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Alpha and Omega - Identity 4
Peter Vanderwal; 1st May 2011
Rev 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Is 46 “Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and i will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that will I bring about; what i have planned, that will I do.”
1. God’s life does not change. He is from all eternity, the eternal king, the immortal God. Isaiah 48:12
God exists forever and He is always the same. His life does not change. Created things have a beginning and an end, but not so their Creator. Exodus 3 ”I am who I am.”
God’s truth does not change. His words stand forever. No circumstance prompt Him to recall them; no changes in His own thinking require Him to amend them. Is 40:8 and Psalm119.
God’s purposes do not change. He does not have to revise His judgements or change his plan of action. He never needs to, for His plans are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control which extends to all things past, present and future, so that there are no sudden emergencies or unlooked for developments to take Him by surprise.
Psalm 33:11 “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”
What God does in time, He planned from eternity. And all that He planned in eternity, He carries out in time. And all that He has committed Himself to do will infallibly be done. God is fully committed and faithful to bring believers into the full enjoyment of their promised inheritance. God made a promise to Abraham, the prototype believer, and fulfilled his promise to him. So it is with all God’s announced intentions. They do not change. No part of His eternal plan changes.eHe
2. God finishes before He starts; He finishes before He begins. Before the beginning of any of God’s initiatives, plans and purposes on the earth, they are already decided and established in the heavens. God’s purpose and plan for the universe, the world, the nations, cities, and individuals, and all created things; are completed in Him before any is revealed unto man. They are accomplished and established in eternity before they are introduced in time and space.
Everything was planned and settled in eternity before they were made substance. God starts fully knowing that all is done and completed. Nothing under the sun is a revelation to Him because all were known and achieved in Him right from the beginning.
The unveiling and manifestation of God’s plans in the earth is a revelation to man but not to Him.
3. God desires that we step into His purposes and plans, fully knowing that His plans are complete and finished in eternity. All that is destined to be done on earth is already done. This includes all our experiences, encounters, purposes, relationships, travels, birth date, when we die-our total life.
Romans 8:29 “those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son”
Eph 1 “for He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ”
We did not just happen, we were chosen by Him, before the foundations of the world, for a predetermined purpose-to be conformed to the image of His Son, to become mature sons, and to fulfil His purposes on earth.
Eph 1:11-12 “ In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory”
Redemption is all about what God designed for you in the beginning being restored. This is what Christ wants to bring forth in your life. What God started, and is doing in us, He will bring to completion, to the fullness of His plan.
4. We were not put on earth by chance or mistake but by a deliberate and strategic plan of God sanctioned and accomplished in Him before time. Acts 17:26 ‘he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live...for in Him we live and move and have our being’
We can shocked and in awe by the unveiling of the world and its creation, and the plans of God. But God desires we see the mastery and glory and beauty of His eternal plan.
5. The understanding that all is finished before we even initiate the call of God, should activate faith and power and resilience within us. It should instill determination and persistence and passion that confronts all obstacles, opposition, hindrance, intimidation, and tactics of the devil. It should bring a steady and sustained endurance that will not let up until we reach the finish line. We are called to complete all that God has purposed for us.
May we walk with less apprehension, less powerlessness, less hesitation, no longer complaining about the journey, no longer living in an exhausted state.
May we grow in the knowledge that all God’s purposes are complete in Him. So that we no longer strive and toil in His purpose. We are not called to complete His call and earthly purposes in our own strength, with our own human energy, ingenuity and cleverness. It does not depend on our performance and ability. And we are to be set free from our need ‘to do’ for God, out of human passion, strength and understanding.
When God speaks promise to us, it’s not for us to work out, to work hard at. It is only by His power, by His Spirit, that the promise can be fulfilled.
6. Rather it is man resting in God. Man being directed and empowered by the Spirit of God, truly facilitating the purposes of God. We operate in His works in the earth by His might, that comes from our rest in His finished purpose.
Heb 4 ”there remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest, also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest”
7. God has a plan for your life. There is no need to stress to work it out. Just connect with Him in a real, dynamic, life relationship. Be rooted in him. Keep walking in obedience, keep walking with Him as the ultimate boss. Our life and works were predestined in Christ. We can live and rest with the knowledge that God will work in us and through us His highest purposes for us, and for the glory of His Son. We must simply walk in obedience.
May we seek humility-that doesn’t seek one’s own plans, no longer tries to initiate plans for life, that no longer tries to figure out how everything will come to pass, that no longer has to understand all God’s plans. Grow in death to self sustained living.
A real connection with God as a way of life, not as an act or event or last resort or desperate process. A life rooted in God - an abiding fellowship that brings real intimacy with God. We get so immersed in His word, His ways, and His purposes, that they feel like they are own. This is:
Psalm 37 ‘delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart’
John 5:19 ‘the son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing.’
John 15 ‘if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’
John 15’if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you’.
A life rooted in God-you’ve humbled yourself, you’ve connected in such a way with God that it’s real, and you find true Sabbath Rest, God now working on your behalf, and His plans become yours, and they supernaturally unfold before you. You’ve become a branch truly connected to the Vine.
Also, John 6:38, Jeremiah 29:11, John 4:34
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