Rest In God, Reach Your Destiny (Intro)

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How to rest in God and STILL reach your destiny. Blog series by Jamie Rohrbaugh | FromHisPresence.com

I used to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do to reach my destiny.

I worried about it a lot, and tried to make it happen with all my natural ability. I would get a “good idea” and try to carry it out, convinced that it would result in God finally letting me do what I am called to do. I was wearing myself out, trying to do “greater works,” and getting absolutely nowhere.

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    (Side note: I realize that you have probably never done anything remotely similar, and I may be talking only to myself here. But, just in case you enjoy juicy blog posts like this, I give you permission to read on anyway.) 🙂

    Then I went through an experience (or two) that cured me of worrying and striving. Over the next few days, I’d like to share what I learned, and talk with you about how you can rest in God and STILL reach your destiny.

    To be more specific, I’m actually going to talk about how you MUST rest in God IN ORDER to reach your destiny.

    My ugly backstory about how I learned to rest in God:

    When I was so worried about carrying out God’s call on my life, I was just starting to learn how to hear God. I had reached the point where I felt like I heard His voice most of the time. I talked with Him constantly—at work, at church, driving in the car, at home—and He talked back.

    Then one day, it was like somebody flipped a switch. That wonderful, ongoing conversation I had with God suddenly turned into…

    NOTHING.

    Silence. Dead silence.

    And I freaked out.

    • I asked God what was going on… and I heard no response.
    • I searched for any sin in my life that might be keeping me from hearing God. I found nothing, but I repented for everything I could think of anyway (even for things I hadn’t done).
    • I dug into more Bible study than ever, thinking I must need a spiritual shot in the arm in order to hear God again.

    But even the extra Bible study didn’t fix the silence. Sure, I learned a lot from studying, but the silence remained. My worship, Bible study, and prayer all felt dry as a bone. I felt no manifestation of God at all. There were no tears. No sobs. No emotional highs, and no knocking knees.

    Since I felt no spiritual emotions at all, I had to keep worshiping, praying, and studying the Word out of CHOICE, not because I felt like doing those things.

    For someone who loves to FEEL, this sudden, total lack of spiritual “experience” was hard.

    Then I talked to one of my spiritual parents one day. She told me that I was in a period of “hiddenness,” in which God was hiding His manifestations for a season so I could learn to trust Him more. She told me He was teaching me not to depend on my emotions, and that I needed to learn to rest. She said to go home and look up all the Scriptures in the Bible I could find about resting in God.

    But I didn’t do it.

    I should have. She was right on, and listening to her would have saved me a lot of future aggravation.

    Eventually the silence got better, and I started hearing God again. The “feels” returned gradually, a little bit at a time. I had persevered through this period of hiddenness. But … I still had not learned to rest.

    So I kept doing all the same things.

    I kept loving the Lord and pursuing Him with all my heart. But, I still didn’t have a good, solid understanding of my identity as a beloved child of God. I couldn’t rest in the Lord yet because I was working for love. I felt like I had to strive and perform–in every area of my life, from my relationship with the Lord to my career, etc–to measure up and be good enough.

    Related: Pray This If You’re Working for Love

    Fast forward a few years.

    I was in a new storm; a financial storm that lasted for years. My husband and I had bought a new house in a safer neighborhood without selling the first one beforehand. We assumed that, since the Lord was on our side, He would sell the first one for us right away.

    Well, He didn’t. And we bled financially … for years. And instead, of delivering us from it, He used that storm to burn a lot of dross off me. He burned a lot of instability off me, and I’m grateful for it. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world; looking back, I can honestly say that it really grew me up spiritually.

    But during the storm itself …

    It was horrible. I cried nearly every day. I begged the Lord for help. He answered all my other prayers, but He didn’t sell that house. (In fact, our storm started in 2008, and He just sold the house in February of 2019.) Hmmmm … yeah.

