Background
Jeremiah 23:18
For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard His word? Who hath marked His word and heard it?
Psalm 33:11
The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.
The counsel or the will of God is indeed one that standeth sure, yet not every individual is able to fulfill it. Better still, many are not even aware nor set their hearts to seek what the Lord wants to do with their lives. Where are you in life, are you where the Lord wants you to be? Are you aware a generation depends on you to take on the role?…let’s dive into the Word
Counsel by definition means advice given, it is derived from careful consideration of all factors including the pro’s and cons. Paul in Acts 20:27 said, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God, referring to the very thoughts of God concerning His people. Paul in this chapter refers to persons who were made overseers to feed the church of God, that their duty was to carefully tend to these ones with the very thoughts of God. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord said for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. The will of God is that counsel, that thought which the Lord has for us, which is weighed out, observed and determined to be the right way we should go. So then the will of God for our lives is a lifestyle, since it is the very thought of God, when we journey with Him and begin to allow Him to intervene and surrender our lives to Him, His thoughts ,run through and in His light do we see and live.
The way then to understand the will of God is to abide in Him, in John 15 we understand that He is the vine and we are the branches when we abide in Him and He in us, we can bear much fruit. When we abide in Him this means we hear Him and we are able to obey, so then we find ourselves walking in alignment. Our thought patterns are in alignment, and so is our heart, so then what we ask of Him is what He does because we walk in the thoughts that are rightly established and in line with the assignment He desires to accomplish. So then from the first scripture of study, we can understand that this is the man who stands in the counsel of God, one who has perceived and heard His word, marked it, and heard it.
The second is this, the counsel of God, does not change as the Psalmist says, it stands forever and the thoughts of His heart extend to all generations. Not all men can or have the willingness to understand and to dwell in the place to hear what God has assigned to them for their generation. When no one rises to the occasion, this is consequential to a generation. In Isaiah 6:8 the Lord sought a man to make known His thoughts for a people, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Isaiah stood up to the task and said here I am send me. From generation to generation, the Lord sought to save the world from sin, Jesus took it upon himself to bear this cup, and today, you and I have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. The Lord calls still in this day and age, whom shall I send and who will go? Will you rise to the occasion, are you the one this generation needs perhaps?
