THE ORIGINAL PLAN –The Glory of God Eph.1:3-6
He alone is God; And He is God alone. Part 2
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (Isaiah 40:28-31).
We are still looking at the Eternal Purpose as mentioned by Apostle Paul in these early verses of Romans 1 (Vs. 1-7). In this post we will conclude on why He “Fainteth not, neither is weary”; and “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength" because He alone is God; And He is God alone. We will also conclude PLAN A of the eternal purpose – The Glory of God (Eph. 1:3-6)
To remind us the eternal Purpose is:
PLAN A – The Glory of God - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. PLAN B - The Gospel of Christ - In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: PLAN B2 –Back on Track - That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. (Eph. 1:3-12 emphasis added)
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph. 1:4)
Watchman Nee, in The Normal Christian Life said:
“To man sin leads to condemnation and hell; To God sin leads to forfeit of Glory”
God wants us to walk before Him blameless and His attributes puts Him in a position to adequately check how blameless we are and when we are found wanting, He is equally more that equipped for the task of putting us back on track. What a Master Planner He is; to have seen from the foundation, the very beginning that man (in the first Adam) could make a mess of things and jeopardise the original plan of the Eternal Purpose and made a PLAN B. The next set of attributes are:
God is Omnipotent - “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Revelation 19:6). He has the ultimate power to do whatever He wills. God’s nature limits His will and as such He cannot do anything that is contrary to His being God, such as sin or ignore sin - "Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face" (Psalms 89:14). There is nothing He cannot do except that which is contrary to His nature. There is no power that can confront Him or His children that is beyond Him: With His power he conquered sin and death. That’s why King David concluded - “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work” (Psalms 62:11-12). “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
This is the reason why we can have cast iron believe in His promises and when the enemy comes with his trials, we are able like Job to focus our attention on Him and not our own power to overcome and say: “I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee” (Job 42:2):
God is Omnipresent – As with His infinity He fills the whole of creation which makes it possible for Him to be present everywhere at once - “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:23,24).
What a relief this is – to know that The One who watches over us can be anywhere our adversaries are at any point in time – “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).
His presence everywhere means He is there even when man sins and no one is present and there is nowhere we can hide to sin that He is not present. The Psalmist observed – “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (Psalm 139:8).
God is Omniscient – Like God’s omnipresence, His Omniscience means that because He knows all things that can be known in the past, present, future, nothing can escape His knowledge – “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:4-5): “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10).
Just as He knows everything that can be known of all creatures great and small, even the number of hair on everyone’s head – “Known to God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). He knows our intensions and motives for all our actions. No surprise man keep trying to build a database that is as big as God’s (man’s struggle to “DO IT WITHOUT GOD”), but then – “The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men” (Psalm 33:13).
God is Love – God’s love for us is just as and backed up by His attribute of being immutable – it cannot be wholly comprehended by man except through His Son Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. A.W. Tozer in “I talk back to the devil” tells us of the connection between God’s love and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit when he said:
“Brethren, it is well for us to remember that as human beings we can never know all of the Godhead. If we were capable of knowing all of the Godhead perfectly, we would be equal to the Godhead. For illustration, we know that we cannot pour an entire quart of water into a vessel which has a capacity of less than a quart. So you could never pour all of the Godhead into the experience of any being who is less than God Himself.
A similar kind of illustration was used long ago by ancient fathers in the church as they argued for the trinity of the Godhead. They pointed out that God the eternal Father is an infinite God, and He is love. The very nature of love is to give itself but the Father could not give His love fully to anyone not fully equal to Himself. Thus we have the revelation of the Son Who is equal to the Father and of the eternal Father pouring out His love into the son, who could contain it, because the Son is equal with the Father. Further, these ancient wise men reasoned, if the Father were to pour out His love into the Son, a medium of communication equal to both the Father and the Son would be required, and this was the Holy Ghost. So we have their concept of the Trinity –the ancient Father in the fullness of His love pouring Himself through the Holy Ghost who is in being equal to Him, into the Son who is in being equal to the Spirit and the Father”
God is love and that’s why the greatest power that man can possess is love – “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (I John 4:16). But then real love (God’s agape Love) in the world we live in today would make anyone look naive and stupid; real love as described by Apostle Paul - "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (in I Tim. 1:5). The goal of our command is love; that comes from a PURE HEART, GOOD CONSCIENCE AND SINCERE FAITH.
