Destined to Win Book Report

Destined To Win Book Report 

by Margot Cioccio  

I am doing these book reports as a student for the International Healing Rooms School of Transformation.  There is an on-line course available in addition to the actual school.  I am doing my course work live and in person at the International headquarters in Spokane Washington. If you are interested in training please follow the link above. I highly recommend the School. It is stretching and growing me and have loved every minute of it.  

Book reports are not my usual devotional style but I thought I might as well post them here. The questions are the same for each report. Hope you enjoy my report. 

1. Briefly write what the whole book is about and why the author has written it.  We are tridimensional beings who are to Love the Lord with all our  spirit, soul and body. This book looks at how we love and care for our soul. I love the quote from page 31 that says “ If you want to reach your full potential in God, you will need to find a culture where love flows through you, to you, and around you or create one. Anything less will reduce your capacity, or at least delay your destiny.” This book spoke not only to the individual but also gave a lot of insights into working together as part of a team. I would say this book is a must read for ministry staff or leadership teams. 
2. (Imagine the author will read this and would say, “Yes, this is the main point(s) of my book.) I think the much of the book was about how finding your “people” has an impact on accomplishing your destiny.  There was a lot that spoke to working as a group and surrounding yourself with people who share your passion but its important that they are not just like you.  I liked this quote about the book by Heidi Baker cofounder of Iris Global. She says, We are made for community and he urges us that we can’t reach full potential until we surround ourselves with covenant friends who share our DNA.” I read this book in three days of it being assigned, I found lots of ideas, information and practical ways  for discovering your destiny and God given purpose.
3. Briefly outline 4 major points of the book as the author presents them including page numbers.  In thinking back over the book I would break it down into these four ares or over arching themes.                                                                                                                        • Caring for Your Soul & Discovering What makes You Tick pages 1-66 Caring for ones soul is something that has been de-emphasized in the church. This book helped to show why the soul needs care. “ You should take care of the needs of your natural man, because your body is the temple of the Holy spirit. Likewise, your soul was created in the image of God, and it also requires intentional care.” page 15                                                                            • Finding Your People & Discovering Your Destiny pages 66-93 “The people around us awaken the destinies dormant within us. Remember: if we find our people, then we will discover our destines.” page 66  The idea of finding your people was very significant in this book. We are living stones being built up together. Figuring out who we are called to labor along side as well as where we fit are both huge factors in realizing our destiny.                    • Working As A Team & Creating a Culture of Honor pages 95-172  As I read the later half of this book I kept thinking about how the many ideas presented in the book really need to be shared with ministry teams. As we create an environment of love and honer we all blossom and grow. “Great leaders must master the art of being deeply compassionate without letting the desires of others dictate their destinies or dominate their daily priorities. “ page 125 I loved the assessments found in this section.                                                                                   • Unleashing Heaven & Becoming Heaven’s Nobility pages 173 - 199 This section is filled with a lot of great biblical examples of people who essentially unleashed heaven on earth. We are called to be the people upon whom God’s presence and power resides. “You are an open heaven. The presence that changes everything is in you, with you, on you and through you. You are God’s wild card, heaven’s X factor, and the incalculable difference maker. The odds might be 100 to 1; but if you are the one and if you know Jesus, then it’s foolish to bet against you.” pg 188                                                                                                   
4. Thoughtfully explain one main strength (or point of agreement) with the author In my pursuit of wellness for the whole person I agree with Kris that there is a pretty good understanding about how to care for the body and the spirit but a lot of confusion about the soul. Before reading this book I would have said things like art, music and beauty are things that feed the soul. Those are things that feed my soul but perhaps it is not those thing but finding people who also light up when they are involved in creating.  It seems from this book that a large part of caring for your soul is in surrounding yourself with people who will encourage, inspire and feed your soul in positive healthy ways.  “This is the kind of love that transforms people! This covenant love causes people to be fully actualized, because they know they are loved beyond their ability to perform.” pg 31  I really liked the section called Three Ways To Live on page 18.   For our souls to be well and to thrive they need love, acceptance, attention, approval and significance. We can pretend we don't need those things or that those things are somehow un-spiritual and we choose to live inactively and find ourselves broken, lonely and empty.  We may also choose to be reactive and meet those needs in all the wrong ways and generally create broken relationships. The best way is to be proactive and realize your soul has needs and devise a healthy strategy to meet them.                                                     
5.  Write down some of your favorite sentences in the book.  I’ve used a lot of them through out this book report. These are the ones that didn’t find a place but were too good to be forgotten. 

• “The difference between humility and pride is that humility acknowledges the source of greatness as God. Therefore, it is Christ-centered. Humility isn’t think less of your self; it’s thinking of yourself less.” page 27                                                                                                   
• “So do the world a favor, and begin to embrace God’s love for you by reminding yourself that you were born to be amazing because you were modeled after your Maker.” page 28                   
• “what I have discovered over the year is that “God ideas” will stand the scrutiny of faith-filled people. but good ideas typically won’t.” page 104                                                                          
• “ There are people all around you who love you; but the truth is, you are the only one on this earth who really knows you… your energy, your stress level, your fears, and your passions. No one else ca set boundaries for you. You have to muster the courage to say no, to risk being misunderstood, to refuse to live under the expectations of others, to be satisfied at times with pleasing only God.” page 131                                                                                                          
• “ An optimist sees the glass half-full, but a believer knows it’s not the level of the water in the glass that matters as much as whether or not it’s being filled or depleted.” page 140                      
• “You must anticipate that something meaningful, profound, powerful and wonderful could happen to you at any moment because anticipation is the fruit of faith. page 174                          
• “ Faith sees the invisible, believes the impossible, and empowers the incredible!” page 174  

6. In what way did this book impact your life as one who transforms cities? How will you be different?  I have been thinking about various groups of people that I am involved with and wondering which of them is my people group. Which one most exemplifies my true passions. Which allows me to use my true gifting to build a truly unique and wonderful legacy? I think this book has given me the tools to figure those and other questions out.

7. What challenges(s) have you been given by the Lord to implement some of the strategies in this book?  One of my biggest challenges is to figure out how various aspects of my life fit together.  I have a wide array of gifts and talents and because I am good at a lot of things it is easy to get busy doing stuff because I can do it rather than do the things I am truly called to do. This book has helped me to better see where and how discovering who my people are, begins to define where I want to go and what I want to do and be. I realize that those people will help mold and shape me as I will mold and shape them. “ It seems as if most of us are asking what we are called to do when we should first be asking who we are supposed to be with. It’s only when we find our people that we can fulfill our purpose. The truth is, our purpose lie in our people!” page 47 I have been asking the wrong question. When I ask “Who am I supposed to be with” everything suddenly starts to make sense.                        
8. My Concluding Thoughts Recently I chose a word for this year. That word is legacy.  “Courageous people peer into the future and live with a passion to leave a legacy.” page 180 I have found that there are books, much like people resonate with you. This book really provided some keys that have turned the tumblers in the locks of my life. Other keys have fit but were not able to turn the tumblers to open the door.  I read this book in three evenings. It was hard for me to put it down and I found myself excited to come back to it. Even now I hope to go back and really soak longer in some of the chapters. I think if I had any issues with this book it would be that I’m not sure the writer was totally clear who his intended audience should be. Is this a book for any believer who wants to understand their soul or is it a book to church staffs and ministry teams about how we need each other to accomplish our destinies? For me it worked because I am involved in both. I have a much better understanding of why my soul is important and how I can better care for it.