    During that storm, as we bled financially and watched all that money go out the window as we paid for two houses at once (for 2.5 years, before we finally rented the little house out), I was SO worried.

    I worried about how I would ever reach my destiny. I worried because I didn’t feel like I was making any progress. I was constantly asking myself questions like:

    • Have I missed out on my destiny because I have lost these years to this storm?
    • If not, what should I do next?
    • Should I go to seminary?
    • If so, which one?
    • How can I get my husband to agree to let me go to seminary?
    • Even if he agrees, how will we pay for it?

    All those questions and many more were keeping me in a constant state of depression. I was all in a tizzy about what I needed to do to make my destiny happen, and I worried that it might not happen at all.

    The breakthrough:

    After several years of storms, I “happened” to be reading in the book of Hebrews one day, and I got one of the most life-changing revelations I have ever received in my entire life.

    This revelation completely freed me from worrying about my destiny.

    It brought me into a place of joy, hope, and peace.

    It accelerated me into a place where I could begin walking in God’s call on my life.

    Want to know what it is? Are you ready to be done with worrying about your destiny, and just WALK OUT your destiny?

    Yes? Good. Click here to read post #2 in this series!

    In the meantime, I am wondering: Have you also also spent time worrying about your destiny, wondering what to do, and being afraid that your destiny might never happen? If so, please leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you.

    Image courtesy of Don McCullough on Flickr via Creative Commons license. Image has been cropped and graphics added. 

    Read all the posts in this series!

    23 Comments

    1. timfigley says:

      Jamie,what was the revelation that brought you into the rest ????

      1. Hi Tim, it is here:
        But Don’t You Have to Work For Your Destiny? Nope!

        The revelation has two parts:
        1. The Bible tells us (in Hebrews, Ephesians, and other places) that everything God has in store for me is already finished. All of the good works He created me to do were finished before the foundation of the world.
        2. God did such a good job finishing His plan for my life that He is still resting. He’s not worried about anything; He’s got it all under control.

        Therefore, since the good works I am called to do (preaching, etc) are already completed, I don’t have to worry about trying to make it happen. I am free to just seek Him, enjoy His company, love Him, and be the object of His affection.

        As I do that, He manifests His finished works through me on a daily basis.

        Make sense?

      2. In reply to your question In the meantime, I am wondering: Have you also also spent time worrying about your destiny, wondering what to do, and being afraid that your destiny might never happen? Oh, ya. a couple little things. One right now my biz seems like it’s failing, I’ve been trying to figure out what I’ve been doing different. I came up w three things, one I broke up w a guy that well we’ve been taking turns on chasing after ea other for years. Pretty sure that’s not it. In oct. I got my phone wiped, which also meant my calender, opps I have no idea when client are coming in or to remind them to come in, I think that hurt some but I don’t think that’s it. 3 reiki. I’ve been trying to figure out how to reconcile rieki w my faith, the symbols make me uncomfortable, but then is it as effective? The Idea is your directing universal energy, calling upon what ever entity you believe in, so I ask the father son & holy ghost to direct the energy, but how is this different than praying? If it’s not should I be charging people? Also we use hand positions, but I thought as Christians that we have a direct line to God is this against God? We’re trying to help people so is it for God, but then i thought we weren’t supposed to use any rituals which the hand postions kinda are & focusing energy, is that Godly? But then we’re not supposed to be attached to the outcome & let the energy be in control, just as your supposed to let god be in control. So now am I doing anything? Anything if not I shouldn’t charge for it. Crap, I don’t know what to do w this. I finally decided to stop worrying about what to do w it until I get some type of guide comes to me. The fact that I spent money on it so I can have something else for my biz at first really bothered me, than I thought, well I need the CE credits for my license anyway so maybe not. So It’s on the back burner, I ‘m taking away the thing I like about it to practice on myself but as for clients, I’ll wait until I get my doubts cleared up, or just not practice it on clients which is looking like whats going to happen at this point. My conclusion? I need to stop questioning everything under the sun & have confidence in myself & just trust god that it’ll all work out, I’m good at what I do I just need to have a little faith. Hope my crazy thought process didn’t drive you crazy but you did ask, so I shared.