If you look at these 3 components of love:
Pure heart - Hold no evil whatsoever against anyone.
Good Conscience - knowledge shows what is right or wrong, but it is the conscience that approves of what is right and disapproves of what is contrary to it.
Sincere Faith - no matter how bad it looks in reality, I have this hope that it shall be well – “substance of things hoped for; evidence of things not seen”.
To have these 3 qualities in the world we live in today qualifies you as being excellently naive. But then it is these three qualities that equip any living being with LOVE, that is the greatest power on earth. Jesus warned us when describing the end of the ages: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12.). It is also said that “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1John 4:18).
I have come to see the act of walking in love as one that can be compared to tightrope walking. Walk it through without falling, everyone applauds; but when the reality of learning to walk in love as in training for a tightrope walk show, you will sometimes fall off the rope at different points along the journey, and people will naturally jeer – it is a lowly point to be in, a point where one is vulnerable, a point where the ungodly sees a chance to take advantage, a point where you realise that –“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).
But as the saying goes “practice makes perfect” – Until we are able and have perfected the act of walking that tight rope (walking in God’s Agape Love) without falling off along the way; we just have to keep moving on; practicing how to walk in this wonderful attribute of our creator putting into consideration the advise of His Son Jesus Christ when He said “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” Matt. 10:16.
I Tosin, personally would rather be misunderstood to be naive than lack the power of God.
SO WHEN WE REALISE THAT:
God is Holy- This is the pure loving nature of God separate from evil.
God is Life – He is the essence of the breathe of life
God is Spirit – It is impossible to see Him with human eyes, but through the eye of the spirit
God is Infinite – He is, if I may say, interwoven into all things.
God is Immutable – God cannot change because He is the beginning and end ‘Alpha & Omega’
God is Omnipotent - He has the ultimate power to do whatever He wills.
God is Omniscient – He knows all things that can be known in the past, present, future, so nothing can escape His knowledge
God is Omnipresent – He fills the whole of creation which makes it possible for Him to be present everywhere at onc
God is Love – God’s love for us is just as His attribute of being immutable, it cannot change.
THEN WE CAN SEE WHY:
"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isa. 40:28-31).
What are you going through at this point in your life? Do you feel God cannot see your troubles? Or even if He sees them, He has decided to turn a blind eye? Or even worse still He is powerless to do anything about them? We all go through this but the solution is to always wait on Him. When we put our focus on who our God really is, the grace to trust Him is bestowed upon us; "Thou wilt keep him in Perfect Peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3). Then we can be rest assured that when we wait upon Him, we can never, I repeat “never” be disappointed. Ray C. Stedman asks about Isa. 40:28-31 in “WHO IS LIKE OUR GOD?”:
How many thousands through the centuries have taken those promises literally and found that to "wait upon the Lord" does this very thing. It all hinges on that one word, wait. Wait! The hardest word to learn in the language for some, especially young people. Wait. Let God work. The Hebrew word has a note of expectation about it: expect God to work, wait in expectation that God will move. It takes time, you cannot have it overnight, but they that wait upon the Lord shall find their own strength renewed. They shall find their spirit mounting up like the eagle in its flight, their souls able to run the gamut of emotions. They shall never be weary. And they shall walk (in body) and not faint.
What a wonderful God we serve.
Now that we have briefly touched The Glory of God, and some of the attributes that qualify Him to possess and pass on this glory, we will go on to look at PLAN B - The Gospel of Christ - "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself" (Eph. 1:7-9)
If PLAN A implies that we are Called to God’s Kingdom “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory” (1Thes. 2:12);
Why Redemption? Why PLAN B. This we will look at in our next post.
Until then Heavenly Father, for you have said in Your word: “For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not” (Isa. 30:15); "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass" (Psalms 37:7); we pray that You will please multiply your glorious riches in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ unto us and fill us with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that we may be able to seek that stillness of soul that will empower us to wait on You; so that we may have the confidence to say –“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved” (Psalms 62:1-2).
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