Women Of Destiny

‘…may He equip you with all you need for doing His will.    May He produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him.   All glory to Him forever and ever! Amen.’  Hebrews 13:21

There are times when we might be overwhelmed by our circumstances whether it be in the workplace, our ministries, or in our personal lives.  When we look at our circumstance with our natural eyes and understanding, all reality tells us that what we are dealing with is far greater and bigger than we are, and with that reality also come thoughts of insecurity and fear.

“Am I really equipped to handle this?   I don’t feel qualified, I don’t have the degree or qualification that he/she has.   So and so has way more experience.   God should use that person instead, they are more gifted than me…” Have you ever had similar thoughts?

Insecurities and fear can often in times give us a spirit of fear and timidity.   They can paralyze us and stunt our God-given potential and can cause us to turn down what God wants to take us into.   When you notice this happening, call to mind the scripture in Hebrews, and remember that God will equip you to do His will.   You have His Spirit living inside of you and that qualifies you and makes your more than capable.   You can accomplish all that He has planned for you. You can do the unthinkable and achieve anything through His power and strength.

As women who have God’s Spirit within us, we are called to be bold for the Kingdom of God!   We are called to make a difference.

If you have been given an opportunity, or perhaps you are being called and led to start a ministry, to write, to speak, to take a stand, to be a leader, or to invite an unbeliever to church – don’t be afraid! Don’t be timid! Don’t let doubt and insecurity crowd your thoughts.  Boldly proclaim God’s Word and carry out what He is calling you to do.   Don’t let the objections overcome God’s assignment for you.

God equips us in proportion with our tasks.   If He has called you to something, He will equip you with the skills, the wisdom, the time, the energy, the courage and the boldness necessary to do His will.    We need to draw on Him and trust Him in those times, surrendering our all to Him and allow His grace to work in and through us.   You have the Spirit of the living God in you, therefore you can accomplish all that He has planned for you.

Be bold, be brave and let God be God in and through you.

-Pastor Leigh-Anne De Freitas

Anyone else a planner? Like you have to plan what you’re doing next month at work, or where you going next year, or even what the end goal of your current path is?

I know I used to be like that. I couldn’t ever just wonder through life aimlessly, I had to know what I was doing or going to do, and there had to be a reason for what I was doing. I had to have a plan, I could never just “go with the flow”.

The hardest thing I’ve had to do as a believer is let that go. You know how hard that is? For a planner to let their plans go? Just go with God’s flow? It was really hard for me, and I know that it might be a bit hard for some of you too. How do you hand over your plans to God and wonder through life only knowing the next step but not knowing where that step leads?

I had so many plans for my own life and I thought it was great and what God wanted, but God really did have other plans. I had set a plan for my future that I thought was the plan God also had but I didn’t realise that God was actually using what I thought I was going to do to take me to something better. I spent many nights crying out to God, begging Him to show me what I am supposed to do, and where He is taking me. Looking back now, I see what He was actually doing.

My plan was to go and study, and for the first time in a long time I actually knew exactly what I was good at, and I had never been more sure that this was exactly what God wanted me to do. Don’t get me wrong, I was following God’s lead, but where I thought I was going and where I ended up going were completely different.  I had applied and gotten into college but due to a lack of finances, I could not go through with registration. I remember asking God why He would lead me to that point if He knew I wouldn’t be able to actually go down that road. Countless nights spent praying that God would change my situation so that I might be able to go through with studying.

But God really did have a different plan, and I had to learn to live by what I said. I said God I give my life to you, but by me trying to control my own future, I was not really living out the words I had spoken. As a planner, this broke me in ways I could never explain. I had to let go of all the ideas and plans I had made in my head and just go with God’s flow. Finally I found myself lining up my plans up with what God wanted, and just like that it was all taken away from me.

Maybe its a little dramatic to say it broke me, but it really did. Because at that point I felt so lost and confused, I really didn’t know what God was doing and why He was doing it, but it brought me down to realise that I needed to hand control over to God. I had been trying to make my own plans for my life when actually I was supposed to be following God’s plans for my life. God basically had to humble me and get the planner in me to give Him control, to teach me that He is the planner and that I need to trust Him. His plans have been so much better than mine ever could’ve been, and I can say that with confidence, because although I am not at all where I thought I’d be, I am where I need to be.

Maybe you’re asking, well how can you be so sure that you are exactly where God needs you to be? Trust me, I have asked that question plenty of times, the planner in me kept trying to come up and make me question if I am actually in the right place. There is just an unexplainable peace and joy that comes upon you, your whole being just feels so at ease. Its like finding that comfortable position when you’re going to bed, it just feels so good and satisfying, when you’re in the right position that God put you, you will feel it throughout your entire being. But maybe its a bit of a bumpy road so you question if you’re actually in Gods will. Well God’s grace will carry you through it and keep you where God needs you. Even if sometimes its hard, if theres a way, its usually because God made a way.  I know I am in God’s will for me because there are so many reasons why I should’ve given up what I am doing. Somehow God has always made a way for me to be doing what I am doing, and not even for one second its felt like I should not have gone down this path. Theres no feeling that is more fulfilling than being exactly where God wants you to be.

I’d be lying to you if I said I have never doubted, but that was the planner in me trying to tell me that my plan was better because I don’t know Gods full plan. Theres a reason for everything God has done in the past, is doing right now and will do in the future. You will never understand what God is doing at the time, but I can guarantee that you will look back one day and see God’s fingerprints all over your life.

When you are in Gods will for your life, you will know. You will feel that unexplainable peace. But to get into God’s will, you have to let Him have control and actually trust Him when He says you must do something, or when you must not do something.

We all say “God, my life is Yours. I trust You. You’re my everything”, but what are our actions saying? Do your actions speak the same words your lips do?  I know mine weren’t, but God did what He needed to so that I could learn to let go of my plans and trust Him with my life.

Now, I am an intern in a church doing exactly what I wanted to study. I’m being taught and trained by people who not only guide me when it comes to Godly matters, but also when it comes to the gifts and talents God placed in me. So I am getting more worthwhile experience for work and in my personal life than I ever would have at some college.

So as an ex-planner, I can say that it is okay to let God have the control you claim He has. Trust Him, He knows what makes you happy, so don’t you think that He will include those things into the plan He has? Let go of your plans and watch God turn your life into an exciting adventure.

Dive into the unknown with the all-knowing God.

-Kelly Hardouin

The Lord is so interested in each one of us knowing who He has created us to be, what He has filled us with and being comfortable in our own skins. So often we are given the impression that if we look a certain way or speak a certain way or wear certain “really illusive” or wildly expensive clothing then we will have made the grade, passed the test and can now be useful.

When it comes to the list of qualifications for being accepted as someone who has something spiritual to contribute, sometimes the list is even longer and we feel even less qualified because “those ladies” are amazing and soooo gifted but I am just “me”.

Well, have I got amazing revelation for you! You are just as magnificent in the gifting that the Lord has placed in you as those ladies are in the gifting God has given them. He is the one who has placed His gifting in us and knows how and why He made “incredible YOU”.

Whatever is in us is His gift to us and what we do with what He has gifted to us is our gift back to Him. It begins with Him, is sustained by Him, is anointed by Him and is His love gift to all around us, through us. It takes the pressure off when we realise that all we have originates with Him and He is the one who enables us. All we need to do is be open to the Lord so that not only can He show us the variety of giftings He has placed within us but also He will lead and guide us to the training and equipping we need and to the places and people we need in our lives whose giftings will be to disciple and mentor us into the time and space where we are flowing naturally in the gifting come out of us.

He makes ALL things beautiful in His time and no matter where we start o
f He is faithful that once He has begun a good work in us He will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Phil.1:6. Also we read in           1 Thess. 5:24 He who calls you
s faithful, who also will do it.

Relax in the Lord as He is so interested in seeing that you succeed, let Him lead you. Ask Him to lead you to the person who He knows will help you find and affirm the gifting in you. Once you know what it is be confident that if He gave it to you, He kn
ws how to get you to fulfil it. Get the training that you need. Find a mentor who will walk a road with you, study to show yourself approved, allow Him to develop the right character for sustaining the gift and trust Him to make you consistent so that when you begin strong you will finish just as strong. Women each one of you has a gift and a destiny to fulfil. Rejoice and grow!

When did it become so rare to love yourself that it is now revolutionary to do so? That’s a question I came across very recently and it just hit home.

Loving yourself has become such a foreign thing that when you do, people stand in awe of you like “Wow, how awesome is that?”. Yes, it is totally awesome that you love yourself, but why should it be one of those things that only a few people have? Loving yourself should be a universal feeling, like joy or excitement, we should all love ourselves, so why don’t we?

As a young woman who once lived in such a deep self-hate for myself, I can totally relate to those who feel bad about themselves. I get it. We see ourselves at our absolute worst, with our bad messy morning hair, our imperfect complexions, the scars and marks that feel like they cover our entire body, and all the other random things we pick on. We look at ourselves like that for so long that it does change the way we see ourselves, because then when we go out and someone compliments our hair, we immediately think back to that morning hair struggle we had that morning.  I don’t know about you, but I still battle to accept compliments even now. Someone will say “Hey! I love your hair” and I’ll either just brush it off and pretend they didn’t just say that (It’s so bad, I know) or I’ll shoot them back with a “Oh, trust me it didn’t look so great this morning” and kind of down play the compliment. Truth is the way we see ourselves versus the way people see us, they are often so different, it’s almost like being in two different galaxies.

