What does Ephesians 1:11 mean when it says God works all things after the counsel of His will?
It means God has predetermined everything. The counsel of His will is His settled, determinate purpose, which Acts 2:23 calls the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Counsel here is a meeting of minds—plural—the Trinity's determinate meeting of minds.
Les explains that Ephesians 1:11 follows the believer's position as a joint heir with Christ, who never dies, so believers remain joint heirs forever. The verse says the inheritance is predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will. Les says this means God has predetermined everything. To show the same idea, he turns to Acts 2:23, where Jesus of Nazareth was delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. He notes that “counsel” is the same word in both places and asks what a counsel is: a meeting of the minds, plural. The determinate meeting of minds, Les concludes, was the Trinity. Thus God's working all things after the counsel of His will refers to His own settled, predetermined purpose, the determinate counsel of the Trinity.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: