QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SESSION WITH PASTOR CHRIS.
Question – Rumbidzai (United Arab Emirates/Middle East): Can a man through prayer reverse the destiny God has set for him?
Answer: Emphatically, yes! Now, that may sound tough to hear, but it’s true. A typical example is what you would find in the Book of Isaiah – a beautiful story – in the 38th Chapter of the Book of Isaiah. Now, I’ll just give you the background here; I’ll read it quickly: “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him and said unto him, ‘Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live’ [Isaiah 38:1].” [Pauses scripture reading] God sent Isaiah the prophet to King Hezekiah to tell him he was going to die.
Here was God’s decree: “Man, you’re going to die, set your house in order; its time.” Now [continues scripture reading] “Then Hezekiah turned his face towards the wall, and prayed unto the Lord. And he said ‘Lord, remember, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight’ and Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah saying, ‘Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen they tears, and behold, I add unto thy days fifteen years.’ [Isaiah 38:2-5]’” God changed his mind because the man prayed. Hezekiah prayed. After he had heard the decree of God that he was going to die, the Bible says he turned to the wall and prayed to God. The details of his prayer is written for us here. And when He prayed to God, God told the prophet to go back and tell him, “I’ve changed it. I’ve added to your days fifteen more years.” So, it is possible to change what you call the destiny of God.
Now I want you to understand what you mean by destiny of God. What exactly is the destiny of God? Why did God change his mind? Why did God in the first place say to the man “You’re going to die?” It wasn’t really God’s purpose. The thing is that, the Bible says [that] God has thoughts for us – thoughts that are good – to give us an expected end [Jeremiah 29:11], and if it’s not an expected end [that means a glorified end], it’s not really God’s purpose. But you see, many people think that when something happens and we can’t resist it, that’s God’s purpose – that’s God’s destiny for us. God’s destiny – God’s dream for us always – is good. It’s glorious. See? It’s something that honors him. It’s something that we also are happy about. God doesn’t enforce anything on us. He always wants us to walk in his divine plan of glory, because the Bible says He’s called us unto glory and virtue. So, that’s very important.
So, His destiny is [also] always for glory and virtue, and why would you want to change God’s destiny of glory and virtue? You would never…you wouldn’t want to do that! But when something is wrong and we think it’s God’s destiny, and even when God decrees it because of what’s going on with us, we can change it. Now, Hezekiah had gone wrong. If you read the previous part of his story, you’ll find that he actually had done some things wrong even though he was telling God “I’ve done all that was pleasing to you.” He didn’t really do all that was pleasing to God. He had missed God somewhere, as his story shows us, and God said, “Hey, you’re going to die. But when he prayed, God changed it. So if the destiny that you think is in front of you is not the kind that you’re happy with, you can change it [and God actually wants you to change it].
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