“Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of Him. For when He spoke, the world began! It appeared at His command. The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; His intentions can never be shaken.” (Psalm 33:8-11 NLT)
The longer I live the more foolish it seems to me that anyone would ever try to plan anything without first consulting the Lord. There’s nothing He doesn’t see or know; nothing that escapes the realm of His understanding. He can see every implication of every scenario, so why wouldn’t we want His input into our every decision?
God’s plan is that we would give all of us to all of Him and be guided by His Spirit in every decision we make. Why else would He give us His Spirit? His Spirit abides with us to instruct, inform, enable, guide, and empower, but for what reason? Surely not simply to enhance and glorify ourselves! The Spirit’s job is to form us into a mini-Jesus whose sole aim and purpose is to reveal to the world that Jesus is Lord. But how?
“Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com” The Beauty of Eternal Truth
Through His presence being lived out in and through us. We are not our own, we’ve been bought with a price, not so we can function in our own strength, but His. E.M. Bounds made it clear when he wrote: “All God’s plans have the mark of the cross on them, and all His plans have death to self in them.”
We can never carry out the plans of God in the energy of the flesh. If the Spirit isn’t leading, guiding, directing, orchestrating, and getting the credit, we’re wasting our energy and efforts. There is no glory to God in self-accomplishment. If we can do it on our own, God is not in it. How do I know that? Because Jesus said: “For apart from Me you can do nothing.”
Why do we strive and stew in our own considerations without first consulting the Spirit’s heart? Yes, of course, He stirs our spirit and speaks, but only to draw us to Himself, not to set us on a course to abandon Him. Our life is in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Spiritual answers aren’t derived from the energy of the flesh and will never lead to a God-honoring outcome.
Just as the Lord “frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes,” He will outwit us in our efforts to do things in the energy of our own ingenuity. When our credit is our goal, God is never honored; yet, when His honor is our goal, our plans can flourish, and His Name is exalted.
Are we so blind we can’t see our need for His ever-present strength and enabling? Can we not see that our initiative must always grow out of our sensitivity to His Spirit’s leading; and always be guided by His capable directives? Without His voice we have nothing to say and without His hands we have nothing to do.
We are His. We are the products of His hands, His breathe, His initiative, His loving design and desire and His Spirit’s infilling that enables us to know Him, love Him, seek Him, submit to His authority, and exercise our will in conformity with His holy and perfect will. What a gift He has given us to know Him and to walk with Him.
May we never take that holy plan for granted or forsake it to do our own will.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 