God's Plan - Satan's Anti-Plan

And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. [Ephesians 3.6]

God's will and God's plan are one and the same. The distinction of "Jew" or "Gentile" has no effect on God's eternal will and plan for all mankind. To separate mankind by genetic lines is a gross distraction from God's plan for the world:

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. [John 3.16]

So powerful was the distraction of genetic distinction that the Apostle Paul fought for his life against it for most of his ministry on earth.

So, with this established, let's move on. God's will and plan for mankind is for all who believe the Gospel to inherit riches and enjoy blessings because of Christ. Only a deceiver would promote God's will and plan for mankind as anything less than this. That said, there is a subtle, eternally dangerous, "anti-plan" at work in the world today. In fact, this "anti-plan" was launched by the enemy of God and man while Jesus still walked the earth!

In John 11 we see this anti-plan negatively affecting the faith of both Martha and Mary, two of Jesus' dearest friends. In summary, this anti-plan (clearly of Satanic origin) suggested a "delay" of the inherited riches and enjoyment of blessings Jesus came to bring. Look particularly at the following exchange between Jesus and Martha after Lazarus had died:

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” [John 11.23-24]

Mary had also "bought in" on this anti-plan scheme and at that point we see exactly what Jesus thought about it:

When Jesus saw her [Mary] weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. [John 11.33]

Anger? Yes, anger because the ONLY thing that pleases God is faith (Hebrews 11.6). The emotional "in the sweet by and by" concession made by Martha, Mary and all the others there was nothing "of faith," but instead everything Satan would continue to whip back the Church with for the entirely of her future existence on earth! 

And so, from that anger, Jesus then wept. I propose that Jesus wept because it broke His heart to see the future of the Church ignoring His "now and present resurrection Truth" and instead believing Satan's anti-plan lies of delayed riches and blessings. And, for the most part, that is exactly what has happened from then until now with only a few exceptions.

Jesus brought all who believe into undeniable inherited riches and blessings for now and eternity. Satan has no power over eternity but can very much distort that truth on earth now. And, in that distortion of the truth on earth, Satan short-circuits faith on earth with the full intent of rendering faith for eternity useless. It's enough to make one cry!

If two of Jesus' nearest and dearest friends, Martha and Mary, fell victim to anti-plan theology, should we not consider our own vulnerability to the same deception? And, shouldn't we proactively launch counter-measures to prevent this? Yes, we should.

The Church today is spending entirely too much time solacing ourselves with the hope of delayed blessings. It is my belief that in so doing, our faith is being (or worse, has been) diluted to the point of uselessness. This must change!

Father, whatever faith has become in the earth today, we can say with certainty it is not what You desire it to be. Help us to get proactive in faith on purpose so that our lives genuinely reflect Jesus in all His works as He said we should. May we declare with as much confidence as Jesus said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”