My Destiny (Part 2) | Ep. 182

Destiny is not a moving target; it’s a promise God set before time began. We walk through the tension between what’s guaranteed—resurrection, incorruption, immortality—and what’s required daily: surrender in trials, holiness in habits, and love that looks like Jesus in the open. The heart of the message is transformation from the inside out, shifting from the old man to the new man, empowered by His Spirit as we align our will to His.

We unpack how trials function as a barometer of surrender, revealing whether we trust God when expectations collapse. Drawing on Paul, Peter, and John, we connect “Christ in you, the hope of glory” with a practical path: clothe yourself with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love. Peter’s growth ladder—faith to virtue to knowledge to self-control to perseverance to godliness to brotherly kindness to love—mirrors Paul’s call to put on Christ, showing how grace enables what effort alone cannot. Along the way, we contrast servant mindset with sonship, highlight the church’s role in equipping believers to reach the fullness of Christ, and return often to the assurance that God’s word stands even when circumstances shake.

This conversation is honest and concrete: live quietly, mind your business, work with your hands, walk honestly before outsiders, and let peace rule your heart. We press on not because we have arrived, but because the Spirit strengthens each step. The trumpet will sound, and we shall be changed—yet our formation starts now.

Chapters

• 0:00 Vision Of Blood And Renewal
• 0:26 Old Man Versus New Man
• 2:43 Trials As Tests Of Surrender
• 4:18 Destiny Set From Eternity
• 5:10 Mystery: Changed In A Moment
• 7:18 Christ In You, Hope Of Glory
• 8:17 Saved And Called With Purpose
• 9:36 New Man Versus Good Works
• 11:21 Grace That Sustains, Not Self
• 12:40 Pressing Toward The Goal
• 13:43 Sanctification As God’s Will
• 15:03 Means: Quiet Life And Love
• 16:09 From Servants To Sons
• 17:26 Equipped To Reach Fullness
• 18:25 Crown Of Righteousness Ahead
• 19:15 Love As The Agent Of Perfection
• 20:13 Be Sons Now, Shine His Light
• 21:18 Closing And Support Requests

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. You see, this old man is a corrupted image of God and is unrecognizable in comparison to our Heavenly Father. The new man that is renewed and is created in the knowledge after the image of God is our destiny. And this knowledge causes this new man in this present state of existence to be full of things that the old man was not full of. The old man was selfish, but the new man is full of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. The new man forbears and forgives and puts on charity like a garment, like clothing. To where anywhere he goes, everybody sees the way he's dressed. Again, it's just metaphor, allegory to get us to understand that we have to walk in this present state of existence in a way that is befitting our destiny. Everything that is between our present day and our destiny, which is in the future, is just trials by fire. And these trials God uses to mold us into our destiny, which is remember, we shall be like Him. Not only are we to recognize who we are at the present, which is a child of God, these trials by fire that God is using, which is a process in order to become a son of God, he's using it to confirm his handiwork in our lives. So that afterward we should be able to say, I am not the man I used to be. But I'm not yet where I need to be. The trials are the test of surrender. It's they're the barometer that measures our yieldiness in different moments and circumstances in our lives. I mean, think about how easily we revert back to our carnality when the going gets tough. When things are not going our way in life, when we're hitting wall after wall after wall, impediment after impediment, obstacle after obstacle. It gets frustrating, doesn't it? Let's be honest. These things get frustrating to us. And sometimes we lash out and sometimes we take it out on other people that had nothing to do with what we're frustrated about. But it's in those moments where God is testing our faith because He wants our faith to be found tried and true. To what extent do we really trust Him when everything is seemingly coming crashing down all around us and all of our dreams and all of the things that maybe we were fighting for or just don't work out the way that we planned? None of the things that we experience are what we call our circumstances, which change, like our emotions, they change all the time. None of that changes God's word. None of that changes God's calling, the goal, our destiny, brothers and sisters, it is set in stone. And it was spoken from eternity past, from a time that we we know not of. We were not around when he had already worked out in his mind what we call the logos. He had already worked out in his mind. Oh, they're gonna do that, but but I'm gonna redeem them, I'm gonna save them, I'm gonna restore them. I'm gonna make a way for them. Because I I love them. It's set in stone when we read 1 Corinthians 15, another letter written by Paul in verse 50 51 through 54. He said, Behold, take a look at this. I tell you a mystery. Listen to this mystery. We're not all gonna sleep. But I will tell you, we're all gonna be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For there's a trumpet that's gonna sound, and the dead are gonna be raised incorruptible. That which was corrupted through death and decay is gonna be raised incorruptible. And we're all going to be changed. Because the destiny, the word of God says that this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortality must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Again, this is all prophetic. It is written, death is swallowed up in victory. The destiny is already set in stone. There is nothing that can stop the word of God from coming to pass. Not everybody's gonna sleep, but definitely all of us, meaning those that are