Now this goes on right through the Bible. Just look at one more in Jeremiah 1, and you'll see it there - because the tendency is for us to kind of think that it's all sort of a bit hit and miss, but actually we want to focus our life, so we become clear of our assignment, and then pursue it passionately. In Verse 5: before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you, and ordained you a prophet to the nations. So here's Jeremiah, and God's saying: before you were even shaped, in other words, before you even come an embryo inside the womb, I already had set you apart, to be a prophet to nations.
So before we saw Josiah, and 300 years before his birth, already he's already got a prescription from God what he's called to do. Now, you can go through many, many men of the Bible, and it's exactly the same; for example, John the Baptist. They prophesied over John the Baptist, that the spirit of Elijah would be on him, he would go and prepare a way for the Lord - before he's born, while he's still in the womb. What about Samson? Samson, his parents got a word that this man would rise up, and become a great deliverer. He would begin to deliver the nation of Israel; so person after person through the Bible, the same thread runs through, that before the person entered the world, there was an assignment from God prepared.
Now, of course when you start to think about that, you think: well, that's different, you know? That's John the Baptist, you know; and all these famous people in the Bible, but that wouldn't be me. But we've just read that He has created you for good works, which He prepared beforehand, that you would walk in them. To walk means, you would arrange your life, to fulfil what God called you to do.
Now this is not then about just dying and going to heaven. This is about aligning our life with God's kingdom purposes. Okay, now there's many things and many ways, so the question then is: how on earth do I find out what God called me to do? How many are puzzled by that one? Well, if you're honest, you wouldn't be puzzled by it. How many can say straight away: I know exactly what God's called me to do, and I've actually got some goals set out, and I'm working on it now? See what I mean? You see, we have this fuzzy sort of thing, I'll just sort of mosey along, and have a bit of a prayer time and - but we're not thinking clear. We need to actually be focussed in our life.
Let's have a look in Psalm 139. Now David is writing, and this is what he says. He said: your eyes - Verse 16 - saw my substance, being yet unformed. So he's saying again, this is David writing - he's saying: before I was even formed in the womb, You saw exactly what my DNA, my make up, how I would come forth. You see how scriptures like this really speak of the sanctity of life in the womb very strongly; so notice what he says here: And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
Now let me just give you a couple of other versions. Here's what the NIV says: All the days ordained for me were written in your book, before even one of them came into being. How about the Living Bible: You saw me before I was born. You scheduled each day of my life before I began to breath, and every day was recorded in your book. Now when you start to look at it like that, we can just sort of say it something like this: that before you were even formed in your mother's womb, before any of us ever came into this world, God had a book and He listed every day of our life. He knows exactly when it'll finish, and He has a plan for every day of our life. Now that's quite extraordinary isn't it?