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: nuke035878@verizon.net

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.