Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

I was reading the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. You can read the full parable in Matthew 16: 19-31. There, a rich man who feasted each day did not share even scraps with a poor man called Lazarus who was hungry. They eventually both died, and the poor man went to heaven and the rich man to Hades (hell).  There, the rich man was in agony and asked Abraham in heaven to relieve him, but Abraham said there was a great chasm between the two places so it was not possible. Then the rich man pleaded to Abraham to at least send Lazarus to the rich man's father's house to warn his five brothers so that they would not wind up in hell. Let's examine what happens next: Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Matthew...

A major question for most Christians is "How do I know if I'm doing God's plan under the protection of God, or going against His plan and protection?" In all times, but especially in Covid times, this is a question many people grapple with.  There are many examples in the Bible where God has made a plan and revealed it to a person or group of people, who can choose to either go with God's plan or not.  Going with God's plan offers His divine protection during the plan. By contrast, going one's own way does not offer this divine protection, because no protection is needed since the person isn't participating in the plan. Being unprotected does not necessarily mean the person will drop dead there and then, but it means they will be much more susceptible to attacks from Satan. One example of both aspects of this situation is when the Israelites went out of Egypt. The Israelites spied out the land which God had made it clear that it was his will to be thei...