The Goodness of God (Chapter Fourteen)

Chapter Fourteen

Error Twelve: Whatever Happens In My Life Is God's Will For Me

We have been showing you the goodness of God by teaching the truth concerning certain errors that are prevalent in many Christian circles. These errors have made the God's goodness of no effect in the lives of many Christians. They have destroyed faith and have kept God's people from appropriating the blessings He has stored up for them.

In this lesson, we will look at one more error. The errors I have covered are probably not the only ones, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

The last error we will deal with is the fact that many people truly believe whatever happens in their life, whether it is negative or positive, is actually the will of God for them. Most of the time it is NEGATIVE things that happen to people such as accidents, failures, sickness, death, etc. that people claim to be God's will.

They blame this on the SOVEREIGNTY of God. When we speak of the sovereignty of God we are speaking of His absolute rulership. He is the all powerful God and He rules and reigns the universe. This is all true and I believe in it whole heartedly. In fact, I am glad about it. I am glad Satan is not the sovereign of the universe.

Some have taken this to mean that whatever happens in their lives God ordained it because nothing can happen unless He ordains it. Even if it can be proven that it was Satan then they will say, "Satan cannot do anything without God's permission." So people have it set in their minds that whatever happens to them is God's will and that there is nothing that they can do about it.

It is true that we cannot prevent some things from happening, however, it is equally true that there are many things that we can prevent and most things can be changed. Though God is sovereign, He has given man the power of CHOICE. You and I can choose to have God's intervention in our life and we can choose not to have it.

There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that we MUST accept everything that comes our way. On the contrary, the Bible tells us that we can make changes and how we may go about doing it.

Prayer Changes Things

Many people will not pray because they feel that whatever has happened to them was God's doing and therefore it would be selfish to ask Him to remove it. If they do pray they ask God to "let His will be done" thinking that this is His will.

The story of Hezekiah paints for us a completely different picture. God let King Hezekiah know that his days were numbered:

"In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live." (Isa. 38:1)

This was a word directly from the Lord. He told Hezekiah exactly what was going to happen to him. Most people hear this and they accept the verdict. They say, "It's the will of God." Yet, Hezekiah was not going to accept this saying as the final verdict, even if this did come from the prophet of God.

"Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord. And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore." (Isa. 38:2-3)

Hezekiah knew something about the mercy of God. He knew that God would not reward his good service with evil. Hezekiah made an attempt to change what would seem like to most people is God's will and final verdict on the situation.

If a person receives a word from the Lord such as the one Hezekiah received, they would think it to be presumption to ask God to change it. "Well, I guess it's my appointed time to go" they will say. Yet, Hezekiah looked at things from a different perspective. He saw an opportunity to receive GRACE. The best part is - he got it:

"Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I HAVE HEARD THY PRAYER, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” (Isa. 38:4-5)

God HEARD Hezekiah's prayer. God only hears and answer prayer that is prayed in accordance with His will:

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petitions that we have desired of him." (1 John 5:14-15)

If it had truly been God's will for Hezekiah to die, all of the praying and crying in the world could not have changed that. Obviously, it was not God's will for Hezekiah to die. It was His will for Him to live. Yet, regardless of this, Hezekiah would have died if he had not done one simple thing - PRAY!

Many times God will tell us things that are about to come to pass in our lives. He warns us of these things to give us time to prepare and do something about them. God told Hezekiah what was going to happen so that Hezekiah could have knowledge. Then Hezekiah could ASK for God's intervention and God could change the situation. You do not receive from God unless you first ask (Matt. 7:7-11; James 4:2).

Many people are getting sick and dying apart from God's will and yet there is nothing God can do about it. It is by an act of their own will that they have accepted the verdict.

God will provide us information concerning His will but He will not force us to accept it. He will only do for us what WE allow Him to do in our lives. He is too much of a gentleman to force anything on us.

This is why interceding and witnessing to the lost is so important. It is the will of God for every lost soul to receive salvation (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9). Yet, people are dying and going to hell every day. Why is this? It is due to a lack of intercession and witnessing.

Many Christians who sit around waiting for God to do something will have some unpleasant surprises when they go before the judgement seat of Christ. They will find that they could and should have done something about their situation and situation of others by simply praying and spreading the Word.

Faith Changes Things

Let's look at a familiar incident in the life of Jesus:

"And a certain woman with an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse." (Mark 5:25-26)

This woman had spent all her money on doctors and she only got WORSE. Now most people would have given up. They would have figured, "Well, I've done all that I could do. I guess it's not God's will for me to be healed."

Yet this woman refused to accept such a verdict. Instead, when she had HEARD of Jesus she went and touched His garment. The power of God flowed out of Him and into her and she was completely healed. Although the crowd following Jesus was pressing Him He recognized that someone had touched Him in faith. He called her over and made this statement to her:

"And he said unto her, THY FAITH hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." (Mark 5:34)

The power of God was available to everyone that was near Jesus. Yet only one touched Him in faith and it was the woman. Yet, the Jesus did not say that it was the power that made her whole. He said that it was her FAITH that did it. Faith is the switch that turns on the power of God.

