Building up believers and the New Testament church

God's Wisdom Revealed

God has only one plan, and that plan cannot be changed. In this time He is calling out a people from all nations to be called by His name. He is building His church. He will not fail. His plan is predestined, and we are predestined in Christ to be conformed to His image.

God has a pattern, and if we are going to build, we must build according to His pattern. If we feel we can add to His ways, we are only fooling ourselves. God is concerned about every detail, and nothing misses His all-seeing eye. God never leaves those He calls to build as they see fit, or change any part of His plan. God's plan is perfect for eternity, timeless, and cannot be improved upon. Many have tried to "update" God's plan, but only to the detriment of His testimony.

Men can be used by God to help bring the purpose and plan of God back into focus, but if those men are followed--rather than God's Word--they can be used to corrupt the testimony of the church. Unless our laboring is within God's limits and under His authority, that which we do might be copied by those that follow after us.

The ways of man may look good for a time, and results may be used as the measure of success, but all things must be judged by His Word according to the revelation of the Spirit. We can say we are God's people and yet not know Him. The professing church has strayed so far away from God's original plan and His ways that if it is ever to be brought back to being His true church, there will have to be a revival that will bring it back to God's purpose and His working by the Spirit.

Time does not change man's heart. From the beginning, he hasn't wanted to hear God or come God's way. Cain knew the demands of a just God, but he brought what he wanted to bring as a sacrifice for God. God is faithful to reveal His ways and plan to those who are willing to follow Him. In our day, man is still following man because he will not come God's way. To hear man and follow what he tells us costs us nothing, and produces nothing eternal. But to hear God for ourselves will cost us everything.

One of the subtlest strategies of the devil is to tempt us to do God's will our own way rather than His way. If Satan can confuse the plan of God in our minds, he can tempt us to get our eyes off Christ and onto ourselves. When false doctrines start to control us, this is what happens. The devil says, "You will be as God," and this half-truth is a lie and will cause us to go into gross error if we pursue it. It causes men to create a salvation that is not God's salvation. We learn to live with sin rather than being delivered from its power. These doctrines cause us to have a double standard, rather than a single eye for God and what He is doing in His body, the church.