There is so much to talk about but I believe that the Holy Spirit is going to Himself teach us this, and lead us into all truth that He wants to expose to us, that the name of the Lord might be glorified.
We are going to begin by looking at the definition of Destiny. Destination was coined out of the word destiny. So, for there to be a destination, that means there is a destiny. And when we talk about destiny, many people misconstrue destiny for purpose. Purpose is different from destiny. Destiny talks about the future. When you hear the word destiny, understand that the future is being spoken about but I am going to read a definition I came across which will be very good for our conversation.
It defines destiny ‘as the event that would necessarily happen’, and I love the word necessarily. Destiny is an event that would necessarily happen to a particular person in the future, so one of the things I picked from this is that destiny is human specific. In the race of life, there is no collective destiny, its individual, it’s unique to each person, and it’s particular. And it says destiny talks about events, it’s not just a one off thing, it’s cumulative in its results. So, the events will necessarily happen, it’s not given to chance, it’s not given to probability, it would necessarily happen to a particular person in the future.
And we will also look at the word character because they are two working definitions that we need to understand while we are approaching what the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us. Character talks about ‘the mental and moral qualities distinctive’, I also love that word. Just like when we defined destiny, it talked about what will necessarily happen to a particular person in the future. Those three phrases are so important and they are linked. It’s not a probability, it's a definite, it will necessarily happen and then it talks about the specificity of who it will happen to and it talks about something that will not happen now as it where, it’s something that will happen in the future.
Then character now talks about ‘the mental or moral qualities distinctive to an individual’. So, character is also particular and specific. You could also say that character is what makes a person who they are, simply put- what makes you who you are is your character distinctive to you as an individual. When we look at the synonyms of the word character we have words like nature, your personality, your disposition, your temper, your mentality.
So when you hear the word character, it looks like a long stretched word, it talks about your mentality as an individual. It’s unique to you, it talks about your disposition but the synonyms I love the most; it talks about your nature, your personality. It’s unique to you. Those that are given to research; after trying to understand and unravel the different personalities of human beings, they realized that even though you could group similar character traits, each of them have distinctive differences. Even though you could say all these people are sanguine. In confusion, some are choleric sanguine, some are melancholy sanguine because everyone has a distinctive quality that makes them different.
Listen to Podcast: THE DESTINY OF EVERY BELIEVER’S CHARACTER
And we are going to look at the destiny of every believer’s character, now we are not talking about the character of man because if we are talking about the character of man, then we would look at man in generality but this morning, we are looking specifically at a given composition. Generally we have men, but out of these men, we are looking at a chosen generation, we are looking at a different order of people called believers. What is the destiny of their character? That means, there is a character they possess and what is the destiny of that character? It will be divided into two forms; we would first look at the believers’ character.
What is the believers’ character? We are going to start our observation from Genesis 1 for you to understand who a believer is. When the Pharisees asked Jesus a question concerning divorce and said ‘do we put away our wives for any reason?’ And Jesus replied and said, ‘it was not so from the beginning, have you not read?’ That means, there was something from the beginning before man derailed, lost track and became segmented into different categories. There was a man, there was a perfect picture of a man and that perfect picture is what we want to see this morning.
“Then God said, "Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Genesis 1: 26 (NKJV)
I want us to note that verse 27,
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”.
Genesis 1.27 (NKJV)
So the image of God is the image of man, the nature of God is the nature of man and it says ‘in the image of God He created him’. If this verse was not in the Bible, there would have been a lot of confusion in the world. If God had not made us to understand this verse 27, many of us would have been lost in thoughts and the philosophies of men.
So God created the male man and the female man; the female man which we now cal woman. The male man and the female man were created in the image of God. So the image of God is the image of every man. But something happened along the line that twisted this image. In Genesis 3 from verse 1 downwards something happened, there was an interruption, there was a twisting of this image and man fell from glory.
Adam fell with his wife Eve, they disobeyed God and their image was altered because you would see that they had an image problem, when they knew that they were naked even God asked them, ‘who told you that you were naked’. Something happened to that image, something went wrong with that image. That is why today not all men are in the image of Genesis 1:27. God created man in His image and likeness but not all men are in the image and in the likeness of God.
So we must first start by understanding that it is only believers, only those that have believed in the Lord Jesus, that have been reconciled back to God that are truly existing because they are living in the realities of Genesis 1:27 but many of us, as believers and have given your life to Jesus, are we really working in the reality of this Genesis 1:27. That's the question the Holy Spirit is asking us this morning. As a believer, what is your character? What is your nature? What is your personality? What is your image? Is your image the same as Gen 1:27, as it was in the beginning?
And there is something that is very key that God said and I want to place my emphasis on it this morning. It says, ‘so God created man in His own image’. What is the image of God? Because if we don't understand the image of God, the mentality, personality and nature of God, we can't understand the man that God created here.
And the Bible makes us to understand in Genesis 1; certain things were exposed to us in Genesis 1 about God. The Bible did not start by helping us to understand ourselves, the first chapter of the Bible introduced to us who God is, and that's why, until we understand who God is, we can't understand who we are because God created us in His image, so for you to understand your correct image as it is in the beginning, you must understand correctly the image of God.
