OBSCURED FROM OUR EYES!
We cannot know the mind of God or understand the vision of the future God has planned for our lives without God’s revelation to us. He either speaks directly to our spirit, or He “puts within us a desire to ‘will and to do’ of his good pleasure.” There are times when He arranges people and circumstances in our lives to direct us. This is the wondrous work of the indwelling Spirit of God who directs us to the “perfect will” of God. His plans are obscured from our eyes and so we must seek His plans and purposes. Walking with God and fulfilling His will and purposes are choices we must make. We must “ask, seek, and knock” until His will and purposes are opened to us. “’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. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart’” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).
How glorious it is that we fully can trust Christ and our heavenly Father, and to know that they have a future planned for us that far exceeds any planning we could accomplish on our own. Our future is totally safe in Christ. We can only arrive at our earthly and eternal future through Christ’s work in us. Christ reveals the purposes and will of the Father. Christ is the living word that sets us free from the bondages of the flesh. The word of God, which cannot lie or return void, declares God to be all powerful. “For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Luke 1:49-52).
I am the least of all His children and yet God treats me, and all of His children, as royalty. God gives us His highest and best. We cannot plan our own future and have it measure up to God’s highest and best plans for us. “All things are possible” with God. Our own planning limits our plans to our own limitations, but God’s plans are according to his limitless purposes and possibilities. “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’” ( Isaiah 46:9-10).
The exhortation last week, “Until the time His Words Come to Pass,” tells of the day I totally dedicated my life to Christ. I was a believer before that, but that day God called me to a higher calling. I will forever be rejoicing that He called me to a full surrender to His purposes and will. This week I feel led of the Lord to tell you some of the things God accomplished in my life after I was totally given to Him. “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him” (Isaiah 64:4).
As I dedicated everything to God, I began to see God working and directing my life. God took charge of me in ways I had never before experienced. I understood how much He loves and cares for His children. I knew beyond any shadow of doubt that His eyes were on my life and my future. God revealed Himself through miracles and wonders. Today’s message tells only the beginning of what He has done every step of the way in my experience with the faithfulness and love of God.
As children of the King of Kings, we bear God’s royal seal. “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a deposit” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). God’s seal and our position of royalty in God open wide heavenly doors to God’s blessings, favor, and purposes for our lives.
God envisions for us that which is impossible for man to accomplish. He lifts us up from our position as man, to positions and achievements decreed and endowed by God. “Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power known” (Psalms 106:8).
I have learned that His works are passed finding out. One day, many years ago, my husband told me he wanted to buy a certain piece of property (near downtown) to build a grocery store. I looked at it, and thought it was a terrible location for a store. I knew we didn’t have the money for such a vast undertaking, and I put it out of my mind. For one year or more, I ignored my husband’s longings for the property.
One Sunday, as I came out of church, the pastor’s wife said to me, “ I drove by the property your husband was talking about, and I think it is a great piece of property.” Immediately, God spoke to my heart and told me to tell my husband to buy the property. When my husband spoke to the owners, they were so desperate to get rid of the property they told my husband he could have the property for nothing down if he agreed to take over the monthly payments. We ended up with the huge piece of property that had a partially burned building on it, and we had no money to do anything with it. We could not think of anything it could be used for. God indicated that he wanted us to have it, so we obeyed.
I knew God was working out His future plans for our lives. I began to pray for the next steps in God’s plan. I dedicated myself to seeking God’s purposes for our lives and for the property. One day after prayer, God gave me the name of a man I had never heard of, and God told me to call him so that he could tell me what to do with the property. I called this complete stranger and asked him if he knew what we could put on the property. He said the state was looking for land to build an office building and he had bid on it, but he bid too high. He gave me the name of the state agency and who to talk to. He even told me how much to bid on the construction project. Of course, I had no idea if it could be built for the bid price. We received the promise of the lease from the state. God led us to a contractor who would build for the price we needed. Now all we needed was the money!
God never starts something He is unable to finish! Next God told me the name of the man who would give us the 100% loan we needed. It was a private loan, and the man gave us the money based on the signature of the state on the lease. We went step by step (all directed by God). We built the building and it became collateral for God’s next step in our lives –owning our own supermarket. At the time, my husband had a small “mom & pop” grocery store, but God planned to put my husband into the supermarket business and to bring about his salvation and many other God-works through the business.
I didn’t realize the vastness of God’s plans! I was just walking a step at a time, not realizing the trials and tests that were ahead. My husband was not a Christian during all of these miracles and wondrous leading of God. God’s plans had only begun in our lives. God never fails and He carried out His plans to the letter and brought about awesome results in our lives and the lives of others. He accomplished His purposes then, and has continued to accomplish His purposes to this day. I can look back and see the hand of God in our lives working what was obscure to us, but plain to God. His plans were not for riches (though He always provided more than we had need of) but His plans and purposes were for the salvation of souls. Our lives were enriched and enlarged and, through obedience to His will, we saw the “hand of God in our midst!” Experiencing God at work in your life is a treasure that alters your understanding and your faith and trust in Him.
My life would never be the same as it was when it all began. Through it all, I had experienced the depth and height of God’s love, His faithfulness and power, and the extent of His blessings upon His children. I have seen God exalted and glorified, and I know He walks and talks with His children. If I could be anyone I wanted to be in the whole world, I would choose my own life because I know God dwells within me. He is the greatest treasure any one could ever have. It pays to give your life and its fleshly desires to God in exchange for His life lived within you. The banner over my life reads:“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
What God did at that time, early in my life, was to open the door to a future I could not have envisioned or imagined. God led every step of the way. There is no way I could have accomplished on my own the things God did through faith and trust in Him. All was done by God’s direction. I envisioned none of those things. It all came about by trusting God and His beloved son as my life. A walk of faith produced treasures that are eternally in my heart.
God’s plans were obscured from my thoughts and vision. He tells us in Isaiah: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’” says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God has so much more for us than we can envision, but we totally must place our lives in His hands for Him to work His will and purposes. If there ever was a time in all of Christendom when we as children of God need to yield our lives and future to Him, it is now. He is coming soon, and we must do His work while it is “light” and as we wait for His appearing.
Let us pray: Dearest Father, I come in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ! Only You know the purposes You have planned for my life. I want to fulfill all of the righteousness and works that You have planned for me. Fill me with Your power and wisdom! May Your works through me have eternal value. I want to be filled with Christ and His love. Take from me all fleshly desires. Give me a vision of what You have ordained for me. Burden me for the lost souls all around me. Send an intercessory-prayer burden for the works You want me to do. Open my eyes to see Your plans. Give me a strong faith to move the mountains that are in my life. I trust in You and believe all of Your promises. Now help me fulfill Your will for my life. I re-dedicate and I want to come up higher with You. Let me live Your vision and plans for my family and me. Increase my love for You and Your kingdom work. Help me to be about the master’s work and may I fulfill Your vision. I love You. Make me in Christ’s image. Amen.
