The many stories in the bible show the ways of the Spirit of God in operation. The events in the bible of things that happened to individuals like David, Gideon, and Daniel show the ways of God. The bible says that Moses knew the ways of God but the children of Israel saw the acts of God. The acts reveal the ways of God. The underlying principles help us to know the ways of God. The greatest desires of our hearts today should be to please God, be in the centre of His will and fulfill the destiny He has for us. There is no way we can do this without aligning ourselves with His ways. Our ignorance of His ways usually brings about our complaining and allowing confusion and bitterness to ruin us. It happened to the men of old as recorded in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. They missed the purpose of God, failed their tests and perished without getting to the destination God had for them. Our destination in God is called our destiny. It demands our conscious participation, development and willingness to change to fulfill the destiny of God for us. Our participation is our heartfelt obedience, our development is our discovery, development and deployment of our gifts in God, and our willingness to repent, change our minds and do what His Word demands are the keys that will unlock our destinies.

One of the ways of God is to understand the principle of foretaste. Whenever God wants to do something, He first gives you a foretaste. After which you will need to work hard to possess that which is yours. There is a price to pay, a position to take for your destiny to be fulfilled. The clearest example that comes to my mind is that of Elisha, who received the mantle of Elijah. When Elijah first cast the mantle on him, he had to say goodbye to father and mother and then kill the oxen he was tending. This was just the beginning of Elisha's service and labor to enter into what God had called him to be. He had to pay the price of seeing Elijah leave to receive a double portion of his spirit after he served with all his heart. The way of God is to give you a foretaste then watch you labor to possess what you had tasted. You will not be all that God wants you to be without your wanting it enough to pay whatever price you need to pay.

These times of foretaste are given to whet our appetites and create a new spiritual hunger in us for more of the things of God. When God gives us a foretaste, it is a foreshadowing of the things to come in the future. God is impressing on our hearts that these things can be ours if we would press in and pay the price for their fulfillment. We will be given the choice to move up into a better future or just remain at the present level. It is a temporary experience and God will have to work in us prior to the fulfillment of its reality. There is always a time period between the foretaste and the handling of that which is real. The process towards its fulfillment will fashion our character while bringing us into a new level of relationship with God. We will have the opportunity to press into what God has planned for us voluntarily. It will be our choice to go in this path of obedience and cooperation with God with the determination to pay the price for its fulfillment. We will need to slay the oxen and bid father and mother goodbye because we have felt the power of Elijah’s mantle briefly on us. We will pass the tests and overcome the temptation to be discouraged or look back but with tenacity we press on. We are determined to fully own and posses that entire dimension God has in mind for us.

These times will help us to observe our own hearts and clarify our focus of pursuit. God will give us progressive revelation of our own call and the future. This will make plain our destiny and how it can be fulfilled. God will often bring men and women into our lives to activate and accelerate the momentum of God's Spirit within us. These people usually provide the training and teaching, demonstration and confirmation of what is needed for us to come into our destiny. May the Lord help you to recognize and stay true to such people as they come into your life.

God bless you.

Rev Kola Ewuosho