All Bible-believing Christians believe that God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and that he’s omniscient (knows everything); that he rules over all things. Given that, here’s the question — how does he rule over all things? If he rules over all things, and bad things happen, did he make the bad thing happen?

Some people would say he did; that it’s part of his plan, and that every bad thing happens because God has allowed it for a purpose. Pastor Joe speaks to the “church of passivity” this mindset has created and how we are called to be warriors. The only thing God has “allowed” and ordained as it relates to trials is for us to have dominion in the midst of them.

Listen to the episode here.

Additional Resources

The Sovereignty of God – Full Series Audio

Full Transcript

Back in June, I had the privilege of teaching a little retreat for some of the folks from St. Luke’s. Our subject was divine healing. We had a real nice weekend. And during the course of that weekend, I sort of stumbled into talking about some issues that relate to how God runs the universe, which of course we all understand. And as John and I were talking about doing these meetings, one of the things that came up was that there was some interest in things we touched on. And so the first few weeks, I want to touch on some of these issues regarding the sovereignty of God, and the believers authority. Because we are in a process… John mentioned the idea of renewal. And somebody asked me if that was referring to like the Toronto Blessing kind of renewal. Well, I’m into that. But that wasn’t exactly what we were talking about.

Because revival means the church is going from one place to another place. And there’s a renewal that takes place. How many know that the charismatic movement that began in the 60’s, renewed the church? The Spirit of God came in a fresh way, but also our thinking changed. You see, it affected the way we understand God’s working in his people. And every time God moves, it affects the way we understand God’s working in and among his people. And usually, new things come and there’s a reaction against them.

Have you noticed that? Did you ever have anybody get upset when they found out that you spoke in tongues? Or that you believed in healing, or the gifts of the Spirit? People react sometimes, to these things, because they’re out of their comfort zone, and they’re out of their understanding of what God is doing. And so as God begins to move forward, to bring the church to maturity, He’s restoring things to the church, things that have been lost. There aren’t any new truths, but there are lost truths. We’re not looking outside of the book to find something new. But what we find when we look in the book is that there’s lots of things that the book talks about, that we don’t see in the church.

So we want to find out how we can align ourselves with God, so that his Spirit can do in our midst, everything that it talks about in the book, amen. Well, one of the one of the issues that comes up and when you begin to talk about divine healing, you begin to talk about the miraculous, you begin to talk about answered prayer, we come up. As I began to teach the Bible and eventually begin to pastor and deal with people, I found that certain issues keep reoccurring. They keep coming up, and you begin to realize that there are ways of thinking we embrace, right or wrong, that are controlling the way we view the world. More recently, people have referred to this as a worldview.

Having a biblical worldview is an important thing wouldn’t you think? As opposed to a Greek worldview, or a communist worldview or a some other kind of worldview, you want to have a biblical worldview, right. Okay. Now the question is, does the church have one? Do we have a biblical worldview? Or do we have a traditional religious worldview? This is what I want to talk about a little bit here for a few weeks, because everybody’s a theologian. Did you know that? Everybody’s a philosopher, did you know that? You just might not be a good theologian or a good philosopher, but you are one because how many have ever seen the bumper sticker that says, He who dies with the most toys wins? That’s a philosophy statement. That’s a worldview. Now, it’s kind of watered down. But basically, if you analyze that, it’s a materialist, a secular humanist worldview, an atheistic worldview. Nothing after this life gets who has the most toys wins, you see, but it’s a statement of philosophy.

So my point is, we all do philosophy, we all do theology. The question is, are we doing it right? Because it really governs the way we walk with God. And when it comes to healing, or answered prayer, we have certain assumptions that we operate in. Let me give you an illustration. I prayed, nothing happened, it must not have been God’s will. Now, there’s an assumption there, that if I prayed, and nothing happened, then God made a decision about my prayer, and acted accordingly, or didn’t act accordingly. There’s an assumption there, that God in his infinite wisdom, is making all the choices and decisions about what happens in the earth. Right?

Now, some of you are getting nervous. Where is he going with this? And why do I want to know about this? What value is this anyway? Well, it’s really valuable because you pray. And you look at the promises of God, and you claim the promises of God. And then you either see something change, or you don’t. In my early days, I rejected Christianity and became a hippie, and studied philosophy and Eastern mysticism, and all this crazy stuff. Because I couldn’t relate to the religious system that I grew up in. And I was trying to understand things. Now of course, the thing about philosophy is that you always want to find one that accommodates your sin. So I decided not to believe in a personal God. It was far more convenient. You’d have to answer to a personal God. But you know, a kind of impersonal force is kind of nice, because you never have to answer to them. But eventually, this impersonal force, became a person and confronted me and got me saved. And I was glad about that.

But the thing that I struggled with was a lack of answers to my questions about how God was doing things. It was God was so mysterious, that I couldn’t know Him. And God was so awesome that I couldn’t understand him. At least he was presented to me in that way. Now, here’s the thing. God is so awesome, that we can’t fully understand God we cannot fully comprehend God. One great biblical philosopher made the statement that there’s no way we can fully comprehend God, yet we can have accurate knowledge about God. The knowledge that we do have of God can be right. It can’t be comprehensive. But it can be right. We can really know about God.

