Experiencing God: God Accomplishes His Plan

"Experiencing God: God Accomplishes His Plan"
Isaiah 46:9-10

I am GOD, the only God you've had or ever will have--
incomparable, irreplaceable--
From the very beginning
telling you what the ending will be,
All along letting you in
on what is going to happen. (Isaiah 46:9-10)

How many of you read the last chapter of the book before you start reading at the beginning--or after you've read the first chapter or two?  One author (Diane Chamberlin) wrote in her blog about a real life incident that got her thinking.  She wrote,
But it made me think about writing fiction and how hard I work to “reveal all in good time”, to keep the suspense building until the end–and how it makes me crazy to hear from readers who tell me they read the ending first. I would never do this. I want to learn everything in the order the author chooses to tell me.

I wonder if it isn't the same with those who are so enamored with the book of Revelation in the Bible.  They read the last book of the Bible over and over, trying to figure out, in all the imagery of that book, how it's all going to end.  The problem with that, as the author of the blog quote I just read pointed out, is by concentrating so much on the ending, you miss all the good stuff that leads up to that ending.  You miss the present moment, and all the wonder of the present moment, and all the drama of the present moment, by concentrating on what you think will be the last moment.

And to get to that last moment, you have to go through a lot of present moments--moments that unfold with each tick of the second hand of the clock.

God has seemed to allowed for those of you who like to read the last chapter first.  As this statement God makes in the book of Isaiah, God has given us a clear idea about "what the ending will be."  But as you find out in the book of Revelation, it isn't a very clear glimpse.  God has played a trick on you last chapter types, by making that last chapter cryptic and mysterious and for the most part, undecipherable.  You get to read the last chapter, but God, the Author of the world's story, has written that last chapter so that you still have to hang in there, and read all the stuff between the beginning and end to understand the end.  You're going to have to live it, before you really get what the ending is all about.

The other thing is, with books, as well as the history of the world, you have to plan.  My daughter has written the first book of a three book series.  The first book isn't published yet, and if it does get published I'll let you know about it.  But in working on a three book series, she has to do a lot of planning.  She has to plan out the whole story, from beginning to end.  And she has to plan out each book, and what will happen in each book, to move the reader not only to the end of that individual book, but also to the end of the story that won't happen for three books.  That takes a lot of planning.

Same with God's story of the world.  God has a beginning of the world's story.  We've all hopefully read that in the book of Genesis.  That first part of the story has set up the drama that is woven in and through the whole rest of the story.  The creation of all that is.  How that creation went bad, misusing its God-given freedom of choice.  All the attempts God has made to help creation set things right.  And the final attempt by God to set the world right, not by judgement and coercion, but by grace and love through the Son.  God's story is being written by God to move along to that end, where God looks at creation again and is able to say with a certain finality, "It is all good."

But that takes a lot of planning on God's part.  In order to work a plan, you first have to have a plan.  Imagine how much planning it takes just to work on a novel, or a series of novels.  Now multiply that thousands of times to get a glimpse of how much planning God has to do as God moves this world toward God's desired end in the story God is writing about this world.  And with God, God's story isn't fiction.  It's a dramatic, biographical, non-fiction, involving billions of real people--real characters--who come and go throughout God's story.  So much planning.

There are a lot of elements involved in planning.  Two general elements of planning are called "analysis" and "synthesis."

In analysis, it's basically establishing your dots.  What are the dots you have to have taken care of to get to your desired goal.  This may be a more fluid and free flowing process than you think.  I'll talk about that in a minute when I describe the synthesis part of the planning process.  At this point you are just putting dots, or round circles on your page, and filling those round circles with all the things that have to happen or be taken care of in your planning.  It's the what, at this point of your planning, not the how.

I can't imagine all the circles that God must have on his "page" as God is planning what has to happen to get from the mess that is started in early Genesis, to the healing of the world that happens by the last chapters in the book of Revelation.  Imagine, on God's master plan paper, hundreds of millions, if not billions and billions of circles of things that have to happen, that God has to make plans for to heal the world from its brokenness.

What's even more phenomenal is not all those circles, but how they're connected.  That's the synthesis part of making plans.  Remember, analysis is creating the dots.  Synthesis is connecting all those dots.  We tend to think of events going on in a linear way--that is, a straight line.  This happens, then that happens, which then causes something else to happen.  Or, we do this, which leads to that, which leads to something else.

