Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Here we go again, repeating good thoughts with the intention of discovering just how this plan  is activated in our personal lives. Is God speaking to us?

Jeremiah 29:8

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,

Jeremiah’s letter was sent to those who were in exile. 

Jeremiah 29:4

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

If you have accepted Christ by faith you are no longer in exile.

• 2 Timothy 1:1
  Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus,
• Hebrews 8:6
  But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Before God declared a better future and a hope to the exiles, He warned them of the liars in their midst.

We are that better promise, we are that future and we are that plan enacted by faith in the works of Christ in HIs death, resurrection and ascension. We are not in exile.

The warning remains intact. There are still liars out there.

Matthew 24:11

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If we consider that being with God the Father in eternity is the end of the path we are on, then how we come to that eventual end is dependent on coming through Christ.

It begins with Jesus and believjng by faith that Jesus is the Way. 

Matthew 4:19

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus called His disciples with purpose. Here in this simple comment is a hint to the path we are to walk. Jesus makes us what He needs us to be to serve a purpose. As with His disciples, He gets to tell each of us what He is calling us to do.

From the moment we are born again in the spirit we began this journey of discovery in who we are in Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 English Standard Version

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

As newborns in Christ we wonder how we are to be empowered by the spirit.

Since Jesus is the way, do we do it like Jesus did it?

John 5:19

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.