Book 2 of Musings God Knows All About Us
Just think! God planned today from the beginning of the world. Yet we still make our own decisions. Truly, all His works reveal His astonishing glory.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:13-16)
The heavens declare the Glory of God. So does the fact that God knows so much about each of our lives; not only knows about us, but knew about us when He created the heavens and the earth.
"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." If there is a more remarkable statement in the Scriptures I do not know what it would be!
This appears to mean that how long we are going to live was determined from the foundation of the world.
My personal belief is that God created all things, past, present, and future, in six "days," and then rested. All history through to the coming down of the new Jerusalem to be located on the new earth for eternity was written in advance.
One question is raised immediately: can we change our predetermined destiny? I believe the New Testament, with its emphasis on our choices, indicates that we can come short of what God has planned for us; or we can press through to a total attaining to that which has been set before us in advance.
Remember, God answered James and John by saying that to sit on His right hand and on His left would be given to those for whom such places of authority have been prepared by the Father.
Does God know everything? It is my opinion that God is learning as history unfolds. For example, God said to Abraham: "Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld your only son."
"Now I know you fear God." If the language means what it states, it is saying that God learned what was in Abraham's heart from what Abraham actually did.
If God is learning as history unfolds; if we still are able to make choices; how can God plan ahead to the new Jerusalem? Why couldn't dramatic events occur that would thwart what God has envisioned?
I think the answer has to do with time itself. We think of time as an inexorable dimension that governs all things and circumstances. Personally, I don't believe time has that same power in the spirit realm. God may view all history, past, present, and future, as one great tapestry.
He can move to a future place on the tapestry and look back and see how events worked out to this point. Then He can rearrange subsequent events if such rearrangement is necessary. This would account for God being able to learn from what we do, our being able to make significant choices, and God still being able to determine how long we will live. This method of going into the future, looking back and evaluating events of the past and reshaping events of the future according to His ultimate objective, would allow God to give the Apostle John an unerring vision of the future.
Now, how does it help us to know that God has planned our life from the beginning of the world? If we really believe this, it should radically affect the manner in which we pursue our life on earth.
If we are of the opinion we are planning our own destiny, then we will decide what we want to do and then determine how to arrive at our goal.
But if we are of the opinion that God has determined from the beginning where we fit in His Kingdom, and what we are supposed to do in order to attain to that predestined place and role, then we are not going to decide what we want to do and then determine how to arrive at our goal.
Rather, we will enter the rest of God. This means we will enter the seventh day, resting with God as His Word brings to pass all God has envisioned for us and for all mankind.
We have to fight our way into that rest, because there are numerous pressures on us to "come down from the cross," as it were, and assert ourselves. There are temptations to bring forth an "Ishmael," that is, to attempt to bring to fulfill the promise of God to us without waiting for God to bring His Word to pass.
To enter the rest of God and to abide therein is not a passive state of inevitability. It requires a constant pressing forward, as the Apostle Paul taught us.
In the present hour God is creating a Kingdom. Consider: from the beginning of mankind on the earth, billions of people have died and passed into the spirit realm. They are waiting until the Day of Resurrection, at which time they will be judged according to their behavior while on the earth.
Most of these people have never heard of Israel, Christ, or the Bible. They are the inheritance of Christ and of His royal priesthood. This means that each one of us is being fashioned in terms of a specific group of people who died long ago, are living now, or shall be born in the future.
The Kingdom, the governing priesthood God is bringing to perfection in the present hour, will inherit these people and will serve for eternity as the Presence of God among them.
We do not know much about ourselves. We do not know even our true name. If we will press into the rest of God, into His perfect will, and abide there, God will create in us a true, eternal identity and give us a new name. God will do this in terms of that place and role in His Kingdom which we are destined to occupy.
We can frustrate God's plan for us by refusing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus each day. We can choose to live our life the way it pleases us. If we do, we will not attain to that for which we have been chosen. Our talent, all that God has given us, will be taken from us and given to another who has been more diligent. Our destiny will be changed, and so will the recipient of our talent. All because we have refused to be diligent in serving the Lord. Then God will reshape future events with our failure in mind.
People have been bothered by the idea of someone being predestined to be saved. God is willing that every person repent and be saved. If this were not so, God would not be righteous. Predestination to salvation is not the case. If it is, it is operating on a level higher than I am able to comprehend.
Predestination according to God's foreknowledge has to do, not with salvation but with the creating of the Kingdom of God. The members of God's royal priesthood are treated differently from the remainder of mankind. Their assigned position in the Kingdom is greater than those who have not been called to this level.
But there is one point that the saints, the holy ones of God, must keep in mind. The more that is entrusted to us the greater is our responsibility. We will be judged more severely than is true of those who have a lesser calling.
The higher the rank to which we have been called, the more bitter the cup we are required to drink. The Lord Jesus was called to the highest of all ranks. His cup was the most bitter of all.
Our days have been known to God from the beginning. Our life was planned out before God rested on the seventh day. With this in mind, we ought not to charge about in our own lusts, passions, and personal ambitions. We should lay aside all that distracts us from the single goal of gaining the fullness of Christ. Only then will be find the fulfillment we are hoping for.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:3-6)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. (1 Peter 1:1-2)
Who has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, (2 Timothy 1:9)