God's Plain Pathway

God’s Plain pathway

by Pastor Bryan Coelho

Eccl.7: 13; Acts 13:8-10

Joel 3:14 says that Multitudes of people are in the valley of decision. Many of us are in the valley of making decisions everyday of our life. But Eccl 7:13 –can we bend the arm of Omnipotent God?

God has a very unique plan for every believer and His plan is different for every believer. And so we acknowledge the Sovereignty of God in every little detail of our life and if we don’t do that we will try to make straight what God has made crooked! Today, people want to be in control of everything that happens in their life! Eccl.7:13 relates to the individual while Acts 13:8-10 relates to the message. God, from the beginning of time wanted to reveal the riches of His grace. Eph.3:7-9 – this is a mystery hid in God. This mystery was communicated to the Prophets - I Pet.1:10-12 by the Holy Spirit but could not see the period of the fullness of the mystery revealed - Jn.1:16, though it was always God’s desire to reveal the fullness - Rom.8:30-34. But man always questioned the sovereignty of God in the details of life without seeking Him in the everyday practical detail of life! God created man in a perfect state and man chose to go against God – made a decision to sin and God did not prevent man from sinning because He knew the provision that was available for it! So we need not be afraid of taking steps of faith if we know God. We are not afraid of failing when we know about God’s provision for our failure! In the details of life the grace of God is given as a provision. That is why in the Bible disobedience and unbelief is a terrible thing. And so God breaks things but the world tries to straighten what God has broken and made crooked. God is supposed to be in charge of everything but how then things are crooked when He is around? God has allowed it to be so because He has manifested His straight way.

Acts 13 – Elymas – he was Satan’s man and Paul discerns that. He was hostile to the Gospel and he was full of deceit and fraud. He was an enemy of all righteousness and says “will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of God?” Satan wants to destroy the message of God. He does not want people to have an understanding of the way – Jn.14:6 - so that when people are broken they would never have the option of walking in that way. As we are broken it is important for us to walk in that “way” where God has broken us. If we do not have the “way” then there is a serious problem for us.

When the fall took place, man sinned and he began to experience various things. He felt guilty, unclean and was filled with condemnation and so he looked for a covering. And God intervenes in Gen.3. Can we think of what it would be if God did not intervene and make a provision? Man then would have been completely broken and would be walking in the “wrong way”. But God gave a way though man was broken. The believer today does not treasure what God has appointed for him to walk on. The believer thinks on the things that work on and try and work out situations for himself, when in reality God is using a situation or a detail of life to break him. But man never gives God an opportunity to be glorified in that area that which God has ordained for him. So Satan has distorted the way of God! Separations in the family, confusion, etc., are all permitted by God but He has also made a provision for them. But Satan comes in to distort the work of grace in that person’s life. Imagine living in this cosmic system and everything going against me and I try to reverse it as I walk in a way that is my own!!! Can a wounded man help himself? He needs another person to help him and to cover him. This was so beautifully reflected in the life of Christ!

In the incarnation of the Son of God, He came down to this earth and He let God work in His life – which was foreknown by Him in eternity. All that was permitted by the Father to happen to Jesus Christ caused Him to be broken but that did not ever cause our Lord to deviate from the pathway, which was ordained by God! That is the sign of a matured believer – if I understand this I will rest in every detail of life because the sovereignty of God is involved in choosing things for my life.