For most people, the Christmas season evokes two extreme emotions. the warm fuzzy nostalgic notions of a time gone by or the frustrated, frazzled, and otherwise fatigued efforts to capture those romanticized emotions. Pastor Micah Sutton offers a third alternative when it comes to celebrating the Christmas season, in his book Noel: Bringing Your God-Designed Destiny to Life. A Guide for Dreamers, Leaders, and Doers. The alternative to Christmas delusion or despair, is an understanding of destiny.
Pastor Sutton writes, “This book is for people to understand that there is a future designed for you. Just as Mary was called by God to fulfill a particular purpose, you are called by God for a particular purpose. There is something that God has specifically designed for you, a job to complete, a destiny to fulfill.” He then spends the rest of the book skillfully applying every detail of the process of giving birth to the process of discovering and delivering on your God given destiny.
Pastor Micah Sutton intimately understands this process. Having gleaned wisdom from years of faithful labor in ministry, he recalls the unsuccessful and successful seasons of church planting, leadership, and family challenges, as well as unpacking all of the baggage picked up along the way. Purposely laid out, the narrative weaves its way through the stages of pregnancy from conception to expectation, through delivery and realization, providing insight for anyone who is seeking to give birth to what God has planted within them.
Noel reminds us that Christmas is about so much more than the crass consumerism with which it has become associated. But rather it is the unfolding of God coming to Earth, Emmanuel; a God who is with us and not against us. A Messiah who stands ready through the process Pastor Sutton describes, to deliver the destiny of good in all of our lives. Understanding that the delivery of our destiny is a process is a key truth that Pastor Sutton communicates with detailed precision. He writes in vivid imagery of Christ’s birth process:
Through effective storytelling, and recalling his own vulnerabilities and those of others, Pastor Sutton reveals the challenges that every destiny will face on the road to delivery and realization. He also shares helpful practical applications for those who find themselves in every stage of this process. Sutton reminds every dreamer of destiny yet to be fulfilled, and that they won’t be the first to know, but neither will they be the last. When it comes to destiny God knows first; then He reveals it to us, eventually making the fulfillment known to the world.
Pastor Sutton helps us to understand these truths beautifully by reminding us from his personal experiences, pertinent Scriptures, and powerful illustrations that God is performing a process in all of us that will result in a new Noel in our lives. Joseph, Mary, along with the Wise Men and the Shepherds experienced the first Noel, but it would not be the last. All of us can experience Noel; what God is birthing in us. And when we do the world will be the beneficiary.
Scot Loyd 