Embedded in our hearts and minds are endless questions about the realities inherit within our Christian faith. The Rapture is certainly one of the most intriguing. However, this frightening season in which we are living is replete with uncertainties and often misplaced fearful concerns about our futures. Many of us are buried in profound concern about the economy, the future of our families, the world scene, etc.
It has been earlier mentioned several times that sincere Christians are woefully unaware of the Biblical tenets, doctrines and promises that were written by the hand of our wonderful Father God for us - His children. How tragic it is that by being unaware of God’s marvelous truths, Christians are missing out on the great comfort of God’s promises in our lives.
Very few of “His children” understand the startling realities of the glorious future they will soon inherit when Jesus returns for us in the Rapture. They are ignorant of the magnificent security and peace that God has awaiting them if they but seek to learn of God.
Many of God’s children talk of heaven, yet it seems that relatively few are even conversant with the astonishing realities of our eternal abode. Many Christians shrug their shoulders when asked about the amazing events that encompass their very soon futures.
Psalm 14:2 shows us that God is watching us to determine who desires to follow Him:
“The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men (us) to see if there are any who understand and any who seek God.”
This chapter is designed to display the absolute power and omniscience of God in our lives. I desire to show you God’s many other mercies and plans for our lives have already been manifested.
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Perhaps this will be the first time you have ever studied the grandeur of God’s plan for your life.
Very few Christians have taken hold of what Proverbs 20:21 tells us:
“man’s steps are ordered by the LORD, how then can man understand his own way?“
I hope that this final chapter helps the Christian to fully realize and appreciate the incredible plans of God for their lives. I trust that the readers’ spiritual eyes and ears will be opened, and that this chapter provides an incentive to learn about the beauty of our Lord, and to prepare ourselves for the magnificent future that awaits us all.
All human beings are interested in their future. Many seek to discern their destiny through horoscopes, psychics, channeling, astrology, witchcraft, etc. - all prohibited by God.
Why We Exist
“Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”
(Isaiah 43:7)
“Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
(Rev. 4:11)
“All things were created by Him and for Him.”
(Colossians 1:16)
“The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth he has given to the children of men.”
(Psalm 115:16)
The sovereignty of God determined that you and I would “exist” because God willed it.
Perhaps you have never contemplated the ultimate reason we were born - to become the 217
bride of Christ. As amazing as it sounds, God wants you to be His child! He wants to have eternal fellowship with you. He wants you to live in His “house” as His child for all eternity.
Psalm 23: 6 tells us that we “will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
Rest assured that the human race did not “evolve” from some “goo” to eventually sprout legs and arms. David remarked that he was “fearfully and wonderfully made, ” not “randomly and thoughtlessly” made, crawling from the sea onto some nondescript seashore in the Galapagos Islands eons ago.
Genesis 3:8 tells us that God walked in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Why? Simply stated, He created our early parents to express His profound love and to enjoy fellowship and companionship with the first of His children.
This beautiful image denotes a powerful sense of intimacy between God and Adam and Eve. And you are no different. If you are a blood-bought Christian who has accepted Jesus as your Savior, you too are God’s child. You too can enjoy the indescribable intimacy with God by choosing to search for God through prayer, Bible study, and meditating on God’s word.
Intimacy cannot develop on its own. The only way to develop intimacy is to strive to achieve it. It is a result of purposefully setting out to fully understand the object of your attention. True human intimacy is achieved when we are transparent with each other; not afraid of displaying warts, bumps and lumps, as unattractive as they may be.
Know this. God is fully aware of every visible and invisible defect in each human being.
He knows your thoughts even before you think them. Isaiah 46:10 tells us that,
“I make known the end from the beginning…”
God knew every thought from before you were even born. He knows each sinful proclivity, 218
each nasty habit, as well as each lovely thought and purpose of the heart. Psalm 139:4 states,
“For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.”
This tells us that we are without excuse before God. He knows everything about us. What a sobering reality. The Rapture will introduce us to the Judgment Seat of Christ, where Jesus will unfold the “everything” that He knows about us.
The Bible tells us that if “we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us.” It also commands us in Joshua 24: 15b, to “choose you this day Whom ye will serve.” The Rapture will display whom it is that we are now serving.
One of humanity’s strongest drives is self-preservation. Humans strive to endure each day’s trials on their own, relying on their own skill sets to “make it.” Not so the Christian, who is created in the image of God. We have the promises of God to lead and guide us.
God delights in His creation. And since you are the jewel of His creation, you bring great pleasure to God if you are His child. He created you to enjoy eternal life and to be His child for all eternity. Be assured of this, Christian. Very soon will your eternity begin.
God Chose Where and When You Would Be Born
“…and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” (Acts 17: 26) The sovereignty of God established when (times) you and I would be born! He also determined precisely where (the bounds) we would be born by pre-determining the city and
country within which we’d be born!
