Yesterday's teaching on Divine Destiny

Yesterday we completed week 9 of our teaching on Divine Destiny.  The subject was Destiny and Warfare...a sobering lesson on the tactics of our enemy whose main desire is to stop God's people from fulfilling God's plan on earth...

But - before the lesson Susan led a short devotion from Numbers 16:11 about Korah's rebellion against Aaron. 

Rachel and Susan

Rose reading Numbers 16:11

She reminded us that in Eph 6:1-9 Paul outlines very clearly what God expects of us.  When we choose to rebel we can suffer severe consequences...not so much as punishment from God but as natural consequences of acting outside of God's best for us.

Then Rose did a mini-teaching on rebellion, reminding us that when Saul did not obey the instructions of Samuel very early in his reign as king it was the beginning of his downfall. 
She helped us see that it is only by relying on the power of God that we can successfully obey His precepts.

We then plunged right into the teaching on destiny and warfare...

Rachel, Susan and Judith

We were reminded that God, in His sovereignty, chooses to work through people to accomplish His purposes on earth. 

Florence and Rose

From the beginning of time, Satan's primary agenda is to stop or hinder the will of God from being accomplished on earth.

Leona in the foreground

Satan's first plan is to keep every person away from God's truth and grace using deception as articulated in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.

Florence reading 2 Cor 4:3-4

Students sharing the sanctuary with us!

He will use philosophy, intellectualism, world religions, the lure of money, material things, and sinful practices to accomplish his agenda of blinding people to discovering the truth about who God is.

When his plan of deception fails, Satan shifts to trying to keep God's people from doing God's will.

Leona reading 1 Thess 2:17-18

We then spent some time looking at the story of Nehemiah, who was called to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem; first God used his friend Hanani to bring him news of the harsh and dangerous conditions of Jerusalem.

Celestine

Florence, Rose and Celestine

 After spending 4 months in prayer Nehemiah gains permission from the king to return to his beloved Jerusalem to fulfill the 'assignment' God had put before him.  As the cup bearer to the king, he had the trust of the king and God performed a miracle which caused the king to not only give him permission to go, but also to make provision for needed materials.

 Rose reminded us that when God brings us to the battlefield, He supplies all the weapons we need to be successful! 

Prislah, Florence's grandmother to the far left

We saw embedded in the story of Nehemiah three very effective tools Satan uses to thwart the plans of God; 1. For the people of God to lose trust in leadership...if the enemy can take out the leader, the people will scatter.

Florence reading John 17:4

 Satan's second tool is to get the people of God to stop their work for God.  So many of God's servants find themselves quitting the ministry when hard times come.

 The third effective tool in Satan's hand is for the people of God to lose their vision of the will of God.  He tries to cloud vision by causing us to look at our struggles, problems, and challenges instead of looking at how far we have come.

Smiles as Rose was quite animated in her teaching this week!

 Peppered throughout the teaching, Rose shared stories of her recent missions trip during which time she was privileged to share the gospel three different times to groups of men who were drunkards.

 She was astounded at the power of God to save those men who all chose to give their lives to Christ!

Leona reading James 3:13-18

We then began to look at 'A Warfare Strategy for Destiny' which begins with clearing up the past.  Often times as Christ followers we struggle in our attempt to serve Christ because we have not dealt with issues in our past.  If the enemy can use the past as a way to sabotage the present, he will.  We will continue to explore the 'strategy' during next week's teaching...

Judith sharing a prayer request

After listening to praise reports and prayer requests we spent some time in praise and worship... Leona led us in a few songs...

 Even though the teaching had taken us way past time, everyone stayed and enjoyed our time of worshiping God together...

Leona leading us in worship

 We then spent several minutes in 'free worship' where each of us spoke to God in our own ways...

 Susan then closed our session by praying over all the requests...

 I love this shot of Florence's grandmother...she is a sweet lady - in her 70's or 80's...

It was good to be back with the ladies!  It had been several weeks since I had attended and it was nice to see familiar faces as well as a few new ones!