My Destiny (Part 1) | Ep. 181

My destiny is not a solo quest. It's a shared goal that we all have in common. We're all moving toward becoming like Christ Jesus, the image of God. This is our destiny and this goal remains fixed while our roles shift with the seasons. That simple distinction—goal versus role—cuts through the confusion that makes purpose feel slippery and hard to grasp.

From there, we get practical. We explore Paul’s framework for transformation: don’t conform to the world, be transformed by renewing your mind, and you’ll demonstrate what is good, acceptable, and perfect in the eyes of God. The path is concrete: put off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light; make no provision for the flesh; choose truth, humility, patience, and forgiveness. Whether Paul says “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” “put on the new self,” or “renew knowledge in the image of your Creator,” the call is the same—shed the old and dress for the life you were made to live.

We also lean into the tension of faith: we are God’s children now, yet what we shall be hasn’t fully appeared. That “now and not yet” doesn’t paralyze us; it focuses us. Like runners pacing for a long race, we press toward the prize of the upward call, returning to the heart for renewal when we’re spent. Along the way we challenge the social divides that crowd our identity, pointing to Christ as all and in all, and elevate love as the bond of perfection that brings the whole life together.

Chapters

• 0:00 Blood Cells And Spiritual Purpose
• 0:26 Goal Versus Role Clarified
• 4:18 Sports Metaphors For Purpose
• 6:01 Renewing The Mind In Romans 12
• 8:45 Seasons, Shedding, And Renewal
• 11:03 Faith Identity Now And Not Yet
• 14:30 Pressing Toward The Upward Call
• 17:18 Casting Off Darkness, Putting On Light
• 21:07 Old Man Off, New Man On
• 25:44 Christ As All In All
• 29:20 Love As The Bond Of Perfection
• 32:20 Closing And Support Invitation

