and if you start trying to be like some-
body else, you’re going to miss your
purpose. People don’t miss their pur-
pose and bypass destiny because God
decides to take it away; they miss pur-
pose because they fail to invest in their
purpose.
2 Peter 1:3 states, “His divine power
has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” You have eve-
rything you need to do what you’ve
been designed to do and be who you
were created to be. If God needed you
to be tall, He would have made you tall.
If He needed you to be better looking,
He would have made you better look-
ing. If He needed you to have a voice
to sing, He would have given you a
voice to sing. Everything about you
was designed with intentionality. In
fact, your design is directly connected
to your destiny. If you neglect your
design and refuse to celebrate how you
were made, you will never step into
who you were made to be. We have no
right to question the Potter about how
He fashioned and molded the clay.
The devil is a liar, and he would love to
deceive you right out of your destiny.
One of the main tools he uses is re-
minding you of issues, hang-ups, set-
backs, and sins. Your comeback should
trump his lies every time. Your past is
under the blood of Jesus. Your sins
were dealt with at Calvary. God’s not
surprised by your weaknesses; this is
why He promises strength. God’s not
caught off guard by your setbacks and
problems.
Last month, I taught that you
were created on purpose.
You were formed, fashioned,
and knit together by a skilled
Craftsman, not some arbi-
trary cosmic explosion. Therefore,
you are not an accident. You are not a
mistake. You are not just a mere mix-
ing together of DNA. This month, I
want to teach that you have a divine
destiny. That you were allowed ac-
cess into this dimension of life by the
nod of the Creator Himself, that you
were strategically placed at this time,
at this age, in your gender, in your
ethnicity, with your gifting, and with
your talent for God’s divine purpose
and your destiny.
The fool who says in his heart,
“There is no God” Psalm 14:1, has
essentially said, “I have no destiny.”
To divorce one’s perspective from the
reality of a Creator, a Master De-
signer, and a Destiny-Author, is re-
jecting his or her destiny and meaning
as a whole. The repercussions of say-
ing, “There is no God” are far-
reaching into every arena of our lives
and society. It is downright deadly to
reject the reality of a Creator, for it is
that very Creator Who assigns value
and purpose to the created. No one
knows who they are, because they are
detached from the truth of Whose they
are. The value of your Creator should
cause you to reconsider your own
worth and value.
Stop wanting to be somebody else.
Do not insult your Creator by insult-
ing His creation. As I said last month,
God considers you a “masterpiece.”
God made you the way He wanted to
make you, so He could use you at a
particular time in a particular way;
I want to use a passage
from the Book of Isaiah to
teach you the process that
God uses to help you
achieve His destiny for
your life. Isaiah 35:7-8a states,
“And the scorched land will be-
come a pool, and the thirsty
ground springs of water; in the
haunt of jackals, its resting place,
grass becomes reeds and rushes.
And a highway will be there, a
roadway, and it will be called the
Highway of Holiness.”
The first insight is found in verse
7, “And the scorched land will
become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.” This
seems confusing to most people
because it doesn’t say that while
your are in a “scorched land God
will give you a pool.” It says “that
the scorched land itself will be-come a pool.” The very thing that
stimulates thirst somewhere in the
process, if you persevere, will be-
come the very thing that quenches
the thirst. If you understand this,
then when you are in dry times,
you won’t seek to be delivered
from it, but sift through it, know-
ing that there has to be a pool
somewhere in the midst of it. The
idea that the writer is trying to
communicate is that in the midst of
something that is seemingly bad,
something good can be found. My
father in the Lord, Charles Simp-
son, had a dream where he was in a
warehouse, the name of the ware-
house was “bad experiences.”
There was a truck at the loading
dock where boxes from the ware-
house were being loaded into it.
(continued on page 2)
Monthly Newsletter Volume 32 - Issue 9 September - 2015
Achieving Our Destiny
Achieving Our Destiny - continued from page 1
Continued on Page 3
On the side of the boxes were the
words “good things.” He believed
God was telling him that you can
always find “good things in bad
experiences.” Its what Isaiah 45:3
says “God will give you treasures
hidden in the darkness,” or
Jeremiah 15:19 where God says
“He will help you extract the pre-
cious from the worthless.”
