The Destiny of America
I am sending this short article to friends, co-workers and supporters. I am not commenting about recent political events or movements, but want to share my perspective on where we should go from here.
Please feel free to forward this to others. - Jim Millard, Asian Access Faculty / Sunrise International
The Destiny of America
Most people who have made a huge impact on the world had a sense of destiny. Although they do not always know the details of their journey, they have a clear purpose and vision that motivates and drives them to fulfill their destiny. We can see this in the lives of many Biblical characters. Joseph, for example had a dream through which God revealed to Joseph what he was going to do. Joseph had a sense of destiny and continued to believe God through many hardships. Eventually the dream God had given him was fulfilled.
When Paul was defending himself before King Agrippa he said, “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.” When Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus his world completely changed. His thinking and values radically shifted from his own accomplishments to focus on Christ alone. In Philippians 3:7-8 Paul declared:
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
Paul’s passion was to know Christ and to make Him known to the nations. Jesus told Paul that he would be used to share the gospel with the Gentiles. Paul knew God and knew that his vision came from God. He had a sense of destiny. In Galatians 3:15-16 he said:
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.
It is my conviction that both individuals and nations have a God-given purpose and destiny. God created us with a plan and a purpose. What is your purpose and destiny? What about the United States of America?
I believe it is time for America to return to God with all of her heart and embrace the destiny God has for us. We have lost sight of our purpose and have focused on many other pursuits. We have had wild success, but have not understood our destiny. God blessed us greatly for a purpose, but we have lost sight of it. How does the Body of Christ in America understand our destiny as a nation?
We have great wealth and blessings, but they have not led to the health and happiness that we desire because we have strayed from the purpose God created us for. We, the Body of Christ in America, need to grasp God’s purpose for us in order to fulfill our national destiny. That destiny depends on us, the Body of Christ, not on the politicians, pundits or protagonists.
God will Bless You
God is a God of blessing. He has blessed us beyond imagination through Christ. However, we must grasp the purpose of the blessing or we will be in danger of losing it.
Genesis 12:1-3 is a pivotal passage in the Bible. It marks the beginning of God’s redemptive work through Abraham. The world had been corrupted through sin. In these verses God spoke to Abraham and revealed His purposes to him.
1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. 2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Galatians 3 and other Scriptures make it clear that the blessing God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 has also been given to us in Christ. God blessed Abraham greatly. God will also bless us just as He blessed Abraham.
The first part of the promise is that God will bless us. God said to Abraham, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.”God is a good Father who loves us as His children and gives us good gifts.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:9-11
God has blessed us richly in Christ. Understanding God’s purposes for us begins by understanding how much He has blessed us in Christ and that He will continue to bless us. God is a God of blessing! He is not stingy. He loves to give good gifts to His children.
Ephesians 1:3 states that He has blessed us with all blessings in Christ! He has forgiven our sins and made us His own children, making us heirs of His household. He has given us the promise of eternal life. And He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us.
The Bible is full of promises that God will bless those who trust and obey Him. Psalm 37:4 even says that if we delight ourselves in Him that He will give us the desires of our heart! We cannot imagine the things God has prepared for those who love Him (I Corinthians 2:9). Being blessed by God is the first part of our destiny.
God will Make You a Blessing to Others
God said to Abraham (and to us), “I will bless you and will make you a blessing.” God blesses us so that we can bless others. We want to be blessed, but often it stops there because we don’t understand God’s purpose in blessing us. The blessing is not given just so we can be rich and self-satisfied. A self-centered life produces emptiness and regret. People who do not become a blessing to others will never be happy because they have missed God’s purpose for their lives.
I have many Mongolian friends who have visited us in Japan. They have all heard about Tokyo Disneyland and want to go. I took some Mongolian friends to Disneyland a few years ago. Before we entered the park, I said, “Disneyland is fun and it is not wrong to go there, but sometimes people get what I call, a ‘Disneyland mentality.’”
It is fun to go to Disneyland, but what if a person goes every day for a month? Or for a year? After a few days it would not be fun anymore. It would be like eating nothing but chocolate and ice cream day after day. Though a person continues to eat, it does not satisfy. Many people have a “Disneyland mentality.” They seek self-fulfillment in pleasure, possessions and having fun, but have no focus on blessing others. People who live only to fulfill themselves will never be happy.
Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” This is an absolute principle of life. If we live only to fulfill our own dreams and desires, we will lose true life. But if we lose our life, we will find it. We will find true life by giving up self-centered pursuits and follow Jesus. He will bless us with true life and true happiness. And He will make us a blessing to others.
God’s purpose in blessing us is to become a blessing to others and to the nations. Some may say, “How can I bless others?” It is easy! LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF! The main command of Jesus is to love others. “This is my command: love each other as I have loved you.” We have unlimited opportunities to bless others by loving them and serving them! We all have scores of relationships with people in our lives including family, friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and other people in our community. Many of these people are hurting and hungry for someone to reach out to them in love.
No law can stop us from loving others! Political unrest, economic distress and uncertainty about the future cannot stop us from loving and serving others! What would happen if every follower of Jesus in America who have been so blessed by our Father becomes a blessing to the people around them and in their community? I think we would transform society. This is part 2 of our destiny.
All Nations will be Blessed through You
Why did God bless the United States of America so much? I don’t think He blessed us just so that we can have big houses, multiple cars and unlimited opportunities to make more money. He blessed us so that we can bless the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. This is the purpose of the blessing. If we don’t understand God’s purpose in blessing us and live just to get more stuff, we will never find true life and will never fulfill our destiny.
In the last part of His promise to Abraham God said, “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." This verse is quoted or referred to more than 50 times in the Old Testament and several times in the New Testament!
Paul quoted Genesis 12:3 in Galatians 3:8. It declares that salvation would come to the Gentiles through the gospel: The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” It is clear that God’s mission to reach all nations with the gospel was God’s plan and purpose from the beginning.
God did NOT choose Israel just so that they could be blessed and self-satisfied by themselves. His plan was not just to bless them and to reject everyone else. He wanted to bless the nations through His people. However, they became self-centered and thought that God only wanted to bless them. God made it very clear in His promise to Abraham, however, that He would bless them so that they could bless the nations.
The purpose of God blessing us is that we will bless the nations. The biggest blessing we have to offer is the free gift of salvation through Christ. God loves sinful and lost people. He longs for lost sheep to be found and for lost sons and daughters to come home. He wants sinners to receive the free gift of forgiveness through the cross of Christ. He wants people to know Him and walk with Him.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I John 4:9?10
Becoming a blessing to the nations refers first to the gospel. However, God desires that we bless the nations in every way by loving them, serving them and sharing Christ with them. This is Part 3 of our destiny.
If we don’t understand our destiny we will fade away into the pages of history and be remembered as a nation that was very rich, but self-destructed because we did not pursue the destiny God created us for. Or we can rise up and become a truly great nation that is strategic in these last days by sharing the love of Christ with all peoples and nations of the world.
God loves the world! He blessed us by sending His only Son as sacrifice for our sins. He wants us to become a blessing to all nations and peoples. This is our destiny. Now is not the time to be fearful or to be distracted by all of the turmoil around us. Our best days are ahead of us! Let us move forward in a spirit of faith and love to fulfill the calling and destiny God has given us.
“Father, renew us and restore us today. Turn our hearts back to you and to your will. Thank you for blessing our country so much. Forgive us for seeking more and more blessing, but not becoming a blessing to others. Shine the light of your Spirit on Your people today. Give us your heart for people around us and for all nations and peoples of this world. May we fulfill the destiny that you created us for.”