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Following this line of thought, if God ordained that you would be born during our current period of history, and placed you in your particular geographic location, then we can conclude that God similarly chose who your parents would be, too!
You may be thinking “did God purposefully choose a brutal alcoholic to be my father? Did God really choose a mother who would abandon me to a woman who was a drug addict?”
Yes. Although free-will directs our behavior, ultimately, God is sovereign. Look what Psalm 139:16 says about God’s planning for your life:
“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
The message of this profound verse is clear. God chose a particular mother and father for you before you were even conceived. God foresaw your body before sperm met egg. Only God knows the reason He chose your particular set of parents.
“…who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why has thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonor?
(Romans 9: 20b-21) Kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it? Have you given much thought to how you ended up being born in Lima, Ohio or West Yorkshire, England? Did you think it was just a fluke that you grew up in the particular city where you were born?
Perhaps you are surprised at the thought that our Lord actually planned your birth, and providentially placed you in the area where you were born. Maybe in your heart of hearts you 220
feel that you are sort of “on your own” and that the details of our birth “just happened.” By examining what the word of God declares about from our lives from birth to death, you will clearly observe that God’s providential hand is in everything.
God Specifically Chose All the Details of Your Physical Body
“And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?”
(Exodus 4:11)
The sovereignty of God pre-determined every feature of your body. It was He who knit your DNA and wove each muscle, nerve and bodily feature. If you were born with a physical defect, that was no “accident.” You may not think it fair that God chose to create you as He did, but Proverbs 16:33 gives us the simple answer as to why He did so:
“the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.“
You may be thinking that although God planned your birth, He just slapped your body parts together and sent you on your way. A person may be thinking “what does God care if my right ear is a bit lower than is my left ear?” Well, Christian, He does care! Our Lord does what He wants - that‘s the bottom line. He is totally sovereign and,
“works all things after the counsel of His own will.” (Ephesians 1:11).
Psalm 13:16 provides another tender reality about the power and love of God towards us:
“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee,
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when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth (womb).”
Christian, you are deeply and profoundly loved by God. The incredible thing about God’s
love is that He loves you as much as He does his beloved Son, Jesus! How much more proof do we need of God’s love for us than Jesus’ death and resurrection?
God Chose How Many Years You Will Live
“Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”
(Job 14:5)
The sovereignty of God has already planned how many earthly days you and I are allowed to spend upon His glorious planet. Quite a sobering truth, isn’t it? Whether by natural causes, disease, or accident, our days are truly numbered.
And what of that rare Christian who tragically decides to commit suicide? Does this person’s act of suicide take God by surprise? Of course not. Although God is not the author of confusion and chaos, God, in His perfection and omniscience, permitted the death of His child. Yes, that’s right. Permitted. God does not interfere with man’s free will.
Since God will not interfere with a person’s free will, God will still allow a true Christian to come home to heaven. But how tragic would it be that a Christian’s last act upon this earth would be murder - self-murder.
God did not bless us with the gift of “choice” or free will, only to capriciously interfere with our free will when He wants to. For a Christian, all of life is controlled by God. The idea of God preordaining our birth and death may seem at first overwhelming.
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Psalm 139:16 gives us further proof of our Lord’s perfect control of our lives:
“all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”
You may be thinking about your “free will.” Our free will is a powerful reality - ask Adam and Eve when you see them in heaven! Can we shorten our lives by over eating and living our 0
lives as couch potatoes? Certainly. But remember, God took everything into account when He determined how many years you’d live.
God Determined in Advance Your Occupation and Godly Service
“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands.”
(Psalm 90:17)
Plumber. Surgeon. Clerk. Dear Christian, the sovereignty of God has purposefully and
specifically placed you in the particular occupation or situation within which you now find yourself. Take a look at what the book of Isaiah has to say about God’s purpose with us:
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please…it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11)
We do not know the specific reasons why God placed us in our current occupations. If, because of our current economic difficulties, you no longer have a job, this too falls under God’s omniscience and control.
Regardless of our current employment status, God wants to use us in our situations. As God’s 223
children, we are His ambassadors to the people of the world. We are to introduce those who do not yet know Jesus as Savior, to the glorious truth of the Gospel message - to believe by faith that Jesus died, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day.
You and I are perfectly poised in our positions to do just that. Be aware, Christian, that it is no
“accident” that God placed your office or school desk next to specific people who God has already chosen for you to speak with about Jesus.
Has God placed you under a supervisor who is nasty and uncaring? This is an opportunity to show forth the light and love of Jesus to that person. Not by walking around the office or workplace thumping the Bible clutched in your hand, but serving as a loving example to everyone in your sphere of influence that you are somehow “different.”
And rest assured, it will be only a matter of time until someone asks about the origin of your sweet spirit.
