Even after God said that the entire generation was to die, even though He knew they wouldn’t be obedient to Him, He reiterates His intention to bring His people into the Land. He doesn’t say, “If you come into the land . . .” He says, “When you come into the land . . .” And to the nineteen-year-olds, sixteen-year-olds, and eight-year-olds hearing this, it would be just as God declared, for although His people could delay His blessings, they could not destroy His purpose.

So too, I can delay God’s blessings in my life for forty minutes or forty hours, forty days, forty weeks, or even forty years. But I cannot delay His purpose . . .

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on earth; even in him. - Ephesians 1:9–10

God’s ultimate plan is that in the fullness of time, everything and everyone will be brought into unity in Christ, intimacy with Christ, and conformity to Christ. That is where life is going. Therefore, because God created everything to be brought together in Christ, focused on Christ, united by Christ, the degree to which I do that today will be the degree to which I will move in the same direction as all of creation. Conversely, the degree to which I do anything other than that is the degree to which I’ll go against the flow of that which God has predetermined for all of creation.

It’s so wonderful to relax in an inner tube in the center of the river. As you cruise along in the sun, it’s refreshing and wonderful with some thrills along the way. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to go upstream against the flow, it’s miserable. You get tired and go nowhere.

Gang, go with the flow of what God determined all of history to do. Be one with Christ; focus on Christ; live for Christ.