What Happened Today

There are no coincidences in the Christian life.

In yesterday’s post I wrote about my conclusion that the time had come to start working in earnest on the book again. That God seemed to be saying to me it was time. It won’t be like it was before, but He will do what needs doing and I merely need to show up for work, engage with the material and keep my unrealistic expectations in check. “Time to move on,” I said.

This morning I turned on my computer to find an email from my agent, forwarding an email from the head of fiction at Bethany House asking what was going on with me. He wants a brief summary of my next story idea and some sense of when I think I can turn the ms in. I haven’t heard from him since September, I think.

How’s that for confirmation?

Then, if that weren’t enough, tonight’s live class from GBC in Somerset, MA was done by Evangelist Scott Grande on the Believer’s Personal Sense of Destiny. Since writing is a big part of my own personal sense of destiny, and since no one has really been talking about personal sense of destiny for months, this could hardly be coincidence either. In fact, Scott even mentioned the way God uses the word and lessons and friends and so forth to communicate with us. Just to make sure I got the message (God knows how dense I can be)

And that’s not all:

“If an earthly father can plan an prepare and save for his child’s future, how much more can your Heavenly Father prepare things for you ahead of time? Things happen for a reason…”

“Life should not be boring. You cannot predict it. You cannot twist it and turn it the way you want all the time. God says, “Trust me. Let me take you down this path. Let me show you where to turn and when. Stop relying on your own wisdom…”

And when you do, Scott added, often things won’t go as you’d like for some time. That’s because God is training you, preparing you for something better. That sure seems a lot like what happened during the writing of The Enclave, so this was a wonderful assurance that it really was God then, and will be this time as well.

“God knows the right time to reveal things to you, give you things. He will reveal something you did not plan, that you thought you couldn’t do and He’ll give you the power to do it…

“Do you realize you have a personal sense of destiny direct from God Himself and apply that every day in your life? In other words, Do you really believe it? Because most of us don’t really believe these things, even though there’s scripture to back it up. We hold out a little bit of doubt. Maybe because we’re not ready to accept it.

“But this is something you should be ready to accept and be excited that God has you in the palm of His hand as He leads you on a different mission than you thought you’d go into.”

As I type all this, I’m blown away all over again. The way it is so precisely directed to my situation… of course I know it’s directed to others, but this was done just way too … intimately for me, I guess.  Then out of the blue he said,

“Our personal sense of destiny is related to our politeuma privileges as royal family (the privileges of our heavenly citizenship – Phil 3:20)”

“Politeuma privileges” is the core metaphor I’m building on for The Other Side of the Sky. I haven’t heard anyone mention those for a long time, either… But it sure zinged me tonight.

A little later he spoke of the stages of spiritual growth, spiritual self-esteem where you have confidence in God in you, in God for you (rather than confidence in self), then spiritual autonomy, where you are totally independent of people and circumstances  and totally dependent on God for happiness, answers, security. It doesn’t come all at once.

“And again, this is all incremental. You’ve got to be patient. God’s not in a rush with you, that’s why He gives us 80 years… It’s on a slow increase. You’re going up that mountain, one step at a time. And God’s okay with that. He doesn’t want you to run. He wants you to learn the word and take it bite by bite and apply it to your life.

“He will give you the word right before you need it. He will show you the way before you need it.”

And finally,

“Eventually … your personal sense of destiny will become so great it outweighs any problem, disaster, heartache or tragedy that comes your way. These things don’t bother me because I have a destiny. This is just another step in that destiny.

“Now your problems may be personal, but soon they’ll be historical. Everything in life is temporary. We’ve gotta move on…”

Amazing.

If you want to hear this lesson it’s here: “Personal Sense of Destiny!”  (Look in the upper right corner for links to video class, just audio with slides or to download either one.)

0 thoughts on “What Happened Today

  1. NonaK

    Karen – Thank you so much for your blog entries the past few days. They have been a word of encouragement and a nudge forward at a time when I thought it may be time to lower my pen and quit writing.

    Writing has been my passion from the moment I can remember. Unfortunately, life stressors of late have made it difficult to find my job and happiness in any of my projects. There has even been the feeling of a disconnect between myself and the Lord, whom I have always credited as being my mentor and muse in the writing craft. Then you wrote the following:

    “Learn to write in bits of time — I’ve entered a different season of my life just now, and that may be all I’ll get at one time for a while. I can’t wait for everything to be like it was”

    It was as if I could feel God’s hand rest on my shoulder and give me a gentle squeeze of encouragement and understanding. It was the touch I needed, and the words could not have been spoken at a better time. Even now I am brought close to tears at the weight lifted from my heart and spirit.

    Thank you.

    Blessings to you and your endeavors, my friend.

    ~Nona King

    Reply
  2. KC Frantzen

    Such inspiration and encouragement!

    Thanks fellow Karen!!

    Bible Doctrine is the BEST isn’t it?! How do we manage without a Biblical perspective. Wshew.

    “Berachah Brat” signing off. 🙂

    Reply

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