God uses “dry times” for two rea-
sons. First to get you to thirst afresh
for God. John 7:37 states, “Now on
the last day, the great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried out,
saying, ‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.’” The
principle here is, only the thirsty get
invited to drink. Therefore God has
to let something into your lives, like
“dry times,” that will stimulate your
thirst, so you might receive an invi-
tation by the Spirit to partake of a
fresh river of life. The second rea-
son is to motivate you to look for
water in places where your tradition
and legalism has kept you from.
That is why the pool doesn’t appear
in your dry times, until they become
scorched. When you get that thirsty
you won’t care where the water
comes from, if it is wet, you will
drink it. Proverbs 27:7 states, “To
a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.” In the late 1960's and early
1970's, the Charismatic renewal
came into being because a lot of
Christians in traditional churches got
so thirsty, that they were willing to
drink from the pool of the “Baptism
in the Holy Spirit,” even though it
included controversy and ridicule
from family and friends.
I want you to understand that “dry
times” are for promotion and not
punishment. This is important, be-
cause the enemy will point out some
sin as the reason for the dry time.
But, Psalm 103:10 states, “He hath
not dealt with us after our sins; nor
does He treat us the way our sins deserve.” In God’s dealings with us,
sin isn’t the issue, it has been re-
moved, verse 12 goes on the say, “as
far as the east is from the west, so far
has He removed our transgressions from us.” Therefore, His dealings
aren’t punishment for your sin, but for
the production of your soul. His deal-
ings aren’t to condemn you, but to
conform you. In your dry times the
enemy will try and get you to focus
on fixing something, instead of find-
ing something.
The second insight can be found in
Verse 8, which states, “And a high-
way will be there, a roadway.” The
Hebrew word translated “highway” is
“macluwl,” which means a
“thoroughfare, path or journey.” The Hebrew word for “roadway” is
“derek,” which means “a course of
life or destiny.” The implication is
that your drinking will help you find
the a direction and refresh you for the
journey, which will lead to your des-
tiny. What delivers you will also di-
rect you; what ministers to you will
also move you; what feeds you will
also focus you and what saves you
will also send you.
Your destiny is what God had in mind
when He created you. You were not
only saved from something, you were
saved for something. Ephesians 2:10
states, “you were created in Christ
Jesus for good works.” God had a
purpose in creating you. In fact be-
fore you were, your purpose was and
your purpose (destiny) determined
how you were created. God looked
down the corridor of time and saw
something (a destiny) that need to be
done, and He created you with that in
mind. He said in order for you to ful-
fill your destiny, you would need this
type of personality, this level of intel-
ligence, this perspective, this sense of
humor, etc. God designed you with
everything you need to be successful in
attaining your destiny.
In the movie “Chariots of Fire,” there
is a scene where Eric Little has just run
a successful race and held a successful
evangelistic meeting after the race.
His sister was trying to get him to quit
running and go into full time ministry.
He responds to her by saying, “But
God has made me fast, and when I
run I feel His pleasure.” Eric realized
that He was fast for a purpose, and
when he was fulfilling that purpose, he
felt God’s pleasure. The question you
need to answer is, what has God made
you for? What is it, that when you do
it, you feel His pleasure? For me, it is
prison ministry.
The third and final insight is also found
in verse 8 in the phrase, “it will be
called the highway of holiness.” The
implication is that your destiny is what
will bring holiness to your life. The
Hebrew word translated “holiness” is
“godesh,” which means “separated or
consecrated to God’s service.” Holi-
ness has more to do with vocation, than
it does condition. Let me explain what
I mean. My uncle gave me a stainless
steel cup from Starbucks as a Christ-
mas present. I only use this cup for hot
chocolate. In my house, it is a sin
(which means to miss the mark) to use
this cup for anything other than hot
chocolate. It has been set aside and
consecrated for that particular service.
When I am sipping hot chocolate from
it, it is in the truest sense of the word,
Holy. In fact, if my cup had feelings, it
would sense my pleasure of the service
it was doing.
Your destiny is the way to holiness.
