Maximising Destiny: Identity, Purpose And Meaning by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

A Tribute to Dr Myles Munroe

The things being shared here are in honour of one of the great voices of our generation - Dr Myles Munroe. He remains a profound influence, and his impact on the understanding of purpose and destiny is indelible. It was from him that the value and excellency of purpose was truly grasped - that knowing your call and your assignment on time is an advantage to your life.

From Dr Munroe came a superior understanding of leadership: that it is not about looking for people to lead - a very poor idea of leadership, unfortunately the largely prevalent one in Africa. Rather, leadership is about discovering, refining, and developing your giftings and potential, and deploying them to serve so effectively that your influence becomes noticed by the people within your environment, and they give you as a reward the gift of loyalty.

The Problem of a Life Without Purpose

The message tonight is on maximising destiny. The opening scripture is Lamentations 3:27: It is good that a man bear his yoke in his youth. This immediately establishes that timing matters in the kingdom - not every time is convenient for everything.

A second grounding is found in Ecclesiastes 12:1: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not. The charge is to walk with the awareness that God exists, and that the reason you exist is because he is there - and that there is a mandate upon your life.

Many people live lives that are empty and void of meaning - lives full of identity crisis, purposelessness, lives without meaning. The average person walking the earth today cannot clearly articulate why they are here. For many, they simply live to exist. The trajectory for the average unenlightened person is: be born, find yourself growing, attend a secular system of education, find a job that may or may not relate to your giftings, work until retirement, grow old, and die. That is not a destiny - that is merely an existence.

What Is Destiny?

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• Destiny is not a destination - it is an assignment. It is the reason you were sent to the earth.
• Destiny is connected to your gifts. The gifts and abilities you carry are the tools God deposited to accomplish his assignment through you.
• Destiny is progressive. It unfolds in stages and seasons. Timing is part of the design.
• Destiny is non-transferable. There is a place for you in life that no one else can occupy. No one can intimidate you or bully you out of your place.

You were born for a reason. It doesn't matter how you arrived - even if it was a mistake between a man and a woman, that is their concern. God was not surprised. He did not watch your arrival on the earth with shock. There is a place for you in life and destiny, and no one else can occupy that vacuum.

Identity: The Foundation of Destiny

Before you can maximise destiny, you must resolve the question of identity. Identity crisis is the greatest crisis of any generation. When you do not know who you are:

• You become a victim of other people's definitions of you.
• You give strangers permission to stake a claim in your mind.
• You live according to the opinions of those who have made no investment in your life.
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Apostle Joshua Selman
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Before giving anyone the authority to speak into your life, examine their contribution to your destiny. Those who have no investment in your life have no right to the seat of those who have made meaningful investments. Learn to edit opinions. Someone who looks at you and says you are not powerful, or says you will not amount to anything - congratulate them for their ignorance and keep moving. The word of God is with you. The Holy Spirit is with you. There are no powers in existence that sustain what it takes to keep a destiny-carrying person down.

The Anatomy of Purpose

1. Purpose is pre-birth

   Jeremiah 1:5 establishes that before the prophet was formed in the womb, God knew him and ordained him. This is not a New Testament innovation - this is the eternal pattern of God. Purpose pre-exists birth. You did not decide to come to the earth; you were sent.

2. Purpose is connected to gifts

   The gifts you carry are not for your personal enjoyment - they are instruments of assignment. The gifting you have is the equipment God gave you to accomplish what he sent you for. This is why it is dangerous to despise, neglect, or abandon your gifts. When you abandon your gifts, you abandon your purpose.

3. Purpose requires preparation

   Lamentations 3:27 says it is good to bear the yoke in youth. Preparation is part of the design. Do not despise seasons of formation. The larger the assignment, the more rigorous the preparation. Joseph spent years in pits and prisons before the palace. The throne was always the destination - the prison was merely preparation.

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4. Purpose must be pursued intentionally

   Purpose is never accidentally maximised. Intentionality is required. Many people have gifts and callings but live mediocre lives because they have refused to be intentional. Being born with potential is not enough - potential must be developed, refined, and deployed.

The Danger of Comparison

One of the greatest enemies of destiny maximisation is comparison. When you spend your energy measuring yourself against others, you lose focus on your own assignment. There are many great preachers, great leaders, great innovators - and there is still space for you. Your space is there.

If you do not carry this mentality - that you were born for a reason and that your space is reserved - you will spend your life escorting people around the corridors of destiny, hating yourself every day, blaming those who gave birth to you, and never walking in the fullness of what God designed for you.

Meaning: The Third Dimension of Destiny

Beyond identity and purpose is the dimension of meaning. Meaning is the why behind the assignment. Many people have purpose and yet lack meaning - they are busy but unfulfilled. They are active but empty. Meaning comes when your assignment intersects with the lives of others and produces transformation.

The Bible says that the people of God are destroyed for lack of knowledge - not lack of effort, not lack of activity, but lack of knowledge. Many people are doing a great deal but not producing the outcomes God designed. The path to meaning is revelation - understanding not just what you are doing, but why you are doing it and what it is meant to produce in the earth.

Practical Keys to Maximising Destiny

• Seek mentorship intentionally. Everyone who has maximised destiny had someone who invested in them. No one maximises destiny in isolation. The shoulders of veterans are necessary ground to stand on.
• Guard your mind from unauthorised voices. Not everyone who speaks to you has the right to do so. Qualifying the voices you allow into your mental and spiritual space is a critical discipline.
• Honour timing. The greatest assignment delivered at the wrong time yields diminished results. Learn to discern seasons. There are things God has ordained for specific chapters of your life - honour those chapters.
• Develop your gifts relentlessly. Gifts are raw materials, not finished products. The person who refuses to develop their gifts will eventually be overtaken by someone who took their same raw material and refined it through discipline and dedication.
• Live with eternity in view. The question is not merely what you will achieve in this life, but what your life will mean after you are gone. The goal is to live a meaningful life - one that people can point to and say: he was here, and because he was here, things changed.

The God Who Restores

For those who feel they have lost time, missed seasons, or failed to fulfil what they were meant to fulfil - the God being served is a God of restoration. He restores finances, relationships, ministry, business, children, laughter, and purpose. The fact that time has passed is not the final verdict. God is not finished. His word over your life has not expired.