DESTINED TO SUCCEED

By Dr. Glaister Bell

Destined to succeed is the fruit of sermons and reflections by its author, Dr. Glaister Bell, MD. It is the testament and exposition of how Almighty God designed humanity, to express his Creator, and how to live an abundant life here on this earth. This was set in train in each human being in the moment of his conception and is carried out through the womb into a world beset by sin and satanic schemes. We are not left to our own devices but are offered God's salvation through Jesus, His Son, with whom we are invited to share a vital union, participate in the wonders of His earthly community (the church), and strengthened through active involvement of His word and through prayer.

Throughout our sojourn here, the believer in Christ is assured success by abiding in Him and keeping the cross of Jesus as central in our daily life and witness. The believer can trust in Christ's own victory at Calvary, His faithfulness throughout the ages as gleaned through examples in biblical characters, and His promises of taking us to His and our desired success, "conforming us to His very image" and taking us safely to "a new heaven and a new earth." Christ's success in His earthly life is our individual and corporate template for guaranteed success also.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885400053

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DESTINED TO SUCCEED

Dr. Glaister Bell

ISBN 979-8-88540-004-6 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-005-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Dr. Glaister Bell, MD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The Master Designer

Chapter 2

Created in His Image and Likeness

Chapter 3

In Vital Union with Christ Jesus

Chapter 4

With the Cross as Fulcrum

Chapter 5

The Certified Christian Birth

Chapter 6

In the Community of the Saints

Chapter 7

In the Delight of His Word (Part 1)

Chapter 8

God Speaks. How Do You Respond? (Part 2)

Chapter 9

In Observance of God's Word (Part 3)

Chapter 10

In the Spirit's Anointing (Part 1)

Chapter 11

In the Shadow of Pentecost (Part 2)

Chapter 12

Through Fervent Prayer

Chapter 13

Whilst Embracing Purpose

Chapter 14

Don't Trivialize the Call

Chapter 15

Because of an Unshakable Conviction

Chapter 16

Thriving Well along the Path to Success

Chapter 17

Advancing against Satanic Schemes (Part 1: These Are Real Threats—No Bag of Mouth)

Chapter 18

Advancing against Satanic Schemes (Part 2: Trust that God Quenches Hell's Burning Flames)

Chapter 19

Part 3: Advancing Against Satanic Schemes (The Charges Have Been Dropped)

Chapter 20

Part 4: Advancing against Satanic Schemes: You Are Being Cheered On! Depress the Go Pedal!

Chapter 21

Destined to Succeed through Wise Investments

Chapter 22

Waiting on the Lord

Chapter 23

The Ultimate Success—The Place Called Home

Chapter 24

Epilogue: The Benediction

About the Author

Chapter 1

The Master Designer

Psalm 139:13–18

Jeremiah 18:1–6

Over the last several months, I have sensed in my spirit that the Almighty God, by His Spirit, wants me to impress on us how much He has invested in us toward our success. He wants you and me to know that He took time to fashion us and then to bring us to where we are right now. The great news is that He did all of this with great plans and thoughts for you and me. We've been destined to succeed!

Where are you today in your life cycle—an infant, toddler, preschooler, school age, young adult, middle age, or elderly? He, Jehovah God, knows exactly where you are. He has been searching you out! In Psalm 139:1, Almighty God, our designer, has been looking with interest at you. Understand this: His searching you out means He checks for you; He is deeply interested and madly in love with you. When a man loves a woman, he goes to the extreme to get the woman's attention, and he does things to attract her and woo her to him. Guess what? God has checked you out properly to the point where He knows you (emphasis mine). His knowledge of you is deep, not superficial, and not partly but wholly, for He has studied you, not from afar but closely and with careful precision.

How so?