faithfully loyal to Him, loyal, continue in faith, loving Him loyally, that we're all gonna be changed. And he says, back to Colossians, he says in chapter one, verse 27, he says, To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. In order for Him to clothe us or robe us in the incorruptible, in the immortal, we must now, in our present state of existence, put on and clothe our spirits, clothe our physical actions, our behaviors in this natural world that are seen by the eyes of men. We need to clothe ourselves the way that he said, putting on the new man, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is how we put on the armor of light. We walk in righteousness, we walk in holiness. He says it in this way to Timothy, his spiritual son. He second he said in the second letter to Timothy, chapter 1, verse 9. He saved us and called us with a holy calling. God saved us and called us with a holy calling, but it wasn't about it wasn't according to works. He saved us and called us with a holy calling according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us how? In Christ Jesus, when before time began. That's powerful. Because if you go back and reread Genesis, it says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, there's your time, God created the heavens, there's your space, and the earth, there's your matter. Time, space, and matter. Well, before that, before that, it says according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus, he saved us and called us with a holy calling. Because it was already in his mind the logos of what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. When he speaks of our own works, he's talking about our own good works, independent of the knowledge of God. He didn't save us according to that. He didn't save us because we did good things. The old man is quite capable of being good, of doing good, but never capable of being perfect. Remember, the new man is created in the knowledge after the image of God. The new man gives God the glory for all things that he does that are righteous, for all things that he does that are holy, because he recognizes that all things done by the new man are sanctified by the Lord. They're sanctified by Christ in you, the hope of glory. They're sanctified by the Spirit of God that indwells us. When I mean us, I mean those that have come into covenant with God. So Peter, let's bring in another apostle. We brought up Paul, we brought up John. Let's see what Peter had to say. Peter also spoke. He said, Therefore, because of all this, brethren, be even more diligent. You see, there's something that we're responsible for. Yes, God has saved us with a holy calling and done it before the beginning of time, but there's still something that we need to do in order to obtain or appropriate the promises of God, and in this case, our destiny. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and your election sure. Because he says, if you do these things, what things? The things that he spoke about in the beginning verses of 2 Peter chapter 1 before I got to 10. And you can read that on your own. But if you do these things, you will never stumble. What were these things that he was talking about? Let's read them. Let's just go back a few verses. Let's start, I'd say in verse 3. As his divine power. Think about what I just said about Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Spirit of God that dwells in you. That is the divine power of God, has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises. These are the promises I've been talking about, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature. This new man partakes of the divine nature. The divine nature, meaning the nature of God Himself. And how, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, see that all of these things that Paul was contrasting, the old man, the old ways, the wickedness, the darkness, put on the new man who is renewed, uh you know, with good works and righteousness and holiness. Peter talks about it in very much the same way because he says the we escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And for this reason, give all diligence. Remember, he said in verse 10, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure. So, what were the things that we were supposed to do that if we do these things will never sumber? Well, it says, give all your diligence to add to your faith virtue. It's not just about faith. Add to your faith virtue, and then add to your virtue knowledge, and then add to your knowledge self-control. Add to your self-control perseverance, patience, add to your perseverance godliness, add to your godliness brotherly kindness, and to your brotherly kindness love. I mean, I hope that as I share this with you, and hopefully you're reading the scriptures yourself, but I hope that you can see that what Peter just said there was so uncannily similar to how Paul described it. He just used a different format or way of expressing himself, but it's literally the same concept and principle. And if we do these things, then we will never stumble. Because it is the Lord that is sustaining us. It is the Lord by his grace that is giving us the grace to do things that we cannot do on our own. The old man, he may do good, he may try to sustain himself, but inevitably he's going to fall. Why? Because his works are imperfect before the Lord. Because his works are done in his own strength. And when you do stuff in your own strength, you're going to get tired and you're going to fail. Think I'm trying to make it practical here, so I'm just thinking off the top of my head. Think about how any sport in the beginning of the season, everyone is fresh, everyone is ready to go, and man, the quality of the game is at a high level, whether it's soccer, basketball, football. Why? Because everybody's fresh, everybody's without injuries and all that stuff. But what happens over time? As let's think about it, you could think about it in the season, or you can think about it in a game. What happens as time goes on and you're going through the first quarter, the second quarter, the third quarter, the fourth quarter? Isn't everybody getting tired? Isn't the shots that were falling so easily at the beginning of the game, well, they're not falling as easily or as accurately at the end of the game. Well, think about the season. Things that you did in the early part of the season where you got to surprise people and do new things, man, at the end of the season. Everybody knows what you're doing or how you're gonna go do it, and so they, you know, set up their defenses to stop you, and everything just gets harder. Well, that's what happens with man. He may start off well, he may start off with the greatest of genuine and sincere intentions to do the right thing, but he always succumbs. He always succumbs. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And once he falls, once we fall, we're blemished. We're stained. That's it for life. And we cannot wipe the slate clean. We cannot undirty, unsully ourselves. But the new man, if we walk in the new man, he has his slate wiped by the blood of the lamb. We can't do it ourselves, but the blood of the lamb can cleanse us, make us white as snow, so that all of our past sins have been wiped away clean, they're forgiven, they're never to be remembered again. And then we walk in a manner and a state of being where our works are now dependent on the Lord. And we glory in that. We in other words, we recognize and acknowledge that all of our good works are as filthy rags before the Lord if they are not sustained and energized by the very Spirit of God Himself. Because all of our works, we boast in ourselves. Oh, we did it, we did this, we did that. No. When we come into covenant with God and we humble ourselves, we recognize it's all about Him. It's Christ all in all. So when we put on this new man and we allow ourselves to be led, to be guided, to be taught, to move by following Him, then all of our ways are now pure and holy. Because it is the Lord that is the one that is sanctifying us and not us sanctifying ourselves. It is the Lord that is saving us and not us saving ourselves. So remember what Paul said, Philippians 3:14. In this state of existence, I recognize I'm not the man I once was, but I'm not the man that I need to be yet. So I press, I press, I press toward the goal, I press toward my destiny. My destiny is that upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So when we start a race, maybe a marathon, I mean, we're we're right there at the starting line, and and in our mind we're envisioning, we're we're imagining the goal. Finish the race. You start with the goal, and then the the gunshot sounds, the firecracker sounds, to start the race, boom, you're off. You're running. Right? I mean, it is a race. You gotta run, you gotta run. You can't walk, you gotta run. You gotta run the race. And that that running is the means to attain the goal. So you start with the goal in mind, you run the race, and uh and in the end, you obtain the goal. So it starts with the goal. You go through the means, and then you get to the goal again. So let's look at something else that Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, that that is in the same vein of everything that I'm trying to contextualize here in regards to our destiny. He said to the Thessalonians, this is the will of God. This is the promise of God. This is what God desires for us. This is God's purpose for us. This is the will of God, your sanctification. What does it look like? He further says, he continues, that you should abstain, you should, in another words, put off from sexual immorality. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. That's something we got to do, brothers and sisters. We have to put off these things in order to walk in a manner that is befitting his calling upon our lives so that we can walk in a manner of sanctification, in a manner that is honorable. Let's continue in verse 7. Because God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Let us get our minds renewed and let us walk in holiness. Because remember, he cries out to us in 1 Peter 1:16. For I am holy. That's the goal. Our perfection, our being holy, to be like Him. So going back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 9, but concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. Skip over to verse 11, that you also aspire, aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside and that you may lack nothing. So thinking about goal, the means, back to the goal, let's focus on the means. The means is about the role that we play. What's our role in this present state of existence, in this present state of life? It is that we love one another. Is that we don't draw attention to ourselves. Our role is to walk honestly with everyone that surrounds us. Why? Look at verse 16. Because the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Ooh. So he spoke to the Thessalonians about rising up, but he said to the same thing to the Corinthians. So, wow, and what we did, we just read previously what will happen when we meet the Lord in the air. Let's go back to it. First Corinthians 15. Behold, remember, behold, take a look. I'm telling you a mystery. We're not all gonna sleep, but we shall all be changed. In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, that the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That's the goal. To be changed, to be raised incorruptible, to put on immortality is the goal. But to get there, to get there, we've got to walk in the means that gets us to obtain, love one another. Don't draw attention to yourself, mind your own business, work for yourself, walk honestly with everyone around you. And among all of the other things that that Paul advised us, commanded us to do. Remember, John said, beloved, now, right now, you are the children of God. But it just hasn't been revealed what we shall be. I know it doesn't look like it, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like Him. That's the goal. We shall see Him as He is. So our role in this life is to put on Christ, walk in righteousness, holiness, with in our belly, in our spirit, uh, in our heart, mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, putting on love. Remember, love is the bond of perfectness, letting the peace of God rule in our hearts. See, our purpose, it is it is inexorably tied to our destiny. Being a servant of the Lord, it's not good enough anymore. We're not under the old covenant. Let me let me see if I can get you to understand what I'm trying to say. In Hebrews chapter 3, it said this about Moses. Moses indeed was a faithful in all of his house as a servant. In other words, Moses was a faithful servant in his house, and he was esteemed, and rightly so. He he faithfully served the Lord as a servant, and it was a testimony, it was a teaching uh to us of those things that would be spoken of afterward. But it says in in verse 6, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Remember, Paul said in 1 Corinthians that the church in the wilderness was baptized into the Moses and into the cloud. They were baptized into Moses and into the cloud. But guys, brothers and sisters, you guys know we're not baptized into Moses and the cloud. We're baptized into Christ and his spirit. That's Romans chapter 6. The new covenant brought about many changes, and in actuality, the bar or the standard of measure, you know, the plumb line has been raised. Let me let me share with you scripturally what I'm trying to say here. In Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, therefore, because of this, holy brethren, saints of God, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. If you've read Hebrews, you know that Jesus was being compared to the angels, being compared to, you know, great men of God, Moses, being compared to, or contrasted with Melchizedek, and being being compared to all these other things. And and when you finish reading Hebrews, you get, oh my goodness, Jesus is the ultimate. He's the pinnacle of it all. We need to become sons of the most high God. In doing so, we become joint heirs with Christ. That's Romans chapter 8, verse 17. Christ is the Son of God. He is the standard that we must attain to, for there is none other greater than He. Now, in reality, in order to attain the destiny, He created a means in which to obtain that destiny. Let me read for you in Ephesians chapter 4, 11 through 14, and he Himself gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Why? To equip the saints. It was the means for the saints to be effective in the work of the ministry, to edify the body of Christ. For how long? How long does it are we going to have all of these? Well, till we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, who is the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's how long? That's the means. He says to Paul to Timothy, Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4, 7 through 8, he says to Timothy, Son, I have fought the good fight of faith. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. If you don't know this, the second letter to Timothy, I believe, was the last letter Paul wrote, and he knew that his death was nigh. It was near. And so he's saying to them, Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but also to those who have loved his appearance. See, he's talking about what he said to the Corinthians and to the Thessalonians when they meet the Lord up in the air, the Lord is going to clothe us with righteousness. That crown of righteousness is going to be placed upon us. Not on Paul only, but us, meaning all those that loved his appearing when they see Him face to face. But Paul recognized, even he recognized that in the present state of existence, he wrote to the Philippians in chapter 3, verse 12, not that I have already attained, or I am already perfected. He recognized he was not there yet. He was not the man he was destined to be. He wasn't the man he once was, but he wasn't where he needed to be. So he pressed on. There he goes, he says it again. I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Our calling is to be perfected in Him. And that can only come by the agent of perfection in us. What's that agent of perfection? John spoke about it in first John chapter four, seventeen. He said, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we. When? In the future? Nope. Now so are we in this world, in this present state of existence. The agent of perfection is the love of God that he poured out in our hearts when he poured out his spirit within us. So I say it again, I reiterate it again. Beloved, you are the children of God. It doesn't look like it, it's not been revealed yet what you're going to be, but guaranteed you will be like Him. When you see Him, you will be just as he is. And in that moment is when the word of God, which was true when it was not yet revealed, it will be found to be true when it does become revealed. The sons of God will look like their father, and all the world will see that we really are children of the Most High God. So as I conclude, I could say I or I could say we. But so that we all understand this is our destiny, we need to be sons of God now, not later. We need to be manifesting the works of our Father in this place, now, in this present state of existence. We need to be shining his light in the midst of this dark and lost world. We need to recognize that the goals of this world, we need to acknowledge that they are not the goals of our Heavenly Father. We need to be found faithful in the here and now, in this world, and before our Father who is in heaven. We will have favor both in this world and before our Father who is in heaven, if we walk this out. And by faith, we will be sons of God now, so that in the end we can be a shining glimmer of evidence that his word is true and that we are sons of God. 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