“Not everything that comes at us is God’s will. One of the biggest areas of confusion we have within the church is concerning the sovereignty of God. We know that God is all-powerful. We know that he is in charge of everything. But with that, we make a mistake of thinking that he is in control of everything. There’s a difference between being in charge and being in control. If you believe that he is control of everything, than you have to believe that Hitler was within his will, that he was going to work it for his purposes. Why would God raise something up to be his will that he would empower you to pray against? You’ve got a split personality: the Father working against the Son and the Son working against the Father. You have to understand that God has created a system where humanity gets to live through partnership we get to demonstrate and manifest his dominion throughout the Earth. He comes at our invitation because he has released the dominion to us. That’s why prayer is so essential. Many of the great saints throughout history believed that God’s hands are handcuffed, but released through prayer; it is released into the situation through the delegation of partnered authority on planet Earth giving him permission to come. Now, he may be God of everything, he may be ruler of everything, but when he steps onto the stage, the show’s over. Whenever the author steps onto the stage, the show is over. So if you want him to step on the stage, the moment he does, you must realise it is over and everybody’s choice ends where it is. So if you believe that God is in control of everything, then you have to look at crisis and tradgedy and whether he allowed it for a purpose. No, he didn’t allow it for a purpose, he put us in a realm where our authority and our Will has an effect on the world around us. It doesn’t mean that we walk in guilt and shame for tradgedy, but we take responsibility for our ownership over the earth. The question I ask people very often is ‘How many storms did Jesus bless?’ How many life-threatening storms did he redirect and say ‘Go and destroy that city, it will humble them and teach them to pray so they become more like me.’? That’s the church’s response to crisis. It may be our ‘ace in the hole’, our trump card, that he can use anything for good, but it doesn’t change our purpose. So, if the Lord approves everything, then it’s hard to believe for Him to change it. There’s an idea that God creates a problem so that he can fix it and show how strong he is. But that’s wrong. God is not an egomaniac Let’s take a careful look at this. First of all based on the aforementioned passages that detail the range and extent of God’s sovereignty, and what God is specifically sovereign over, it is completely false to suggest that God is “in charge” but not “in control”. Such a notion suggests that God is not the all-sovereign Lord, but is nothing more than a disposed ruler without any real authority. But as we see from passages like Psalm 104, the very nature of creation is not just designed by God, it is also sustained by him. If God were “in charge” but not “in control”, the universe as we know it would fall apart into pandemonium. What about the charge that “If you believe that he is control of everything, than you have to believe that Hitler was within his will, that he was going to work it for his purposes”? Scripture is clear that God ordains, allows and uses the sinful actions of the wicked for the “greater good”: 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 16:50:13 +0000
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