First - don't miss the new story about healing from a painful past - it was shared with us at last Saturday's 'Clothed with Joy' day for women.

At the women’s day I was praying for someone and I found myself praying things that I had not been told about, with an authority not my own. When I asked the woman afterwards, she said that she had a desire to go into the ministry, but when she was interviewed for training the interviewer could not see her potential. She was gutted. But my prayers led me to believe that she had a calling and a destiny, and these negative opinions had become a stumbling block to her. So I prayed God would free her from her anger at being misunderstood and remove the obstacles in her way. I really felt God was wanting her not to give up at the first hurdle but persevere, because his destiny for her was not going to be thwarted by someone else’s opinion.

This prayer time had a real impact on me. Am I fulfilling my destiny? The next day at church, guest speaker Chad Dedmon spoke about how fear is completely disabling to us. The Israelites did not enter the Promised Land because of their fear of “The Giants”. But God plus one is a majority. God had already given them the victory but they couldn’t see the bigger picture and those particular Israelites actually missed out on their destiny to live in the Promised Land: the next generation achieved it instead.

I often feel I let fear get in the way of my destiny. Yet Chad said that when he is afraid, he knows God is in the bigger picture and wants him to press on through. This allows him to go deeper into God trusting Him in the outcome. Satan uses fear to disable us but when we recognise this it can be the very thing that pushed us on to achieve great things for God. The speaker said, ”The dogs of doom stand at the door of destiny”. Kick the dogs out and walk through the open door to your future.

If this is you, do not be discouraged but stand up and fight for your hopes and dreams. God is fighting with you - so you have the majority, and the power to win this particular battle. Be encouraged.