Today I want to start dealing with a faulty paradigm that has caused an awful amount of damage in the lives of Christians and unbelievers alike. It is commonly referred to as the "sovereignty of God". Now, before you stop reading and write me off as a heretic, let me state right at the start: I firmly believe in the sovereignty of God. The Bible teaches it and I believe it with all my heart. He is the highest authority in the universe, all things are subject to him and He reigns! There is no doubt about that. And yet, my understanding of the sovereignty of God has dramatically changed within the last two years, which has brought great liberation into my life and has caused my love for God and trust in him to soar to much higher levels then before. It all depends on how we define the word sovereignty.
Dictionary definition of sovereignty
The dictionary defines the word sovereignty as follows: a). supreme power especially over a political body, b) freedom from external control: autonomy and c) controlling influence. The bible teaches that God is sovereign in this sense. He is the supreme power over the universe. Everything is subject to him. And he is free from external control. Nobody tells God what to do. He is independent and autonomous. And he has potential controlling influence over everything that exists. In the bible God is very often referred to as a king. A very good and wise king who runs a kingdom. As King he is the highest authority over all his subordinates. I agree with this kind of sovereignty.
Faulty understanding of sovereignty
Unfortunately, in the minds of many Christians the word sovereignty has taken on the meaning of absolute control. Many Christians believe that nothing happens, unless God either actively wills it, or passively allows it. This is taught in many churches. After all, he is God. So he can do whatever he likes, and he can stop whatever he likes. This is not true and this is not biblical. If you think that, you will end up believing in a God who is ultimately responsible for all kinds of atrocities, murder, violence, rape, torture and the like, because he allowed it. It is very difficult to completely trust and fully love such a God. But God is not like that. He does not control everything and he does not allow everything! He has limited himself by his word. Psalm 138:2 "for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name". He has organised the universe according to certain laws that he set in motion by his word, and he himself never breaks his own word. That's why bad things happen in our world, things that God never intended to happen, things that break his heart, and yet he can't stop them just like that, because he has limited himself by his word. The only way he could stop them would be by total judgment - by calling it quits and stopping the whole course of history. One day he is going to do that. But until that day, we, other people and Satan have freedom to go against God's will, and he won't stop us or intervene in most cases.
God is ONLY good
Only good things come from God: James 1,16-17 "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Four factors that are potentially involved in everything that happens
So instead of believing that God controls everything, the biblical truth is that everything that happens here on earth is determined by at least 4 factors:
1. You and I as an individual have been given free will by God. We can choose our actions and thoughts. That makes us responsible creatures that will be judged for our choices and actions.
2. Other people with their freedom of choice influence us or intervene in our lives. They have been given freedom of choice as well.
3. God with his good will, wanting to bless us and pour goodness into our lives. He does not do it without our consent and cooperation. He has limited himself and he respects our choices.
4. Satan with his intention to kill, steal and destroy all goodness (John 10:10). He wants to destroy our lives but his power is limited as well. He gains access to our lives through lies and deception. He needs our cooperation as well to be able to come in and destroy our lives.
We play a much more active role than most people think
This means that we play a much more active role than most of us like to admit. God does not just do what ever he pleases. He has given us freedom to choose and also authority and responsibility. As we recognize this authority and learn to cooperate with God, our lives get increasingly free from Satan's deceptions and bondage and we learn how to live in the victory that Christ has won for us. That is an awesome truth.
Resisting the devil
Understanding this will also enable us to resist the bad things that Satan tries to bring into our lives instead of attributing them to God and thinking that God wants to teach us something through them. Sickness, poverty, depression, defeat, discouragement... all this is not from God. He didn't want it for our lives and he didn't allow it. He wants to set you and me free from all that junk and give us an abundant, free and joyful life! But we need to learn to cooperate with him. And then we become his agents for liberating other people and bringing his goodness into the life of others.
Becoming like Jesus
We will be like Jesus. Acts 10:38 "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."
Will you believe it?
Maybe this leaves a lot of questions for some of you unanswered. This post is far too short to be able to exhaustively deal with this subject. But if you study the bible with an open heart you will see that this is exactly what God's word teaches. We are in a war. God is good and the devil is bad. We are in between. We can choose to cooperate with God, resist the devil and he will flee from us. (James 4:7). We are called to bring the kingdom of God into the fallen world that we live in, in the authority of Jesus Christ. You are an "ambassador for Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:20) if you are born again. You have the power inside of you that raised Jesus from the dead. (Ephesians 1:20). But this does not happen automatically. It has to be activated by faith.
Until next week. And be encouraged everybody. God has ONLY good things for you. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you. He wants your life to be absolutely awesome! Will you believe it?
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