Possessing Our Destiny – Part 10 Lawson and Barbara Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. Today we are concluding our series on, “Possessing Our Destiny.” God has a plan for us and it’s good. God’s plan for us is better than our plan for us any day of the week. But how do we find it? We find it through understanding who we are in Christ and we find it through our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Friends, it’s great to have you with us and I’m glad to have Barbara with us. We’re finishing our series today on, “Possessing Your Destiny,” praise God. God has a destiny for us, and it’s a good one.

That’s right, He’s a good God.

Amen.

He’s got great plans. You know, I like what you had brought out that even before we were born-

Yes.

It talks about that he had plans for us. And I think about when we were planning for our children, before they were born, we talked about plans for them. And how much more our heavenly Father has amazing things planned and in store for us as we identify with what he has spoken over us, that we’re made in his image, and then he spoke his blessing over us.

Amen.

A lot of people just don’t even understand how good God is and how we have his blessing on us, spoken over us. So no matter what other people have said, or negative things that have said, God has said that he loves us, he has shown us over and over by sending his son Jesus. And you know, so the Lord has set us all up to succeed in this life.

Amen, and you know, I love what you’re saying, Barbara, because so many people that think that because what someone has spoken over them or their situation in life that they’re not able to get out of that. But I’m gonna share this, this is a word for somebody today. It’s not about what anyone else has said about you that matters, ultimately your destiny is in your relationship with God, through Jesus. And you know what? You just need to go to the word of God and find out what God says about you, and only identify with what Jesus Christ says about you. And He says amazing things about us. He says that we’re blessed, He says that we’re chosen. He says that we’re blameless, He says that we’re holy. He says that we’re predestined to the adoption children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will. He says that we’re accepted in the beloved. He says that we’re redeemed, in Him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. So we’re redeemed from every curse. We’re forgiven for every sin. And he says that we have an inheritance. But how do we find all this out? We find this out through our relationship with God, our relationship with Christ, and our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

And when you share that, it makes me think of the other scripture that tells us that we are joint heirs with Jesus.

Amen, that’s awesome, Romans 8. In fact, we can go there and look at that really quickly. And this is really good because this in Romans 8 is talking about who we are in Christ. But it’s also talking about our relationship with the Holy Spirit. You know, Romans is amazing because the first seven chapters you hardly see the Holy Spirit mentioned. And then in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit’s mentioned like 20 time, just amazing. But he makes this statement in verse 14, “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” they’re the children of God. It takes the spirit of God to lead you into your relationship with God in Christ. And what’s he lead us into? He says in verse 15, “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, of slavery. But you’ve received the spirit of adoption.” Whereby we cry, daddy God, the Holy Spirit leads us into our freedom in Christ, knowing what we’ve been given by our Father God. Then he says this, “The spirit himself bears witness with us or with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” And in verse 17, “If children then were heirs of God,” this is where you were, Barbara, “And joint heirs with Christ.” Did you know what? God has good things for, nobody is a pauper in Christ. Every person who’s born of God, every person who knows Jesus Christ is a heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. Equal heir together with Christ, hallelujah.

That’s awesome, isn’t it?

You begin to understand that, “It so be that we suffer with him. We may be all so glorified together.” Now, a lot of people don’t know what that means, but that’s actually talking about, if you identify with Christ on the cross, then you identify also with his resurrection. So once you identify with his death, you identify with his resurrection, you begin to move into those things that he planned for you from the foundation of the world. God had a good plan for us, we started with that-

That’s exciting.

From the foundation of the world. But a lot of people don’t know what it is. And you find it, amen, in Christ. You find it through your relationship with the Holy Spirit. I wanna go to another scripture that just shares about what you just brought up here, Barbara. Galatians 3, and why don’t you read this in Galatians 3:29 or 26, Galatians 3:26-29.

Okay, so starting in 26, it says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as we’re baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There’s neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”

Amen, so what he’s talking about, what Paul’s writing about in Galatians 3 is all the things that we receive by faith in his grace.

