God’s plan vs God’s will ✨
Updated: Mar 29, 2023
01st – 14th September 2022
✨Head statement: God’s plan is none of your business but God’s will is your absolute responsibility✨
«Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”» Acts 1:6-8 NKJV
The above verse is the best scripture that illustrates the divergence between God’s plan and His will. In the scripture above, Jesus is very clear about what the disciples had to be concerned with and what they shouldn’t be concerned with. Funny enough, what He told them in response to their question had nothing to do with knowing the times of the manifestation of God’s Kingdom.
God’s will and God’s plan are two different things that are interlocked. Many people tend to confuse both but we ought to be able to make the difference between them so as not to get frustrated in our prayers or take the wrong turns in our walk with God.
A little illustration that can help us understand the difference among the terminologies that will be used in this article is as follows. Consider that:
The Will of God = The GPS
Plan of God = The Roadway
Promise of God = The Destination
The GPS gives the direction that will get you to your final destination but when you start the journey, you don’t know which way the GPS is going to lead you, the state of the road, the traffic or else. The same applies to God’s will; we receive instructions from Him that are supposed to lead us to our destinies but when we start the journey, we don’t actually know which way He’ll lead us.
And this is where faith comes into the game...
The goal of this article is to help us assess our trust in God and redirect our hearts towards Him so as to experience the peace of God in our lives and stop worrying about the accomplishment of the things God promised to us. Keep reading!
God is a God of order and He likes when things are done in order. He wants everything to be in place, and everyone to do his/her job because it’s an important condition for things to flow in the right way. Otherwise, we find ourselves either fighting with God, or we feel a lot of friction and resistance in the things we do. Sometimes, we don’t understand certain things God does, says or asks us to do because we often tend to act logically and end up trying to do His part of the job unawares, neglecting our own responsibilities which consist in trusting and obeying Him.
Read Matthew 6:25-34
In our relationship with God, He has His role to play and we have our part to fulfill.
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV
This verse encloses the most triggering instruction from God according to me. I think most people are afraid of hearing something so unspecific, yet be expected to obey without questioning what will be happening behind the scenes, on God’s side.
Faith, ain’t it? That’s when we get to the point of questioning ourselves if we truly have it or not. It requires a blind trust in God for actually starting a journey without knowing exactly the direction to take for getting to your destination.
Abraham, the Father of faith is a good example of someone who trusted God blindly. Abraham was told to leave his parents’ house and his people and go “where” God will lead him. God’s promise to Abraham was to give him offsprings that will become a great people, and turn him into a blessing for nations. But God’s will was that Abraham follows Him until he gets “there”.
Where was the link between Abraham going to Egypt, fighting wars, etc. and Sarah, his wife, getting pregnant and bearing a son when it had not worked for so many years?? I don’t know. For me, there was no link but for God, there was a huge link. Fulfilling God’s will is an attitude of surrender that every disciple/follower of Christ should have. Surrendering implies giving up on our own strength and understanding for leaning on God’s power; therefore, we ought not to question His will but abandon everything in His hands.
«For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.»
Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
God has a project and He wants to collaborate with us. The plan is fixed ’cause it’s a word that was already spoken over our lives before we were born. Now the direction, the will of God, is up to us to follow. It’s a prerequisite for getting to the final destination.
«“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.»
Isaiah 55:8-11 NKJV
Many times, God makes us promises and our reflex is to chase the promise but… HEY! How to emphasise that it’s none of our business 😅?
For example, a girl to whom God promises that she is soon getting married would, “humanly speaking”, start changing her make-up, renewing her wardrobe, working on her catwalk and trying those new heels she’s never worn before… But is that what God is telling her to do?!?! 🤔 She received the promise but did she seek the will of God about that specific promise?!
And that’s where many of us get trapped.
We receive a promise from God, but we take it as a mission yet it’s His promise, His job and His to accomplish! We tend to pursue the things that God has already set for a time and a season and we pursue them as the key to our success in God and in the world but that’s so wrong!
When the angel of God told Mary she would get pregnant, Mary asked “how” was that going to be? That “how” was not a lack of faith, it was rather questioning the will of God… It’s as if she was asking: “What should I do about it? What’s my responsibility in all this? I’ve known no man… I’m engaged to Joseph… I don’t understand.”
She seeked to understand the will of God in all this ’cause God’s Word/Decree was revealed: “Bringing Jesus on earth through Mary for saving the people of Israel.” Now, if Mary had been carnal, she would have said: “let your will be done”, and immediately went to Joseph and said: “okay hun, so this is what God said. Let’s do the job.”
🥲😅 I thank God; Mary was wise 😪
Mary understood that God’s promise/decree was that she bears Baby Jesus. Now, His will was that she surrenders to Him/accepts the mandate, and the plan was that the Holy Spirit overshadows her so that she may conceive. Do you get the difference?
God’s will doesn’t always make sense. It’s often hard to see the link between God’s will and His promise.
And this is where faith comes into the game!
«Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.»
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
Faith is believing something’s going to happen even if the factors or the circumstances around contradict it. It’s all about trusting God.
Now, let me say this as I end: The link between God’s will and God’s promise is your faith, and your faith through obedience will engender/unlock/trigger the well-prepared plan of God.
Letting God be God is perhaps the most challenging thing that we’ll ever be asked to do as human beings, ’cause we often want to know everything/understand and control the situation, but God says: “rest and let Me be Me! Do your part and trust that I’ll do My part… And again, DO NOT TRY TO DO MY PART 🤨!”
I can even say that sometimes, God doesn’t reveal the fullness of His promise to us and we ought to walk blindly with Him, trusting that anyway, He’s taking us to a safe place.
Now, are we ready to surrender? May The Holy Spirit help us.
Short confession 🌼:
I may not know where I’m going, but as long as I walk with God, I know His Spirit guides my every step. I’ll reach my destination!
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