THE POWER OF “DIVINE PROGRAMMING”!!!

(Learning To Seperate Eternal Purpose From Emotional Considerations)

– Pastor Bimbo Animashaun

Destiny is superior to emotional considerations!
Divine purpose is superior to primordial considerations.
Divine programming is superior to personal feelings or rational thinking.

If you ever want to become all that God has ordained you to become, you must cooperate with divine programming.
By simple dictionary definition, programming is is the planning, scheduling, or performing of a program.

It is the process of giving a set of instructions to a computer to make it able to perform a particular task.
By the same token, there’s such as called DIVINE PROGRAMMING.
It is the outflow of the divine choices of God over our lives, and our own responsibility is to align ourselves with such.

Struggle in life begins when you allow your FEELINGS to overule the CHOICES of God in your life.
As a matter of fact, your DECISIONS in life must be determined by DIVINE CHOICES rather than HUMAN FEELINGS if you want to fulfil DESTINY.
God Almighty has drawn the “guiding lines” on our path of destiny and any attempt go against them is like kicking against the pricks – Acts 9:5.

When I look at Scriptures, I see men who have been dead to human will, dead to family considerations, and dead to cultural or societal expectations so as to fulfil the demands of destiny.
I see men who have truly jettisoned the expectations of men so as to meet up with the demands of their high calling.
People can call them foolish for their decisions, but they understand DIVINE PROGRAMMING.

They know that God has a program; an agenda on earth that He wants to fulfil, and that He has chosen them by His supreme will and eternal prerogative to play their own part.
In this day, the Spirit of God is indicating that not too many people have come to grips with these eternal realities.

Many people today oscillate between feelings of pride to the tendency of compromise to make decisions that affect their destiny.
Factors such as age, status, background, exposure, etc., if not properly channeled in the direction of divine programming, can obstruct a man from fulfilling destiny.
People have some very weird and unscriptural thinking such as:

“I’m older than him”
“I’m richer than him”
“I’m more educated than him”
” I’m his elder sister, so how can he claim to be my Pastor?”
“She’s a woman, so she can’t be my leader”
“I’m better placed than her”
” I speak Queens English more, so how can I learn from him?”

Plus Much More!!!
These, and many other carnal considerations, have robbed many people of destiny.
You see, dear friend, in life, there are certain things you don’t have control over, e.g THE CHOICES OF GOD, and it is in the good interest of your destiny to flow with them and never call His wisdom to question.

As I study the Scriptures the more, I begin to see people who had enough reasons “in the flesh” to jettison THE CHOICES OF GOD over their lives but they rather stayed glued to divine programming.
I will just mention a few examples here for the purpose of brevity.

(1) MOSES AND AARON
Aaron was the elder brother of Moses and he was three years older than him – Exo.7:7, yet IN DIVINE PROGRAMMING, Aaron was to serve his younger brother in ministry.
It wasn’t HIS CHOICE; it was GOD’S CHOICE, and he did it well.

Aaron was to serve as an interpreter for Moses and he didn’t argue with God; he aligned himself.
God once told Moses:
EXODUS 7:1
And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and AARON THY BROTHER shall be thy prophet.
The word “prophet” as it is used here means “interpreter”. He was to help Moses in ministry.

At a time when Moses was tired on the mountain, he, together with Hur, helped to stabilize him – Exo.17:12.
Even Moses’ elder sister by the name of Miriam – Num.26:59, was in the choir unit under the ministry of Moses – Exo.15:20-21.
You see, these people knew that DESTINY IS SUPERIOR TO FAMILY CONSIDERATIONS.
Today, the age factor is the reason many folks have not stepped into God’s plan for their lives.

(2) JOSHUA AND CALEB
These two young men belonged to THE SAME GENERATION; they were like “FRIENDS” under the ministry of Moses, doing great stuffs together and recording outstanding exploits – Num.14:38.
But then, after the death of Moses, by DIVINE PROGRAMMING, Joshua became the new leader of Israel and Caleb saw him in that light.

He didn’t struggle with him. He didn’t think, “After all, two of us brought the good report of the promised land. Why must he be the new leader? I am also entitled to this position. No. I’m not gonna take that thrash. This is cheating”.
No No No!!! He knew the season had changed and that something had shifted in the realm of the Spirit, and that it was a matter of DIVINE PROGRAMMING.

Realizing this, he accepted Joshua’s leadership, to the extent that the Bible tells us that JOSHUA BLESSED HIM and gave him Hebron as his own inheritance.
JOSHUA 14:14-15
13 And JOSHUA BLESSED HIM, and gave unto CALEB the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.
14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.

You will agree with me dear friend that really, some men have walked with God. See the level of meekness and brokeness in Caleb!

(3) DAVID AND JONATHAN
Jonathan was the son of Saul, the first king of Israel, but as a young man, he thoroughly understood THE POWER OF DIVINE PROGRAMMING.
Even though he loved his father, but NOT AT THE EXPENSE of God’s purpose for Israel.
Jonathan knew that David was to be the next king, and he did all his best to protect David (his covenant friend) from the assaults of his father.

