What is God's Plan? (Part one)

By Pat Robertson
The 700 Club

CBN.com - I want to talk to you today about something that I think is extremely important, and that is, what is God's plan? Did you ever stop and wonder what it is He has in mind? What does He want to do?

I was reading the words of the Apostle Paul that he sent to the church at Ephesus. And he said something that I found very intriguing. He said, I have been entrusted with a mystery. I have been a steward of this mystery which as been revealed to God's holy apostles and prophets in the spirit, he went on to say, which in other generations was not made know to the sons of man, as it has that by revelation there was made known to me a mystery (Ephesians 3:3).

So the Apostle Paul said, I found out a secret. He called it a mystery, and he said, This was not made known to people previously. So what he's going to tell us is something that was now revealed by the Holy Spirit.

There is no way we can find out about things like this unless God Himself, through His Spirit, reveals them to us, so he said, Now this is revealed by the Spirit -- the Holy Spirit. Now, ladies and gentlemen, if there's one thing that we need to ask God to do is to reveal to us, by His Spirit, it is what His plans are. Every one of us needs to be part of God's plan. You ask yourself, What is the overarching plan of God? He is a God of great wisdom and He has a plan. He has a plan for each individual. God has a plan for you. We don't understand life unless we understand that God has a plan for us.

And we'll talk a little bit about what Paul says is God's plan for individuals as we continue this series.

But what he says now is, This was revealed by the spirit to the holy apostles and prophets. Now what are 'apostles' and what are 'prophets'? The term apostle means somebody who's sent forth. The apostle is somebody who, from what I can gather, laid foundations. They were the foundation builders of the church.

The Apostle Paul went into areas that had never heard the Gospel, and he preached the Gospel and he laid the foundation. The Apostle Peter went to the gentiles, initially, and brought the Gospel to them. Other of the apostles were people who were sent forth by God, and the Holy Spirit made a revelation to them.

The prophets are those who have an interpretation, in a sense. They can interpret the mysteries. And God reveals things to the prophets, but they are not those who are responsible for laying the foundation.

Now Paul says, This mystery -- and to him it was a big thing. Maybe to us today we don't think it's too much of a mystery. But he said, It was revealed to the apostles and the prophets something that was never known before. And that was this, that Israel, which had the revelation of God exclusively, would now share that revelation with gentiles.

Now you see, the Jews thought they were exclusive. They thought they had the only revelation there was. And Paul says now this was never known to people previously, but is now revealed by the Holy Spirt, that God was going to unite the flow of history.

Now let me show you how this works -- this is very important. We must understand how things happened from the creation. You've got Adam and Eve right here, and people grew tremendously. And then there came a flood that cut everything off, so it stopped again. Then a new line began to come forth of all the gentile people. And in that line was the line of the holy people, and that was the line of Abraham, who was taken from the gentiles. All these were the gentile people coming out of Noah and Adam. Thence, God created people, and the human race was cut off at the flood. And then the gentiles just continued to proliferate.

And in the middle was this Abrahamic group, and from that, of course, came Israel.

And Paul was taught that this was the exclusive revelation of God. And he says, Now the Holy Spirit has said this revelation has got to be extended to comprehend the gentiles, that this is now not an exclusive revelation, but this is a revelation for all people, because in the seed of Abraham, there is one whose name is Jesus. He is the Messiah. And in the latter days, God is going to bring his revelation not just to Israel anymore, but to all people.

And the spirit of God revealed that to the holy apostles and prophets. We'll be talking more about what God's plan is -- and we're going to see what God's plan is for you as we continue this series.

Read also:

What is God's Plan, Part Two

What is God's Plan, Part Three