That’s awesome, that’s amazing.

Salvation, ministry, and everything in between. He goes on and he talks about this, he talks about right standing with God. He talks about being a child of God. He talks about justification. He talks about receiving the blessing or being blessed. He talks about freedom from the curse. And he talks about the promise of the Holy Spirit. He talks about our inheritance in Christ. Now, one thing that’s cool about inheritance, have anybody received an inheritance? Have you received an inheritance, Barbara?

Yes.

Did you do anything, did you save for it?

No.

Did you work for it?

No.

Did you manage your money for it?

No, and you don’t earn it.

No, you didn’t do anything. You didn’t work for it, toil for it, you didn’t save for it, you just received it.

That’s correct.

So all you’ve gotta do to receive your inheritance in Christ is show up, believe it and receive it.

Yeah, that’s right.

That’s the grace of God. And you get all the stuff because you’re God’s kids, you’re children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. How, our grandkids, do they do anything to earn their gifts at their birthdays that we give them?

No.

Or special occasions? No, And you know me, I like to shop for the grandkids.

Praise God, I have fun.

That’s right.

Hallelujah, and we give them, not because they’re good, we have great grandkids, right? It’s awesome, but it’s not because they’re good. It’s not because they deserve it. It’s not because they work for it. It’s because they’re our grandkids.

I believe it’s Zephaniah that talks about He sings and dances over us?

Yeah, and we just, we take pleasure, right? We take pleasure in blessing our grandchildren. The Bible says that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

That’s right.

And so, you know what? We get all the stuff because we’re God’s kids. That’s what he’s talking about. Man, you didn’t do anything to earn this, to deserve it. You didn’t work for it, you didn’t labor for it, you didn’t sweat for it, you didn’t toil for it. You just showed up, believed it, and received it.

That’s right.

He goes on, that’s in Galatians 3:26. He says, “For if you’ve been baptized in Christ, you’ve put on Christ,” put on Christ. What a great thing. And he says, “Where there’s neither Jew nor Greek,” it’s not about race, it’s not about your culture, it’s not about your race, it’s not about your religion.

And it goes on to saying, “It’s not about your gender.”

Right.

And it’s not about your work class.

Right, it’s not about whether you’re an employer, an employer, bound or free. We would equate that today as employer or employee, business owner. It’s not about what you have or don’t have. And it’s not about gender, it’s not about, in fact, there’s neither male nor female in the spirit. I’m talking, there’s male and female. That’s part of understanding who you are the way God made you in Genesis chapter one. And don’t move away from that. But at the same point in time, in the Spirit you receive from God, not because you’re a male or female, God is equal opportunity. You know, God is no respecter persons. He’s a respecter faith, right? So you just gotta believe it.

That’s right.

And he says, “If you be Christ, then you’re Abraham’s seed.” I’m of the seat of Abraham and his blessing rests on me. Hallelujah, I’m of the seed of Abraham, I’m not moved by what I see, Jesus was made as surety. David Ingles wrote these words years ago. Jesus was made a guarantee, and that’s what I believe. I’m of the seed of Abraham, now get this, and his seed, the seed of Jesus Christ remains in me. I get all this stuff ’cause I’m his kid. Barbara, encourage the people right here before the break a little bit.

Well, what I like to tell people, I grew up in a home where there was five of us kids. So I just decided, wouldn’t it be nice to be the favorite? So I always encourage people, especially at our women’s ministry, look in the mirror when you get up and say, “Hello, God’s favorite child.” You need to picture yourself as God’s favorite. Because you know, he treats us all as an individual. And you’re gonna act different if you really believe you’re the favorite child, praise God.

