The Plan Unfolds

God always has a plan. Most of us spend a lot of time trying to discern what the plan is and how we fit into it. That may not be as difficult as it seems. There are a few things that will certainly help us in this regard.


Do not be intimidated. When we have an appropriate fear of God, we understand that we cannot understand Him in any large measure. This is the reason the human soul falls so short in attempting to quantify God. We think we should be able to somehow measure everything. God is immeasurable. He does not come in cups, or feet, or meters, or even in space, and He exists outside of time. All our measurements fail to give us even the slightest idea of how big, what, or who God is. The only way we can know anything about God is through His word, the Bible.


The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Time and space limitations prohibit us from discussing how the Bible came to be. We Christians believe we have enough evidence to determine the words that comprise it are God breathed. In fact, the Greek word, logos, translated "word" literally means, "everything that can be known about the subject at hand." In other words, when we understand the Bible as the "Word of God" we know it contains everything that can be known about God. The Bible says it is the Word of God and also refers to Jesus as the Word of God making each of them the complete representation of God. When we understand the Bible, and when we know Jesus, we know all that can be known about God. That can be a little intimidating. He is so big and we are so small. Then again, that is the whole point. A God our size would not be of much help when we come to the end of our resources.


Understand your personal vision. Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint..." Think of it this way, when we are not hearing from God and cannot see what He is doing in our lives, we are naturally inclined to do whatever we think is right. We have been reminded several times in these pages that the way of man always leads to death. When we do what seems like the right thing to us, we always go the wrong direction. It almost seems redundant then, to say that if we are listening to and heeding the voice of the Holy Spirit, we will be going the right way.


Develop your personal relationship with God. Of course the advice here is the wisdom of the ages in the church. Pray, read your Bible, and be in fellowship with other believers. That is still excellent advice. As usual, there is a word of caution there. It goes with the third piece of advice.

It is my considered opinion that the church of today is a far cry from what it should be. If we assume that to be true, continuing in fellowship is not a fail safe to keep us unspotted from the world. (James 1:27) We need to be in fellowship with the right group of believers. How would we find that right group? Trust me, that is not all that easy. I know. I have looked. Okay, how about we work this backwards? What would the single most important issue here be? Would it not be finding the place God wants us to be? Darn, that only brought us full circle to finding what God's plan is for us?

What if we save the third piece of advice above for third place? Now we might be getting somewhere. Remember, the order was, pray, read the Bible, then be in fellowship. I know, most people think they do not hear God. Nothing could really be further from the truth. We hear God all the time. We just do not recognize it is Him talking to us. Let me leave you with that thought for now.

Prayer is not just talking. Talking is only half of prayer. Prayer is supposed to be a dialogue, not a monologue.

Talk and then listen. Do you hear anything?
No.
Talk and then listen. Now do you hear anything?
Maybe. I kind of had a thought pop into my head. Could that have been God?
What was the thought?
Oh, just something about someone I am not walking in love toward as I should be. Someone I offended.
Does that sound like something in the Bible?
Yeah.
Maybe it is God. Are you going to do anything about it?
I guess I should.

Does that sound like any kind of experience you might have had in the past? Maybe it was God speaking to you. Have you done what He told you to do? If the answer is "No" that might be why He has not said anything else. Just a thought.

I started this post to say, I can see God's plan unfolding in my life. I have no idea what kinds of twists and turns might come along the way. The indications are they could be unfolding quickly now. There may be an exit in the near future. If there is it is all good. If not, it might be even better. If you know me at all you know I will keep doing what I am doing until God gives me something different to do. See you soon.