5 Keys To Pursue Your Destiny With Passion
Life’s Greatest Gift
What is life’s greatest gift? It is our free will to make our own choices. Did you know that you have been given this free will to make your own choices,the power of choice? The gift of free will is one thing that characterizes God as a Father. He gives us His guidelines for life in His Word and then allows us to make our own choices. We have the power to choose a life of blessings or curses. Our future is completely in our hands Deut. 30:15-19.
There is power in choice. God can’t and won’t make us do anything, and the devil certainly can’t force us into anything we don’t willingly agree to. For this reason, the responsibility for the direction of our lives is in our hands. Choose to follow God’s will for your life!
Let me start off with an article written by Rabbi Daniel Lapin (great man of God and a great teacher).
He called it “PRIME CHOICE”.
Why do some people succeed in life while others fail? You know the answer. For the most part, folks fail because they did not do what they should have done back when they needed to do it. They may also not be doing what they should be doing right now.
Here’s the Question: If Life And Death Are The Choices Before Us, Who In His Right Mind Would Choose Death?
See, we all know the road to success. Do what you must do when you must do it. Not what you want to do. Not when you get around to it. Do what you must do when you must do it and the world is yours.
For some people it may mean adopting then keeping to a healthy diet from this moment. For others it could mean doing whatever it takes right now to protect and nurture a marriage. It could mean taking immediate and necessary steps to rid oneself of an addiction. For many it means finding a job, finding a second job or starting a business—today!
This is all really very simple. Do what you need to do when you need to do it. Unfortunately, however, this simple but true formula leaves us utterly baffled by a perplexing puzzle. If the road to success is so well marked, why do so many of us fail at so many of the things we consider truly important?
It takes another question to best illustrate ancient Jewish wisdom’s explanation for why so many of us fail at doing precisely what we know so well we ought to do.
Read this verse: I call heaven and earth today to bear witness for you that I have placed before you life and death, blessing and curse; and you shall choose life…(Deuteronomy 30:19)
Here’s the question: If life and death are the choices before us, who in his right mind would choose death? What sane individual would choose curse over blessing? Why should God need to sagely recommend that we choose life and blessing? Who would do otherwise?
In reality, we face these choices many times each day. Frequently the wrong path is the more appealing one.
God has put us in a world with not only physical gravity but also spiritual gravity. Yes, it takes far more effort to climb up the stairs than down. It takes far more effort to lift a weight than it takes to drop it. It takes far more fuel for an airplane to attain cruising altitude after takeoff than it takes for the same aircraft to descend back to earth prior to landing.
Similarly, it is far harder to keep to a diet than it is to let oneself go. It is far harder to stick to a project that needs doing than to abandon it for an evening’s entertainment. It is harder to keep a marriage going than to walk away and it is harder to do one’s work when it needs to be done than it is to make excuses.
Yes, most of us know what we ought to do. The problem is that God built a system of spiritual gravity that resists our every attempt to improve ourselves and our lives. We should be happy about this for the same reason that weightlifters and athletes are happy that gravity exists. Without it, everyone would be able to bench-press four hundred pounds and run a four minute mile, but these bogus accomplishments would achieve nothing. In His kindness, God gives us opportunities to confront spiritual and moral challenges allowing us to grow and thrive.
Knowing the secret to success is far different from traveling that path. Rarely do the divergent paths of life or death confront us head on. Instead, we make choices during countless, seemingly unimportant, daily moments. Being aware that small actions lead to a critical finish line makes it easier to steadily move in the right direction. Choose life!
Thought Tools
by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Our life is driven by our choices whether we like that or not. We will meet our choices down the road and it all starts in our mind.
Get Your Thoughts Under Control and Your Life Will Change
Ok, you didn’t have a choice to begin your life. You couldn’t pick your parents or the situation you grew up in. But the moment you realize that your past doesn’t have to dictate your future – that you are a new creation – you start taking possession of your destiny.
Every time you let go of those old limitations and realize your position in Christ, you are propelling yourself toward your destiny. Every time you ask God to guide your steps and choose to follow His Word, you are giving yourself divine tools for living, tools that will help you to move away from what harms you and toward what is in God’s good plan for your life.
You can make the best choice right now and take all the limits off, take the lid off your life, uncover it by renewing your thoughts about you and your life. It is a choice that you have to make; you must engage your will. You are the only one that can do that. There is nothing or nobody else that can do that for you. Even God, regardless of how much He loves you will NOT do it for you.
Many people might think that He will some day, but believe me He will NOT. He has given us a free will to choose. I really believe that I am speaking to some of you who are reading this and you need to receive a revelation about the fact that God has given you and me a free will and we need to engage our will in every decision that we make and with every choice that we make.
Do you believe that God has a good plan for your life? Then activate your faith by telling Him, “God, I know that You are making a way for me today,” When you do that, you agree that His wisdom and guidance isn’t something that He might give to you today; it is something He will give. All you have to do is ask.
Wisdom is part of your inheritance as a child of God, but it is something that must be received from the Lord.
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do James 1:5-8
I can give you some wisdom here as well : “You have to leave your past behind”. We all know that, but we keep talking about the things of the past, isn’t it? A preacher once said: “The Past Never Sees The Future.” Isn’t that the truth?
Good or bad, it’s time to put the past behind you. The past never sees the future. If you feel stifled because you don’t have any dreams or goals in life, the chance is that you live on memories of what you’ve done in the past. That’s no good.
Don’t give up on life. There is still more for you to do and see. Are you still breathing? Then you still have the potential to dream. You can still get determined in your thoughts. You can still get ideas and you can still act on those ideas and accomplish something in your life.
