We live in a culture where our basic training is to plan for the unknown.
We have plans with back up plans, contingency plans in the event our back up plans fail and fail safe plans to insure our back up plans succeed. But I often wonder if Jesus had a back up plan? I wonder if Paul had a back up plan? If anyone had a back up plan it was probably Peter or what about James or John? Somehow, when I read their stories in the Bible I don’t have a sense that they had any other plan but to follow Jesus wherever He led them. Which brings me to my big idea… There is no plan B for the child of God.
Paul said in Romans 8:14… For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
The concept of being led suggests there is one who has planned out the course and one who is following the leadership of another. It doesn’t suggest there is no planning happening at all. In fact, it doesn’t even suggest that the one following has no responsibility to plan how they follow. But it does suggest one solitary course of action that is singularly directed by another… the Spirit of God. In other words, from God’s perspective there is only Plan A, no Plan B.
I was teaching this at a church and a few weeks later I heard someone say to me… I’m working on my Plan B baby. They were facing a need for change and in their mind Plan A was their life and Plan B was the change they were wanting to make. They were working on several options, working all the angles and living with the tension, anxiety and frustration that comes with trying to outsmart God. Little did they know God doesn’t divide our lives like that. I merely prayed that God would move in this person’s life to bring them into the place where He wanted them to be… that He would work His Plan A in their life. He did.
When we look to Plan B, we are saying that God’s power, His purpose, His provision is not enough for our lives. We are saying that He isn’t interested, nor does He care to be interested. We are saying God’s plan is somehow lacking because it doesn’t satisfy the deepest longings of our heart, so we need another Plan… a Plan B. Everytime I’ve tried to work another angle, tried to hedge my bets with God, tried to work another way or another plan… it’s always ended in disappointment. So I’m learning a new tactic…
Instead of devising what I believe God wants to do in my life, I’m looking for the activity of the Spirit in my life and allowing myself to be led. How do you recognize the Spirit’s leading?
1. The Spirit invites us to act out our faith and trust in God’s Word
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:7…For we walk by faith, not by sight.
In Galatians 3:11-12 Paul wrote… Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
The believer lives by faith… that quiet trust that God will bring into reality what He has spoken into our hearts. To be led by the Spirit often means to step out into nothing and watch God bring into being something that never existed before. It becomes real through obedience. Abraham became the Father of Faith when he lifted the knife to sacrifice his only son. It was at that moment that His faith became real. Many believers are stunted in their growth simply because they did not bring their faith into reality through obedience. God’s Plan A always leads me to trust in God because my power, intellect, social networking abilities, beauty or talent are not enough.
2. The Spirit invites us to greater intimacy with God?
David cried out in Psalm 42:1-2… As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1.. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
The believer lives out of friendship with God. We live, work, play, laugh, serve and minister where He is already present and actively speaking to us. When we move into the realm of our own plans, we move into the realm of our own kingdom and out of the realm of His kingdom. God is gracious and loving and He will allow us to exhaust our plans, ever watching and listening for the cry of surrender. God’s Plan A is for me to live out of an intimate friendship with God.
3. The Spirit invites us to live the promises God has already given to us
Jeremiah 29:11 says… For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10… For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
One of the revelations I find missing in believers today is this… you were made for more. You were made for more than what you have settled for in your life. God knows us intimately and He knows what would bring us the greatest joy in life. He also knows what would bring us the greatest freedom and the greatest healing. This is not a promise for an easy life. But it is the promise for a purposeful life that leads to a great future and a great hope in Christ. God’s Plan A is already operating in my life and His plan is complete.
4. The Spirit invites us to live out of our new identity in Christ, not our identity as sinners
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17… Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And Galatians 2:20 he writes… I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
The believer is not identified or directed by culture, desire, ambition or even sin. The believer is identified by Jesus Christ and His righteousness alone. When we say… I’m just a sinner saved by grace… what we mean is… I am a sinner, so I have an excuse to sin and Jesus understands and will forgive me when I fall. There is some truth in this statement, but as a whole it is not truth. I am no longer a sinner according to God, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). Since I am no longer a sinner, sin has no power over me and it no longer defines who I am or what I do. Rather, I am in Christ a new creation. I have been changed from the inside out. This means I am free from the bondage of sin, I am no longer enslaved by my own desires and I am free to love God and follow Him completely. I am now free to follow God’s Plan A for my life.
There is an unexpected benefit to being led by the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-18 says… So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. As I am being led by the Spirit, the desires that ruled my life under the power of the flesh because of the law are disempowered in my life. Because I am no longer under the law, but free… the desires of the flesh no longer have power, but the Spirit now has power in my life. Because the Spirit is leading my life, the Spirit leads we away from anything that is contrary to the Spirit. The end result – greater freedom and joy in discovering God’s Plan A for my life.
It is my prayer that you will stop trying to outsmart God and start trusting His Plan A for your life. You will never have the bandwidth to do what’s best for you. You don’t know the end from the beginning. You don’t know the roadblocks that are up ahead. You are limited. It’s only as you surrender and submit your life to the Spirit that you will discover the joy and freedom that God has always intended for you to live… in His Plan A.