Isaiah 46:10-11 AMP – Declaring the end and the result from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure and purpose, Calling a ravenous bird from the east – the man [Cyrus] who executes My counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, and I will do it.
Proverbs 13:22 KJV – A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children…
How many times have we all heard from experts and motivators in the area of success that we need goals? Countless, I am sure. This is such a simple concept, but more difficult to put in place. The intent of Isaiah 46:10-11 is that God knew what the end was before He created the beginning. Because He knew the goal, He could then begin and create the plan that would lead successfully to the end. THIS IS ESTATE PLANNING! It is that simple.
For practical purposes, this means that good Estate Planning will at least include the answers to this question in some form: What are your goals, not only through your life, but what are your wishes even further down the road? Proverbs 13:22 says that a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children – his grandchildren. I could write an article just about this verse in Proverbs 13, but for now, the point I am making is that good planning means that you will incorporate your goals about the end, the end far far down the line. Proverbs 13:22 emphasized that by adding successive generations to the planning. We are not just planning for ourselves or even our children, but we are even supposed to think about the future generations. That is the kind of thinking that God has called us to pursue. We are called to think and plan big. We have the ability to bless successive generations by our planning now!
Once we can think on a much grander scale, we have incorporated the intent of God for our lives. We can then know the end result we would like and then work backwards to the present. This will help us to put in place a plan to accomplish these goals. God did that type of planning. Isaiah 46:10-11 tells us that He put in place this type of planning. I particularly like the end of verse 10 that says “and I will do all My pleasure and purpose.” This is really exciting because it means that I can accomplish all my needs, but I can even accomplish my pleasures. These are just the goals that make me happy.
Isaiah 46:11 goes on to say, “Yes, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, and I will do it.” This is the follow through. This is what allows the goals to be reached. The Bible teaches it clearly in this verse that if we have a clear goal, we then have overwhelmingly increased our ability to reach that goal. We hear this same advice from motivational speakers EVERY DAY. But, this is a truth found in the Bible. It is also very much a common sense concept.
We absolutely need to set goals. Once we do this, we will be able to create a plan of action, an Estate Plan, to help us memorialize that plan. Our goals may change over time, but we can amend those. If we don’t ever memorialize our goals with Estate Planning, we are not likely to go very far. The results will most likely be disappointing and the path to the results will be unclear. Instead, we should have clear, understandable goals that break through the box of traditional thinking. We should be putting those in place through Estate Planning. We should be excited about this because it will help us truly accomplish not only our needs, but the things that give us pleasure as well. BASED ON FAITH.