        1. Hi Alicia. First, thank you for reading my blog. Thank you also for commenting and sharing your story.
          You’ve asked a question that I know means a lot to you. I will do my best to answer it clearly and simply. This is a tough answer, but I pray you would hear it and the Holy Spirit would help you.

          Dear sister, reiki and other similar practices are not from the Lord, and they are harmful to you. There is no room in the life of a Christian for reiki or any New Age/occult/channeling-type practice. These things are forms of witchcraft, and they open the door to Satan and his demon spirits to torment you and operate in your life.

          And furthermore, they are not even God’s best for you. The Holy Spirit of God is the Supreme Being, the God of the universe. He is the only Spirit you need. He is the One who gives you power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. He is the One who drew you to Jesus. He is the One who helps you, lives inside you if you have made Jesus the Boss of your life, and He is the One who will help you with every situation, every day, no matter what. He loves you and will never forsake you.

          Precious one, I would encourage you to be free of the reiki practices completely. If you aren’t sure how to do that, email me at jamie at fromhispresence dot com or contact me on Facebook and I can recommend some resources that will help you.

          I will pray for you, precious sister. Thank you for reading my blog.

    2. April Itson says:

      Thanks, Jamie! I am looking forward to your next blog on this topic because it is a struggle I deal with daily. You are definitely not alone!

      1. Thanks for reading, April! Here are the other links to the other posts in the series – I never have gotten around to adding them to the menu so it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack sometimes!
        Here are all the posts in this series! I hope they help! It’s a daily thing for me. “Today I choose to rest, Lord.” I have to rinse and repeat every day! LOL 🙂

      2. Part 2: Rest In God or Tough Love: It’s Your Choice
      3. Part 3: But Don’t You Have to Work For Your Destiny? Nope!
      4. Part 4: Resting In God Makes Your Destiny Easy
      5. Part 5: How To Do the Work Under the Anointing
        1. Hi Jamie,
          I am struggling with this right now and I am going through several storms and feeling like I will never make it through. My biggest struggle is letting go and letting God. You are definitely not alone and it’s good to read that I am not either.

          1. Hi Erika, I’m sorry you’re going through storms. I pray He’d help you have wonderful rest. 🙂 Thanks for reading.

    3. Françoise Mertz says:

      Hi Jamie! thanks so much for the very interesting and useful articles. I discovered them yesterday, while surfing on pinterest.
      God used one of them to help me getting rid of my shame and to remember me to rest in him.God bless you. It’s good to share with a woman of God who has exactly the same questions and similar answers, even if you are in the States and me in Switzerland.
      Hope you will understand my bad English.My mother tongue is French .

      1. That’s amazing! Thank you, Francoise. And your English is fine. And if you need to write in French, that’s fine too – I speak it some. My reply in French may not have perfect grammar, but I’ll try. 🙂

    4. So yes I’ve heard (in the spirit) I’m supposed to be in a deep rest and don’t need to fight for anything… oh those habits and that flesh. It’s coming and is a process. I got excited yesterday and decided to see if I could see Hebrews lesson myself first. I did receive but not the finished works part. Love that!
      Now Reiki oh no it Arrosti specialist, highly recommend it’s like extended PT and practiced by Chiro but they teach you to do exercises at home (helps w healthcare costs and drug isssues). Now to just do it (the excerises at home).
      Father issues, it’s been a process. Quick testimony: my son is getting married and have been picking out MY four alloted songs for wedding (Too cute). Butterfly Kisses was one that really touched me. Thought maybe I was praying for Dad and daughter however HS used that for me yesterday when sweet hubby came home from office job and started doing his manly thing (fixing stuff). Instead of being disappointed, what about ME and my plans (and yes I’m a free spirit) Graham Cooke has me thinking, what does God want to be for me now, what part of His character…”Father”… so, He used that song to minister to my heart and I felt whole and special. Nice feeling of contentment. And can rub off on others when I’m whole and not reaching.. also have been texted w my Dad and love him so and grateful for what I do have though it’s not leave it to Beaver…was seen as more of a Dennis the Menace lol it’s all good! I’ve forgiven long time ago but feel accelerated healing going on now…all because of Jesus and the way :).
      hope it blesses somebody!
      Nothing to prove, no one to impress and life’s all about learning. Thanks to the church for those words!
      Have a gorgeous day. Bisou bisou