Yeah, and I like to say it like this, we are the favored children of God. Begin to remember that, praise God. Again, you can’t possess what God wants you to possess singing a victim song. If you’re gonna be a winner, you gotta quit whining. You gotta start believing. And I tell people, listen guys, life is is not fair. Praise God, we have favor. I turn it around, I put myself on the winning side. I got the mind of Christ, I’ve got the Holy Spirit. I’ve got a relationship with God. And that changes everything. Hallelujah. Tell us something, Barbara, really quick.

Well, you know, you had mentioned it earlier, but don’t have a grasshopper mentality where they said, “In our own sight we’re like grasshoppers.”

Right.

See who you are, thanks to Jesus that you are victorious, and triumphant, and he leads us in the way to go.

Amen, praise God, we are more than conquerors. Aaron was sharing about this in a broadcast recently, our son Aaron, that that word, and when it talks about that in Romans 8:37, means that we are hyper victorious.

Amen.

Nike, what we know, Nike, hallelujah.

That’s right.

Hyper victorious, super victorious through who? Through Jesus Christ. And because of that, we get established in the love of God and we can begin to move into these promises, hallelujah. So, we’re gonna be back after a short break. So stay tuned, we’ll be right back after this break, sharing more.

Friends, I’m so glad that you’ve been watching today. We’ve been sharing on, “Possessing Our Destiny.” We have a lot more of this teaching available. It’s on our website, it’s free of charge, downloadable audio, downloadable video. So go there to our website at charischristiancenter.com and take advantage of this and many other teachings, blessings.

Mark Hankins was already talking. I heard him mention that joy is a serious business of heaven. And all of a sudden I heard the Holy Spirit tell me that the burden of heaviness has been lifted from you. So just going into that service, and just hearing that, and having the Holy Spirit active, and the anointing, active in the service, lifted it just like that.

Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. In the first half of the broadcast we talked about how that we can possess our destiny through our new identity of understanding who we are in Christ. We’re God’s kids, and that’s why we get all the stuff. But it’s the Holy Spirit that gives us a revelation of that. And not only does the Holy Spirit give us a revelation of who we are in Christ, our Holy Spirit gives us an understanding of God’s specific will and plan for our life. And so, let’s jump into the word here in John 16, Jesus actually is preparing his disciples for his departure, and he wants them to succeed. And so he tells them a few things, John 14, 15, and 16 and these are the things inevitably that most of the church left out. But he talks about, number one, our authority in Christ and our authority in the name of Jesus. And he talks about number two, our relationship with the Holy Spirit. And he says the world can’t receive him. So you gotta be born again. You gotta receive Jesus as your savior before you’re ever a candidate to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so he talks about that. He says when He comes, He’s gonna, in John chapter 14:26, “Bring to your remembrance what I said to you.” He’s gonna reveal the word. John 15:26, he’s gonna testify in me. He’s gonna show you Jesus, right? Now, how can you understand your identity in Christ if you don’t understand who Jesus is? Then he says in John 16, very necessary. So Barbara, go ahead and read this, John 16:7.

So again, John 16:7 says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you.”

Amen, so Jesus is telling us of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then he begins to talk about, this is what he’s gonna do in the world. He’s gonna convict the world of sin, the sin of not believing on Jesus. Of righteousness, the fact that Jesus is the righteousness of God. And Jesus made righteousness available to every person through his death and resurrection. Of righteousness because I go to my Father, and of judgment, not because you’re judged, but because Satan, the prince of this world has already been judged, Satan is a defeated foe. We’ve read the end of the book, we know how it ends, and we know those who have faith in Jesus win, praise God.

That’s right, yeah.

But then he says in verse 12, I got lots of things to tell you, but you can’t grasp ’em now, you can’t understand ’em. But when the Holy Ghost has come, what’s he gonna do? So Barbara, read John 16:12-16. If you wanna say anything, just share it, it’ll be great.

I like what it says in verse 12. It says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you,” I like that, don’t you?

Yes, amen.

“I will declare it to you.” In verse 15, “All things that the Father has our mind. Therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you a little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while, and you will see me because I go to the Father.”

Amen, so when we begin to look at this, it tells us, number one, the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth. What is the truth?

The truth of what God’s word has said.

Amen, so Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth,” John 17:17 in the very next chapter. And Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light.” So the word’s gonna show you Jesus.

Amen.

Amen, and the word is the truth, so both of those things. Jesus, he is the embodiment. Jesus is the living word, right?

That’s right.

So the word of God is the truth. So he says, “I’ll guide you into all truth.” Then he says, “He will show you things to come.” Has the Holy Spirit ever shown you something to come?

Yes.

Give us an example.

Well, I believe he has shown me what’s coming to my mind. I’m not sure which example you wanted me to use, but we’ve shared it before about the cattle business situation. You know, you were, showed me on paper why it’d work, and there was just something in me that said, “Don’t do it.”

Right, this was years ago, when we were pastoring in Eastern Colorado, and I bought a small growing lot to start cattle. And then the business grew and I was buying cattle in different states and different places, and had other people buying for me. And we had a man in Nebraska that had been buying cattle, Southern Nebraska for us for about five years. I was working with a feedlot owner there in North Central Kansas, just across the Nebraska border. And it always worked out good. And he asked me to partner with him on a deal, and do this thing, and you kept just saying, I looked at it on paper and it looked like, “Hey, this is a win-win thing, there’s no way this can lose.” And you just kept saying, no, I just don’t feel good about it. But finally you said, “Hey, I’m gonna let you do it, but I’m gonna go on record saying, I don’t wanna do this. I don’t feel good about it.” And we actually ended up in that thing having 100 head of cattle stolen, a semi-load of cattle, about 500 pound calves. And we’d been dealing with this guy for five years, never had a problem, and yet that came up. And by the grace of God, you know, it was so good. We only lost $15,000, and God helped us recover that. But I’d have been better if I would’ve listened to what you had to say.

So it’s interesting, you know, the Lord knows people’s hearts-

Right.

And what they’re gonna do. And I believe because of God’s grace, he gives everybody time to repent and do what’s right. But he still warns us, and you know, a lot of people sometimes think, why did things happen? Or why did this happen? And I believe God does talk to us, but people aren’t always listening.

Right, and so we need to keep listening. And, so he says, number one, he’ll guide you into all truth. Number two, he will show you things to come. Number three, He said, “He will glorify me.” The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus.

Yeah, I like that one-

“For he’ll take the things that are mine and show it to you.” So God has a plan for us, Christ has a plan for us. But it takes the Holy Spirit to take those things from the presence of God the Father and Jesus, and show them to us. And the Holy Spirit’s the one, really that’s working on the earth and working in our hearts and our minds, so thank God he reveals things to us. And I thank God for revelation that comes from the Holy Spirit, praise God. My life would not be what it is. You know, we are so blessed. God showed us his supernatural things by his spirit. For instance, in November, I believe it was November 4th, 2015, I was preaching for a man named Dean Melton in Charlotte, North Carolina. And when I got done preaching, he jumped up and pointed his finger at me and said, “2016 is your year and God is gonna give you a building.” He said, “Realize, you’re gonna have to pay something for it.” And when he did that, it shot through me like fire. And I thought, “That is the word of the Lord.” And then I came back three or four weeks later, Dr. Doug Weiss walked in my office and he said, “I’m gonna build a building right down the street here.” And I said, “Doug, how big?” It was from our old church on Elkton Drive. He said, “About 20,000 square foot.” I said, “How much that cost?” He said, “20,000 or $2 million.” I said, “Well Doug, I’ve had a word from God and I have this building here, it’s 27,000 square feet. And God’s gonna give us a building so this could be available if you want it to.” And I said, “By the way, if you build that out, by the time you get done buying the lot, putting in the street, putting in the government pond, putting in the parking lot, and doing all the extra things, it’ll probably cost over 3 million, more likely over 3.5 million,” which it would’ve. And he walked around a little bit. He said, “What would you sell this to me for?” I said, “I sell it to you for 2 million.” Now I’m good at getting things done, value, right? And we did that in a downturn and I had 2.35 million in that property. And so, Doug walked around a little bit and said, “That’s God, that’s what we’re gonna do.” And by the grace of God that happened. Now it took a little longer than we thought, but actually, God woke Doug up in, it was in the beginning of March, I think it was Saturday, March 4th, 2017, that God woke Doug up and said, “Go look for a building.” He said, “God, I’m tired of looking for a building.” He said, “You go look for a building right now.” And he found this building that we’re in on a bank auction. And he emailed it to me about 10, 10:30 in the morning, said, “Pastor Lawson, I don’t think this is my building. I think this is the new church building.” And praise God, by the grace of God it was, we’d been looking for over a year, every door had been closed, and then God supernaturally opened this up. We bought it at a bank auction, got a fantastic deal on it. Amen, we built it out. And then Doug bought the building that we were in for his business, so on and so forth. And it’s just supernatural how God put all that together. And you know what? God will do supernatural things when you listen to him.

