Predestination: the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually in reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul.
In my opinion, they leave something out here in this definition. They leave out the part where man has free will. If everything is totally determined, then we are no different from an angel. The angels have no choice but to glorify God and magnify Him. But God wanted a creation with free will.
Isaiah 35:8. In this passage of Scripture, I see two roads. One leads to Heaven, the other leads to Hell. Matthew 7:13-14. John 14:6.
Interstate-75 is a major north-south interstate highway stretching from the Great Lakes to Florida. The designer of the road had a plan, a destination for the road. The predestination is not in the car on the road. The predestination is in the road itself. It’s in the WAY. Jesus is the way.
If you abide on the road, I-75 was designed to take you from Florida to the Canadian border in Michigan. Many who start on the road don’t travel the entire road.
Predestination should never be used in the sense of divine determination that any and all actions are determined by God. You have free will.
I knew a man one time, he asked God, “Lord, what do you want me to wear today?”
The Lord spoke to him and said, “Son, I’m your father, not your mother.”
I know the Lord will lead us and guide us, but we have free will. We are the only thing that God made that can step out of the design for our lives and still exist. If the fish refuses to swim, it will die. If the antelope refuses to eat grass and only runs, it will starve. We were designed to worship God, please Him, and be a friend to Him.
There was an emptiness in God that angels crying ‘holy’ didn’t fill. God wanted a creation that would love Him because it fell in love with Him. He wanted someone to worship Him because He is the apple of their eye.
People can curse God, mock God, and not believe in Him, and He will still let them live. But if they would praise Him and love Him, He will fight for them. He would deal with them when others had thrown them away. If we worship the Lord, He will walk into every circumstance and be our Prince of Peace!
The predestination is not just for you to go to church, but for you to be conformed to God’s image.
Everything is about you being conformed to the image of Christ. John 15:16.
Jeremiah 1:5. Galatians 1:15-16. Jeremiah gave in instantly to the ministry. Paul, however, was not a man of God, yet, God had separated him when he was born.
I’m going to drop a bombshell on you.
Matthew 22:14. “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
There are those that are a ‘whosoever will’ and they may come to the Lord. But there are also those that are chosen. Thousands of people followed Jesus, but He CHOSE twelve.
Being chosen by God is an opportunity, not a guarantee. If you are really chosen by God, you can’t ever really be happy unless you do what He chose you to do. If a person can get mad, stop praying, never go back to church, and never think about Jesus again until their deathbed, they are just a ‘whosoever will.’
When a person opens up a business, they have to have people in management, then they have the 2,000 or so ‘whosoever wills.’ Jesus has people in management, and they aren’t just pastors. They are ervants, chosen of God, and there’s something in them that won’t quit. If they do quit, they don’t want to live.
If you are really chosen by God, you could partake in the pleasures of this sinful world, but nothing would ever satisfy you. If you are a ‘whosoever will,’ you can hold on to God or not. You can give up or not. But if the hand of God has put a stamp on your life, you could join God’s haters for a while, but you wouldn’t be able to stay there.
Jonah could run for a while, but a storm turned him around. Moses didn’t get it right for 40 years, then he ran from God for 40 more years, but he had a visitation that turned him around.
The hand of God was on Moses’ life, Jonah’s life, and Paul’s life, bringing them back to their call, bringing them back to what God had chosen them for.
There is no need to run.
If the hand of God is on your life, it’s bigger and stronger than you, and you can’t outrun God’s hand. There’s a call that will follow you everywhere you go.
Luke 19:10. It’s more than just a friend or neighbor who was lost. The image of God was lost. The likeness of God was lost. The mind of God was lost. Genesis 1:26. The world doesn’t long to see another preacher or singer. The world wants to see the love of God flowing like a river out of people. Romans 8:29.
This world doesn’t need a new doctrine or religion. This world needs a body of believers that will stand up and strive to love, forgive, and pray like Jesus.
If you are chosen by God, you need to make your calling and election sure. How?
Do everything to reach everyone you can. Get everything out of you that’s unlike Jesus. Get everything out of you that hinders the manifestation of God in your life. Get everything out of you that blocks God from flowing through you like a river.
When you get saved, Jesus will give you your heart’s desire. Not those carnal desires like a new car or more money. Jesus will give you the desire to love Him. He will give you the desire to want to be like Him. He won’t give you the carnal desires of your flesh because your flesh could pull you away from Him.
Romans 8:29 is not giving you the liberty to sin. It is a liberty to crucify yourself, that Christ might be revealed in you. You aren’t quitting your sinful ways to fit into some religion or to be accepted by certain people, you stop your sinning because you’re abiding in Christ and you want to be accepted by HIM.
Your destiny is more than just to prophesy or preach a sermon. Your destiny is to be conformed to the image of Jesus.
The predestination is not in you or me, it’s in Jesus.
Not everyone who starts on I-75 will finish traveling the entire road. Just like not everyone that starts with Jesus will finish with Him.
I would encourage you to click the sermon below and listen to how you can abide in Christ and stay in the predestinated way.
— Pastor Anthony Wynn
