Most of us already know the will of God for our lives, but because we have not learned to discern the hindering, dream-destroying forces that attack our mind, will, and emotions, we retreat from what God has revealed to us and watch life pass us by—all the while wondering what would have happened if we had taken the big leap of faith and done what God had told us to do.
The devil will come along and accuse you of being just another regular, ordinary person who is tired of the status quo, who doesn’t like the way their life is going.
He will point his gnarled finger at you and say, “You want to believe that you were born for a special purpose, but you live in a fantasy world. You are just like everybody else, except you have an ego that just has to prove that you are better than anyone else.”
Don’t Let Your Purpose Be Stolen
What the enemy is doing is attacking your very identity in Christ.
He knows that if he can convince you that the dream for greatness God has placed in your heart is nothing more than a self-exalting “ego trip,” that in order to be truly humble you must be and do absolutely nothing in this world, then he has stolen and obliterated your purpose in life.
Again, we must look to the Word of God for strength of will and steadfastness in the faith. According to scripture, our destiny was prearranged before the foundation of the world.
We are told in the first and second chapters of Ephesians and in the second chapter of 1 Peter that God foreordained the works in which we should walk that we are a “peculiar people” who will reveal His glory in the earth.
We know from Psalm 139 that God saw David in his mother’s womb, watched his body being knit together, and we are told that God’s thoughts concerning us are more numerous than the sands of the sea.
Both Jeremiah and the Apostle Paul stated that they were separated from their mother’s womb to do the things that they were doing.
Plugging Into God’s Plan
My friend, you are no mistake and your dream is no ego trip! Before God ever formed the earth and flung the stars from His fingertips, He had planned the course for your life.
Whether it is the day you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or years after you are born again, the day will come when you will wake up to the plan of God for your life. It will seem so new and glorious to you, but in reality the plan has been in existence for eons and eons of time!
All you are doing is just plugging into God’s plan, and suddenly your life has a meaning and a purpose and a sense of excitement that you never dreamed possible. There is nothing like a dream of God being birthed within the human heart!
The devil will come and try to convince you that this grand and glorious dream is just your own, self-exalting fantasy, that God’s real plan involves a more “humble” path. (What he really means is obscure and meaningless!)
But do you honestly believe that God would ever do anything in a mediocre way, or create anything or anyone without a purpose? Of course not! His plans are always consistent with His character: totally awesome!
Therefore, you must look Satan right in the eye and declare that you have heard from God, that you will not budge from His plan and purpose for your life, and that you know who you are in Christ. You will not be moved!
Excerpt permission granted by Albury Publishing
Rick and Denise met while they were each on an individual quest to wholeheartedly follow God's plan for their lives. Rick was a college student, growing in his teaching ministry. Denise was a talented vocalist. She chose not to pursue a course that held the prospect of performing with the Metropolitan Opera so that she could instead pursue a relationship with Rick and fulfill her heart's desire to enter full-time ministry.
Rick and Denise's friendship has led to lifelong love and a powerful partnership in building the Kingdom of God. After a decade of ministry, first as pastor and then as itinerant ministers, Rick and Denise Renner embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. In January 1991, the Renners and their sons Paul, Philip, and Joel left behind all they knew to relocate their family to serve the region that only weeks earlier had become the former Soviet Union.
Rick and Denise remember kneeling together as a family and kissing the ground when they arrived at the airport in Latvia on that cold January day. At that moment, they all committed their lives to the will of God and to the people of their new homeland. The following year, Rick moved forward to launch and establish the first of its kind, and eventually the largest, a Christian television network in that region of the world.
Over the years, Rick and Denise pioneered three churches, a Bible school, and a ministerial association that serves thousands of Russian-speaking pastors throughout the former USSR as well as parts of the Middle East. As Rick began training and mentoring leaders in the early days, Denise also developed a women's ministry that is actively involved in changing the lives of women and their families today. Specifically, they minister to the needs of orphans, women prisoners, the homeless, and drug-and-alcohol addicts.
Rick, Denise, and their children began as a small circle of five, willing to go beyond their comfort zone to reach the uttermost parts of the world. Today that circle includes their sons' wives, six grandchildren, and a large ministry staff that helps the Renners extend their reach as they exalt Jesus Christ as the Hope of all nations.