Heaven Coach

God’s Existence Purpose and Plan

God’s creation of the universe, all the galaxies, everything including the earth are to God’s glory. Life is not about those creations, but about YOU. Those who think this just happened are just wrong, but more importantly in their pride in human wisdom miss out on being successful in life in the only thing that matters.

Humankind for some strange reason misses one obvious thing in relation to the existence of God. They fail to understand the power of God. Some people do envision the power of God to create and even to create from nothing. They do not understand it, but accept it might be possible. If you really want to know if God exists then you might start at a different place. To know that God exists has great value, but to get to the truth about God you need to consider the possibility that God is the God of the bible. You can only answer the question of God’s existence with certainty when you study the word of God. You may not believe that now, but if you ever come to have 100% certainty about God and your purpose in life WITH UNDERSTANDING it will come from the bible. There are certainly many people who will say they are 100% certain about God and their purpose in life, but you will find they do not understand their beliefs sufficiently to explain their conviction. Many have been indoctrinated and have confidence in what they have been taught and behind that is usually confidence in some person or persons.

Instead of looking at God’s creative ability, which is a good place to look for God, look instead at His PURPOSE for creation. After all, it is reasonable to believe God had a purpose for creation. Indeed, God reveals that purpose and the physical and living creations were just the “stage” for fulfilling His purpose. Once we understand the purpose, we can begin to understand how God intended for His purpose to be fulfilled and therein lies the essential part that a person needs to understand to be successful.

God’s Purpose For Creation

God does have a purpose for creation and that purpose turns out to be you. You are according to scripture the one eternal thing He created, being created in His image. His purpose for you was to spend eternity with Him.

2 Peter 3.9

9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Romans 8.28

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

1 Peter 1.3-5

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Jesus (as His ministry began) came preaching the kingdom of God is at hand. This sounds like the purpose of God or a part of the purpose or leading to what God has in mind for humankind. Later, we can understand that the kingdom is the Church. Jesus said, I will build My church.” Jesus is pointing towards achieving the purpose of the Father, namely to have His eternal creation reconciled to God and it will be by the very sacrifice of Himself. This is what God told Satan after the sin of Adam and Eve.
In Mark 9.1 we see some standing in front of Jesus that would be alive when the kingdom came.

Mark 9.1

1 And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”

The church is the spiritual body of Christ, it is the spiritual kingdom.

Ephesians 3.9-11

9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 
10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 
11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Indeed, the church is in God’s eternal purpose. It is not the local church, but individuals who Christ added to His church (Acts 2.47). God did arrange and specify where His people are to gather, that is TOGETHER in local independent communities under the organization directed by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of evangelism. Individuals also carry this responsibility of evangelism and that can be fulfilled working with the local church and/or independently. Christians, no matter their circumstance need to be ready to give an answer to the hope that is within them.

You can see God’s emphasis on His purpose everywhere in scripture, beginning with Adam and Eve. He gave them some rules, actually just one thing to avoid, namely eating from the tree in the center of the garden. However, when the devil came, they wanted more than the abundance provided by God and violated God’s command. To this day, people WANT WHAT THEY WANT versus what God allows. In order to test humankind, God placed laws before humankind and thus defined sin as breaking those laws. The world itself provides the temptation to participate in what God defines as sin. In fact, the vast majority of humankind rejects the God of the bible, even His existence and mock His Son and God defined sin. Regardless, if it is Adam and Eve, or a person of the 21st century there are choices to be made in relation to God’s laws. God wants you to receive the inheritance planned for humankind as we see below being predestined according to the purpose. It should be obvious from these passages and the entirety of the bible message that it is not people that are predestined for the inheritance, but that the inheritance is predestined, or we might say the plan of God is predestined. God is not a respecter of persons, but His plan has people choosing of their free will God or the world.Very specifically, it will be your acceptance or rejection that decides your eternity.

Ephesians 1.11-13

11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 
12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

Understand Exactly How God Intends To Fulfill His Purpose

As you study the scriptures you can easily see God will not spend that eternity with just anyone. There are various things that God seeks in people and the test He devised is every bit as perfect as His physical creation. Humankind was given the freedom to make choices in God’s plan and along those lines God will divide persons for success or failure. God requires people to seek him and the kind of person God wants is one who seeks Him. In this life that requires a special character and one essential characteristic is humility.

Hebrews 11.6

6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently SEEK HIM.

Paul, in speaking to the Athenians in Acts 17 explains God to them and people to this day need this information, these truths.

Acts 17.24-27

24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 
25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should SEEK THE LORD, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

You can understand a great deal about God from these verses and it will, as always be consistent with the entirety of scriptures. Seek God is the message and they are encouraged He is not far from each one of us.

1 Peter 5.5,6

5 …………… “God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time

If you look at the advice from God throughout the scriptures there are just a few principles that are time and time emphasized to satisfy God and they are:

Fear God
Obedience (this is where love is shown, If you Love Me, keep My commands)
Humility
Forgiveness of others
Worship of God (in Spirit and truth)
Love the Truth

Of course, there are other characteristics needed to live faithful like the fruits of the spirit in Galatians. God’s people are those who persevere and are courageous.