The Psalm starts with God addressing the outward, more general things in His exposé. Here is my take of it:

I know where and when you sit and get up. I know more than that. I even know what you are thinking with astonishing accuracy and certainty (verse 2). I have studied you so carefully, scrutinized you, if you please, that I can predict with 100 percent accuracy and precision what you are doing now, have ever done, and will do all the time (verse 3), and I know what you have said, are saying, and will ever say (verse 4).

How?

Your Designer, Almighty God, has been there with you—behind you, beneath you, and above you. That's what the enclosed me (NASB), hedged me (NKJV), hem me (NIV), and beset me (KJV) mean in verse 5a.

More deeply, God is saying that, in your entire life, irrespective of what it turned out to be up to this moment, irrespective of where you have been or what you have gone through, He, the Lord, your Designer, has laid His hand (verse 5b) on you.

You have not blown it because His hand has been on you. It is not a casual laying on of His hand on you, but He has done so meaningfully, firmly (yet gently), even when you have not had any knowledge or perception of the same. When some things came your way in life to destroy you, it was the Lord, your Designer, who shielded and protected you. When you were to meet upon some calamity, He was the One who barred you from such things. In verse 6, such knowledge is too good or high for us to even grasp. You would be totally astonished at what God's hand has done and kept you and me from and directed us into.

But there is far more.

As the Master Designer, He has kept His eyes on you carefully, tracking you down, wherever you chose to go. Do not for one moment think that you can get rid of God. He'll always be present with you, for He cares about your well-being to direct you to Him (vv. 7–12). Why have you begun reading this book today? It has been your Master Designer at work in your life, directing your eyes to these things. The Christian hymn He Leadeth Me sums it up so well: Almighty God, your Master Designer, has not only trained His eyes on you. His hand is grasping you. He has directed His resources toward you from the very beginning (before you were thought of) so that you'd become the success He designed and destined you to become.

Take a look at yourself. You may not be pleased with all the details, but if you can see the beauty of this day, feel someone's touch, taste something sumptuous and delectable, it is Almighty God behind your abilities. In the first place, the conceptus was not a mistake! I am referring to your beginning at the subcellular level. When your mom's egg became fertilized by your dad's sperm, it was by no means an accident or an unwanted pregnancy. God saw you in eternity past, thought you out perfectly and properly, and it pleased Him greatly to bring your mom and dad together to make you come to pass—that is, an intrauterine reality—and then deliver you into this world. You are a heritage (inheritance) of the Lord, your Master Designer, intricately and meticulously designed and fashioned by Him.

How much detail is in your makeup?

In verses 13–16a, when the right ovum combined with the right spermatozoon, the correct genes from your parents came together to give you an identity. The cells started to form, replicate, multiply and diversify, forming tissues, organs, and systems at God's direction. You developed into a fetus, within the safe chamber of your mother's uterus, under God's supervision. He placed life into you from the very moment of conception, which we can appreciate with an ultrasound scan showing the early fetal heart at six weeks of gestation. This life is God's life imparted distinctly into you at His choosing and will, uniquely embedded in your frame to cause you, and you, and you, a phenotypic and distinct human being, given a name by your parents or guardians, etcetera. God made you special! (Emphasis mine.) Deniece Williams's song portrays it nicely: God made you special, God made you special, for there's no other who's just like you. Special you are.

It was He, your Master Designer, who gave you an identity. The psalmist in rapturous wonder proclaimed, I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Thy works and my soul knows it very well (139:14).

He formed all the inward parts (v. 13);

He weaved everything (the cells, tissues, etcetera) together into a definite whole (v. 13);

He masterfully created and facilitated with His hands the wonderful and blessed intrauterine development (v. 14);

He oversaw and cared for my (and your) complete form (vv. 15, 16a); and

He planned out the number of my (your) earthly days and recorded them in the Book of Life (v. 16b).

The Master Designer placed you and me here fully loaded. What? Yes, loaded with potentiality. What's that? They are latent qualities and abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness (Google search definition).

