If God Follows A Timed Programme … (A Theology of God and Time)

John 7:6 – Therefore Jesus told them, “MY TIME is not yet here; for you any time will do.

John 7:8 – You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because MY TIME has not yet fully come.”

A programme is a list of activities to be done in a certain sequence for a particular purpose. A timed programme means that each activity has been allocated time when it will start and end. Hints in scripture show that God seems to follow a timed programme when dealing with us.

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

God is not limited within the scope of time. God is outside the scope of time. God is the Creator of the scope of time. Therefore when God follows a timed programme, it is out of His own wish and not out of being limited and stuck to time. When the Bible tells us that In the beginning God created…. It means that God existed before the beginning. The beginning is when time as we know it begun, yet God existed before that beginning. God existed before time. In fact it is God who created time and gave it a beginning. Therefore the Creator of time cannot be limited to the time He created. Yet He chooses to follow a timed programme when dealing with us!

Isaiah 55:8 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.

Isaiah 55:9 – “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

2 Peter 3:8 – But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

God’s concept of time is totally different from ours. Where we think for example a thousand years is a long time, for Him it isn’t much time. Our concept of time is limited and relative to our expected period of existence. We generally think within a hundred years which is the possibility of our existence. God does not operate on the limited scope of only one hundred years.

Psalms 90:2 – Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING  you are God.

God operates in a time scope known as eternity. Eternity suggesting no beginning and no ending. Time has a beginning but God doesn’t have a beginning. We have a beginning and all creatures even celestial beings have a beginning, but God does not have a beginning. God has no end, but He can put anyone to an end. God can even end time. At the end of everyone and at the end of time, God will continue existing in eternity. Being eternal is one of the attributes of God!

When God communicates and interacts with us, He breaks down things in ways we can understand. God does not speak God language when talking to us. When talking to us, God speaks human language and uses our limited scope of time to explain His eternal truths and intentions. 

Joshua 10:12 – On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. ”

Joshua 10:13 – So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.

Joshua 10:14 – There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a human being. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

Isaiah 38:8 – I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

Sometimes God while dealing with us in our limited time, may reverse time or even stop time, because He has power over time. When Joshua needed time to stop so that they win a battle, Gos stopped time. When Hezekiah needed evidence of God’s intervention, God reversed time. God has proved that He is not limited by time. He can stop time and He can even reverse time. Therefore with God we cant worry about lost time or wasted time. He is the Master of time!

When God acts for us and with us, He operates in our limitations though He is not limited. He acts within our time so that we can appreciate Him and His works. That in no way makes Him a slave to our limited time, He remains above and greater than time.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:2 – He was with God in the beginning.

John 1:3 – Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John 17:5 – And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus is God the Son. He existed with God the Father in eternal past. In that eternal past existence, He was not necessarily God the Son. Terminology of Father and Son are used in God’s revelation so that we can appreciate what God did for us. Even the terminology of begotten, is used not to suggest child birth but to suggest the act of God to volunteer and be volunteered to come and die for us.

John 8:57 – “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

John 8:58 – “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

The coming of Jesus, was God who is above time, coming to limit Himself within time, so that we can appreciate Him. That is why Jesus repeatedly indicated that He had existed before the time people saw Him around. Jesus existed in the eternal past, He came to live with us and die for us in our limited time, then He returned to His eternal time. Now think of such a great God who is above time, limiting Himself to time and choosing to operate on a timed programme, isn’t that Amazing grace?

John 7:6 – Therefore Jesus told them, “MY TIME is not yet here; for you any time will do.

John 7:8 – You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because MY TIME has not yet fully come.”

Jesus tells His brothers that His time has not come. Jesus tells them, according to the programme, it’s not yet time for Him to go public. The brothers had told Jesus to go public with His teachings and ministry. Jesus responds by insinuating that He operates a timed programme.

Galatians 4:4 – But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Apostle Paul writing to the Galatians also suggests that the birth of Jesus was according to a timed schedule. Jesus was born at the exact pre-planned time. God operates a timed programme.

Jeremiah 29:10 – This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

Jeremiah tells the Israelites who are captives in Babylon, that God will save them after seventy years. God set time and created a limit as to when the Babylonians and subsequent regimes can dominate Israelites. God chose to operate within human time. In dealing with us, God follows a timed programme!

If God who doesn’t have to follow a timed programme follows one, why can’t we? Why can’t we follow a timed programme in our studies, in our work, in our plans and even in our worship? If God who has all the eternal time follows a timed programme, why can’t we whose time is every moment running out follow a timed programme?

One secret to achieve goals is to make them time bound. Stick to a timed programme and see the progress you make. Place your plans and goals within a timed programme. Follow the time and execute as God does. Success will be ours, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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