Our workplace is a huge part of the harvest field:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) God Predestined You to be His Child
Christians have the magnificent blessing of knowing that God looked down through the corridors of time and knew that you would be receptive to the word of God. He also knew that you would accept Jesus Christ through your faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
The following scripture beautifully and succinctly provides an assurance of God’s plans for your life:
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image 224
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
(Romans 8: 29-30) Foreknow = Greek word proginosko: Strong’s Concordance # 4267
Definition in English = “to know beforehand, foresee, foreordain.”
Predestinate = Greek word proorizo: Strong’s Concordance # 4309
Definition in English = “to mark out beforehand, to determine before, foreordain.”
The key word in Romans 8: 29-30 is “foreknow: “For whom he did foreknow…” This simply means that God knew who would make the decision to be saved. God, in turn, predestined them to “be conformed to the image of his Son.”
If you are a true Christian, God knew that you would accept Jesus as Savior from before the foundation of the ages:
“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
(Ephesians 4: 30) All true Christians are truly secure in Jesus. When you were saved, and received the seal of the Holy Spirit, nothing could remove you from Jesus’ grasp:
“And I give unto them (us) eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
(John 10: 28-29)
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There is much debate about the question, “can a person lose their salvation?” A true, born again, blood bought Christian is not going to have his or her seal of the Holy Spirit taken back by God. John 10: 28-29 is a wonderful scripture that promises God’s faithfulness to His children.
There are some who will try to tell you that God has a list of those who He plans to save.
That is a blatant lie. There is no justice in those blasphemies. Observe the scriptures below:
“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
(1 Timothy 2: 4)
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; But is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
(2 Peter 3: 9) The sovereignty of God is, indeed, indescribably profound. God knows that man will not seek Him. Following is an important question. Would man even seek God if God did not first seek us? Romans 3: 11 gives us the answer.
“There is none that understand, there is none that seeketh after God.”
So God must seek man. When God seeks after men (and women), only a few will respond.
All through history there has only been a remnant of earth’s total population who had the faith to believe in God. Did Moses seek God? No. Moses was keeping the flock for his father in law.
Exodus 3:2 tells us that “the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.”
Predestination is one of the thorniest and most controversial Bible doctrines that exist in the Holy Book. Our discussion here is not designed to sink our teeth into the various treatises and 226
theological constructs that typically tend to confuse and convolute a simple premise - that God has desires all of humanity to be saved.
The Inconceivable Gift - Children of God
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12) The sovereignty of God provides a glorious purpose for your life. You and I exist because of God’s immeasurable love. We are objects of God’s love. If we are objects of God’s love, what does God want in return? Love! Simply, but profoundly, this is reason God created the human race. But He also gave us free will; so we can choose, on our own, if we want to love God in return.
Our heavenly Father wants an equipped community of people to fellowship with Him. Do you remember how, in Genesis, God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day? That is the perfect picture of the fellowship and intimacy God wants with us.
There was nothing arbitrary about His decision to create the human race. Ultimately, the purpose of our lives is to accept God’s great gift of salvation, be forgiven of our sins, serve God on this earth, and live with Him eternally in His Kingdom as His children. How glorious!
Romans 8:29 provides God’s “bottom line” our purpose on earth - to be “conformed into the image of Christ.” The gradual pruning away of our unprofitable character flaws and sinful proclivities brings us closer to emulating the image of Christ.
The goal of our being conformed into Christ’s image is found in John 15:16:
“I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.”
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Our Lord wants us to show forth His glory and witness to others about His love and salvation. He wants us to broadcast His beauty - as well as His perfect justice.
God considers those who accept Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross to be His jewels.
Malachi 3:17 tells us how much God values His beloved Israel and we Christians:
“And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”
When Jesus comes for us in the Rapture, our bodies will be changed like Christ’s body. In the brightness of His coming, we will be glorified in the blazing light of purity - His jewels.
God wants a family. He desires to have sons and daughters who purposely choose to love Him. He wants His children to fill His heavenly home with love, holiness, perfection, laughter, and eternal purpose.
You, Christian, are part of God’s family. While we yet remain on earth, our task is to shine forth the love, holiness and purity of God through our lives. We are to display the love and qualities of God to the world. We are to fill God’s home with His children by leading people to Christ so that He can be forever be surrounded by a family who truly loves Him.
Jesus Is The Only Way To Receive Salvation
“ Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the
life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
(John 14:6) The sovereignty of God has provided the opportunity for every human being upon the face of the earth to be forgiven of sins and to achieve salvation through faith in Christ by the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.
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I Timothy 2:4 clearly confirms that God wants “all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth.” Acts 4:12 describes the simplicity of the gospel: “There is salvation
in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Titus 3:5 illustrates the straightforward plan of God by which we are rescued for sin and eternal doom:
“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”
The true, born again Christian, fully believes that the only way to come unto our Father is through