It doesn’t matter how old you are; you should have a vision for the future and you can act on the ideas and dreams God has put on your heart. Recently I was introduced to a group of bloggers who are creating an income on the internet. This blessed me so much because one of the things that this group has is women of my age. (Well, I am not going to tell you my age )..BUT…it inspired me and will keep inspiring me for sure.
Age just does not count at all. My pastor (Billy Joe Daugherty) always told everybody that they were valuable and that God had a plan for them no matter the ageand no matter what you have done. So, never ever give up! God doesn’t care if you if you’re five years old or ninety-five years old. He sees your potential and the impact you can have on the future, regardless of at what age you’re starting.
People may want to put you out to pasture, but God never does that. He is with you no matter what. So, don’t waste your precious life only dreaming.Start with mental mapping. Get determined to create vision in your life and to move forward, to keep on living and learning and doing something.
The apostle Paul told you and me: “You are a Masterpiece,” yes you are!
So, let’s dig into some truths that will change your life. First things first, we have to guard our hearts because out of it flow the issues of life. Our heart is where we live. It is the very core of our being, where we have our private thoughts and they need to be renewed. Are you able to make a choice? Of course, you are…let’s go.
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1 /Choose Your Thoughts, For They Become Words.
I believe that where the mind goes, the man follows. Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “…out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks”. And in Proverbs 23:7,”…as he [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he…” In both of these scriptures, the word heart refers to the mind. In other words, our thoughts are the forerunners of both our words and actions. Whatever you and I allow into our inner life will eventually be seen in our outer life.
So in order to deal with wrong behavior, (wrong behavior will lead you to the wrong destiny) we need to deal with wrong thinking. My deep desire is to help us get our thinking lined up with His Word. As a result, the words of our mouths and the actions of our lives will get straightened out in the process. I believe the key to victory is learning how to think on the things that God wants us to think—to be renewed in our mind by the power of His Word—instead of thinking on whatever comes into our head.
We can easily stay in the realm of dreaming about our destiny and just letting our thoughts go wherever they decide to go, idle thoughts so to speak, but then we will never reach our destiny. When we really want to reach our destiny we have to “reboot” our mind and actually consider that the dream could come to pass.
We need to begin to develop a “mental map” – a determined thought life. Mental maps are determined thoughts. You see, daydreams are idle thoughts. They can be fun but they also can be a form of escape. Mental maps are the kind of thoughts that have purpose and direction.
They are the thoughts with direction and purpose. They are the thoughts with intent, thoughts that are actually taking you somewhere that you want to go. Determined thoughts!
Let me tell you the difference:
Have you ever been watching TV and a commercial about some ice-cream came on it? The announcer is telling you how good this ice-cream is, how delicious this new flavor is and so forth. It doesn’t take long before you think about getting some ice-cream.
So, here’s where thoughts come in. You’ve just seen the commercial and you start wanting that ice-cream. You sit there for a second and imagine tasting that ice-cream. It’s just an idle thought, a passing thought.
A determined thought is different. It has intent and passion behind it. A determined thought is NOT content to remain idle, it gives you an idea! In this case, a determined thought gives you the idea to go to the fridge or the store. It is that kind of thought that actually gets you off the sofaat ten at night! It is that kind of thought that has you speeding to the grocery store to get that ice-cream. This determined thought gets you into action.
Here is how it works:
A mental map begins with determined thoughts. Those determined thoughts produce ideas. Those ideas produce actions – combined with faith in God, trust in His Word and the tenacity to never give up – are what will draw your dream into reality.
Many people wander through life with big dreams, but they don’t have determined thoughts to make the right choices that will make them believe what it takes or say what it takes and moving that dream into a reality.
It all starts with thoughts.
You determine where you go in life. Your destiny is not something that just happens to you or something that is going to happen no matter what. No. You are the architect of your own life and you are the prophet of your own life. You have a free will. You have choices that you can make that will determine your future and that puts you in the driver’s seat. You may not have picked the car! You may not have picked the town you’re in! But you still have power because you still have a free will and choice.
Of course, there are things that happen, which might put you in the right place at the right timebut if you don’t choose to do the right thing, at that moment, nothing is going to happen. It’s like health and money. It doesn’t matter how healthy you are. If you don’t have any money, you aren’t going anywhere! And, you can have all the money in the world, but if you are as sick as a dog, you aren’t going anywhere either.
Your God-given destiny is like that. Certain things have to be in line for you to get the best result, but ultimately, you are going to determine where you go and what you do in this life.
Nobody is a puppet. God created this earth and the Bible says that He gave it to the children of men, Psalm 115:16, which is you and me. Our choices in this life make a difference, but nothing happens without thoughts, which is what mental mapping is all about.
What will we allow ourselves to believe that we can accomplish? What will we do with good thoughts, good ideas and good concepts that God has given us? Are these thoughts good? Are they worth pursuing? Do they make you feel passionate? Are they God’s way of nudging us to fulfill His good plan, which is His will for our lives?
Can we take good thoughts and build upon them day by day and reach the good life God has for us? Yes, we can. Abraham did it. Thousands of Christians do it every day and even non-believers can use the principle and see results.
It is a spiritual concept and spiritual concepts always apply to our lives in a real way even if they don’t appear to do so on the surface. The Bible tells us that spiritual things, such as mental mapping, are foolish to those who only think naturally.
But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.
For, "Who can know the LORD's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach Him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1Co 2:14 -16 NLT
Our spirit can embrace our intellect, but our intellect cannot embrace our spirit. It takes the “mind of Christ” to think beyond the natural.
Let me warn you. When you start using the mind of Christ, people will think you’re crazy. So what! If you want to do anything great for God or for this world or even just for your family, you must get to the point where you don’t care what other people think…you are going to make the right choice and you are going to do the right thing.