We Are the Plan
Oswald Chambers said that if you look to Jesus regardless of the age in which you live, the world will call you an impractical dreamer. If we did according to what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, we would be radically different from the World. Jesus said, “when someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek with a good attitude.” Sometimes when we’re slapped across the cheek, the Holy Spirit will convict us. When we’re wrong, God will allow the world to reprove us.
According to Isaiah 55 beginning in verse 6: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
We’re in trouble when we try to protect our “rights.” Any fool can claim his rights and any demon will make sure he gets them. Human “rights” are often godly “wrongs” according to the standard of the Word. Rights are what God says is right. The priority when we’re wrong is to allow the Lord to reprove and correct us, to restore us to an upright position.
God and his Holy Spirit messes with us and woos us to return our hearts back to him. To come to him we must forsake our ways and repent… Do and about-face and change direction. It’s rare when a sinner repents. Thank God when he gets our attention with a word of reproof. He always has our best interest in mind. He has supernatural authority over our lives. Supernatural means that which is above usual and normal…that which transcends th the laws of nature. God is Sovreign over all. The natural realm is subject to his word. Nothing is too difficult for God.
God always allows our freedom of will. He will not force us to turn to him with a heart of meekness and humility. However, pain, tribulation, reproof, chastisement and corrections are our friends. They show us that we are on a path that is contrary to the path that he’s foreordained for us to walk in fellowship with him.
There’s a book called “Voices from the Edge of Eternity.” This book contains death bed confessions from many famous people. One of the stories is entitled, “it’s too late.” This person was prosperous and well regarded. However, he was an infidel who rejected the gospel of Christ. On his death bed, his uncle prayed for him but the man finally cried before he died, “it’s too late.” Many on their death bed say it’s too late to turn to Christ. This man had a lifetime of opportunities to be saved. Many who attend church have never really accepted Christ. Jesus said, “there is a narrow gate and a narrow way and few there are who find it.”
When hearing the gospel of salvation, there are four categories of people. The first are those who reject the gospel message outright. The second category are those who attend church regularly. They walk down the aisle at the altar call but have never completed the transaction for salvation. The third category are those who think they’re saved but they are really not. They’re on a works-based false understanding of Salvation. These are those to whom Jesus said, “I never knew you.” They have never really come before the Lord to forsake their own lives and turn to him as Lord and Master. The forth category are those who know that they know that they have been saved. As the Apostle Paul said, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which he’s committed unto me against that day of righteous judgement.”
To turn to Him we must forsake our wicked ways and approach His throne of grace with a broken and contrite heart of meekness and humility. God is waiting with grace, mercy and love to abundantly pardon. If we knew what were at stake, we would run to return our hearts to him.
God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts and ways are much higher than ours. What is God’s plan? The irony is that WE are God’s plan. We who have been saved are God’s plan for redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ. According to 2 Corinthians 5, we are His Ambassadors. We represent a foreign land…the kingdom of heaven. An ambassador is the highest ranking official sent from his Sovreign Lord as a representative of his homeland. God has given us a mission…the ministry of reconciliation… He has committed unto us his word. Therefore we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
We are God’s plan. We are God’s message. We’re his living love letters, his living epistles known and read of all men.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael