Here's how I would summarize the plan of God in one sentence: God created and destined the world to be perfect in His sight, so that everything would reflect His goodness and bring Him glory.
When God thought of you, He saw you in your fullness. He saw you in your perfect state. He saw something worth dying for.
His plan is to bring us into our full potential. By experiencing the ups and downs of life, we discover more of who we are and where we are falling short of the glory of God. Through it all, we grow into the knowledge of God and become more and more the original self He created us to be.
Yeshua came to lift us above the things this world tells us to be. He came to reveal who we really are and redeem us. He redeems our human nature, our past, our family culture and basically, anything that goes against our God-given identity.
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National Redemption
Yet, His plan is greater than you and I; it's greater than anything we can hope or imagine. God is also in the business of saving and redeeming nations. Have you considered what your nation will look like in its' full state of redemption? What was the original plan of God for your nation?
Eventually, everything that has breath will praise the Lord (Ps. 150:6), including your nation, tribe, tongue and people (Rev 7:9-10). Though we've been taught in school how nations were formed, and about the political developments that took place in order for it to happen, God was always involved. Just as God has a unique calling for every individual, He also has a specific calling for every nation.
Most of the time we find it hard to see the God-given call over our nation. I look at the people driving on the highway, and it's a far cry from reflecting God's goodness on earth. I look at the corruption in our government, in our army, and it's hard to believe God has not given up already.
Yet, if God created it, it has a calling. Let's not let our history or our unredeemed culture define our nation's calling. God is working the redemption of our nation through the believing remnant in every nation, tribe and tongue.
Israel the Missing Piece
For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you be wise in your own estimation, for a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will remove ungodliness from Jacob" (Rom. 11:25-26).
What if the mystery Paul is talking about here, the fullness of the Gentiles, is actually the redemption of every nation? What if it's not about the exact number of people coming into the kingdom, but about every people group reaching a full measure of transformation?
If this is true, then we can't ignore Israel. After all, this is where it all started. With one group of people, one family, one nation chosen by God to show the world His glory, His mercy and His righteousness. What if the missing piece is Israel?
I see it as a cycle—God wanted to have all nations in His kingdom. He never wanted anyone left out. He wants everyone to see and experience His glory. So first, He showed who He is to Israel, and then at the right time He opened the way for everyone else. But the people of Israel had to be "hardened" in order for each and every nation to discover God.
Now, it's all coming back: the nations, the Gentiles, as they begin to enter into the fullness of their redeemed cultures. As they walk in their God-given fullness, they call the people of Israel back to their God-given calling. When the nations reflect God's goodness, the people of Israel can be redeemed too. This is how we will see the world fully redeemed, and walking in its full potential as God intended it to be.
This article originally appeared at reviveisrael.org.
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Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your head from the Lord Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach.
Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People
Charlotte, NC USA