The woman could have accepted her failures as the will of God for her life. She could have said like most, "Whatever will be will be because it's God's will for me." Yet she did not. She acted on her faith and changed her situation.

Faith comes from hearing God's Word (Rom. 10:17). God's Word reveals His will. This woman heard something, made her confession in accordance with it (Mark 5:28), and then she acted on it. It changed her life. However, even though it was God's will to heal her, she would not have received her health had she not acted in faith.

Most people allow things to happen in their lives because they do not TRULY know the will of God. Faith goes no further than the revealed will of God. Acting on faith can change your situation. Study God's promises and find out His will for you.

Exercising Our Authority Changes Things

In Matthew 28:18, Jesus reveals Himself as the sovereign One of both heaven and earth:

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth."

Jesus reigns and not Satan, praise the Lord! So why is it that Satan can seem to have his way in our lives anytime he desires. Is it because God gave him permission? No, it's because WE gave him permission.

Although Jesus has ALL of the authority, He delegated it to us, the church (Luke 10:17-20). He expects the church to rule and reign with Him NOW and not just during the millennium (Rom. 5:17; Eph. 1:16-23; 2:1-6). God tells YOU to do something about the devil:

"Submit yourselves therfore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

Too many people are praying and asking God to do something about the devil. When He does not then they assume that He is using the devil to try them as they ASSUME He did with Job. We have already seen in a previous lesson that God does not use evil to accomplish His purposes. Satan is the persona of evil so therefore God does not use him.

Jesus has delegated His authority to you and expects you to use it. The devil will have a wonderful time with you until you make up your mind that YOU will do something about him and stop waiting for God to do it. Jesus taught us how to use this authority:

"For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith." (Mark 11:23)

I have no problems believing that Jesus was speaking of a physical mountain. If it becomes necessary for us to move one we have the authority to do it. However, Jesus was also using an illustration of the problems and obstacles that we face. They can become "mountains" to us.

Christians are constantly asking and begging God to move obstacles that are in their way. When these obstacles are not moved then they assume that it's the will of God for them to be there.

Yet God told YOU to speak to the mountain. He has delegated the authority to you. It's up to you to exercise that authority in dealing with Satan and the attacks he brings your way. Satan's greatest trick is to make you assume that what he is doing is the will of God for you.

Do not receive it. Rebuke him. Command the circumstances and problems to leave in the Name of Jesus and God will back you.

Let's look at one more example in this area. In Mark 4:35-41, Jesus told His disciples to pass on to the other side. So they got in a ship. Jesus got on the ship, grabbed himself a pillow, and went to sleep. All of a sudden, a storm arose and was beating on the ship. The scared disciples woke up the resting Jesus and said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Jesus awoke and dealt with the situation:

"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" (Mark 4:39-40)

Jesus did not get up and say, "God is in control. He will take care of this problem." No, Jesus dealt with the problem. If the storms were God's will then Jesus was fighting against the will of God, and we know that He would never do that.

It amazes me that people will claim that God put sickness on them and yet, they will go to the doctors to fight against what they believe is the will of God for their lives. That is dumb. The truth is that they really don't believe that. They only heard it in church.

Like Jesus, we must deal with the storms that come into our lives. We must not accept them as the will of God but we must deal with them. Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. He expected THEM to deal with the situation. Instead, they became afraid and called out to Him. They were like a lot of us today, we scream and ask God to do something when He has already made the means necessary for us to deal with the problems.

Learn to exercise your delegated authority and CHANGE the situations. Do not accept negative circumstances as God's will for your life.

Repentance Changes Things

God usually gets the blame for everything good and bad. Every so often the devil might get blamed for something. However, many negative things that come into our lives are a result of our own doing:

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal. 6:7)

Because of the law of sowing and reaping, we are responsible for the good or the evil that comes into our lives. It is not the will of God for us to receive evil. But because of this law we will reap it if we sow it.

Yet, God has made a provision for this. If we repent of the evil that we have done then we can change the situation. An example of this is found in James:

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed." (James 5:14-16a)

When we sin, it can cause problems in our health, finances, relationships, and many other areas. It is not the will of God that we sin, therefore, neither is it His desire that we reap the results of our sins.

However, if we are experiencing difficulty in any area, we need to confess and forsake that sin. God promises that when we do this we will have mercy (Prov. 28:13). When the prodigal son returned to his father, everything was restored to him (Luke 15:11-32). Our heavenly Father will do the same when we repent.

If we have sinned and gotten out of the will of God then we must repent. Repentance automatically puts us back into God's will. When we are back in His will we receive the results of being in His will.

If you are in sin, don't just accept your situation. Repent to God and any other person that you have to and by doing this you can change your situation.

E-mail: victoryword@yahoo.com

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