God's Plan For You

Jesus Desires Your Very Best

Jesus has extraordinary plans for his people. He continues to save souls and change lives through his followers. However; not everyone is equal in this endeavor. Jesus knows what we are capable of and what we will be able to do for His kingdom.

This should bring us great comfort in knowing that Jesus will never demand more of us than we are able to do. With this being said, He does expect us to do our very best in the calling He outs on our life.

Often times people are fearful of submitting wholly to Jesus for fear that He is going to call them to China to be a missionary. It might be that He will call you to China, but not before you are ready to go.

17 And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” 19 And He *answered them and *said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

The disciples decided they would try to do something they were not ready to do. While Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration, the other disciples decided they would go out and try to cast a demon out of a boy. They were not ready to do this and as a result, they had an angry dad.

Jesus came to the boy and healed him. He used this opportunity to teach the disciples that they were not ready to do this work. They needed to spend more time in prayer.

We are the same way. Jesus allows us to do what we are ready for. This is not to say that we will be comfortable doing it, but it will be something that Jesus will accomplish through you.

My first experience with this was when I was asked to teach my first Sunday school class. I was scared to death. I had never done anything like this before. But God had prepared me because I had an insatiable hunger for His word. I had done much reading and studying. God used this to help me teach my first class.

Conversely, shortly after I had some success teaching the Sunday School class, I thought I was ready to be a pastor. God shut that down quickly. I was not ready. As a matter of fact, it took about 17 years to prepare me to be a vocational pastor.

Take comfort in knowing that God will not call you beyond your readiness.

Jesus Prepares Our Hearts Before He Prepares Our Feet

God will always prepare your heart for the calling on your life. He will use circumstances and passions to move your heart to where it needs to be before he affords us the opportunity to proceed.

51 When the days were approaching for His [b]ascension, He [c]was determined to go to Jerusalem; 52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to [d]make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because [e]He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [[f]and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.

Jesus was preparing the disciples to witness and be a part of the most significant event of all history. He was going to be resurrected. He sent his disciples into Samaria to prepare a place for him to stay. They were unkind to Jesus. The disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy these people. Their hearts were not right. Jesus taught them that he came to save even those that were unkind to Him.

The disciples needed to know this because when Jesus was gone, people were going to be unkind to them. They needed to have hearts that loved others no matter how they treat you.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may [a]be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Therefore [b]you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

When our hearts are ready to receive the mission, God will open the door of opportunity for you!

Greatness is God’s Plan For You

Not in the eyes of man but in the eyes of God, He has plans for you that are great.

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Undoubtedly much of our effort for the Kingdom is dissipated for this reason. We fail, not because we do not try to do something, but because we let our little efforts become an excuse for not doing more. The result is that we lose by default the advantage of years of hard work and sacrifice. When will we learn the lesson of Christ not to be satisfied merely with the firstfruits of those who are sent out to witness? Disciples must be brought to maturity. There can be no substitute for total victory, and our field is the world. We have not been called to hold the fort, but to storm the heights. It is in this light that the final step in Jesus’ strategy of evangelism can be understood.

Coleman, Robert Emerson. The Master Plan of Evangelism (Kindle Locations 898-903). House of Majied Publications. Kindle Edition.

God’s plan involves you making disciples!