Your Master Designer is the One who loaded you, for He was in the first place unloading Himself into you. Look carefully at verses 17 and 18:

His thoughts for you and me are precious/costly/great and out of this world;

His thoughts for you and me are plenteous (a vast sum); and

His thoughts for you and me are innumerable/countless.

In Jeremiah 29:11, the prophet penned the beautiful words emanating from the heart of our Master Designer: ‘For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you', says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope (AMP). So rich is the fullness of God that He unloaded Himself into you and me that we could become the best we were designed to be.

Where are you today in the whole scheme of things?

You and I are still works in progress, irrespective of who we are. Happily so, thank God! Surely, we are still here by His design, for our days have not yet expired that he credited to our life account. Have we been our best selves? A thousand times no! (Emphasis mine.) Like the clay taken into the potter's hand (Jeremiah 18:1–6), we are marred, broken, beaten up, and have all gone astray with varied characteristics and traits that do not align with His plans and thoughts for our lives. The Master Designer, the Potter, desires to put us back together again.

You have been broken. You have been marred. You have blown it! Me too! Don't stress it. Take it easy. The Master Designer (the Potter) has the precise piece to make you whole again and to make you (and me) into the vessel that is pleasing in His sight. That vessel will bring Him glory.

You've been destined to succeed!

Chapter 2

Created in His Image and Likeness

Genesis 1:26–29

Psalm 8:1–9

You've been destined to succeed! The Master Designer has put that into motion, overseeing it with caring and watchful attention. Though we may have become distorted or even broken by our own instincts, indulgencies, inappropriateness, and inconsistencies, we learned from the previous chapter that our Master Designer has purposed in His heart to bring wholeness and soundness to us. It has always been His desire to see us in this completed form.

God wants you and me to know today another lovely part of His well-designed tapestry that concerns us. Hear Him say, You've been destined to succeed, for I have created you in my own image and likeness! I am God. I always succeed at the words I speak and the mighty acts I perform. I've formed you. I've made you. I've created you; I've birth you. It is no small thing, says the Lord. You are bone of my bones, and you are flesh of my flesh. You possess my DNA and the life principle within you to be the success I've ordained and appointed you to be.

The creation of mankind was viewed by God to be good and the crowning glory of His handiwork on day six. Specifically, it was good for God because the creation of man meant that God was now able to concentrate Himself into something (humanity) other than Himself. (Emphasis mine.) Humanity was the true essence of God Himself, packaged and placed carefully in a receptacle or reservoir. That is who you are! That's who I am, a concentrated entity of God self!

In verse 26 of the Genesis account, the Bible says, Then God said, ‘Let us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image; according to Our likeness (not physical but a spiritual personality and moral likeness); and let them have complete authority' (Amp).

Irrespective of what you think about yourself or what others think of you, irrespective of how things have been playing out in your life, irrespective of the forecast on the horoscope for you (and Christians do not subscribe to this!), irrespective of your prognostications, even if the odds are stacked against you, the Almighty God of the universe, in designing you, in designing me, downloaded Himself within us and concentrated Himself within us! How dare the outlook! How dare the forecast! How damned the odds that point to failure, destruction, peril, disaster for you and me! God said, You are destined to succeed, for I have placed myself within you! Hallelujah!

The word dominion used by God in verse 26 speaks to having sovereignty and control (Google search definition). This authority extends over the fish, fowls, cattle, and over all the earth and creeping things (verse 26). Your rule, being human, was given to you by God, and it is delegated power over everything in the terrestrial realm.

One may ask, How does this verse reconcile with Psalm 24:1 that speaks to the Lord having control over the earth and everything therein? Look! You have been chosen by God to take authority as a human being. You have a God-given right to a portion of this shared earth. You have a right to be here! Many of us, as believers in Christ, have failed to capture the significance of this authority and have suffered from a lack of knowledge as it pertains to this authority. Magicians, sorcerers, and soothsayers take advantage of this generic authority and use it, not in accordance with the word of God or morally. It is an authority to launch us into the planned success that God has before He handed down to us to walk and live therein.

