I recently turned on my phone but could not do a thing. The cell company had frozen the screen until I responded to the message about installing an update. I had no choice. I could not go back or forward or around the message without responding to it.
Praise God that He does not treat us like Sprint or Samsung does. He both gives us choice and works in us. He has given us a brain, emotions, will, relationships (especially with Himself), desires, hopes, dreams, and a future, in which we will shine as stars in the heavens. The great thing is that His divine wisdom works out the perfect environment to align our hearts with His will.
God is Not A Dictator
It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. God wants the very best future for each of us but does not violate our will to make it happen. We must want it, ask for it, expect it, and obey, knowing that God is bringing it about. It's our destiny.
We can only know what God has predestined us for through cultivating a relationship with His Son Jesus, by hearing what He is saying to us and being led by Him alone. If we seek the Lord with a single heart, hear what He says in His Word, and do what He says, we will fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. We will reach our final (pre)destination. Of all that we can do, whether in business or family, planning our day or planning our future, in anything, the key issue is the lord of our lives. To whom or to what is our allegiance?
Who or What Is Lord?
Some people believe the course of their lives is set in stone because somehow, like with my phone update, they are being coerced to comply with an impersonal force in their lives. They think that God predestined how their life is now, but this mentality does a disservice. It distorts the truth.
A person may feel his or her life, let’s say, is much less than hoped for. A spouse does not measure up, the right job did not come through, an unexpected death of a loved one pulled the rug out from under an otherwise perfect life. Regardless of everything that has happened or will happen, every single person still has a choice to draw near to God, overcome according to the promises of Christ, or fall away.
Though it may be the most difficult choice to make in life, the decision to draw near to God through Christ, hear what He says, and just obey Him even though we do not understand will help us spiritually ascend His holy mountain and experience the blessings of heaven along the way starting today.
How much of our lives then, if any part of it, is predestined? And what does that mean when it comes to our choices, our free will right now?
Predestined for A Glorious Future
According to Scripture, God has predestined us for His purpose. If that purpose conflicts with our present experience or mentality in life, we can still welcome God, no matter our age or circumstances, to work in us to bring about His glorious will. Cry out to God to soften your heart to return to Him. In this scenario of life as we know it verses the immutable will of God, His purpose shall be victor, but we must be willing.
1 Corinthians 2:7 teaches that God predestined us to know Him through a wisdom that cannot be understood naturally. God calls us through Christ speaking in us. We hear His word by His Spirit. God foreordained us to glorify Christ knowing Him by His word instead of relying on our own understanding. Paul said in Romans 10:8, the message of faith is not far away but near, even in your mouth and in your heart.
The fact is that God has chosen me and you to be His if we come to Him through Christ. If that’s the case, being conformed to His will now will lead to our final destination. Predestination does not blind us to the realities of hurt and struggle, but because of our relationship with Jesus, the King of Kings, it gives us a future perspective that sets us free now to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God no matter what our outward circumstances.
True Freedom
Ephesians 1:11 cryptically indicates the true freedom that real predestination produces. Of Christ it says, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"
We are predestined to know and experience God’s purpose according to our inheritance. As far as the details go, God orchestrates everything according to the counsel of His will.
The Council of God
The council of God has deep roots back to Genesis and can be traced throughout Scripture. It is the kind of godly council out of which a voice arises and asks, who will go? Those who are humbly prepared by God are able to hear the question and authentically answer, here am I, I will go.
Each of us who knows Christ has a role to fulfill in God’s plan. When we receive the words of Christ in the way that saves our soul, we can walk in line with our incorruptible inheritance based on His promises. The only way we can take up our part, or live in line with that purpose and fulfill it, is for Jesus Himself to teach us. He is the only way to the tree of life because He is the tree of life.
All this taken together can help us better understand Romans 8:29 which says, "because those whom he knew in advance, he also determined in advance would be conformed to the pattern of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers;”. The predestination bit is our being conformed to the image of Jesus and not to the status quo around us. Our being into Him exalts Him as preeminent.
A Well-watered Garden
In the environment of knowing Jesus and learning to follow God as He did, the will of Christ contains our inheritance. We receive this will from Jesus Himself, and in doing so we begin fulfilling our purpose of becoming conformed to His image.
In the real world it is logical to trace back each of the four rivers in Genesis to locate physical Eden, but pursuing the four aspects of life (wisdom, power, esteem, wealth) that Rabbis say the four rivers represent is a dead end unless it brings us to faith in Messiah to welcome His Lordship in our lives. We have the need for enduring faith not to replace relationship with God with the gifts He gives or with the status quo culture ascribes us. The truth is that any substitute for the voice of God or anything that causes us to ignore it is an idol. God's authority and Christ’s Lordship in our lives provides all the blessings of life.
Set Sail
To everyone comes a time to grow up, to break the moorings of bondage, and in doing so, free ourselves from all the tether ropes that hold us down.
At twenty years of being a slave to Laban, Jacob finally decided enough was enough, and God showed him the way of escape from his slavery. As Israel could not have stayed one day more in Egypt before Jesus led them out, Jacob likewise could no longer stay in Haran. He was predestined, as we are, to achieve victory and fulfill God’s purpose in life.
How long before we say enough is enough, obey God, and discover the victory He has pre-ordained for us? What else will it take before we call upon the name of Jesus to raise us up to walk in the newness of life He has waiting for us?
Even if our outward circumstances do not change over night, we can be renewed inwardly by daily walking with Jesus, and one day our life with Christ will be manifest. The Lord will ultimately transform our circumstances, if not now, then when God reveals us with Christ when He appears in glory.
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