Transcript

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 0:03

The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much-needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose. Hello everyone, and welcome to our Father's Heart. As you can tell from the quality of the sound recording, this is one of those special ones again. Yes, I am speaking directly to you. This is one of those special messages, not a pre-recorded message that I've done in the past that I just share through podcasts, but uh just one where I get to speak directly to you, the listener. And today I want to talk about or share about my destiny. However, it's interesting that my destiny is actually your destiny. Not because I'm special, not because you're special, but the interesting thing about our destiny is that it is a shared destiny. When we are called into covenant with our God, Jesus, He has a destiny for each and every one of us. And it's actually the same destiny. And the words that we kind of use when we talk about destiny is purpose. What is my purpose? What is our purpose? And when I looked into that uh definition, it's a noun, it's not a verb or an adjective. Um and it means something that one hopes or intends to accomplish. And then it says see goal. So, like goal is a is a good word uh for purpose. But uh a second component of that uh definition of purpose is the action for which a person or thing is specially fitted or used, or for which a thing exists. And then it says at the end, see role. And I thought that was interesting because one of the things that I think we struggle with is we confuse our goal with our role, yet both of those are kind of uh somehow linked to this word purpose, and we have to understand that there is a distinction between a role that we might play or a goal that we might have. And so the way that I think about it is in order for us to achieve our goal, which can be thought of as our purpose, to achieve our purpose, we need to fulfill a role in certain seasons of our life. But our ever-changing roles in life are nothing but a means to an end. The end is our goal. And so when I think of it that way, that we might have changing roles in the different seasons of our life, but those roles, that that's not our destiny. Those are those are temporary. You know, when when we're involved in in sporting activities like football, you know, I remember there was a coach, uh uh the coach of the Jets, and he was being grilled with questions, and and and his famous saying that he came out of it that became very popular was you play to win the game. And that's our and in a sense, in a microcosm, that's a team's goal. They want to win the game, they want to win the the championship, they want to win the Super Bowl, if you will. But in order to win the game, they've got to do certain things in order to win the game. Each, you know, department of the team, the defense, the offense, the special teams, they all have to do their job and and do it effectively, do it better than their opponents in order to win the game, because winning the game is the goal. You know, when you when you get into a race, whether it's a long-distance race or a sprint, your goal is to win the race. But in order to win the race, in between the start and the finish, there are certain things that you need to do in order to win the race. Maybe it's start off the blocks well. Don't uh pace, maybe, maybe it's pacing yourself so that you can last the race. Because not everything is a sprint, sometimes it's a marathon. Uh, it's a long distance, and and you can't go out too fast, or you're not going to be able to last that long at that pace. So you've got to kind of pace yourself. So those are certain little things that we do, but they're not the goal. They're not the end result. And so when I think of that and and and the differing roles that we play in this life, those roles I recognize are merely the means to attain the purpose or the intended goal. And I think about that spiritually, that there must be a constant and steady renewal in our lives in order to achieve our destiny. And the scriptures or Paul speaks of it in Romans chapter twelve. He says, Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And in doing so, then you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In Paul's context, there, we are supposed to demonstrate what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God on earth. We should be the ones demonstrating that. But in order to get there, he recognizes that one of our pitfalls or our struggles is that we struggle to get away from being conformed to this world. And we can't be conformed to this world and achieve our destiny. That though those two things are antithetical to each other. They work against each other. So he says, but we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. This renewing helps us attain our intended purpose or destiny. So I think about how life is just cyclical. We have seasons in our life: spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, winter. And there's a constant cycle in this life. And it's necessary, and the changes of the season mark changes of the times, changes of the season, and that causes us to age. Not basically causes us, but we can tell, we can kind of record how we are progressing age-wise by the changing of the seasons. Because as we go through spring, summer, fall, winter, boom, there's a full year. Spring, summer, fall, winter, boom, there's another year. And so we use those to kind of measure our increase in age. Now, just because you increase in age doesn't necessarily make uh mean that you increase in maturity. But that idea is found different times and many times in the scriptures and in creation. You know, in order for us to grow and develop in our in our in our you know, from infancy to toddlers to to you know young kids to adolescents, you know, scientifically speaking, we are constantly shedding the old so that we can mature in the new. We don't just grow uh our birth as an adult. You know, some of us may not know this, but we we shed our old skin, which makes up a lot of the dust around in our homes. The dust that's in our homes is really uh uh remnants of that that old skin that we have, and obviously other things and other particles, but part of it is our our old skin. And and the one of the reasons why we take a shower, you know, every day. If we're in that, you know, uh vicinity where we're capable of doing that, we take a shower every day and it rinses off, it washes off the old, and and then we get refreshed and and we're we're kind of you know renewed again, and and we see it in creation like with a snake. A snake sheds off its old skin, and as the skin underneath grows, it sheds off the old skin in order to move into its newfound skin that was growing underneath. You know, we we in and and and if you think about that um and and this this concept of renewing our mind in order to prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, well, renewing our mind is renewing our thinking. We need to shed off our old skin or our old way of thinking, our old paradigms of thought, so that we can move in new paradigms of thought. And these new paradigms are God's paradigm of thought. So today, as we as we walk out our faith walk, our purpose is now, it it in the present state or in the present uh time is