‘re-think’ No. 29
Christians have inherited some letter-word bondages from away back in time. Calvinists went as far as saying that God ‘predestined’ some to be saved and others not to be saved! One quickly gets the impression that God determines everything in our lives and that we do not have to do anything for it will happen anyway. ‘Whatever will be, will be ...’ Such an attitude leaves one in a pacifist position of doing nothing and simply hoping ‘all will be well’. God is Almighty and is often referred to as being omni-present (everywhere present at all times for He is in all things), omnipotent (all powerful able to accomplish everything with all people) and omniscient (having all knowledge .. past, present and future in all men including their every thought and action).
The Greek word for ‘predestination’ is PROORIZO. In the New Testament, there are six references using this word, PRO-ORIZO . . . PRO means before and ORIZO means determine, appoint or mark out. So the word predestination means to put the mark on beforehand. The English word we get from this is ‘horizon’ which is what we perceive before seeing the land beyond. The captain of a ship knows exactly what land is just over the horizon! Our God knows who will come forth into His fullness as the ‘firstfruits’ equipped to begin to restore all men and to set creation free and that is just over your horizon. By faith it is there!
A Government Department decided to erect a very special building in the capital using log construction. The cost was going to be high and that would delay the actual building of it for some time. The plans were drawn up and the list of the logs was compiled and sent to the Field Engineer with the instruction that only straight and true timber should be used. The Filed Engineer with his helper took the list and went to the forests. Knowing that the building wouldn’t be required for a few years, it was his task to select the trees for this project. They went through the forests and the Engineer with his expertise pointing out the trees that would be needed and instructed his helper to paint a large ‘X’ on each chosen tree. They completed their selection. Those trees with the mark on them were now ‘predestined’ for this special building.§
Predestination is built upon the foundation of ‘FOREKNOWLEDGE’. Complete foreknowledge is in God wherein there is the record of Father’s will for each of us. God is the only One who has 100% knowledge of all things and it will include all your thoughts, actions and reactions which He uses to bring to pass His purposes with each one . . . in fact the overcomers will surrender more and more to His thoughts, ways, timings and purposes. ‘Not my will be done, but Thine, O Lord’. So what happens to man’s ‘free-will’? Your spirit-man being joined to the Lord, has one desire and that is to please Him and he is a success story. The soul-part of your being is learning to submit to the Spirit-man-Christ within until both of these aspects of your being are one. In the changing process you will still have natural choices to make even as a child has while growing up. All things were created by Him and for Him. (17) and He is before all things and by Him all things consist (Col.1:16-17). ‘Consist’ means held together.
Illustration: FOREKNOWLEDGE
C.S.Lewis once explained this. He pictured a tray with a raised edge and a hole in the centre. A marble was placed in one corner. Holding the tray in both hands, he purposed to direct the marble to go through the hole in the centre. The marble (your life) traveled all over the tray crisscrossing the tray until it went through the hole. The course that the marble took equates with your life as you endeavour ‘to press towards the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Phil.3:14).
The more you surrender to the Lord, the more you will be aware that He is directing your thoughts and actions with the surrounding circumstances of everyday life which, don’t ever forget, God fully controls. He knows beforehand every turn and decision that you make, every bump against His restricting protective walls and every frustration that you feel when you just miss the target and feel like giving up! He never lets you go off the tray of life and all the time God overshadows you with tremendous confidence ... for He that calleth you, faithful is He to do it (1 Thess.5:23-24).
What are you ‘predestined’ for? The selection of who is in this company of firstfruits is God’s perogative.
(Rom 8:28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (29) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. ‘The called’ are those who have responded to the vision that God puts before you.
Christ who is the image of God (2 Corin.4:4) Many are called, but few are chosen. This indicates that some are called and others are not. Similarly in the early chapters of Revelation, there are promises to those who overcome. Those who overcome by using the resources given receive the promises. Those who do not overcome at that time, do not receive any such promises.
(Rom 8:30) Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
You who are chosen or apprehended, are predestined to come forth in the image of Christ on the earth through those steps in this seventh day. Firstborn ‘among many brethren’ . . . indicates that not all Christians are involved with this expression in God’s great plan . . for ‘many’ is not ‘all’.
PREDESTINED TO BE AS CHRIST ... TO BE ADOPTED
(Eph 1:4)
According as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love: (5) Having
predestinated
us unto the adoption of
children (Gk.
mature sons)
by Jesus Christ to
(Gk. into)
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
{** see ‘re-think’ No.25}. Whatever course your ‘marble’ follows,
God has decreed that He works all things towards His desired end for you . . .
and for all. There is no will that is greater than God’s will at any time even
though it sometimes could appear to be that way!
(Eph 1:10) That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him: (11) In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will:
God would not be God if He did not have full foreknowledge. For God does not only care for those called out to a predestined special calling at a predestined actual time, but His love extends to all so that His plan of the ages comes to a successful conclusion. (Act 4:28) For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before (PRO-ORIZO) to be done.
Because of God’s foreknowledge Christ was crucified before ever Adam and Eve ‘fell’ (Rev.13:8).
(Act 2:23) Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: What was envisaged by God before time comes to pass in due time and it wasn’t a remedy so much as a masterful plan!
God’s knowledge of the ‘marble’s tracks’ are used to bring all apprehended ones to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).
(1 Peter 1:2) Elect (Gk.= selected, chosen) according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
God’s purpose is to have a people from within His people who will so yield to His processings and changes in their lives that He can change and equip them for their special task ahead . . . that task is the beginning of the restoration of the whole creation back into God. By speaking out of the mind of Christ in you, His life will bless every life and every nation.
(1 Corin. 2:7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained (PRO-ORIZO) before the world unto our glory:
This is a calling wherein is God’s enabling touch. The whole plan is foolishness to the natural mind and will remain a mystery (Gk.= sacred secret) until the Holy Spirit unveils your part to you.§
Ray Knight
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