Verse 27 is the keynote verse of this chapter: So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created him; male and female created He them (KJV). It was a completed task and not a supposition or reflection. God actually performed that act. You are destined to succeed in the identity God has given you (emphasis mine). I will boldly declare that there is no need for you to change yourself in one way or another, for Almighty God (who is Spirit, neither male nor female) has downloaded His image and likeness into you, and it pleased Him greatly to make you phenotypically male or female. Listen to me carefully. You will succeed in that expressed image to take authority in the sphere in which you have been placed by Almighty God. Give Him praise and glory!

A careful examination of verse 28 reveals that God then blesses them. God the Blesser blesses them in their phenotypic identity. In your phenotypic design and identity, each of us has been blessed and set up by God. If you do not remember, let me remind us of the word of God in Numbers 23:20. Whoever God has blessed, it (that blessing) cannot be reversed! Many may try to dampen you and your blessing. In other words, many may try to throw cold water on you to frustrate or thwart God's design of you and your God-given path. It won't come to pass. Demons may rile at you, but they won't ever succeed at their schemes. Our testimony shall be, within my capacity and identity as a male/female vessel, I've been blessed by Almighty God, my Master Designer! Give Him praise and glory!

Don't just stop that testimony and declaration there. Continue, as He has said to me (call your name), ‘Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion. From this day (mention the date), I recognize that I have been given the blessing for my success here and wherever I go. Amen. Blessed to possess!

It stands to reason, brothers and sisters, that as your heavenly Father is fruitful, so must you be fruitful. Whatever you put your hand to/your heart into/your word on, it must come forth in no small manner but abundantly and decisively. It must prosper. Your Creator spoke, and it came to pass. Let's read together Isaiah 55:10–11, then Psalm 33:9:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

And do not return there without watering the earth,

And making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast (emphasis mine).

Again, let us make these declarations:

The blessings of the Lord make me multiply in areas that are fitting for His divine will and purpose for my life;

My children, that is that which come forth from my loins, are a heritage of the Lord (Psalm 127:3);

The blessings of the Lord make me rich, and it add no sorrow (Proverbs 10:22).

Another word that God used in Genesis 1:28 is replenish (KJV). The Lord commanded that human beings, being possessed and blessed by Him, should replenish (fill up and restore) the earth. You and I have received the divine blessing and the principle within us to restore beauty where beauty once existed, to create an environment of peace wherever it is lacking, to bring light where darkness and ignorance abound, and to bring the rule of God where tyranny and mayhem thrive.

By speaking forth the word of God embedded in us, we can counter the forces of strife, anger, hatred, bigotry, and discord and impact our spheres of influence with this word. The words emanating from our lips take on life and create the God effect. Our God, working through us, promises to restore the strength of those who are weary (Isaiah 40:31; Psalm 27:1), bring the joy of the Lord to despairing hearts (Psalm 121). Standing in our rightful position as Christians will allow us to take dominion and authority in this terrestrial realm, which will produce dividends in both the terrestrial and the heavenly realms.

When Almighty God concentrated Himself in us human beings, it was His life that he blew into our very nostrils (Genesis 2:7). The Bible says that this impartation event resulted in us becoming living souls. John the apostle provides more insight of this life of God, personified in Jesus Christ, the Word. John tells us the following in the prologue of the book that bears his name (1:4): In Him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men. The light given to all humanity is threefold: (a) the capacity to know (possess) or gain insight now/hindsight of things, (b) the capacity to dispel and extinguish ignorance, and (c) the capacity to act prudently at all times. You and I already have the inherent ability to know the ins and outs to propel us into the success God has provided for us. Hosea the prophet lamented in 4:6 that God's people are being destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. You and I can obliterate ignorance and darkness from our lives, the very things that cloud our path and vision for the future and expected end of success. You and I do not have to fall prey to diabolical schemes and the tricks and whims of evil men, for the Lord, our source of wisdom,