Strategic, advanced planning is essential to the success of any organization.
Because God knows the end of a matter from its beginning (Isaiah 46:10), it can be truthfully affirmed that the good works in which a child of God is to be engaged were prepared by God beforehand. Therefore, it is written: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
A failure to understand this truth leads to several fatally flawed conclusions about the church.
Because of God’s advanced planning and preparations, there is no need for the church to decide how it ought to conduct itself in this wicked world. The revelation of God’s advanced planning on this matter has been given and is written in God’s word (1 Timothy 3:15).
Because of God’s advanced planning and preparations, there is no need for the church to decide what its message to a lost and dying world ought to be. The revelation of God’s advanced planning on this matter—i.e., the keys of the kingdom—were bound and loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:18-19) long before Peter used them in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection (cf. Acts 2:36-38).
Because of God’s advanced planning and preparations, the church has no role in determining what acts of worship it ought to have. The revelation of God’s advanced planning on acceptable worship—which must be done in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)—is found in God’s word (John 17:17). God alone has all authority in this matter.
A vast amount of the moral and spiritual pollution generated by ungodly living, perversions of the gospel, and vain worship would be eliminated if the revelation of God’s strategic, advanced planning was acknowledged, investigated, and implemented.
All spiritual success comes from learning and walking in those good things God prepared beforehand and has now revealed to us in the New Testament.
