Do you believe in life after death?

Does a part of you live on after your body dies?  Do you have a consciousness or spirit that lives on after your physical body expires?

While both eternal life and reincarnation depend on your beliefs and actions, please know that your belief of the afterlife greatly influences how you'll live this current life.  It can create a reinforcing feedback loop.  For instance, if you believe in reincarnation, your slothful nature may take precedence, procrastinating until a possible future rebirth to realize spiritual perfection.  If you believe that this is the only life you have to obtain eternal life, the urgency for you to become spiritually perfect is much greater.  Consequently, you'll likely demand more of yourself, and you'll try with greater vigor to meet the demand.

Ready for Life Ministries recognizes and respects all religious beliefs and their afterlife alternatives.  However, we take the most urgent alternative, leaving nothing to chance in the next life.  As you may already know, nothing is guaranteed, except for the present moment.  Likewise, no life is guaranteed, except for the present life.  Therefore, we will be diligent to address these pressing matters in this life.

What are the means for discerning your destiny?

Destiny usually involves at least a few layers.  In the overarching layer, the common layer of destiny among humanity, can be seen as somewhat binary: to be doing the will of the heavens, to disregard it, or to do so in part.  Does your life, your actions, and your intentions align with the heavens?  In other words, are you promoting the everlasting in this temporal realm with everything that you do?  To name a few, are you promoting goodness, wisdom, understanding, patience, kindness, justice/proper conduct, honesty, temperance, chastity, generosity, diligence, humility, longanimity, equanimity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, prudence, fortitude, piety, compassion, charity/love, joy, peace, hope, and faith?  Or do you promote some level of mal-intent, which can include one or more of the following: killing, theft, sexual misconduct, falsehood, gossip, anger, envy, intoxication, slothfulness, or avarice?

At an intermediate level, your destiny may be connected temporarily or indefinitely to others who share the same or similar desire to serve.  Husbands and wives are the most common examples of this where they may raise the same family together and they may serve the same communities until death do them part.  Additionally, business partners, members of religious communities, and co-ministers are a few other examples.

At a more specific and unique level, your deepest desire to serve will be at the core of your destiny, and this may be made manifest in one or more ways.  In other words, your unique destiny is based on what drives you to serve in the greatest way(s) possible.  Confirmation of this can take varying amounts of time to discover and to discern each part of the spiritual journey.

Below are some discernment considerations that have been borrowed from Iñigo López (a.k.a. Ignatius of Loyola).  They can be used to discern many aspects of the spiritual life, including vocations, career paths, relationships, and destiny.  

• Is the outward manner good? (The means and method are good)

• Is there clarity? (It's quite clear and not opaque, obscure, ambiguous, or vague)

• Is it long-lasting? (It doesn't just go away after a relatively short period)

• Does it have a desire to serve? (Compassion and love will lead to service)

• Do others benefit from it? (It is more than self-serving)

• Does it increase your faith, hope, and charity? (It promotes your spiritual growth)

• Does it increase others' faith, hope, and charity? (It promotes others' spiritual growth)

Discernment of any kind will always take time.  Some ideas and decisions may only take a few days or weeks.  Others can take months or years to achieve full confirmation of the "long-lasting" desire.  If the deep desire lasts longer than 12 months and continues to burn for years on end along with the confirmation the other 6 questions, you have begun to confirm your destiny.  The depth of this desire may continue to unfold as it continues to manifest itself.  Eventually, you will have unfolded your very deepest desire to serve humanity, and the path to doing so that's unique to you will reveal itself to you.

If you're not already working with a spiritual director, you are highly encouraged to find one who's a good fit for you.  This person should have the same religious beliefs as you do and s/he should be well-trained in spiritual discernment to give spiritual direction.  Below are some spiritual exercises that may help shed light on your destiny.

Disclaimer: The success in discerning your destiny cannot be guaranteed.  Due to the nature of spiritual warfare, you are highly encouraged to be in a state of grace and seek the aid of a spiritual director to obtain the best results.  That is not to say that not being in a state of grace or not having a spiritual director will impede upon your success, but we must provide cautionary advice based on our experience with spiritual warfare.  There are good forces that are willing to assist you discover your destiny and there are evil forces that wish to deceive you and to keep you from discovering your destiny.