God Has Plans for Us

  • Has God told specific individuals of specific plans for them?
    • John 15:16, 19 You did not choose me, but I chose you
    • Acts 1:2 Through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.
    • Acts 1:24 Show which of these two you have chosen.
    • Acts 9:15 He [Paul] is a chosen vessel of mine
    • Romans 9:11 That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls.
    • Romans 16:13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord.
  • Has God told specific groups of specific plans for them?
    • Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27 He will gather the elect from the four winds
    • John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
    • John 17:20 – 23 That they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
    • Romans 11 There is a remnant according to the election of grace…Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded…Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith…The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
    • 1 Corinthians 1:27 – 29 (1 Peter 2:4) But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak thing of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
    • 2 Corinthians 4:7 We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
    • 2 Corinthians 5:20 We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.
    • Ephesians 1:3 – 14 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…to the praise of His glory.
    • Colossians 3:12 – 17 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and blameless…
    • 1 Thessalonians 1:4 – 8 Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God…that you become examples…For from you the Word of the Lord has sounded forth.
    • 1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, into obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ
    • 1 Peter 2:9 – 10 You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people
    • 2 Peter 1:2 – 11 …that through these [promise] you may be partakers of the divine nature
  • Has any person or group refused God’s directions?
    • Matthew 19:16 – 22 (Mark 10:17 – 30) He went away sorrowful because he had many possessions.
    • Matthew 22:14 Many are called, but few are chosen.
    • Luke 8:11 – 15 Parable of the sower
    • Romans 11
  • Does God have a specific plan for some? For all faithful? For everyone?
    • Romans 12:3 – 8 God has dealt to each one a measure of faith
    • 1 Corinthians 12:4 – 31 The manifestations of the Spirit are given to each one for the profit of all.
    • Ephesians 4:7 – 16 …until…
    • 1 Peter 4:10 – 11 with the ability which God supplies that God may be glorified
    • 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is…not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
  • If God has a specific plan for me, how do I know what it is?
    • When God chose someone for a specific task, the choosing was unmistakable (e.g., Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, Paul). No choosing was subtle or solely by the claim of the person.
    • When someone exercised a gift from God, unbelieving observers understood that the power was from God, not from the individual.
    • 2 Peter 1:2 – 11 Through these [promises] you may be partakers of the divine nature… If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful.
    • As faith grows, stuff happens.