Get all the advice and instruction you can,so you will be wise the rest of your life. (Proverbs 19:20)

It started to get colder in the living room an hour after we had settled comfortably into a beautiful chalet at Green Pastures Renewal Center in Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

We turned up the thermostat. No cigar. The pilot light was still on, but there was no roaring flame in the propane-fuelled stove/furnace.

“Where’s the heat?”

We called the home of Jim & Charlene Bennett, the owners of Green Pastures.

Jim showed up promptly. We were delighted.

He explained that they had experienced the same problem before. He had brought in a technician to take a look and learned what to do to fix it. He had brought with him the exact tool needed to fix it as well. We were relieved.

Out came a rather large screwdriver. We were waiting with bated breath to see which screw needed to be tightened for the furnace to start spitting out heat again.

Much to our shock and surprise, he did not look for a screw. Instead he leaned over the furnace and bent over, holding the screwdriver by the “wrong end.” The handle was out front while the “edge” was in his hand.

He tapped the gas supply line to the furnace three or four times with the handle. Voila! A roaring flame rose up in the furnace and promptly started to heat up the atmosphere and our family. We were ecstatic.

You see, we were clueless as to what we should do to get the furnace working. But when we called on John, he knew exactly what to do, because of his prior experience. He had run into the same situation before, applied the same solution before and had success before.

So, when he faced the problem again, he was not fazed one bit! He knew that all he had to do was what he had seen the technician do. Simply apply the head of the screwdriver to the base of the supply line. Sure enough, he had the same results as the technician!

One of the ways in which God helps us overcome problems we face in life is by providing us with others who have experienced the same or similar issues earlier and overcome.

As infants and children, quite often these problem-solvers turn out to be our parents, teachers and other adults we know and trust.

As we grow older, we get help from our peers, from professors, from colleagues at work, supervisors, bosses, pastors, more mature Christians, etc.

I am sure that the Bennetts had to pay good money to get the problem solved by the technician who made the house call. But that expense turned out to be an investment that paid dividends when others experienced a similar predicament.

This is why we repeatedly emphasize the need for all who are serious about advancing into their destiny seeking out and finding a mentor who will guide them along the journey.

Sir Edmund Hilary would have never scaled Mt. Everest without the able assistance of Tensing and his other Sherpa guides.

Neither shall we achieve our destiny without the benefit of those who have experienced episodes similar to what we are going through, who know what to do, what to say, where to tap, where to point, so that we can stay on track and finish the race.

This way we can avoid the unnecessary expenditure of time, money and other resources that will delay us from advancing into our destiny.

Dear DWOD friend, would you kindly share with the rest of us how you have experienced the blessings of mentorship in your walk towards achieving your destiny? Please add your responses below.

Can you imagine how Jesus felt on the night before He was crucified?

When He requested that His inner circle of intercessors consisting of Peter, James and John watch and pray with Him in the garden of Gethsemane, neither did they watch nor did they pray. Jesus says: “Can you not watch with me for one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). Do you sense the hurt of disappointment in those words?

When Judas identified Jesus as the one the soldiers needed to arrest, Jesus says to him: “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48). Can you hear the hurt of betrayal behind those poignant words?

When all His disciples ran for their lives and two-thirds of His leaders’ cell deserted Him, can you feel the pain of abandonment in Jesus’ heart?

When Peter denied Him three times just as He had foretold, Jesus did not have to say a word. He simply turned around and looked at him. Their eyes locked for a moment. Peter wept like a baby. Can you experience the hurt that Jesus must have felt in that fleeting glance?

Did Jesus not know when he handpicked The Twelve that this could happen? If so, why did He still go ahead and choose them? Was He not setting Himself up to get hurt down the road?

Could it be because He had already seen the same pattern in the up-and-down relationship between His Father and the fickle flock known as the “children of Israel?”

They had a solid reputation and an unenviable track record for hurting the One who chose them to be His own, did they not?

Yet, the Father kept on giving them second and third and four hundred and ninety first chances to keep on hurting Him one more time.

Perhaps this is where Jesus learned that whenever you love someone, you are taking a chance that the one you love will end up hurting you somewhere along the way.

Since He is the visible image of the invisible Father, how could He do anything but follow suit?

Dear DWOD friend, one of the painful lessons that all of us learn on the road to reaching our destiny is that we will be hurt by others along the way.

We can expect every hurt that Jesus experienced to happen to us as well.

We too will face the hurt of disappointment caused by those in whom we had invested our lives.

No leader is immune from the hurt of betrayal.

We are very likely to experience the hurt of being abandoned by our friends in the hour of our greatest need.

We too are candidates to be hurt by those who promised to be with us till the bitter end (as Peter did to Jesus).

That is the price we are called to pay when we choose to love.

Sadly, not all are willing to pay this price. You probably know someone who has sworn that they will never love again, because they do not want to take the chance of getting hurt again. Perhaps you are that “someone.”

This is in no way intended to minimize that hurt or make light of it. Trust me, I have experienced every one of these hurts multiple times in nearly 31 years of ordained ministry.

As Jesus said Himself: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) Can we expect anything less than to be hurt along the way?

To ask: “Are you willing to love?” and “Are you willing to get hurt?” is to ask the same question twice. You simply can’t have one without the other! That’s the bad news.

Yet, like Jesus, you too can go forward and fulfill your destiny despite the hurts. That’s the good news.

“You are my beloved Son. In You I am well-pleased.” (Luke 3:22)

“Hi, my name is Charlie, and I am an accountant.”
“Hello, I’m Charlene, and I am a manager.”
“Friends, please help me welcome Prophetess Seymour.”
“This is Mai Dhas, a prominent businessman. Everything he touches turns to gold.”

Have you noticed how often we identify ourselves by what we do than by who we are?

Social scientists have found that those whose identity is defined solely by what they do for a living are more prone to feeling totally lost when they face a layoff, firing or retirement. This is particularly true of men.

Sad to say this tendency can also affect followers of Jesus. We are labelled (or choose to label ourselves) by our functions, positions and activities within the Body. As a result, when we are asked to give up what we are doing or take on new responsibilities, we often find the transition quite difficult.

A while ago, the Father presented me with a scenario and asked me a rather thought-provoking question that I need to share with you.

He said: “Let’s consider two people who are at opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum. One is an assistant manager at a fast-food restaurant earning $25,000 a year. Another is the C.E.O of that chain who earns a cool $25 million plus stock options.”

“Each of them decides to enter into the covenant of marriage with their respective partners for life and needs to obtain a marriage licence. When the Commissioner of Oaths asks them to provide proof of who they are, which document do they produce:
Their Birth Certificate or their Business Card?”

No matter what they do for a living, no matter how little or how much they earn, no matter whether they live in a shack or a mansion, no matter whether they drive a Ford Focus or a Ferrari Testerosa, there is only one document that determines who they are.
It is the Birth Certificate, amen?

The Lord went on to say: “If you can grasp this reality in the natural, why can you not get a hold of it in the spiritual realm as well? It is your new birth into the Kingdom, it is your citizenship in Heaven, your membership in my family that determines who you are—my son, my daughter.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I am glad to see what you have accomplished in life. I am delighted that you are using the gifts and talents that I placed within you at creation to great use in the workplace. I am ecstatic about how you are deploying your spiritual gifts to build the Body. You are truly amazing.”

“Yet, your heavenly pedigree is not determined by your earthly degrees.
The entry of your name in the Book of Life is not based on your fame in life.
What you inherit is not a matter of merit.
What you are entitled to is not tied to your title.
You are my child. I am your Father. That is your identity.”

Dear DWOD friend, no matter what your business card says, what your birth certificate says is what really matters. In life. And for eternal life. Amen?

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. (Psalm 34:3)

The Greek word translated “magnify” is “megaluno” which means “to make large.”

The first part of the word “mega” shows up quite regularly in words such as megabucks, megaphone, megamall, megachurch, megalomania and megabytes—all of which describe something that is greater than “normal.”

In the Bible, we see the word “magnify” used with reference to God, as in the aforementioned verse and elsewhere. Here are two examples:

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. (Psalms 69:30)

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” (Psalms 70:4)

Another well-known use of the word occurs in the Magnificat. And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:46)

What does it really mean to magnify the Lord/God? How do you make God any bigger than He really is? Is it even possible?

A helpful analogy would be the way we use a magnifying glass or instrument.

For example, when we study a micro-organism under a microscope, we are not actually making the microbe bigger. We are simply seeing it bigger than it really is.

Using a magnifying glass does not make the words in a newspaper bigger. It only helps us to see them bigger than they are in print.

In a similar vein, when we magnify the Lord, we are not making Him bigger (an impossibility), we are seeing Him bigger than we would otherwise.

So, how can we actually wee God bigger?

The DWOD for April 06, 2013 made reference to “Celebrating God’s goodness” time at Morgan’s Point and Forks Road East United, the two churches I pastor. Every time we gather for worship or study or prayer, we invite anyone who so desires to share how they have experienced God’s goodness in their lives, especially in recent times.

Every time a testimony is shared, it is as though The Magnification Factor kicks in and we begin to see God bigger than He is simply based on our own limited experiences! We are indeed “magnifying the Lord with thanksgiving!”

Also, whenever we take time to worship God and focus on how awesome He is, we “magnify the Lord and exalt His name together,” don’t we?

Two things happen as we keep on magnifying God.

Number one, we see that God is bigger than the enemy. You see, when we focus on the problems sent our way, the enemy appears bigger than he really is, even to the point of obscuring our vision of God.

As Rob Critchley sings, in reality we have a “Great big God” and an “itty bitty devil!”

Secondly, when we magnify God, we are filled with hope that no matter what we face, God will see us through, because He has seen others through in similar situations!

Dear DWOD friend, I pray that you will realize why it is so critical to magnify the Lord on the road to reaching your destiny.

Please share with the rest of us if you are doing this already…if so, how you do it. Would you also share also any testimonies you may have of what happened when you started realizing the benefits of The Magnification Factor? Thanks in advance.

Subscribers who receive the Destiny Word of the Day by e-mail will have noticed that yesterday’s DWOD was rather late in showing up in their inboxes.

The delay was due to a difficulty we experienced in sending it out on time through our autoresponder.

(An autoresponder is a program we use to send out the DWOD daily at a specified time to all who choose to subscribe to our mailing list).

Yours truly, not being the most tech-savvy blogger on the planet, had quite a time figuring out why the post was not sent out at the specified time.

After a while, it dawned on me that the clock on the autoresponder and the one on my laptop were not in sync. You see, we had crossed over into a different time zone when we left Montreal, Quebec on Friday and settled in at a hotel in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The clock on my laptop had been automatically adjusted to reflect the new time zone, while that on the autoresponder lagged behind by an hour.

Once the clock on the laptop was synced to the autoresponder’s…no problem! The e-mail went through just fine.

This episode reinforced the significance of timing as a key factor in reaching our prophetic destiny.

At a wedding in Cana of Galilee, when Jesus tells his mother Mary that there was a shortage of wine, his answer to her is rather surprising and his seemingly abrupt mannerism rather shocking, especially when you read in The Message:

“Is that any of our business, Mother—yours or mine? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.”

Yes, Jesus was perfectly capable of meeting the need, but He would not do it according to His mother’s timetable, but His Father’s…and He did.

Many years ago, a business mentor shared a conversation he had with one of his protégés. The young man assured Rex that he had done everything that had been counselled, yet he had not achieved the impressive results he had hoped for.

“Everything?”
“Yes, everything, Rex.”
“You’re sure you didn’t leave anything out?”
“Yes, absolutely sure, Rex.”

He turned to his protégé and said: “You know what, if you’ve done everything I’ve prescribed, there is only one explanation: God’s timing.”

Scripture says very clearly: “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” And again: “God makes everything happen at the right time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11).

When our clocks are not in sync with Heaven’s, we can expect delays. Conversely, when both clocks are synchronized, look out! You will accelerate into your destiny, as described in Amos 9:13–“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.”

I pray that you will experience these blessings of synchronicity very soon.

No matter how you view the Roman Catholic Church as a whole, one thing is indisputable when you view a magnificent work of art such as Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal—you are bound to be impressed by the intricacy of the workmanship.

As a matter of fact, it is tough not to be inspired by the commitment of those who worked on it to ensure that the final product was a most worthy offering to the Lord who deserves only the very best that can be produced by human minds and hands.

Research reveals that it took nearly 90 years to complete Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Historians are quick to point out that projects of this magnitude often required a skilled worker such as a stone mason to dedicate his entire working lifespan to building just one cathedral.

Imagine that, eh? Spending your entire lifetime on one project!

