God has a Plan, He isn’t just in reactionary mode - Part 1
Part 1: On the Cross
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—” 1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV
The Lord dropped this verse into my spirit last week. What an incredibly beautiful and powerful promise! And reading it in context adds even more wonder to it.
Take a few minutes to read 1 Corinthians 2 and ask the Holy Spirit to make it come alive to you. I did a few read throughs using The ESV, The Amplified and The Passion Translation.
As I meditated on this passage, I was reminded that God has a Master Plan hidden in His heart. What exactly is this plan? Paul speaks of this plan as “God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom once hidden [from man, but now revealed to us by God, that wisdom] which God predestined before the ages to our glory [to lift us into the glory of His presence].” 1 Corinthians 2:7 AMP The God of the universe has a plan to have us with Him in His glorious presence forever. Wow! What a glorious and mysterious plan! Actually, it has always been His dream. We see beautiful glimpses of it in the Garden of Eden. That is, until Adam and Eve disobeyed. Their sin separated them from their sinless Creator. But God didn’t give up on His dream. He immediately set in motion His plan to make a way for the humans He had created to be reconciled back to Him. It would take centuries of human time for the plan to unfold. Mysterious clues were given through the prophets all along the way, of what would make God’s dream come true again. Then, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to execute His plan.
God’s plan is a mystery that is not known in detail to the enemy. When Satan plotted to take out Jesus by killing Him on the cross, he figured THAT would do the trick; he would triumph over God, by killing His Son. Just like he thought he had thwarted God’s plan in the garden, he would do it again. But this time he figured he would completely kill God’s dream.
The Jewish rulers and Pilate had no idea that God had a plan and that they were part of it. They thought THEY had a plan to stop Jesus. Were they ever wrong! Paul tells us “None of the rulers of this age understood this (mystery), for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:8 ESV
And what about the disciples? Did they understand God's plan when their friend and teacher was seized and beaten, and condemned, and crucified, and died? It certainly looked like the enemy had won and that all hopes of Jesus really being the Messiah were smashed. Jesus had revealed the hidden plan of God to them so they wouldn’t be afraid, discouraged, or sad when he died on the cross. But somehow they just hadn’t understood the mystery.
It was only after Jesus was raised from the dead that his disciples remembered that Jesus had told them about His death and resurrection, “and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.” John 2:22 NLT
Jesus had told them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up again in three days.” But in the moment, they failed to understand that Jesus was speaking of the “temple” of his body. They thought he was talking about the temple in Jerusalem. But throughout his three years of walking and talking with them, He kept on trying to help them understand the plan for which the Father had sent Him into the world. In John 12:23-33 he explains that He would be “like a seed that falls into the ground and dies alone, that it may bring forth fruit.” And that He would be “lifted up” (crucified) so that “all would be drawn to him.” He spoke of this in verse 23 as the hour “for the Son of Man to be glorified”. Jesus goes on to speak of the plan to defeat Satan through it, in verse 31 when He says: “now will the ruler of this world be cast out.”
What He said just baffled his listeners and went against their understanding of the scriptures, even though the prophet Isaiah had clearly outlined God’s plan for the suffering, death and resurrection of the Messiah in chapter 53. And what the result would be. Have a look. It’s incredible!
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:4-5, 10-12 ESV
This was written hundreds of years before Jesus came and fulfilled it completely.
The point I want to make here is that God has a plan, it is an eternal plan. All through the ages He has been telling us His plan through His prophets and moving the plan along. And He didn’t stop with Jesus’ death and resurrection**. He is, even now, executing His plan on the earth. He isn’t just reacting to the messes and wondering how He can fix them.** You may look at the state of the world around you, all the wickedness, injustices, perversion, sickness, chaos and suffering and think God has abandoned us and doesn’t care, and is no longer involved in the affairs of the earth, but nothing could be further from the truth. He is at work behind the scenes, even now! Remember the dream of His heart is to have fellowship with all the humans he has made. His dream lives on, and He is using all these perverse and difficult situations to draw people into that relationship with Himself.
So, dear friend, today put your full confidence in your Creator. Draw near to Him through the Way provided to you through Jesus’ death on the cross. Read His Word and believe it. Rest on His promises. Don’t allow your heart to be overwhelmed.
“His destiny-plan for the earth stands sure. His forever-plan remains in place and will never fail.” Psalms 33:11 TPT
“The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 AMP