Holiness is determined by your pur-
pose, not your purity. But it is in pur-
suing your purpose, that you will be
motivated to produce your purity.
Once you sense His pleasure over the
service you are producing, you will
deal with anything that will disqualify
Achieving Our Destiny - continued from page 2
Jim NewsomJim NewsomJim NewsomJim Newsom
you for that service. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possi-
bly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Hebrews 12:1 says it this way, “let us lay
aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The joy that is found in running the race, will cause you to deal with anything that will hinder or en-
tangle you. What motivates me to deal with sin, fight temptation, make sacrifices, and develop discipline is that I
don’t want anything to keep me from the purpose that brings Him pleasure.
In closing, everything that I just said to you can be summed up in the following statement. Dry times will cause you
to want to drink; as you drink, you will find a direction; in pursuing that direction, you will find a destiny; and as
you fulfill your destiny, you will be motivated to bring discipline to the entirety of your life. God doesn’t call the
qualified, He qualifies the called. It’s never too late to get back on the path to destiny. Remember, it’s not your weak-
nesses and failures that have the potential to abort your destiny, it’s how you see and respond to them.
OLD FASHIONED TENT REVIVAL
In August, I had the privilege of ministering for several nights at a Tent Revival in Holmes County, Ohio. Five
churches came together to sponsor this county wide event. Thousands came to hear the Word of God over an 8
night span. Many were saved and even more re-dedicated their lives.
I want to thank all of you who support this ministry financially, for without your help, I couldn’t do the things that I
do, or go to the places that I go.
Outward Focused is a ministry of
Rivers Of Living Water Ministries, Inc
114 Carson Street
Monroeville, PA 15146
Jim’s Cell - (502)593-7612
Jim’s E-mail address is: [email protected]
Web Site: www. outwardfocused.org
Without going into a lot detail, this ministry could use your help fi-
nancially. Many of you know my philosophy on money. I don’t
charge for anything that I do, and as a ministry we don’t sell any of
our resources, such as tracts, articles, or CD’s. We give them away.
There are two reasons that I don’t charge anything, the first is that
two people died, so that I could be who I am, and do what I do. The
first being our Lord Jesus, and the second being the person whose
death I was responsible for, which resulted in me getting saved.
Since they already paid for this ministry with their lives, it would be
criminal on my part to charge on top of that. The second reason I
don’t charge is that I work for Him, and Luke 10:7 states that “a
workman is worthy of his hire.” Though it is God’s job to pay my
wages, He does it through His people who He has burdened for this
ministry. So I am asking those of you, who God has burdened to see
this ministry continue to move forward, if you would prayerfully con-
sider giving a generous gift to this ministry. I would also like to ask
those of you, who read and are ministered to by this Newsletter, to
consider becoming a monthly financial supporter.
On another note, I wasn’t able to go to Kenya in August. In July, I
received an e-mail stating that Kenya changed the way someone gets
a Visa. Normally you can just pick it up from the airport when you
arrive. The e-mail stated that I had to now apply online for a Visa. So
I started the process of filling out the online application. During this
process, I was asked if I had ever been convicted of a crime. When I
said yes, I was then asked to list what crimes they were, was I con-
victed, and if so what was what my sentence. I then submitted the
several that I was convicted of, and what happened as a result. Two
days later, my Visa was declined. They wanted more information, to
reconsider my application, which I sent them. But a week later, it
was declined again. For some reason, this door of ministry was
closed to me at this time.
Notes From The Newsom’s From Jim’s Desk
Jim’s Itinerary For
September - 2015
• September 9, 16, 23, 30 - Somerset, PA Somerset Correctional Institution
Leadership Class
Pastor Phil Maust - (814)443-8100
• September 10 - Monroeville, PA Monroeville Assembly Of God
Men’s Meeting
Pastor Paul - (412)508-8029
• September 16 - Monroeville, PA Monroeville Assembly Of God
Youth Meeting
Pastor Anthony - (412)856-7900
• September 18-20 - Somerset, PA Somerset Correctional Institution
Weekend Conference
Pastor Phil Maust - (814)443-8100
If you would like to schedule Jim to come
speak at a school, prison, or church in your
area, please call or e-mail Jim at the above
number or address.