woman who finds themselves in the very center of God’s will for their lives, because it is there that we find the true joy and abundance that Jesus promised.”  On many occasions, I have visited with men in their fifties who feel unfulfilled as carry a vague sense of failure.  They have provided for their families, but for years have labored in a career that was not fulfilling or exhilarating and they feel as though something significant has been missing from their lives for years.  They don’t want to end their lives feeling as if they missed something incredibly significant that others somehow found.  This is the stuff of mid-life crisis and the stuff of middle-aged affairs.  It is often because they tried to fit into a role for which God did not make them. The very things in which they invested most of the hours of their lives seem to have no eternal significance.  They discover that what they gave a great chunk of their lives to may not matter at all 5 seconds after they die. That is the price of missing God’s destiny for our lives. 

I’m not saying that all of us have to be preachers or missionaries or worship leaders or Christian writers.  God has made us to fit into every nook and cranny of society so that we can be a redeeming force in that slice of our culture.  He has called us to be teachers, truck drivers, policemen, store owners, nurses, bakers, artists, technicians, soldiers, etc.  When we are following our destiny, what we do makes sense to us.  It almost comes naturally.  We find it fulfilling because we sense a purpose in it greater than the check we get at the end of the month.  We see ways to bear spiritual fruit in our career setting and ways to influence people for Jesus.  If we ask ourselves if we want to do other things, we simply know we are already doing what God has designed us to do.  It is a very blessed place to be, even if the material rewards aren’t all we would like them to be  The emotional and spiritual payoff makes up for the big house and the new pickup that will have to wait another couple of years.

If you haven’t thought this way about the path of your life or if you started out seeking your calling in Christ, but got detoured, I hope you will return to that quest.  Hopefully, our New Year’s resolutions will help us pursue God’s purposes for our lives and reflect the priorities of heaven rather than earth. I believe finding our calling or destiny and stepping into it is the key to the abundant life Jesus has promised.