Dear Friend,

     Are you hopeful about your future? Confident in the Lord’s purposes for your life? Do you experience a lift in your spirit when you think of stepping into His plans for you?

     Recent times have been filled with a lot of uncertainty. Established traditions and institutions which you and I may have relied upon in the past have become tenuous and unreliable. Humanistic foundations have been subjected to substantial shaking, and the message is clear to us: the Rock of Ages is the only One that is unshakeable. In the midst of current tremors, God’s purpose for us remains sure. Our future in Him is bright.

     Let’s take a few minutes in this letter to find assurance in His plans for you and me.

Getting My Mind Right

     I was raised as a Presbyterian from infancy onward until I left home for college. That religious orientation fostered an outlook in my family that was rather deterministic and somewhat negative. (Like the old joke about the Presbyterian who, after tripping and falling down the stairs, brushed himself off and said, “Whew, I’m glad that’s over with.”)

     Before I met Jesus as my Savior, my religious upbringing led me to think that God was out to get me at some point in the future—that calamities lurked around every corner. So, you can imagine my delight as a new Christian when I came upon God’s encouraging words (some of my favorites) from Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

     What great news! His plans are good, not bad. He intends to give us a hopeful future!
 

A Heightened Understanding

     Are you as inspired as I am by this uplifting passage? I’ve always been able to count on it to cheer me, even in my most disheartening times. It has afforded me a lifetime of assurance and confidence that God’s plans for me are good, and that he offers me a future full of hope. And just today, I came into a deeper understanding of this amazing promise.

     Let me explain how it happened.

     As part of my editorial work at DPM, I was proofing Will You Intercede?—a marvelous little booklet by Derek Prince which we originally published in 2013. You may ask: ”So, why were you proofing it again just now, in 2021?”
 
     Here is the answer: due to constant demand, we must regularly reprint our books and booklets, checking and polishing them a little each time we reprint them.

Discovering the Context

     As I was proofing the redesigned text, rereading it as I had many times before, I discovered a truth I had not seen in previous readings. (Such new discoveries happen to me regularly when I study the Bible—but also when I read Derek’s Scripture-rich teachings.)

     My new discovery came in answer to a question Derek posed about how Daniel, the intercessor, had perceived the approaching end of the Jewish exile in Babylon: “Where did Daniel find this in the Scriptures?” The answer? Our amazing passage: Jeremiah 29:10–13.

The Condition for a Hopeful Future

     Derek, however, added a wrinkle from the context of this favorite verse which highlighted a truth I hadn’t seen before. It appears in the quote below from “The Ministry of Intercession,” a series of radio messages by Derek Prince. He comments about this broader premise—an important factor which has become a new source of revelation to me.

     Following verse 11, quoted above, about being prospered, and being given a future and a hope, Derek cites the next two verses—the conditions for receiving God’s promise.   * You may listen to Derek's original audio as you read the paraphrased quote below.

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart (NIV).

     In this prophecy of Jeremiah, there is a clear indication that after seventy years, God would begin to restore the Jewish people to Jerusalem and to restore the city itself. Through Jeremiah, God was saying, “I’m ready to do it at the end of seventy years. But you, My people, are going to have to meet My conditions. You’re going to have to call upon Me and pray. When you do pray, I’ll listen to you.”

     Daniel knew that his task was not merely to have an interesting revelation—that the time had come to restore Jerusalem. He realized that his responsibility was to fulfill the part of God’s people to pray. In effect, the Lord was saying, “You’re going to have to pray in a special way. You’re really going to have to pray.”

     As God says in the above verse, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” In other words, “When you give yourself unreservedly to seeking Me and to prayer, then I will respond and do what I’ve committed Myself to do.”

A Necessary Component

     The immutable promise awaits, sure and unshakeable. What is the condition that enables us to receive it? We call to Him, pray to Him, and seek Him. Adding in these vital components, I’m ready to pray right now. Will you join me?

     
     Thank You, dear Lord, for the amazing promise of Your plans to prosper us and not harm us—to give us a future and a hope. We want to receive it. So, we set our faces to call to You; to pray to You; to seek You with all our heart. We know this is the condition you have set before us, and we accept it.
 
     We believe that as we seek You in the weeks and months ahead, we will see the fulfillment of the destiny which You have spoken so clearly for us personally, and for the larger situations we face. By faith, Lord, we step into the promise of a prosperous, hopeful future in You. Amen.

Unlocking Your Destiny

     I believe that you and I have just inserted a key to help unlock the destiny God has for us. Honestly, as often as I had quoted Jeremiah 29:11 and encouraged others with this verse, I had not seen the necessary component which Derek pointed out. You and I can thank God for that kind of revelation, can’t we? It helps to open up His plans for you and me.

     All of us here at DPM want to partner with you as you step into the glorious future the Lord has planned for you. As you and I have seen from this letter, there are important, specific steps that Jesus inspires us to take in our relationship with Him. Derek was faithful to teach us about these conditions, and it is our pleasure to offer you his materials. You can start with “The Ministry of Intercession,” the message from which Derek’s quote is taken.

     It is our joy to make this resource available to you free of charge—one more way for us to offer our thanks for your faithful prayers and contributions for DPM. Thank you! 

His Plans Are Magnificent

     From now on, whenever I share the truth of Jeremiah 29:11 with anyone, I will be careful to include the condition we have discussed in this letter. It is indeed a key element for stepping into the future and destiny He has for us. Not in some legalistic sense—as if God will only open up a hopeful future if we pray just the right way. I believe His heart is to give that wonderful future to everyone. But in His mercy and grace, the Lord provides added insight so we can partner more actively with Him as we move forward in His will.

     When I was only a few years old in my early relationship with Jesus as my Savior, I decided that I would start committing His word to memory. At that time, I was reading the Phillips translation of the Bible, and the first verse I chose to memorize was Romans 8:18, which parallels our Jeremiah passage so closely.

     Here is what Paul said: “In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us.”

     Magnificent! What an encouraging reason to step into His plans for you and me!

All the best,

Dick Leggatt
President, DPM–USA

P.S. Thanks again for your wonderful partnership with us. We thank the Lord for you. Please make sure to download the message we recommended: “The Ministry of Intercession” and/or the booklet: “Will You Intercede?”