That’s Kingdom thinking. Someone else would have thought, “I, as the son of the king, am also entitled to this throne. Let me just arrange with Dad so that we can eliminate the poor dude”.
No, Jonathan wasn’t competing with David. He wanted to see God’s purpose fly in Israel.
If not for his premature death in Israel’s battle against the Philistines on mount Gilboa – 1 Sam.31:1-2, I have always believed that Jonathan would have played a critical role in David’s government.

Jonathan understood God’s covenant and divine programming, and of course he loved his friend David as his own soul.
1 SAMUEL 18:1-4
1 And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
2 And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house.
3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

(4) JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST
Both of them were related biologically. Remember that Elizabeth, John’s mother, was a cousin to Mary, the mother of Jesus – Lk. 1:36.
So, Jesus and John the Baptist were relatives and John was six months older than him chronologically speaking – Lk.1:36, yet ETERNALLY SPEAKING, Jesus created John the Baptist.

Divine programming brought them together. In prophecy, John was to prepare the way for Jesus and reveal His ministry to Israel – Isa.40:3, Lk.1:17, and also, our Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord of Heaven and the earth, perfectly understood that divine arrangement.
He didn’t feel inferior. He didn’t feel strange about it. He even encouraged John to play his own part.

MATTHEW 3:13-17
13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

This is undoubtedly one of the clearest Scriptural passages that teaches us to set EMOTIONS aside as we key into DIVINE PROGRAMMING.

(5) PAUL AND BARNABAS
Finally, we look at Paul and Barnabas. You see, this is very interesting. Barnabas got born again before Paul.
As a matter of fact, he recommended him to the Jerusalem church when the latter doubted Paul’s salvation experience – Acts 9:27.
So, Barnabas came into Christianity before Paul. When Paul was still wining and dining with devils, Barnabas was already casting out devils.

But then, by divine programming, it pleased the Lord to call them into PARTNERSHIP in the Gospel – they were to work together by divine ordination, yet Barnabas didn’t feel that it was below his “spiritual status or level”.
The Lord the Holy Spirit said during a meeting:

ACTS 13:2
As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me BARNABAS AND SAUL for the WORK whereunto I HAVE CALLED THEM.
I have said over and over again that IN MINISTRY, RELATIONSHIPS REVOLVE AROUND CALLING.

It is CALLING that dictates the nature and structure of ministry relationships.
Where there’s a specific “calling” from the Lord, then the order of relationship is dictated.
But where there’s “no any specific calling”, we follow the general patterns of the Bible – THAT DISTINCTION IS VERY NECESSARY.
There are two prominent fathers in the Body of Christ. One received Christ in 1969 and the other received Christ in 1973, yet by DIVINE PROGRAMMING, the latter is the spiritual father of the former because CALLING is involved.

And to the glory of God, that arrangement has been a tremendous blessing to the Body of Christ over the years.
We need to understand these issues very clearly especially in ministry.
Some people believe that you can’t father people spiritually until you’re like 70 years old.

SPIRITUAL FATHERING is not by AGE; it’s by GRACE. When we allow the unrenewed mind to dictate the tune, we’ll slow down the pace of God’s work on the earth.
We need to lay aside prejudices and idiosyncrasies. DIVINE PROGRAMMING IS AN ETERNAL REALITY.

“Personally”, I believe that the Holy Spirit actually called Paul and Barnabas into some kind of “MINISTRY FRIENDSHIP”.
I don’t believe it was a father-son relationship because YOU DON’T CONTEND OR ARGUE WITH YOUR FATHER, and I equally don’t believe that it was a mentor-protegee relationship because YOU DON’T CONTEND OR ARGUE WITH YOUR MENTOR.
Yet Paul CONTENDED with Barnabas over John Mark and that led to the break up of their relationship.

ACTS 15:37-39
37 And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.
38 But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.
39 AND THE CONTENTION WAS SO SHARP BETWEEN THEM, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
We need to be very careful in ministry. When the Holy Spirit brought Paul and Barnabas together in Acts 13:2, Silas and Mark were not there.

Why would they allow “A THIRD PARTY ISSUE” to seperate them?
Dear friend, issues are bound to come up in life and ministry but let’s not forget the place of DIVINE PROGRAMMING.
Satan’s goal is to attack God-ordained relationships in your life, therefore protect them.
Know your fathers and mentors.
Know your teachers and instructors.
Know your friends and colleagues.
Know your sons and daughters.
And no matter the order of relationship, learn to HONOUR ALL MEN – 1 Pet.2:17, for there’s nothing we have that we have not received – 1 Cor.4:7.

Let’s get our minds renewed with the Word, and we will stay balanced in all our ministry operations.
DIVINE PROGRAMMING is superior to any other consideration in your life, and when you key into it, you’re bound to reap a life of joy and peace.
I trust this made little sense Sirs and Mas?
Blessings!!!