    5. Hi Erieka, am really sorry for the storm you went through but I have a ton of questions. It was two years ago, somewhere in November, I was at church with my mom, we had a prayer meeting. After that our pastor pulled me aside and said he wanted to speak with me and my mom and told me I had a great destiny. I was pretty spiked because at least I had a chance to make my parents proud after all the disappointment I brought them. The pastor told me that I was going to be really wealthy and the amount of wealth my dad has is nothing compared -just to give me an image of how great it is- he also said that the world of darkness doesn’t want me to reach there and always plant distractions to push me away and even doubts about God’s existence. He mentioned what I should stay away from and I did and always pray for God’s guidance when it involves the issues I should stay away from. I felt pretty dumb when he asked if had any relating questions and didn’t ask what If I was supposed to go through a certain path like a career path or somewhat, he did say I should read my Bible more am currently at home with nothing going on cause everything I tried flopped while my friends and peers are either studying or working, and it’s frustrating cause I have no idea at what age I was supposed to reach my destiny, if I had already passed, what I should do

    6. Resting and TRUSTING God! Praise God He is Jehovah Jireh our Provider and Protector.
      Thank you so much for this post.
      Blessings to you sweet sister in Christ. 🙏

      1. ANN Mayne says:

        Thanks for this I understand what you went through I’m in the same boat about the financial side it’s a tough road to travel when you are a single mom, and run your own business. The problem is my clients are not paying for the work I do. I do believe that its coming to an end.Thanks again and stay blessed.

    7. Sunday Nyacigak says:

      I have always questioned if I’ll actually fullfil my purpose, cause I seem to be stagnant while everyone else is progressing,my siblings and school mates having graduated while I had to stop schooling in my first year first semester of college. It’s been hard to identify myself with what God says over me, and though I want to walk in His promises, I war with thoughts that I’m not worthy,or it just never gonna work out for me, cause of being stuck for five years.

      Coincidentally God has been speaking to me concerning rest and having peace in the eye of the storm but I don’t know how practical it can be for me.

      1. Hi, Sunday.
        If God has been speaking to you about rest, please don’t concern yourself with how practical it can be for you. Only obey, and do so quickly. He is trying to promote you but He can’t do it until you rest. I speak this from my personal experience, as well as from God’s Word first and foremost. 🙂
        Jamie

    8. Hie
      i try by all means not to worry but i am always worried. it sees like it never rains for me but it pours. i literally have no asset and dont own a business i stay with my sister while my mother is in the rural areas. When i get a job its usually a contract which does not last more than a year and when its promising to be pemanant i usually dont get paid until i give up or i am retrenched, everything i do i have to struggle for it while for others its just simple. i could not further my education to university and ended up doing a diploma instead while paying for myself because my mother could not afford university. However i am not employed in the field i studied rather i am working somewhere ealse which is not related to what i studied.i don’t intent to work forever but i cant save enough to start a business because i am usually contracted for less than a year or don’t get paid or get retrenched. I am not married and most of my relationships are more of set ups to delay me or so they end up leading to nowhere then i start over again. People always ask me when are you going to get married because all my pears are married . i used not to worry but now i am worried. My mother used to encourage me to find someone and settle down but now she is tired, i can see its bothering her but she no longer want to talk about it because she doesn’t want to hurt me though it hurts her as people around her rub it in that i am not married . It has never been a problem because i never view marriage as an achievement like what our society do but now i feel the need because i no longer have anyone to talk to or who shares the same intrests . I always feel out of place i am treated as an outcast because i am not married. At home you have no voice, in society men see you as an easy target, women see you as a threat to their relatioships, some see you as a total failure