If you have a twisted understanding of the image of God, you will have a twisted understanding of your image as a believer. In understanding the personality of God, one of the things we saw from Genesis 1 is that God is a creator. In Genesis 1:1, God created. His actions gave us an idea of what He does and who He is. God is a creator so we must understand the image of the one that we are made in His likeness, the nature and the personality.
The first thing we came to understand about Him is that, He is a creator so if we are made after His image and likeness, we must be able to create. God is a creator.
Number two, in Genesis chapter 1 after the Bible talked about "darkness was on the face of the earth. The Bible says the ‘Spirit of God’ so we understand that God is Spirit. John 4:24 says ‘God is spirit and all those who worship him, must worship Him in Spirit and in truth’. So, God is Spirit. So, the image we were made after is Spirit and our image is a spiritual image.
Number three, from Genesis 1:3, we say that God speaks. God is not quiet. It says then God said ‘let there be light’ God said from that verse 3 downwards. You will see that God speaks creatively, He creates by speaking. So, God created light by speaking, He created the heavens and the earth by speaking. So, what validates the fact that He is a creator was that He showed us how He creates. He did not make us vague to how He creates so we understand that He created all things by the word of His power. He spoke them into being and they came into being. The Bible makes us to understand that God called the things that are not as though they were. There was no light. He said ‘let there be light’ and there was light. So God speaks, we can say that God is a speaking creative Spirit. That’s one thing we glean from who God is. So if God is a speaking creative Spirit, He made us in His image to be a speaking creative Spirit; calling the things that are not as though they were.
Another thing that we saw and I want us to place emphasis on also is that God examines and appraises His works. And I want us to see in that Genesis chapter 1 verse 10b, the Bible says ‘and God saw that it was good’ what He said. So God examines and appraises His works. God does not just speak into the air and turn His back. God appraises and examines what He has spoken. So we can liken Him to a farmer that sows in a land and does not just turn his back to what He has sown. He watches over His word to perform it. To see that it is made good. That is who God is, and that is the image and likeness which we have been made. So, if you want to understand the believer’s character, you must understand the image of God and a correct perspective of the image of God gives us a correct perspective of the believer’s character.
God blesses and gives; when you move down from Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 down to verse 28. ‘Then God blessed them and God said to them. Be fruitful and multiply’. So God blesses. In verse 29, the Bible says and God said "see I have given you." God gives.
Quickly gleaning on the image and personality of God, we mentioned very emphatic things that God is a creator, God is Spirit, God speaks creatively; God calls the things that are not as though they were, God examines and appraises His works, and God blesses and He gives.
So when you look at this image that we have just described, can you see yourself in this picture? The Holy Spirit is bringing our attention to who we truly are because many of us have come to the earth as sojourners and have forgotten where we came from. We came from Him. The Bible makes us to understand that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. We are created in Christ Jesus; we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works. But many of us have come to the earth forgetting where we came from, forgetting who are and the Holy Spirit is bringing us to a reminder this morning- remember who you are. We have been made in the image and in the likeness of God and we have described what the image and likeness of God is.
So quickly we will go into what is the nature, what is the destiny of a believer’s character when you really are in this image? God had sent prophets to the earth but the people still did not understand; the people still could not connect with who God is. They could not connect with the reality of who they are. Then God said ‘I will come myself as in the beginning and show you my image’, that's why the Bible says that Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. What did Jesus come to do for 30 and half years? He did not only come to die, He came to show us the express image of the invisible God.
He came to show us the true nature of God, the true personality of God, the true mentality of God. That's why He was so different and they could not understand Him, they could not connect with Him, that's why when His disciples were asking Him, show us the father and we will be okay. He said ‘I have been with you for so long and you are asking me to show you the Father’. That's why I came. I am here to show you the Father because the generations of your fathers have missed it, they have lost the link.
Why His ministry is called the ministry of reconciliation is because He came to reconcile us back to that image. Hitherto they had taken a way, they had turned from the originality of our image and Jesus had come to bring us back into that image. But it’s so sad that many of us as believers have still not entered that picture. We have not become one with that image. We still have a vague understanding of what that image represents and who God truly is. So many at times, we excuse away our personality, sometimes we often just live our lives carelessly because we don't have understanding of who we are; our personality, our nature.
So we want to look at very quickly in four points; the nature and the destiny of a believer’s character.
Number one; we will see all these examples in the lives of Jesus. Jesus showed us classically these examples. Everything we would be looking at here, we would see that, that was how Jesus lived, that was His personality, that was His mentality, that was His disposition, that's why Jesus said ‘as I am so are you in this world’, my disposition is your disposition my personality is your personality, my temperament is the same as yours, ‘I am the first born among many brethren but we are of like minds’. That's why Apostle Paul said ‘until we come to the unity of faith, until we all grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ we have not attained’. We only attain when we grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ because that's the express image of the invisible God.
We are going to start by looking at John 14:12-14
John.14:12 – "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also;
I want you to notice the words Jesus was using here. When somebody says ‘most assuredly,’ is there any element of doubt? He said ‘this will be your destiny, this will be your experience, this will be the outcome of your life’ and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
(To Be Continued)
