Transcript: Catalina Friesen says, “Hi Mike, thank you so much for your ministry,” and you’re very ultimately hugely welcome. “How do I know if I’m living in the will of God for my life? Do wrong choices mean we have messed up God’s plan and we’re now living Plan B?” Man, Catalina, I was really worried about this when I was younger—truly worried that I would make some big decisions, some fork-in-the-road kind of choices in my life, and then it would take me off of God’s Plan A, which I imagined as this really glorifying God hugely in my life, God using me in powerful and beautiful ways, and then be on Plan B where I kind of end up on the shelf.

I don’t know where I got that idea, but it’s not biblical. Let me give you some examples. Paul the Apostle—if there was a Plan A for Paul’s life, it probably didn’t include him murdering Christians. Peter—if there was a Plan A, it probably involved him getting the teachings of Jesus more readily, understanding them better, and not denying Christ when Jesus was on the cross. Look at these guys. Look at Jacob, Israel—the guy’s life is kind of a mess, and God still uses him, and God still works in his life. I’m just going to say this, Catalina, and this might sound like backwards encouragement to you, but here’s what encouraged me.

When I looked soberly at my life, I realized I was being kind of arrogant. I was acting like I had made all these right choices up until then, and I was on Plan A, and that if I made a bad choice, I then would be on some lower plan. And as I looked honestly and soberly at my life, I was like, “Goodness gracious, all the laziness and sin that I’ve involved in my life, I’m not on—if there’s a Plan A, I ditched that a long time ago.” I just don’t think that’s how God works in us. I think God has a plan that includes all the choices we make, and there are many, many, many opportunities to serve God in your life. Even if you go through seasons of drought, seasons where things seem hard, oftentimes that’s part of the plan, that’s part of the agenda that God has. We won’t really see the fruit of our lives for many, many, many years.

I don’t see any of this Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. If there is such a thing, I’m already personally on Plan Z-55, and you could be there with me. The point is to serve God to the most of your ability now. My fear—if we believe this kind of attitude that there’s this Plan A, Plan B—my fear is that we then discount the opportunities we have to serve God because we think, “I guess it’s over, so what’s the point now?” Whether you’ve backslidden and committed all kinds of heinous sin, whether you’ve been divorced seven times, whatever it is—serve God now. Serve God now.

Look at Israel. Oh man, Israel is such a great example for you in this and for me, for all of us, is that they mess up so much, and yet what does God do? He keeps redeeming them. Read the Book of Judges—just again and again and again, they fail and fail and backslide and go back to wicked things, and God then brings them back and brings them back. Finally, we have them rejecting the Messiah—like corporately, so to speak, they reject the Messiah. Yet in Romans, we have these promises of a revival happening in Israel. God’s still going to bring them back, God’s still going to bless them and do great things.

So, if anything, the biblical teaching is: Serve God now, no matter what has happened in the past, and rejoice that He can use even the brokenness of our past for glorious things. I think that God used Paul’s previous experience persecuting the church. He used that for good in Paul’s experience serving the church—even just absolutely beautiful. I’m Pastor Mike Winger, and I do this live every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, taking your questions in the YouTube live chat. I also do Bible studies on Mondays at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, doing a lot of theology and apologetics content mixed in with verse-by-verse teaching. So, if you’re interested, you might want to subscribe or check out my videos.

See original video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bIYND1XedY