      I can spend the whole day telling you about my worries. At church they say i have a charism / a spiritual gift which is very particular about the spouse i should marry and it doesn’t want me to work but wants me to have a business. of which i would like that too but i don’t know where to start from because my earnings are usually form hand to mouth. My life has always been a struggle from the day my dad passed on 19years ago. i wonder when will i find rest and what is my purpose and what should i do fulfill my purpose, is it a curse. I pray day and night for these thing but i dont know what ealse should i do. Sometimes i get offers to join occults Physically and mostly in dreams. I don’t know how to pray or who to talk to or what to do. all i know is am tired of warfare prayers. i want to pray the Prayers of Thanksgiving,Prayers of Praise, worship and pray for others too. i do pray those prayers but most of the time i am focused on requests for my problems. all i know is i am tired. i need rest. Sorry my comment is too long and please don’t mind my grammer

    9. Hi Jamie, thanks for your blog post series of which I am yet to read the remaining two. I have been going through a series of storms in my life which started with my struggling to get a new job for years and then not having a job for years this led to others storms in other areas of my life as well as circumstances I had no control over. Big Hope’s and dreams etc with my destiny becoming a real issue for me and the feeling of having missed it. Like you I have been doing everything I know how to for years. I identified with you when you said this had been from 2008 to 2019 for that is the length of time for me and still waiting and believing for the breakthrough. like you can honestly say I am a different person today than I was before the heat of this began and as painful as this journey is I can see areas where the Lord has been working on me

    10. Praise the Lord Christ Jesus! Thank you so much woman of God and dear Sister in Christ! I have received a Prophetic word regarding that I will be busy and I will need to rest. God is going to give me back what the devil has stolen for 18 and 20 years! All that lost time. Glory Hallelujah Christ Jesus! The Scriptures, your story, experience, and lessons you’ve learned that grew you up spiritually and revelation you received from the Lord in your life to turned things around for you that allowed you to Rest in the Lord due the finished work of Christ Jesus has blessed me tremedously with spiritual understanding and guidance accordingly. I will finish reading the rest of the parts… I am so excited.

    11. Hello My name is Ralph Garth, I pastor a church in Birmingham Al. God has been good to me where the church campus I’m on we did’nt pay one dime for it. This Saturday pass I was in a meeting and the subject came up about A lot of pastor like me has came to a place where we think we own the church. I thought about that and repented to my father that I was so sorry. Today August 8 2022 I read your post saying except the Lord build a house you labor in vain. It blew my mine because as result of me thanking I suppose to make this happen, worrying about musicians worrying about the leadership all this and nothing is happening but as a result I have given up on worrying and I decided to rest in the Lord. The devotion and the other part of the post bless me and I have ask for forgiven and now I’M MOVING FORWARD. Please pray for me and I thank God for my new found revelation and that you for letting God use you.

      1. Hello, Pastor Ralph,
        I’m honored to meet you. Thank you for reading! This is indeed a revelation that sets us all free. I think every person in ministry, myself included, has to really fight to stay centered on the fact that Jesus builds His church and we can only love and serve Him, love people, and be faithful to preach the Word as acts of personal obedience to Him. He is responsible for producing results!
        Please let us know if we can serve you and your church in any way. We love Birmingham and will pray for you!
        Blessings,
        Jamie Rohrbaugh
        Founder and CEO
        From His Presence, Inc.

    12. I’m actually going through the same right now ,I can plan to do something new but at the end day It won’t work ,thank you sharing your blog Jamie

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