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Have
you ever wondered what plans God has for you?
It may come as a surprise that the God of the
entire universe would have a plan for each and
every one of us, but the Bible tells us that He
does. The reason that He has a plan for each of
us is because we are important to Him and He loves
us. Now, you may be thinking, “No, I am
not important... I am just an insignificant nobody
and I do not feel loved”. Well, let us look
at what God says about you in the Bible. Look
at Jeremiah: 29:11. This is what God says about
you and about me:
I
know the plans I have for you,
Plans to make you prosper
And not to harm you...
Plans to give you hope
And a future.
So God has plans for
us, and that they are good plans. To explore
these good plans more fully, two questions need
to be asked. The first question is this:
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| Question
1 If you are like me, you will want
to know, “What are God’s plans
for me?” |
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| We
saw in Jeremiah that God knows the plans
He has for each one of us. “That is
wonderful”, you may say, “But
right now I do not know what God’s
plan is for me. I want to find out”.
If you feel that way, you are ready to go
on to the second question.
The second question is related to the first
question, and it is this:
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| Question
2 Once we find out God’s plan
for us, how can we actually do what God wants
us to do? |
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These
two questions will only have meaning to
you if you have first trusted Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior. This is because
we are entering into a study of spiritual
matters, and spiritual matters can only
be understood by people who have the Spirit
of Christ living within them. That is what
the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 2:14:
People who are not Christians can not understand
these truths from God’s Spirit. It
all sounds foolish to them because only
those who have the Spirit can understand
what the Spirit means...But we can understand
these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
If you want to receive the Spirit of
God, now is a good time to settle this
matter with God. Ask God to speak to you
as you read the following Scriptures from
the Bible:
Romans 3:23: All have sinned.
Romans 6:23: The wages of sin is death.
Romans 5:8: Jesus paid the death penalty
for our sins because He loves us.
John 1:12: To all who receive Him, to
those who believe in His name, He gave
the right to become children of God.
Romans 10:9-10: Place your faith in Jesus
as Lord and believe that God raised Him
from the dead. You will be saved from
spiritual death. You will live with God
forever.
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| To place
your faith in Jesus and receive His gift of
eternal life, you must |
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Recognize that God created you for a
loving relationship with Him. He loves
you and wants you to love Him with all
your heart, mind, soul, and spirit.
Recognize that you are a sinner and
you cannot save yourself.
Believe that Jesus paid the penalty
for your sin by His death on the cross.
Confess (agree with God about) that
your sins separate you from Him.
Repent of your sins (turn from sin to
God).
Ask Jesus to save you by His grace (undeserved
favor).
Turn over your life to Jesus. Let Him
by your Lord and master. |
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Let
us now begin by developing an answer to
the first question, which is, “How
can I know what is God’s plan for
me?” You do not have to be some highly-trained
and “super-spiritual” person
to know God’s plan. Because God wants
us to know his plans, He gives us ways to
learn. Our problems arise when we refuse
to take advantage of these opportunities
to learn. |
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| Here are
ways that God has for us to learn about His
plans |
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- God speaks directly to people. Genesis
3:15.
- God speaks to us through Prophets. For
example, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jesus...”Thus
says the Lord”.
- God speaks to us through the parables
of Jesus.
- God speaks through unbelievers. Caiaphas
in John 11:49-52.
- Dreams
- Visions
- Angels
- Miracles
- God speaks to us when we read the Bible.
- God speaks to us when we pray.
- God speaks to us when we fellowship
with other Christians.
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All
of these ways require us...each and every
one of us...to be open; to be receptive;
to be willing to hear God’s voice;
and to want to know Him.
Jesus tells us: This is
eternal life: That people may know You,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
You have sent. - John 17:3
Jesus said that eternal
life is knowing God, including God the Son,
Jesus Christ. Jesus did not mean that eternal
life is “knowing about God.”
There is a big difference between knowing
God and just knowing about God. For example,
before a person is married, they know about
marriage...young girls will talk about it
for hours without stopping. They will know
a lot about marriage, but until they actually
get married, they will not really know marriage.
You only really know what marriage is like
when you experience it, day-by-day in close
personal relationship with your husband
or wife.
In this verse, John 17:3,
Jesus means that we are to experience a
close, personal relationship with God. God
reveals himself to us when we stay close
to Him every day. When we read about people
in the Bible, we see that knowing God comes
through experience. In the same way, we
come to know God as we experience Him when
He works in and around our lives. As God
reveals Himself to us, He is allowing us
to come to know Him by experience. For example,
we can not know God as the “Comforter
in sorrow”...Jeremiah 8:18...unless
we had experienced His comfort during a
time of grief or sorrow. We come to know
God by experience as He reveals Himself
to us personally.
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