Galatians 5.22-25

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 
24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Those Who Achieve Heaven Will Be Obedient To God,
Be Devoted to God’s Will and
Then Barely Be Found Acceptable

The test is not easy and God refers to it as difficult.

Matthew 7.13,14

13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

There are also few that will take the narrow road and be successful in life, that is achieve heaven. There is another page at Heaven Coach page that discusses the few in great detail – “Will Only A Few Achieve Heaven and if so, Why”. Here, I will simply this and quickly define the few.

It would be normal for a person to think the few would include a small percentage of the entire mass of humanity. However, God disqualifies many directly and that makes the few indeed very small.
First, sin disqualifies the whole world since all have sinned. Jesus said, unless you believe I am He you will die in your sins. So, there is hope for those who believe. We learn quickly that believing is not a mental acceptance of Jesus, but obedience to the savior. You must do what is said in terms of obedience to receive forgiveness of sins. Then you must life faithful to God, putting Christ and the gospel first in your life, essentially living for Christ.

Mark 8.35,36

35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

So how many have obeyed the gospel? Not many Christians “so-called” have the obeyed the gospel. God requires even more from His children and thus the statement from 1 Peter.

1 Peter 4.17,18

17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 
18 Now, “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Now, we can better understand the few as indeed just those who obeyed the gospel and lived for Christ and not lived for themselves will be saved. Now, as far as numbers go the few consists of a small percentage of the righteous. God wants the best and His plan will result in the best as God defines the best. Again, God wants all to succeed, but will not accept less than His standard. During your very short time on earth you will make decisions that will determine your success or failure. The world provides all sorts of temptations that are sinful, all sorts of doctrines of men that support (supposedly) a “no-God” position. Even more, the world provides many religious doctrines that claim they have the authority from God. These offer no help, because they are not true.

If you accept God’s definition of FEW then you realize your life must be lived differently than you would otherwise wish – if you want to attain heaven. We might think that God would NOT save just a few, but all we know in this matter comes from God. Therefore listen to the message from God, act on it and be saved. In the days of Noah, there were many people, but the bible does not say how many. However, from the time of creation, the number of generations and the lifespan at that time there could have been many millions. It was a large number in any case and God spared just eight souls. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but few listened and only his immediate family were spared in the flood, that is eight souls. Today, some listen to the gospel message, but very few. The life that surrounds us fills our life and there is no time for God.

Genesis 6.5,6

5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

The difficulty then and now for people are God’s laws. God purposely designed His laws to differentiate people in terms of things like humility, selflessness, courage and something God refers to as a love of the truth. Many people find a convenient truth to love that does not interfere with how they want to live. Religions often consist of a series of invented convenient truths that appeal to people. The end result of building on a foundation of doctrines that are appealing is very far from what God requires and thus most fail in life.
We mentioned the flood in Noah’s time as an example of just a few, Sodom and Gomorrah would be two significant cities that were destroyed and just a few saved from that. God’s wrath was brought on the Jews in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Even before this, God allowed the captivity of the Jews on various occasions and all these and every such case is for disobedience. Some might not like God for His actions, but nonetheless He is God and to be feared because YOU will be one that will make certain decisions and God is pointing you in the right direction in the scriptures.
Indeed, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Proverbs 1.7

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

You respect, honor and love God when you take seriously every word that comes from God. You do not pick and choose, but see all of God’s message as necessary for obedience, for obtaining the “crown of life.” God’s word fits perfectly together from Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22.21. There is a single purpose for God’s creation and it is of course, YOU. Interestingly enough, it will be you that makes the decision. You will win the war or lose the war. The war is very personal, that is the battle between you and sin.

It is interesting how humankind has assumed that God will save most people, maybe because most are “good” by there definition. There is absolutely no way for anyone to know such a thing, unless it comes from God’s word. Yet, God’s word tells of the difficulty in making the right decisions and consequently the FEW that will succeed. As you can imagine, the truth is not what people want – God points to those who love the truth despite its difficulties.

2 Thessalonians 2.10-12

10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Humankind may point to people achieving heaven just by means of some percentage of people, or some good act or that some might be surprised they are in heaven. Those who go to heaven will know they have done the right things, they are in Christ and living faithfully and still will have concerns if they have done enough. There will be no Catholics, no Muslims, no Protestants or any of the other religions in heaven. Those headed for heaven have been placed in the kingdom, a spiritual kingdom and that is the church, the spiritual church by Christ. They are placed there when they obey the gospel, that is they obey the truth. Catholics, Muslims, Protestants and other religions do not obey the gospel. Life is serious business and every person needs the truth and those who love the truth can find it and if they have the courage and determination they can achieve heaven.

God’s existence, purpose and plan are all displayed before us and those who care can know and use their lives to please God. Is it difficult to live for that which is unseen when in front of us is all the world offers? Indeed, God will get the best of humankind to spend eternity with Him as God designed the PERFECT test to assure only those with certain characteristics achieve heaven. So many people never even enter the race that they might win, but go through life without any real hope of success. That does not have to be you – you can succeed if you want heaven badly enough.