That’s right, and I love how he leads us in the way to go. “Steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord and he delights his way.”

Amen, so praise God, He shows us different ways. He shows us by leading us by the Spirit. He shows us through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will give words to you from his word. He shows us by peace. You know, if you’re born again and you’re married, and you’re baptized the Holy Spirit, I believe if you both really have peace about a decision and you’re not trying to manipulate one another, I believe over 90% of the time, that’s the will of God. That is the plan of God.

And I like what you brought out too, peace. You know, we had a minister friend that said, “Always pursue after peace.” You know, when you’re thinking about which way to go, what am I supposed to do? He says, “You need to be led forth with peace.”

And if you don’t have peace, don’t do it.

That’s right.

Don’t violate the peace of God. So the word of God, right? The witness of the Holy Spirit, the peace of God. Another thing is Godly counsel. In the multitude of counselors, Proverbs says, “There is safety,” right? And so, thank God we need God to counsel. And last of all, by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we don’t leave those out. But it is not the gifts of the Holy Spirit without all of those other things. We would never go against the written Word of God.

That’s right.

Against the understanding of what God said in his word. So we’ve got to allow God to lead us by the Spirit. He leads us into the Word, He leads us by peace. He leads us by the voice of Godly counsel. He leads us through gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit. So it takes a relationship with God and Christ through the Holy Spirit to possess your God-given destiny, and it’s available to everybody.

That’s right.

Barbara, share a word with them or pray for the people real quickly.

Well, dear heavenly Father, I just pray in the name of Jesus for those watching right now, that the word of God has encouraged them and blessed them. Lord, I thank you that you are revealing and downloading the amazing plans that you have for them. And I just know Lord-

Praise God.

That they’re gonna walk in that destiny that you have for them, and it is going to be good.

If you don’t have a church home, we would love to have you at Charis Christian Center. Praise God, Sunday morning. If you can’t be here in person, you can live stream our services. We have people that live stream us all over the world. And so you can find that on YouTube or charischristiancenter.com Sunday mornings, also Wednesday evenings, and we would love to have you. Also, we have 100s of hours of downloadable video, downloadable audio teachings, free of charge on our website at charischristiancenter.com.

To understand your destiny, you must first know your creator. In order to step into the good plans that God has for you, it is essential to have a relationship with Jesus. You’re not here by accident. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of, “Possessing Our Destiny,” a $20 value, free of charge. You can download your copy today by going to charischristiancenter.com.

Friends, I want to thank you for being with us today. It’s our pleasure to share with you the word of God. We believe it changes lives and because of that, we’re broadcasting all around the world. It costs me right now around $2 million a year just for my staff and paying for our broadcast costs. But if you wanna become a partner and help us share the message all around the world, we would love to hear from you today. Friend, I invite you to pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your son. I believe that He died for my sins, and you raised Him from the dead on the third day and made him Lord. And right now I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen. Thank you so much for being with us today, blessings.

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