Discovering God’s Glorious Plan for Your Life
We have been on a journey together, exploring how God has a specific plan for each of us. Most people I know believe that God has a vision, but they are not quite sure what that vision is. I want to talk about moving God’s vision from His heart into your heart, from the assumed to the defined, from the vague to the precise.
God’s Eternal Plan
I do not feel I have ever really shared this concept without everybody agreeing, everybody acquiescing, that God has a plan. God has a dream. God has a vision. God never lives in surprise or reaction to what is happening in your life, in your family, in your church, in your nation, in this world. God never looks at anything and says, I did not see that coming. Rather, He smiles and says, I exactly saw that coming, and I have planned and I have worked it into My plan. I think it is really empowering and something which produces hope and peace and joy and expectation in our hearts to realize God has this incredible, glorious plan. It is a plan for the whole universe, the whole cosmos—things outside of our comprehension. He has a plan for Israel, a plan for the church. He has a plan for every individual as well. God has never looked at one person who has ever been born without thinking that they are priceless, they are unique, they are the most valuable thing that has ever existed on planet Earth. And I think God looks at your life and my life and He has this truly amazing plan, this way He wants us to live. Am I implying by that, that God has a plan that you will never have a problem, never have a need, never go through an attack, never get sick? No, I did not say that at all. But He does have a plan for good things for you and to bring redemption even out of the bad things. As it is written in Romans 8:28 (NKJV): “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
A Plan Tailored for You
I think God has a plan that fits you as well. I think God has a plan that is—there are several things He wants in every one of our lives, and yet I believe He has a plan that is tailored, designed for you. That only you can fill, that only you can fulfill, and that only His plan will fulfill the deepest longings of your heart. Okay, let us talk about where most of us live. I want to suggest to you today that most of us live at a subsistence level. We live. We have been brought up in a world, in a culture by parents—even if we had good ones—that were only partially living in that plan, and often were not even beginning to engage with that plan. Most of us, our main motivations in life are actually making it through the day. Jesus spoke into this in the Sermon on the Mount when He talks about how people have lived and grown in the culture and then what heaven thinks of that. Again and again in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, you have heard it this way, but I say to you this; you have been told this, but heaven is saying to you this. In Matthew 6, Jesus addresses that, and He says, why do you obsess? What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? What are we going to wear? How are we going to put food on the table and gas in the car? How do we—and He is like, your Father knows you have need of those things. You know, Jesus says, the sparrows do not get up every morning and pray about what they are going to eat. They trust in the One who made them to supply those needs. And yet Jesus is saying, God did not create you to spend your life chasing the things you need. You do need them. Your Father knows that you need them, and God wants to feed you better than a sparrow, and God wants to clothe you more excellently than the lily or King Solomon. As it is written in Matthew 6:26 (NKJV): “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
Seeking the Kingdom First
But rather, God has a plan and purpose for your life that He does want you to chase. In effect, Jesus is saying, chase the plan of God; seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you. So, really, just in the beginning, this teaching is to get you stirred up, get you thinking about that. And what I would like to do, as I teach through this, is to actually help you write down a plan. There is a passage of Scripture I am going to come back to again and again in Habakkuk 2, where it says, the vision: make it plain, write it down, that one may read it and run with it. See the vision. Okay, make it plain. Write it down, read it, and run with it. Five steps: see, define, record in a way, write down, engage, think, meditate, read on it, understand it, and then run, act upon it. And I think we—you know, many Christians who quote a verse like Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Well, it is great to know God has plans, good plans; they will produce shalom, peace in my life and hope. And then we often take comfort in the fact God has a plan without knowing the plan. And I want you to catch that today. God wants you to know His plan. God wants you not to be a stranger to His plan. As it is written in Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV): “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
From Servants to Friends
Before going to the cross, Jesus said to the disciples, I no longer call you servants. I now call you friends. Did Jesus mean to imply that the disciples would no longer serve Him? No, they would serve Him. All of those disciples, except Judas in a sense, would literally lay down their lives and die for Him. But He further clarified and He said, you are friends because servants do not know what the master does. Servants have an obedience paradigm they flow from. You said this, we must do. I will obey you and do what you say. Jesus said, with My friends, they get to come and I explain to them the why, the how, what is really going on. They know things before time. And that is the relationship God wants to have with you—as a friend of God. Abraham was the friend of God. And I want to encourage you, come on this journey with me. Get a Bible, but get a notepad and a pen and begin to write things down. I am going to talk about meeting God in the questions rather than the answers and how to begin that process of defining your personal vision. As it is written in John 15:15 (NKJV): “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
I believe this understanding of God’s plan brings us into a place of rest and expectation. It shifts us from mere survival to purposeful pursuit, from vague hopes to defined steps. When we grasp that God has tailored a vision for us, we can move forward with confidence, knowing He reveals it to those who seek Him as friends.
Selah.
Scriptures for Study: Romans 8:28, Matthew 6:26, Jeremiah 29:11, John 15:15, Habakkuk 2:2, Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 139:16, Proverbs 16:9, Philippians 2:13, Acts 13:36, Psalm 33:11, Isaiah 46:10, Proverbs 19:21, 1 Corinthians 2:9, 2 Timothy 1:9, Psalm 37:23, Jeremiah 1:5, Romans 12:2, Hebrews 11:6, James 1:5, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, Colossians 1:9, Ephesians 1:11, Psalm 32:8.
10 Questions for Reflection:
- What does it mean to you that God never reacts in surprise to events in your life?
- How might realizing God’s tailored plan change your daily motivations?
- In what ways have you been living at a subsistence level rather than pursuing God’s vision?
- What steps can you take to seek first the kingdom of God in practical terms?
- How does the idea of writing down God’s vision for your life resonate with you?
- What comfort do you find in knowing God has plans of peace and hope for you?
- How does shifting from servant to friend in your relationship with God affect your intimacy with Him?
- Where in your life do you need to trust God more for provision like the sparrows?
- What questions rather than answers might you bring to God to discover His plan?
- How can you begin to act upon God’s revealed vision starting today?
