You Don't Have A Destiny

Let me say this plainly – You don’t have a destiny  - the church does!  

So many people talk incisively today about personal destiny.  From the individual looking for God to make them rich and famous to the media minister selling books by promising them the same, it seems to me that Christians in America are obsessed with their personal destinies.  Unfortunately, we hardly mention the destiny of the church.  In fact, the church is being increasingly ignored today.  You even hear people say, “I love God.  I’m OK with God.  It’s the church I have problems with."  People are exchanging corporate destiny for individual spirituality.  But let me say it again:  You don’t have a destiny without the church…

Ephesians 5:27: “That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”  Or how about Revelation 19:7: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  That’s your destiny!

We have taken the American mythology of individualism, wrapped it is spiritual sounding language and sold a generation of people in believing that God is in the business of fulfilling personal fantasies apart from their involvement in the church.  How can a dead man have a destiny, anyway?  Why doe a dead man care about his or her personal destiny?  How can we continue to obsessively chase our personal destinies when the Bible says so little about it?  Go a head and look for yourself.  Compare the amount of writing about the destiny and future of the church and then try to find scriptures on your personal destiny apart from the people of God.  We are so busy chasing the American dream that we have forgotten God’s love for the church.  So let me say it again, you don’t have a destiny, the church does!

Think of this:  From the beginning, God desired to have a people.  With Adam, Abraham and Jesus He had an individual.  But in every case He worked through them to create a people.  From the Nation of Israel under the Old Covenant to church in the New Testament, God’s plan is for a corporate people.  Apart from the people God, there is no personal destiny.  Martin Luther would never have approved of what some people have done with the Protestant doctrine of the Priesthood of the Believer.  Luther was a churchman.  Self-centered people have hidden their selfish agendas behind this cherished doctrine and declared that somehow, they are above the church – beyond the church – not needing the church.

The overwhelming subject matter of the New Testament is about the church.  Not one time was the Holy Spirit poured out like He was on Pentecost on a single individual.  Not once!  In every case in the Book of Acts, He was poured out on a group.  God loves the gathered church.  God has a plan for the gathered church.  We have a destiny as the group.  

Ephesians 3:10 says,  "to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”  Amazing!  This verse says that Satan and his minions don’t know the wisdom of God.  So in order to see what God is doing, they keep an eye on the church (Notice that they don’t peek in on someone have their personal devotions!).  They watch the church.  IF SATAN KNOWS TO GO TO CHURCH IN ORDER TO SEE WHAT GOD IS DOING DON’T YOU THINK WE SHOULD?  

Just one more time:  There is no destiny without the church.  A sold out believer who has died to their own wants and wishes could care less about their personal destiny.  They died to tat a long time ago.  The only thing that matter to them is the destiny of the church.  The wedding day!  The Coronation day!  That’s the only destiny we need!