only known by faith. Let me read a few scriptures to to give you an idea of what I'm trying to say here. In in Galatians chapter 3, verse 26 to 27, Paul again uh writing to uh the saints, he says, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Because as many as you that have been baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. But he says, We are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And then we have uh another apostle, Paul says in first John three, two, he says, Beloved, now we are the children of God. It it hasn't been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, meaning Jesus, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Those are interesting because Paul and John are talking about a present state of existence, but then John puts a caveat on it and he says, you know, it's true, we are the children of God. Paul says we are the sons of God through faith, but but John said the caveat is it it's not revealed yet. It's not manifested yet. What we shall be, but what we shall be is we shall be like him. That is a truth. So by faith, we are children of God. May not may not be experientially yet, because you know, when we look at each other, no one, no one looks at either one, you know, you looking at me and me looking at you, unless you have the eyes of faith, unless you have the eyes of the Spirit, no one really looks at each other and and says, Oh, yeah, you, you, you, you are a child of God. You know, we we have to have our minds renewed to that. Because when we look at each other, we just look at another human being who's just like us, who's just as confident as us, prideful as us, or maybe insecure and weak as us, and and and we see all the imperfections in each other, and sometimes we project our own imperfections on other people. And and and so what we are by faith is not yet revealed. But the truth is that we're going to be just like him. And and and the fact is we are presently the children of God, even though it doesn't look like it. The this word of God has not been made manifest or revealed in our lives. Not yet. So, in the meantime, we haven't reached our destiny yet. My destiny, your destiny, our destiny has not been reached. It's not revealed yet what we shall be. So we are charged in the present as as how do we get there? Well, we we've got a role to play. We there's certain things that we need to do in the present. And in the scriptures, we are charged to walk in a manner befitting our calling. We are there's no doubt we are called to be just like him. We are called to be in a state of perfection that we we have we can't comprehend. We really can't. But God's word is true, and so when we read God's word, we need to take him at his word and hold on to it and embrace it, even though, well, it doesn't feel like I'm perfect. And it, you know, I see myself as weak, I see myself as insecure, I see myself as you know, every time I want to do something and I have the desire and the motivation and and I go all out, I sometimes still miss the mark. I sometimes still fail at what I intended to do. So looking back on what Paul said, he said in Philippians 3 14, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Even though Paul is not there yet, in his present state of existence, he presses on, he presses toward the goal. And this goal is that there's an upward calling upon him that God has placed upon him, and it is found in Christ Jesus. So what I'm sharing right now is that we're living in a state of existence where it is a means to the end. And there are certain things that we have to do in this life, in our present state of existence, so that we can obtain perfection, we can obtain righteousness, we can obtain the things that that really only come through faith in Christ Jesus. We must put on ourselves his righteousness now. Now, some listeners may listen to this and start thinking, oh, he's talking about works, works, works, and you know, I'm not I'm not talking about works that are necessary for us to obtain our own salvation. I'm not talking about that. Our salvation is found through faith in Christ Jesus. He's the one who saves us, he's the one who delivers us, he's the one who heals us, he's the one who perfects us. But in order to obtain those promises of God, we do need to do something. Our minds need to be renewed. We need to get rid of our old stinking thinking. We need to start aligning our thoughts, our wills with His, so that we can walk in the manner that is befitting our calling and walk in the direction that he's calling us unto, so that in the end we can obtain those promises, his righteousness, his purity, his perfection. Those things that without him, there's no way that we can obtain them. So Paul, I'm bringing up Paul again, he talks a lot about this. He he says in Romans chapter 13, verses 12 through 14, he says, you know, the night is far spent, but the day is at hand. I mean we've been and and it wow, we you know, I just read uh Genesis uh chapters one through four, and it talks about how on the first day he created the light, and he separated the darkness and the light. He made a distinction between the light and the darkness. And I believe that Paul is speaking of here when he's talking about the night, he's talking about wickedness, he's talking about evil, he's talking about the way that we've been walking has been in darkness. And remember that on the in Genesis, in the beginning, the earth was formless, it was void, there was darkness on the face, on the very face of of there was darkness in the depths as he hovered over the face of the waters. I mean, it would the earth was was was you being used as a metaphor as we read it in Genesis of mankind apart from God. And it was in darkness, wickedness. And so that night, that that night of existence has been far spent, but you know what? The day is at hand. And because of this, he says, therefore, because of this, let us cast off the works of darkness. You see, you see, Paul is saying there's something that we need to do. Let us, writing to the Saints and including himself in it because he's saying, let us. He didn't say, hey, you guys, you guys. No, let us cast off the works of darkness. We got to put away the wickedness, the evil things. So sometimes he's used the uh the works of the flesh or the works of darkness, in this case, the works of darkness. And then he says, in contrast, cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Now he's using the armor as a metaphor. And if the works of darkness are the evil, wicked things that we do, then the armor of light is really a metaphor that we need to clothe ourselves in righteous living, in good works. And so he furthermore says, Let us walk properly, as in the day, as as we should in the day, meaning the day representing good things, light, the things that are light, not darkness. And so he contrasts and he says, not in revelry, not in drunkenness, not in lewdness. He's naming the works of the darkness that we all seem to have to have trouble uh casting off lewdness and lust, strife and envy. All of these things are the type of things that he's talking about when he says, cast off the works of darkness. And in contrast, put on the armor of light, he says in verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we do that? What does that mean? Put on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, he