Made me wonder about the kind of motivation would inspire that magnitude of devotion to the task.

A story, made popular by Peter Drucker and retold many times by others, comes to mind. Here is the version of Bill von Achen in www.bestpracticesforbusiness.com:

“A man came across three masons who were working at chipping chunks of granite from large blocks. The first seemed unhappy at his job, chipping away and frequently looking at his watch. When the man asked what it was that he was doing, the first mason responded, rather curtly, “I’m hammering this stupid rock, and I can’t wait ’til 5 when I can go home.”

”A second mason, seemingly more interested in his work, was hammering diligently and when asked what it was that he was doing, answered, “Well, I’m moulding this block of rock so that it can be used with others to construct a wall. It’s not bad work, but I’ll sure be glad when it’s done.”

”A third mason was hammering at his block fervently, taking time to stand back and admire his work. He chipped off small pieces until he was satisfied that it was the best he could do. When he was questioned about his work he stopped, gazed skyward and proudly proclaimed, “I am building a cathedral!”

Uncommon commitment to a cause puts common tasks in their proper perspective, does it not?

We are not just changing diapers. We are raising a world changer!

We are not just doing volunteer work. We are being equipped for servant leadership!

We are not just preparing for a test. We are being groomed to be problem solvers!

We are not just spending money on our children’s education. We are investing in the future of our nation!

We are not just teaching Sunday School. We are raising an army of Christian soldiers.

We are not just sharing the gospel. We are populating heaven and emptying hell!

We are not just discipling a new believer. We are raising disciplers who will produce disciplers who will reproduce disciplers…and so on and so forth!

We are not just receiving healing of the heart ministry for ourselves. We are sparing generations yet unborn the deadly effects of the “sins of the fathers.”

Get the picture?

Dear friend, what is the cathedral you are building as you chip and chisel and hammer away at granite blocks in your daily grind?

Please share your addition(s) to this list with the rest of your DWOD family in the comments section that follows.

For the past few days the Sam Family has been blessed to connect with friends in Montreal. The bonus has been the opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of this lively city and the pleasure of tasting fine foods for which Montreal is famous–poutine, smoked meat and crepes—to name a few.

Naturally, we asked our hosts to offer their recommendations of restaurants in the city which offered the best of these culinary concoctions.  Julie directed us to La Banquise for poutine, Schwartz’s for smoked meat and Chez Suzette for crepes.

She added a word of caution before we left, though: “Be prepared for line-ups when you get there.” She paused. Then she said: “But, that’s Ok…because that is part of the experience of eating at these places.”

Sure enough, we were forced to wait at the first two establishments.  Both had established such a great reputation for offering the finest in their specific categories that no one minded waiting in line for the pleasure of tasting the food, or paying premium prices for the privilege!

While we were waiting in line, the Lord brought to mind first hand accounts of those who were part of the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit at what was then the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church.

They shared how people would line up hours ahead of the meetings. No one ever complained about having to wait in line. They could not wait to get inside and taste the new wine that was flowing in copious quantities!

The DWOD for April 21 made reference to the sick and demonized who thronged the streets of Jerusalem, as recorded in Acts 5:15-16. They did not mind one bit having to wait until Peter walked by so that his shadow might fall on them and bring healing and deliverance.

The gospels record how crowds waited for Jesus to show up (Mark 6:33) prior to the feeding of the five thousand.

The Lord then asked me: “Why are the crowds not waiting in line at churches around the globe today?”

As I pondered that question in silence, I recalled a quote attributed to John Wesley: “Set yourself on fire and people will come from miles to simply watch you burn!”
(By the way, I sense that is the Christian version of the Law of Attraction!)

There is something about the Presence of the Lord, the Power of the Holy Spirit and the overflowing Love of the Father that is so attractive, even addictive, that people do not mind waiting in line for a long time simply to experience Him!

I could not help but wonder whether the answer to the Lord’s question lies in the fact that we have not established our reputation as places where one can come and taste the goodness of the Lord.

All I could say was: “Lord, forgive us if we have been offering anything other than what is on your menu.”

Dear DWOD friend, when you become a carrier of the Lord’s Presence, a cannonball of Holy Spirit power and a container brimming with the Father’s Love, you will become so attractive that others will wait in line to see God alive in you and active through you…and your church.

Would you make this your number one priority on the journey to your destiny?