1. God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
If you want to possess all that God has planned for you, you must believe there is a reason you are breathing air, a reason you are taking up space on this planet. You are not an accident, you are not a mistake, and you are not a product of evolution. This is how the world thinks and is how I thought for the first nineteen years of my life. I was taught I was a random mutation of evolution, and as a result, I didn’t believe my life had any particular purpose. If there was not a specific reason for my existence, then what difference did it make how I lived? If it felt good to my flesh, then I did it. How could it be wrong when it felt so right? This kind of thinking is how people in this world can live from divorce to divorce, can casually abort the unwanted baby, and can live careless lives full of drugs and alcohol. It’s the kind of thinking I had until after about my third car wreck.
I had already totaled my dad’s pickup truck and my Mustang; so this time, I was driving my brother’s little white Comet. Driving down Interstate 5 in a completely intoxicated state, I blacked out and crossed from the outside lane of traffic, over four lanes, to the inside guard rail. I crashed into the sidewall and began to roll end over end two or three times and then flipped the car sideways eight times. Now, I don’t remember any of this, but I know about it because of the accounts on the police record given by eyewitnesses. I was taken by the police to Lakewood Hospital where I was examined for injuries. The doctors determined I had no broken bones and, somehow, had escaped the wreck with only a few minor bumps and bruises. Free from damage, I was now free to be taken into custody. But when the doctor left the room to inform the officers it was safe to haul me off to jail, I left the hospital! I have no recollection on how I did this, but I walked right out of the hospital and headed somewhere, probably home.
Later, I woke up from my blackout on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant that used be called the Flame Restaurant. I didn’t know how I had ended up there, or how long I had been lying there beside the road, but I did know that my car (or my brother’s car) was gone. I called home and said, “Somebody stole the car! They must’ve hit me over the head and gotten away with Dale’s car!” My mom came to pick me up, and when we got home, the phone rang. It was the police.
“Excuse me, ma’am, have you seen your son, Casey?”
“Yes. He’s right here.”
“Well, tonight he was in a car accident and he has escaped police custody.”
I couldn’t believe it when my mom told me what they had said. Escaped custody? I didn’t even know I was
in
custody! I was so messed up, I didn’t know I was in an accident or had been to the hospital. Needless to say, the police came to the house and took me away in the squad car, and I still could not remember anything, not even a day or two leading up to the accident. I was totally wasted and had blacked out the entire event.
Days later, my brother, Dale, and I went to the junkyard to look at the car. It was completely totaled, and I was shocked at what I saw. There was not an inch on the body of that Comet that was not smashed, and I remember thinking,
Dang! I guess I was in an accident, a pretty bad one, too. I can’t believe I didn’t die—how did I survive such a terrible wreck?
I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and a few days later I remember wondering if maybe God was saving me for something? A few weeks later I was sentenced to Washington Drug Rehabilitation Program, met Julius, and got born again. Julius said to me, “Big Red, God has a plan for your life.” I believed him, and soon after started Bible school, I met Wendy and we began our ministry together.
Romans 8:28-29 says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” There is a plan and a purpose for your life. No matter where you have come from, no matter what you might be experiencing right now, you must believe God has a specific purpose for your life. It doesn’t have to be anything grandiose by the standards of the world, but because of your life, someone is going to be affected, someone is going to get healed, someone is going to come to know Christ, and because of you, someone is going to realize that God has a purpose for their life, too. You must renew your mind to this truth if you are going to walk in the confidence of God’s promises for your life.
To be predestined does not mean you are controlled by God or that you are a programmed robot. It simply means God laid out a detailed plan for your entire life, and now you have the opportunity to choose it or to reject it. You can decide to know His plan and purpose for you and receive the blessed life He has offered, or you can walk away from it and live your life on your own. Ephesians 3:3-5, 11 says:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will . . . In Him also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.
(emphasis added)
God chose you before the foundation of the world! Before He created our universe, God chose you. He lives in the
now
and is not bound to the same limitations of time that exist on Earth. He sees the past, present, and future together as if it is all now, and in that state he saw you and your heart. He saw your desires and what you would choose, and He chose you. You do not need to step out of your house each day hoping and praying that everything will “just work out”; you can wake up knowing you have a plan and a purpose for your life. God has already worked the details out according to the counsel of His own will. You don’t have to be afraid you don’t know all the details of your future—because God
does,
and He’s got your back!
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]” (AMP). God has a
good
life prepared just for you. He didn’t say it would be an easy life, but He promised it would be a good, rewarding, and exciting life. You might go through difficulties and challenges, but you can walk forward in the confidence that God has already provided a way for you to succeed in every circumstance.
Don’t allow the devil to convince you that you were unplanned, unwanted, or that your life is meaningless. Your parents might have told you that, but never for a second did God think that. Those are lies from the enemy designed to stop you from living with purpose and a determination to be great. If you will renew your mind and believe you have a plan and purpose for your life, you will be able to accomplish amazing things which will bring glory to God and will leave a legacy to those around you.