by William Oldham

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame in His sight. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6

Only the Lord God Almighty can do as He pleases. What He wills to do, He can do it; and He can do it in His own time and way; when and where and how—Only God can do that.

The portion of Scripture above plainly reveals the good pleasure of our Heavenly Father: what He purposed to do and then brought it to pass. How wonderful and encouraging it is that His children can read with joy the plans of their Father who loves them; and that in words easy to understand. How awesome to know He has all power to make those plans come to pass.

In considering God’s plans for His children, several words jump out at us: God blesses us in Christ; He chooses us in Christ, and has predestined us to be adopted as His children in Christ. The word predestined means God can call something into being long before it ever happens. God predestined that all who are united to Christ, are predestined to be adopted as His sons/daughters—Only God can do that.

Joseph, the son of Jacob is a perfect Old Testament example of God’s ability to plan, purpose and predestine things to happen according to the good pleasure of His will. When Joseph was only seventeen, God revealed to him in two dreams that he had big plans for him. Shortly after that, his life was turned upside down and everything went exactly opposite of the direction God planned for him (or so it appeared);  he became a slave in Egypt, and was then unjustly imprisoned; this covered a period of thirteen years.

When Joseph was thirty years old, the king of Egypt brought Joseph out of prison and made him lord over Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth. The devil, using wicked people, tried to mastermind a plan to destroy Joseph. The devil thought he had the ability to cancel God’s predestined plans for Joseph. In reality, God used all of the actions of evil people to accomplish His plans for Joseph. At the age of thirty, Joseph was exactly in the place and position the Lord had predestined him to be—Only God Almighty can do that.

The story of Joseph is an amazing type of the story of Jesus. Before the creation of the world, God predestined that Jesus would be Lord over all in heaven and on earth. It was God who planned and predetermined that His only begotten Son would die on the cross for sin and become the Savior of the world. God used the hatred of many of Jesus’ brethren to bring Him to be crucified. Because Jesus was obedient to His Father, even to death on the cross, the day came when God sat Jesus in heaven as Lord over all in heaven and on earth.

God has a purpose and predestined plan for all of His children, and we know what it is:

“…We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:28-29

You read that right! God’s predestined plan for your life is to conform you to the image of Jesus. And, He is making all things (the good and the bad) work towards that end.

“…We know that when Jesus is revealed, we shall be like Him…” 1 John 3:2

Only God can and will do that.

Brother Bill is a Bible teacher and can be contacted at bboldham@sbcglobal.net