Let us start by examining the concept of preordination first from the book of Jeremiah 1:4-6. This Scripture actually reveal to us what preordination means and why we must understand this from the perspective of God rather than from our own perspective. There, the Bible says: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; Before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations...” This was the word of the Lord to prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet at a time in Israel, he was one of the mouth pieces of God that God used for the children of Israel at such a time in the history of the children of Israel.

So, we are learning from what the Lord said to him. It says: I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Then said I: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah but Jeremiah’s response was “Ah Lord God! I cannot speak because I am a youth.” There are three key words in this place we just read that I don’t want us to lose touch of when it comes to talking about preordination. They are: ‘FORMED’, ‘KNEW’ and ‘SANCTIFIED’. Notice, it didn’t say: “I am going to form you, or know you, or sanctify you.” If you carefully examined these words, you would notice they are in the past tense. These three key words are essential if we are ever going to understand what the concept of preordination talks about.

The dictionary meaning of the word ‘FORMED’ simply mean: “to bring together parts or combine parts to create something." So, God was saying, irrespective of how you look right now, I am the one that formed you, right before your parents ever thought of bringing you into this world. Isaiah said something similar as well in the book of Isaiah 49:1-6. It says:

“Listen, O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
² And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

³ “And He said to me,
‘You are My servant, O Israel,
In whom I will be glorified.’

There is something about your life that should bring glory to God. When God is forming you, when God is sitting on you and He is purifying you, it is so that your life can bring glory to Him, so that your life will not bring shame and reproach. Our lives are meant to bring glory to God. Jesus said: by this shall all men know that you are my disciples indeed if you do all that I command you. He says further: men will glorify your Father. So, when God is forming us, it is so that our lives can bring glory to God and honor to Him, and not shame.

⁴ Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord,
And my work with my God.’”

⁵ “And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
⁶ Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

Did we see that? All that we read in the latter part of that chapter was what the formation Isaiah was supposed to do. So, when God says I formed you before you were born, it is for a specific assignment. The assignment of God, the will of God for your life, is tailormade for you.it may be different from mine, what God wants you to do is specifically to you and that is why He formed you, He created you and He put everything that you will require inside of you so that you can fulfill that assignment. Did we see that?

The second word is the word ‘KNEW’ and it means “to be aware of something.” God is aware of you. There is no detail of your life that is hidden from God. There is nothing that you are going through right now that God isn’t aware of. God knew you are short, God knew you are tall, God knew you are dark in complexion, you are chocolate or light in complexion, you are American, Asian, African, European or Australian. And everything about you has been put there so that you can fulfill His will for your life. When Moses said to the Lord in Exodus 4:10-12:

“O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” ¹¹ So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? ¹² Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

God didn’t tell him He was going to create for him another mouth so that he might be able to fulfill the will and purpose of God for his life. God simply told him: “go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” You know, many times, many of us also behave like Moses and give God one million reasons why we are not doing His will. We say: “God, you know I don’t have money, God, you know I don’t have a car, God, you know I am not married yet, God, you know it is because I don’t have a house over my head, God, just allow me to give birth to all my children first.” And God is simply saying to us; “go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

The third word is the word ‘SANCTIFIED’ which simply means to be set apart for a special use or to be declared holy. You have been set apart to do the will of God, and not any other will. Hebrews 10:10 says: “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Also in the book of Acts 13:1-2, the Bible says: “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ² As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

What then is Preordination?

Preordination talks about the original intention or will that God have for mankind when He created man in His own original image and likeness and then put man in the garden of Eden. We didn’t appear on earth to be useless and be a misfit. You know there are many misfits scattered in different places around the world. If you do not understand preordination and the will of God for your life, you will be a misfit wherever you find yourself. God carefully made us in His own image and likeness and put in us the ability to do His will. Now let me show us in the Bible, Ephesians 1:3-11. The Bible says:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹ having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, ¹⁰ that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. ¹¹ In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹² that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

Your Calling

The call of God on your life is a supernatural call. Everyone that has been born of God has been called to fulfill a specific assignment for God in His kingdom. There is the general call of God and there is the specific call of God. The general call of God is that we all preach the gospel to the unsaved so that they can be saved. In 2 Corinthians 5:16-19, the Bible says:

“Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us (ARE YOU PART OF THE US) the ministry of reconciliation (SAY THIS AFTER ME: I HAVE THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION), ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Now, what does this mean? It simply means that the least you can know about the will of God for your life and your calling is that you have a ministry of reconciliation. Then there is also the specific call of God where God would be asking you to lead a major assignment in His kingdom.in Colossians 4:17, the Bible says: “And say to Archippus, “take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

Your Gift

Your gift talks about the several abilities that you have that is mean to aid you in the fulfillment of the call of God and His will for your life. For example, when you enlist in the army of your nation, all that you would ever require to be a successful soldier in the battle field would be given to you after a successful training. God also has bestowed on us several giftings so that we can be able to do His will for our lives. Romans 12:3-8, Paul wrote and said:

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. ⁶ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…”

Your gifts are meant to be used and not to be buried. When you read the story of the man who buried his talents in Matthew 25, the Bible didn’t say his master praised him on his return. He was severely chastised and what he has what given to another. We don’t have any excuse before God as to the reason why we didn’t do His will because He has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

It says further: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; ⁷ or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; ⁸ he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

Serve the will of God with all that He has given to you. Serve Him with the whole of your being. This is the time that you must respond to God positively. You don’t want to wait until you are 60 or 65 before you now say “Lord, I am ready, what will you have me do?” How much do you think you will be able to do for God at that time? Let us read Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 as we are preparing to pray. The Bible says:

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,
“I have no pleasure in them”:
² While the sun and the light,
The moon and the stars,
Are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain;
³ In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
And the strong men bow down;
When the grinders cease because they are few,
And those that look through the windows grow dim;
⁴ When the doors are shut in the streets,
And the sound of grinding is low;
When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
And all the daughters of music are brought low.
⁵ Also they are afraid of height,
And of terrors in the way;
When the almond tree blossoms,
The grasshopper is a burden,
And desire fails.
For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.

⁶ Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
⁷ Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

⁸ “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“All is vanity.”

May the Lord help us in Jesus’ name!

[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]