Paul says something wonderful about God. He says:
Join the Premium Times WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
Whom (God) foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30).
What is fascinating about this statement is that Paul presents everything here as already accomplished. Everything is in the past tense. They were all accomplished before time began,
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? (Jeremiah 32:27).
Indeed, is there anything too difficult for God? Absolutely nothing.
Have you wondered how God can speak to billions of people about different things at the same time without contradiction or confusion? Have you wondered how God can be everywhere at the same time? Have you wondered how God can know the past, present, and future? Have you wondered how God can know all things from everlasting to everlasting?
Stay Ahead with Premium Times
Stop wondering. That is what makes God, God.
If you ever read anything about God in the Scriptures that does not make sense, know it is true. The fact that it does not make sense to you is precisely what validates its divinity. Everything about God surpasses human understanding. God does not come to us by human understanding. Therefore, with God, don’t lean on your own understanding. Believe God by faith. He is the impossible God. He is also the God of the impossible.
Can you imagine a woman carrying Jesus in her womb for nine months? That was the blessing of Mary. How would she have felt? Her pregnancy must have been filled with praise and worship. It must have been a time of joy and amazement. That is why one of the remarkable things about Mary in the Bible was that:
(She) kept all these things in her heart. (Luke 2:51).
But what about you and me? Do you not know we are also God-carriers? Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. How do you feel about the enormity of having the Holy Spirit dwelling in you? How do you manage the relationship? Do you live a life of worship 24/7? How often do you pray and worship the God who dwells in you?
When we say the grace, we pray to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives. But that prayer has already been answered. Christ is in us, the hope of glory. So, what are we doing about it?
God is in us, and God surrounds us. He has been our dwelling place in all generations. In God we live, and dwell, and have our being. The God in us is greater than all the demons in the world. This is absolutely amazing. It brings so much confidence and reassurance to our lives.
But man is irresponsible by nature. We cannot be commended for anything we do. If we can do something, it is only because God enables us. If He does not, we cannot do it. Jesus calls us unprofitable servants. He says:
When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘”We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10).
Without Jesus, we can do nothing. We can only do what we are made to do.
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” (Matthew 12:33-35).
Who makes the good tree good? God is the one. Who makes the bad tree bad? God! He is the creator of the ends of the earth.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1).
The believer is God’s property and God’s habitation.
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
We are not our own. We no longer belong to ourselves. We are not allowed to say whatever we like. Our lips are no longer ours. The psalmist prays:
May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things, who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” (Psalm 12:3-4).
We did not create ourselves. God created us.
Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. (Psalms 100:3).
None of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.(Romans 14:7-9).
If One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
We can only have what we have received. We can only be what God has created us to be.
But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand. (Isaiah 64:8).
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! (Jeremiah 18:5-7).
Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honour and another for dishonour? (Romans 9:20-21).
We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do. We were ordained to be who we are from the foundation of the world. We did not determine our parents. We did not determine the shape of our noses. We did not determine our height. What makes us think we can determine who we are? God determines everything about each and every one of us.
God’s foreknowledge is the source of the Holy Scriptures. It is a profound and intricate aspect of His divine nature, reflecting His omniscience and sovereignty over all creation.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it. (Isaiah 46:9-11).
From today, people of God, let the knowledge of God’s foreknowledge be the confidence of our lives. We are in the Hands of God, who works all things together for our good.
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. (Ephesians 1:11).
For it is God who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13).