says he can just keep reading. The context usually bears out what is the meaning of what uh uh the authors uh of the of the different books of the Bible are saying. It says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, meaning give no opportunity for the flesh to live out its desires, to fulfill its lust, he says, and he follows it. So in these contexts, Paul is saying we need to put on the armor of light, good works, walking honestly, put on Jesus Christ. That's what he said to the Romans. He put it in that context. But he this is not the only time that Paul talks about this. He talks about it to the Ephesians. He says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 20 listen, you guys didn't learn Christ this way. If indeed you have heard from him, if you have been taught by Jesus as the truth is in Jesus, and then he says, What did it what it is that they learned in Christ? That you put off concerning your former conduct. The old ways in which you live, you've put it off. That old man, so now he's using this term, the old man, representing the old way that you used to walk, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. See how he uses this old this old man to represent one who was walking in the ways of darkness, the works of darkness that he talked about with the Romans. And and it is deceitful lust, the revelry, the drunkenness, the newness, the strife, the envy. And he contrasts that in verse Ephesians chapter 4, verse 23. He says, And be renewed, he says it again to a different set of saints, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man. So he didn't say, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, but it makes sense why he might say to the Romans, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Ephesians, it's a synonymous way of saying, put on the new man. Well, who's the new man? That's Jesus. Because if you remember, Paul again speaks about there was the first Adam, and then there was the last Adam. Last Adam he was referring to Jesus. And this new man, which was created according to God, in what? In true righteousness and holiness. So remember these two men that I spoke of in First Corinthians. There's two men in a sense, or two types of men, that could be our father. Let's kind of put it in that respect. We can either have our father be the first Adam and we know who he was and what he did and what happened to him. He was a man of the flesh. He decided to do what was right in his own eyes, being led of his wife at the time to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that looked desirable for food. It looked good, but it was completely in disobedience to what God had commanded of them when he placed them in the garden to tend it and to keep it. So the first Adam could be our father, and in a sense, yes, he is our father, because we have all, every one of us has fallen in disobedience, just like the first Adam. But the second Adam obeyed, obeyed faithfully every day, even unto death. The death of the cross. The first Adam is likened to the old man, corrupt in its lust, which deceived him. But the second Adam, Christ, is the new man. He is the very image of God created in righteousness and holiness. Jesus is the invisible God made visible. This isn't the only place that Paul speaks of putting on and putting off. He speaks to the saints of Colosse. We call the the letter Colossians. In chapter 3, verse 8 through 15, he says it. He's very consistent. You gotta give Paul a lot of credit because it didn't matter what saints he was writing to, whether they were in Ephesus or uh Thessalonians or the Thessalonica or Colosse or Corinth or the Romans, he was very, very consistent. And so let's read, and starting in verse 8, he says, but now you yourselves are to put off all these. And in case you're not sure what he's saying to put off, because before he said to put off the works of the darkness, put off revelry, drunkenness, lewdness, lust, strife, and envy, put off your former conduct, put off the old man, put off that thing that was corrupt according to deceitful lust. He gets very specific. He says in to the Colossians, he says, put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth, stop lying to one another. I mean, he names it specifically. What is this old man or old way of doing things? And he says, Since you have put off the old man with his deeds, if you are going to stop engaging in those foul, corrupt, deceitful behaviors, he then says, You got to do something else. In verse 10, put on the new man, or in some translations, put on the new. Who is this new is a man that is renewed in knowledge. See, he's using those same words. It's that renewal of the mind is absolutely necessary in order to attain the destiny, the calling that God has for us. We need to be renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created Him. We need to be renewed in the image of Jesus, where we don't see Greek, we don't see Jew, we don't see black, we don't see white, we don't see circumcised, we don't see uncircumcised, we don't see barbarians, we don't see Scythians, we don't see slaves, we don't see uh free persons, we don't see rich people, we don't see poor people, you know, you know, all of these divisions that that are that are constant that we live in in this day and age. We don't see those anymore if we're renewed in the knowledge, recognizing, but in Christ is all in all. He is the epitome, he is the target, not I'm trying to be rich, I'm trying to have possessions, I'm trying to be the most intellectual, I'm trying to be the most athletic, I'm trying to be the best musician, I'm trying to be the best singer, I'm trying to be the best, all of all of these things that we strive for in this life, pale, just meaninglessly in comparison to being found in Christ, because in Christ is everything, all in all. And because of this, he says, therefore, because of this, elect of God, saints of God, you that are holy, you that are beloved, do these things, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bear with each other, forgive each other. If anyone has a complaint about another person, just like Christ forgave you, just forgive them. But above all, all of that is absolutely it's the role, it's the actions we need to take in this present state of existence in order to attain a goal. We've got to do those things. But then he says, But above all, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, the love of God that is at work in us, that the scripture says the love of God was poured out in us when we received the gift of the Holy Spirit, allowing him to work in us through the love that he has, not just for us, but for all his creation, all the rest of the human beings. Let that be what reigns in our heart, because that's the bond that is going to bring us to the perfection state that is our destiny. He said, Furthermore, let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. If you were blessed and appreciate listening to this podcast and you would like to support us in our efforts, consider lifting us up in prayer first. Then remember these four social media buzzwords share, like, subscribe, or follow. Share this podcast link with someone else by text, email, or word of mouth in the hopes that they might be uplifted as you were. 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