But more often, isn't it the case that we connect one dot to another, then to another, then to another, then we go back to one we were already connected to, then on to a new dot, then back, then to another dot, and a new one, and another new one, then back to one we already had connected, and on and on, like that.  Life, and connecting all the dots of our plans is more messy than a straight line.  Keeping it all organized, and at least in a steady direction is much more problematic than we first assumed.

Thus, making our plans, and seeing them through to the end, calls us to be flexible and adaptable.  So making our plans, and our hope to accomplish them, work better when we are less rigid and controlling.  Rigidity and the assumption that plans must work themselves out in a straight line fashion will only end up in our frustration and depression.

That's what amazes me about our God--how flexible and adaptable God is in working out God's plans with we human beings.  God makes God's plans happen in spite of us and because of us, and sometimes both of those at the same time.  Often, in making my own plans, I think I've got all the dots on the page, and start the process of connecting them.  Then I find out I left a few dots out that are necessary.  I've got to add them in, and then connect them in some how.  I marvel at the detailed mind of God who makes plans for the world and each individual life, and forgets no dots.  None get left out.
  In order for analysis and synthesis to happen--when God is creating the dots and then connecting the dots--God can't do that unless God knows what God wants to accomplish.  In God's plan--in all of our planning--we need to know where we're going with all these plans and what we hope to accomplish.  Some call this forecasting.  Forecasting is predicting what the future will look like.

You aren't going to make a plan if you don't know where you are going in that plan.  All of the Financial Peace teachings that Ted and M'Kala teach have a very certain goal in mind.  It's not just about reducing your debt.  If you think Financial Peace is just about eliminating your debt, you've missed the point.  It's about making money.  But you are making money so you can give it away.  Make all you can so you can give all you can.  Using your wealth to advance God's kingdom on earth.  That's the vision.  That's the end.

So in your planning, you have to start with where you want to end up.  Start with the end in mind.  And then in your planning, you work backwards from that place of final accomplishment.  God wants to restore the world and restore humanity to a place that God first intended.  That didn't happen as God had hoped.  So God pulled together a vision in the immensity of God's mind, and came up with a new world with people who are redeemed and restored in that new world.  That is God's end.  Everything that is happening in the world is happening so that end can be reality.   What do you hope to accomplish?  That question has to be a big part of your planning.

The hard part of planning is making the tough choices.  Once you have the end in mind, and you start planning backwards from that end, creating all the dots--the details of the plan--and then connecting the dots, you have to make some tough choices.

Probably one of the toughest choices you'll make in your planning is asking what are you willing to sacrifice to make your plan happen--to reach your desired end?  For example, if your desired end is to have the happiest, closest family, then you can't work 70 or 80 hours a week.  You'll have to sacrifice that, because closeness happens by spending time together.

Warren Buffett is great at making money.  He has a passion for making money.  He's working on money making almost every waking hour of his life.  That's his end--make as much money as he can.  But he made some choices that we might call tragic.  He ended up estranging his wife.  They remain married, but she lives out in California with some other man.  He lives with a mistress.  I'm not sure about any kids, and what their relationship is like with their father.  But Buffett made his choices to reach his desired end, and it cost him.

For God, there has been one major cost.  In order that God's plan towards God's desired end was going to happen, God had to make the toughest choice anyone could make.  God had to make a huge sacrifice in order to make that plan work.  God had to sacrifice himself in Jesus Christ.  We believe that Jesus was God in the flesh.  So it wasn't just Jesus dying on the Cross.  It was God in self-sacrifice.  God had to make it appear that evil had finally overpowered God, when God allowed himself to experience death in self-sacrifice.  What a huge choice to make in making sure God's plan for the world would become reality.

In your own planning, you will have to make some tough decisions about what you must give up in order to attain your end in mind.


These are just a few of the elements in planning.  You have to start with the end in mind, and work backwards in your planning to reach that end.  As you work backwards, you have to see all the dots that need to happen, and connect them in some fashion so you are always moving forward towards your end.  And you have to make some choices, some of which will be sacrificial choices, if you are going to make it where you want to go.

And we are part of God's plan, moving towards a new heaven and new earth, populated by redeemed and reclaimed people.  As we think about that, may we see where we fit in God's plan, and play out our part to move God's plan one step closer to the new Kingdom of God.