Christian Living

Benefits of New Nature—Determining Destiny

by J.W. Phillips
06/06/25
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Benefits of New Nature—Determining Destiny 

A much-valued benefit of the new nature has to do with finding one’s purpose in life. Many people, even Christian people, seem to be sleepwalking through life with scarcely a clue about why God has put them here on this earth. 

In response to this dilemma, First Corinthians 15:34 says, “Awake to righteousness.” In reading these words, even for the first time, one need not become overly imaginative to sense the passion in that word “awake.” One can even imagine a shaking that is almost violent, given how much is at stake.

This shaking occurs because of three facts true of those asleep, especially spiritual asleep. One, they have no idea who they are. Two, they have no idea what’s going on around them. Three, they have no capacity to set goals, to reach goals, or to do anything useful.

But once there is a shaking and an awakening, and once the new nature rises and releases within them, that changes!

David Needham illustrated this truth in his splendid book, Birthright. He wrote:

There is a most remarkable bird called the arctic tern. Once a year it travels on the longest migratory journey of any bird known on earth; all the way from one pole to the other. The bird soars across trackless oceans, thousands of miles to its particular resting place. That alone would make it a very unusual bird, indeed. But there is something even more remarkable about it. 

After the tiny terns are hatched and old enough to feed and care for themselves, the parent birds leave for the South Pole. Weeks pass by and the young birds grow and exercise their wings, enjoying all the games that sea gulls seem to play in the sky. But finally the time comes when the young terns take one last look at the only place they have ever known, and begin a journey to a place they have never been!

Somehow, deep within them, they know they cannot stay, they must go; they want to go. But which way?  Did Mama and Papa tern leave a set of directions propped up in the nest?  “Follow the star Arturus until you see the Southern Cross, then, going south by southeast ....” No! The trip is very deep in their natures.¹

Isn’t that good? Bound within our new nature is a purpose that will define our life! This is especially true when contemplating the moral and spiritual dimensions of life.

The impact of our new nature will decidedly direct us away from choices we would have otherwise made. The life goals we choose, the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money, the way we choose our friends—the trajectory of our life will change, certainly and dramatically, once we receive our new nature.

This change isn’t spiritual and moral only (although these are the changes most important), for there is also a vocational change involved. Figuring out vocation and vocational direction cannot be done just by examining spiritual gifts, native abilities, personality temperament, and identifiable passions, since God has been known to give vocational assignments to people who didn’t want these assignments. Ask Jonah. Ask Moses. Ask Jeremiah.  Ask Paul. It is imperative, therefore, that we be led by the Spirit and not trust our own thinking too much. For even godly men have made painful errors in precisely this way.

When God leads in a direction we don’t want, our own thinking may mount a strong argument for a direction of our choosing. Yet, to our consternation, there is a knowing inside us that refuses to budge but instead obligates us to follow a direction different than our desire. And so we do, perplexed—only to have a similar experience at another juncture in our life’s journey.

Once again, we fail to understand, since the direction urged upon us doesn’t seem to make sense. Of concern, too, is the fact that we can’t explain how this sudden and strong knowing gained our attention. We only know that it did, and that it was of God. So we followed once more, only to discover, perhaps decades later, exactly what God was purposing.

When looking back across the years, design and purpose finally became clear. What didn’t make sense before, in time makes perfect sense. Benefiting from this retrospective vantage point, it became more than apparent to us that all along the Lord had been in control and knew exactly what he was doing.

Dr. F.B. Meyer acknowledged the tumultuous feelings we may have: the rain of tears¸ the shrinking of soul, the perplexity of mind while we navigate the circumstances God has chosen for us in life. But then, Dr. Meyer said, “… as days pass, some incident, some turn in the road, some concurrence of unforeseen circumstances will suddenly flash the conviction of mind that God’s way was right, the wisest, and the best.”²

So significant to us as well is the manner and method these turns and redirections transacted. Whether by vision or voice or some less sensational medium, we were led by his Spirit through our spirit, the new nature.³

Late one night a professor sat at his desk working on the next day’s lectures. Shuffling through a collection of mail put there by the housekeeper, this professor quickly did his sorting of desired and undesired mail. After discarding the undesired mail into the trash, a green magazine, not even addressed to him, caught his attention. 

In retrieving this magazine from the wastebasket, the professor flipped its pages momentarily before seeing an article by Alfred Baenger titled, “The Needs of the Congo Mission.” Without knowing exactly why, this professor began to read it; and as he turned from page to page, what he read strangely captured his interest. The article told of the great need in the northern province of Gabon, located in what was then called the central Congo.

The professor then closed the magazine and, without further inquiry, wrote in his diary that his life’s direction was now set.

Who was he? Some highly impressionistic flake? A goofy gadfly who indiscriminately found meaning where there was none? No, this man had a doctor’s degree in theology, philosophy, music, and medicine. In fact, he was the world’s foremost interpreter of Bach! It was none other than Albert Schweitzer who went to French Equatorial Africa, sight unseen, because there was something inside him that urged him to go. This illustrates one of the benefits exclusive to the new nature.

Taking in the whole picture, A.B. Simpson wrote:

Outside of Christ you are trembling on crumbling ground; beneath you are a yawning grave and an eternal fire, and above you is a cloud all lurid with judgment and despair. In him alone do you meet God and enter into his plan of love. That plan you can never understand until you get inside.⁴

But once you are inside, the plan he has put inside you becomes discoverable. 

Notes:

1. David C. Needham, Birthright, (Portland, Multnomah, 1979), p.159.


2. F.B. Meyer, Jeremiah, (Fort Washington, PA., CLC Publications, 2002), p.55.


3. While it is true that the two times we see the term “led by the Spirit” in the New Testament are not cited as modalities for information dispensing, it is also true that the leading the Spirit gave to Jesus (Matthew 4:1) and Paul (Acts 16:6, 7) did include information being dispensed.


4. A.B. Simpson, The Christ in the Bible Commentary, Volume 5, (Camp Hill, PA., WingSpread Publishers, 2009), p.383.