I feel like people don’t really know what they’re talking about when they complement me because they don’t see me at my worst, they only see the side of me that is dressed nicely because well like every other woman on earth, I wouldn’t dare leave the house looking bad. Honestly though, I am wrong in thinking that. People may not see all sides of me, but when they complement me, they are just saying what they are seeing. A change of mindset is in order. When people say something nice to us, we need to learn to accept that as truth. Why would they say “nice hair” if your hair isn’t looking so great? Why would someone call you beautiful if you didn’t look it?

So part of our self-image problem is comparison. Oh my, the way it irritates me that we always compare ourselves, I actually irritate myself when I catch myself comparing myself to someone else! I don’t understand why we do it, and I really wish we wouldn’t because it’s probably one of the biggest things that tears our own self confidence apart. Society has put so much emphasis on what we look like, what we wear and the type of body we have, it’s not fair. We are not all meant to look the same, and sound the same. God made us UNIQUE for a reason. We aren’t meant to be carbon copies of each other, we are meant to be the unique and beautiful individuals we were created to be. You are beautiful in your own way.

I know you are probably thinking ‘well that’s what people say to those who don’t fit the model standard’, and its super cliché to say that, I know, but it is the truth. Let’s take flowers for example, a white rose and a red tulip. I think we can all agree that a white rose is really beautiful. A plump, full petalled little flower that’s beauty is radiant. I also think we can all agree that a red tulip is also extremely beautiful. A bright red flower with the most exquisitely elegant shape. Both are beautiful. Just because the white rose is beautiful in one way does not mean the tulip is now ugly, no the tulip is also beautiful, but the tulip is beautiful in the way it was made. Maybe some would prefer a white rose to a tulip, but that does not make one more beautiful than the other. The beauty of a white rose does not take away from the beauty of a tulip or vice versa. Both are just as beautiful as the other and both will end up being looked at with awe and loved by the person who picks it.

See where I am going with this? You are beautiful in the way you were created, and just because your beautiful doesn’t look like someone else’s beautiful does not mean you are now not beautiful, you’re just beautiful in your way, and they in their way. Since society is so messed up, what do we model ourselves on? God’s Word! Who God says we are, and what God says and thinks about us is by far more important than anything else. What God tells us is what we ought to accept as truth.

When you look at yourself, look through God’s eyes. Redefine the beautiful you have been taught, to be the beautiful God will show you.

-Kelly Hardouin

Ps 37:3-5 “Trust in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass.”

When looking at Destiny we have seen that the desires of our hearts are vitally connected. This verse has always been a fascination and a comfort and encouragement to me. Firstly, I see that God will give me the desires of my heart as I remain connected in Him, trusting, leaning and relying on Him. So all the things I have burning in my heart God wants to bring them to pass. But then as I looked closer and listened to His voice, the Holy Spirit shared with me that He puts them in our hearts in the first place. Oh wow what an amazing thought, God knows why He made us, for what purpose He gave us life and what the gifting, passion and purpose of our destiny is. It is all resident in our hearts from the time He was forming us and as we rest confidently in Him He will bring them all to the light and begin to bring them to pass in and through us.

Not only does God want us to know these desires but He also wants to help us as they come to pass. This is the constant presence and leading and guiding of the Lord in our daily lives as we walk our path of destiny.

What if we were given the chance to share what the one thing is we desperately want to do on this earth is? what would that be? Could that be one of the desires that God has placed in our hearts and wants to fulfil? Is it to be married or have a child, or climb a mountain, open a school, or minister to the sick and suffering? Yes, God is interested in every part of our lives and the many desires we have could all be part of His destiny he wants us to walk.

Some of these are for ourselves, you might say, “isn’t that selfish?’ Well God says He has given us all things to enjoy, so He is interested in our fulfilment too. So often though along the way we meet people who we can bless and impact because God has made sure that we are in the right place at the right time, doing the right things in order to meet the right people. This is all part of Destiny. Remember Destiny is a process not a destination. The more we are focussed on staying connected to Him the more our steps will be ordered by the Lord and the more we will walk out our Destiny.

Once you are beginning to sense more clearly the desires of your heart and figuring out which ones were placed there by Him. The next step is finding out how to prepare yourself for walking out your Destiny with excellence.

Talk more next time. Be blessed as you discover and accept the desires of your heart.

-Pastor Lindsey Lefebure