Destiny or Choice?

I've been thinking a lot lately about some of my desires, my calling, my choices and my destiny. Lately, God has been teaching me so much about how to live life and it goes against so much of how people teach us to live. Some people think that our life is planned out for us, that we have a set destiny and that is true to an extent. It's true in the fact that if we know Jesus, our destiny is Heaven which should be our goal in life anyway.
But Heaven isn't something for when we die, God wants us to discover Heaven and bring it to earth! That is our destiny. How that comes about really isn't that big of a deal. I think that's where God puts talents and gifts in us and says "Ok, you know the agenda. Here are the things I've given you to make it happen. What ideas do you have? How do you want to do this?".
It's called co-creating with God. I'm not saying that God doesn't give us direction, but I also don't believe that he plans out our every move and our every step. When you simply seek first His Kingdom, everything else simply falls into place. We remove so much of the conflict and confusion in our lives when we just live with that simple goal. It's simple in the fact that the "how" isn't complicated. If you know the heart of God, and you know that He wants you to help Him complete our destiny, then you also know that He doesn't get all worked up when you decide to do something that He didn't straight up tell you to do.
 I know for a fact that God LOVES to give us the desires of our heart. He has given me what I want countless times, because He is good and He LOVES us! If you mentioned that there was something you wanted and your best friend found out and got it for you, you wouldn't say "Oh but you didn't tell me this is what I wanted so I can't receive this from you"....NO!!!!! You would feel loved that they listened to your heart, your desires and gave you what you wanted. It's just another aspect of God's love.
It's the enemy that makes you think that God is up there like a GPS saying, turn right at the stop sign....turn left at the light! It's the enemy that makes us think that if we don't do exactly what God says then we wont end up living the best life we possibly can. I think that co-creating with God, using our talents and gifts that He gave us to further His ultimate plan is living our life the best way we possibly can. It's how He loves us. And oh how He loves us!

Irene means "Peace"

    Well, as most of the world knows, the eastern shore of the United States was hit with a hurricane last week. Honestly, when people started talking about us getting hit by a hurricane, I didn't really take it too seriously. Then I made the mistake of running to Walmart! Dumbest idea ever! But despite everyone's fear and panic, I can honestly say I felt nothing but peace. I mean, it's not like I have an ocean's view from my bedroom window (though nothing would make me happier) but there's always the possibility of flooding, trees falling, power going out; which that stuff happened, but not to me. There was no worry in my mind what-so-ever. In fact, I had my window open all night and the breeze was so perfect! The whole time I had a Bill Johnson quote in my head "You have authority over any storm you can sleep through". That solid truth kept me in perfect peace, and yes I slept very well that night thank you!
    The morning after, I went to church. I had to go early because one of the youth girls had slept at my house and was on the worship team. During the 8am prayer time God shared so much with. I was actually in the middle of complaining to my journal about a crappy situation I was going through when He totally interrupted my thoughts with a picture (I think He more so was just sick of my complaining...ha!). So I figured I'd just copy my journal entry on the revelation:

   "I'm sitting in prayer and God showed me the radar tracking the hurricane and said to look at it in the spiritual sense. All the storms in our lives, government, whatever, they are happening all around us, BUT! there is always the eye of the storm. The place of peace where it seems as though nothing else is going on! The storms cannot touch what is in the eye.
    Jesus is the eye. He is the place of peace and rest and when you abide in Him, when you rest in Him, nothing can touch you. You have authority over any storm you can sleep in. If you find the eye of the storm, you will find perfect rest, because the storms cant touch you."

    We can choose to focus on the storms around us, or we can choose to run to the eye and sleep through them. Choosing to sleep through a storm is not ignoring that it's going on around you, it's simply saying that you recognize the storm but you will not let it steal your peace! That's the enemy's goal! To STEAL our peace! We have to see it and say "Satan I see what you are trying to do and I WILL NOT let you do it!"
     I don't believe that it was coincidence that even though a hurricane came through, it was given the name Irene. Irene means PEACE! Just a little reminder that we will have storms but His peace is always there waiting for us to choose to run into.

   I heard another Bill quote today that goes right along with this: "If we want peace that passes understanding, we have to give up our right to understand."
   And of course Jesus himself is the one who said "In this world you WILL have trouble, but take heart because I have overcome the world". That's a promise I can cling too.