God’s Plan Requires The Right Perspective

Many times in Scripture when the Lord shares/ reveals a plan, He also has a design to go with it. From the Old Testament to the New, He has never left His people in the dark on how to carry out a vision.  Grand or not, His will always comes with His instructions, and works best and results best with and through His instructions. The thing is, a person gets excited with the vision and runs off to get it “done”, but does not first continue seeking for the instructions to “download”. This is considered “zeal without knowledge (or know how)”. (Proverbs 19:2)  

You may be great at many things, even an expert in some things, but heavenly visions are from Above and designed Above. Without the Author’s guidance, the “end , (if you get to the “end”) will be meager or not as “exceeding, above, and beyond”. (Ephesians 3:20) 

Then to say, “But Lord, was I not doing what you told me?”  He looks at you like, “Child, it was MY idea, but you turned it into YOUR thing. Are you done? I need MY idea to remain MY thing because MY Glory I share not with another.” (Isaiah 42:8)

Here we are given examples of people who had the right perspective and beliefs that challenge common misconceptions:

1. MOSES

When the Lord got ready to deliver the children of Israel (Exodus 3:7), He told Moses every step of the way what would happen to Egypt if they did not “let His people go”, instructed him how He would feed them, how and when to travel, how long the journey should take, He gave them Commandments/ Word to observe, He sent him help, etc… and Moses regularly/ daily sought the Lord for these and more “downloads”. 

2. JOSEPH

Both Joseph & Mary are astounding in the birth of Jesus the Christ.  But Joseph a bit more in my opinion because Mary had a heads up.  The Lord shared with Mary what was going to happen beforehand, but Joseph received the surprise of his life when he discovered His fiancé, whom he was not intimate with, was suddenly pregnant! What to do, what to do?  Can you imagine the shock at any time, but especially in those days?  It wasn’t until the Lord ministered to Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25) that He understood what was going on, the Vision, and since then, every move and turn was expressly directed by the Lord to ensure Christ’s safe birth and childhood.

3. JOHN

When Jesus came to John to be baptized, John said, “(It would “makes sense” that) it is I who have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?  But Jesus replied to him, Permit it just now; for this is the fitting way for [both of] us to fulfill all righteousness [that is, to perform completely whatever is right]. Then he permitted Him. And when Jesus was baptized, He went up at once out of the water; and behold, THE HEAVENS WERE OPEN…” (Mat 3 AMP)

4. SOLOMON

Without going into details, consider the intricacies given to Solomon when building the Temple.  He could have built Him anything, but we glorify God when we do what He wants. (1 Chronicles 28)

5. CAIN & ABLE

What about Cain and Abel’s sacrifice?  The Lord was specific about what was an acceptable sacrifice and thus he received one of the brother’s gifts and rejected the other’s. (Genesis 4)

6. TITHING

In regards to financial blessing, I hear some say, “We are not in Old Testament times, we are not under a curse, we don’t have to tithe.”  Listen…

1. You don’t have to do anything.  
2. Everything from Genesis to Revelation is for “Whosoever will (or whosoever is willing)”  
3. Tithing is a principle and plan to supernaturally bless you not curse you.  

With that said, Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the Storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not OPEN YOU THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

7. SALVATION

Same thing with the New Testament salvation, we can’t say or do whatever we want and claim to be saved, the “Lord knows my heart”.  Does he?  More importantly, do you know His heart?  His heart is in His Word and the only way to be saved is written in His Word.  

• “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you WILL be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” -Romans 10:9

• Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” -Acts 2:38

•  “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” -John 3:5

I know many who pick and choose which one of these three scriptures they will observe, but if God gave us all three: Romans 10:9, Acts 2:38, & John 3:5. Therefore, it is our responsibility to observe them all. 

I could go on and on, for there are so many examples of Jesus giving an idea/vision with how to clearly and fully carry them out. When we do “… behold the heavens were opened” for the man Jesus as “the ocean was parted” for Moses and the children of Israel: When we allow the Lord’s vision to unfold, a way was made.

However, sometimes you “want” something not necessarily from the Lord, but you say or think it is. 

One way for sure to know it’s not from the Lord or His way is that you stoop to ungodliness/ ungodly ways as a means to attain it. Understand, sin repels God and the moment you act out of His character, you come to the forefront and He vanishes to the back until you are done. People often blame others for the outcome, but if you are truthful to yourself, it either was not the Lord to begin with or it wasn’t carried out His way. This can be somewhat difficult to identify because even and especially when you are doing the will of the Lord and doing it His way, the enemy really tries to attack. When you’re doing your own thing, Satan doesn’t care as much because your own thing or your own way will not have the effect that Christ’s will and way does. So you have to figure out was it from the Lord, did I veer off His course, or was it the enemy? Ultimately, thanks be to God because He causes even our mess to work for our best. But honestly, I often think about how much better it would be if a 4 day journey into the Proms Land, did not take the Israelites 40 years to complete.

Why is the Lord so particular, you ask? Well, our spiritual state matters more to Him than any conquest or achievement. The only way to ensure that is to keep us near the Cross, at His feet, constantly in need of Him from our lowest days and even more when we reach the mountain top. He has no plan to let you lose your soul if you continue to hold on to Him. 

So brother and sisters, seek, knock, ask, and find His will and way. Carry out HIS VISION as He downloads each step along the way. If you don’t have all the instructions, do as much as you have and stop to seek, receive, proceed, and repeat. See His vision, follow His plan. Godspeed!

And the LORD answered me, and said, ” Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” -Habakkuk 2:2