We sang some songs tonight, and I always really tune into lyrics to the songs we sing. Because being a Bible teacher, it’s just my way. I analyze everything that I listen to. How does it portray our father? How does it portray the Lord? What does it tell me about him? What is it? What kind of a picture does it portray of who he is? Because one of the great ways that we are either fed truths or unbelief is through what we sing. And we’ve sang a lot of things that have helped us stay pickled in unbelief over the years, and it’s wonderful to be in a day when so many wonderful songs are coming fresh from the Spirit of God that inspire us to expect great things from God, and to expect our great God to reveal Himself to us. I mean, it’s wonderful how good the songs are today.

But But I said all that because you assume things about the way God runs the universe without thinking about it. And I want to probe our thoughts about God to find out if they fit the scriptures, or if they just fit human tradition. Okay? Now, all Christians, Bible believing Christians believe that God is omnipotent, that he has all power, believe that he’s omniscient, that he knows everything. And we believe He rules over all things. Right? Do you believe God rules over everything? I mean, he’s, the buck stops with him, don’t you think? That’s it, right? Here’s the question, how does he rule over all things? How does he rule over all things? Because we know He rules over all things, ultimately. But now let’s let’s ask this question. If He rules over all things, and bad things happen. Did he make the bad thing happen? Some people would say he did. Some people would say it’s all part of his plan. Every bad thing that happens, happens because God has allowed it for a purpose.

How many of you, I want to see all your hands on this, how many of you ever sin? Thank you brave souls that put your hands right up. I’m glad to be among you. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Now, how many of you believe that God is powerful enough to stop you from sinning if he chose to? But how many notice that he didn’t stop you? So an omniscient, all knowing God knew that you would sin. An all powerful God who could have stopped you if he wanted to didn’t stop you. He allowed you to do evil, and we know evil’s, not his will. Is that right? So there’s evil in the universe, that beings are choosing to do, contrary to the nature and will of God, and yet they happen. And yet God is in control. We believe he’s ultimately sovereign, he ultimately controls all things. And yet we can do evil and he won’t stop us.

Well, I wonder if Satan or fallen angels or demons, spirits can do evil and not be stopped? Do you think they can? Do you think they have the freedom you have?
Can they do evil? Are they allowed to do it? Okay, now I’m trying to get you to think on this, because if that’s all true, and there are billions of us humans, and we don’t know how many angels or demons spirits there are, and we’re all choosing to do what we choose to do and God isn’t stopping us, do you think that could affect the world we live in? Right now, if all of those human and supernatural beings are freely choosing to do evil, could there be any snowball effect to that evil? Could be an evil world right? All right.

Now we believe God is ultimately sovereign, is going to make it all work together to accomplish his purpose, don’t we? I mean, if we believe the Bible we do. We believe he’s going to get it where it needs to go. But here’s the question, is he going to do it with our cooperation or without our cooperation? With. That’s what the church is all about, right? We’re the ones that have chosen to cooperate with him, at least for the most part, when we’re not busy sinning. And we’re trying to get over that, right. We’re trying to get past that sinning thing and stop that and actually do his will, right?

Okay, what’s all this about? Where are you going with this? Well, what I want to suggest to you is that God created us to be His under rulers, to give us authority to give us dominion, and because of the fall, that dominion was transferred to the hands of an enemy. Jesus came to win it back, to give it back to us, and we are in the war that has resulted from our receiving that authority back. Okay, now, for some of you that’s not a challenging concept. For others, you might have to think about that. But the implications are, that because something happens, doesn’t mean God commissioned it, ordained it, or allowed it. It can mean it just happened, because somebody, somewhere did something. Because God has given us freedom. And in giving us freedom, he had to limit his control.

Why is that important? Well, if it’s true, then your prayer life, and your understanding of who you are in Christ, and your ability to use the name of Jesus, and your ability to appropriate the anointing of the Holy Spirit and move in the spirit are determining to a large degree, what goes on in the sphere of authority given to you. And what we find in the church is, so often, people want to attribute what’s happening to the sovereignty of God. And what I’m proposing to you is much that happens has nothing to do with the sovereignty of God. It has to do with the sovereignty that God has delegated to man being misused or not used. And if that’s true, how important is it, that we change our thinking about who’s here to affect the world?

So there was a time in the history of the church after the Reformation, when a man by the name of William Carey went to his elders and said, “I feel God wants me to go to India, as a missionary.” And the response he got was, “Well, if God wants to save the people in India, he can do it without your help.” Now, what were they thinking? God is sovereign, and he’s controlling everything, and doing in the earth, all that he wants to do. Well, if you know the story, when William Carey eventually did go to India and became one of the first missionaries and began the missionary movement. But you see, there was such a leaning into the sovereignty of God, that people had no responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission, because they thought God was sovereign in a way that the Bible never revealed him to be sovereign, because God wanted to use us to accomplish His will. And they were just believing God would go do it himself.

Now that may seem extreme to you today. That may seem wild that people could think like that. But you can turn on Christian radio today and hear this same worldview, being taught by Bible teachers all over the place. And the result of that is it creates in the church a passivity, that says, “Your will be done, Lord, whatever that might be. Que sera, sera.” And so we find people who do do not resist the devil because they believe God has the devil on a leash and isn’t allowing the devil to do anything but what he wants the devil to do. Maybe you thought that way. But you see, as long as the Bible says resist the devil, and he will flee from you, we know whose responsibility it is to deal with the devil. And it’s not God’s. And this is a shock to a lot of Christians today.

It’s our responsibility to resist the devil. It’s our responsibility to pray, and to appropriate God’s grace, and move in Christ’s authority to destroy the works of satan. For many of you, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. But what I’m wanting to do is perhaps point out how easy it is to fall back into “Well, God’s controlling everything.” It’s subtler than it was back a few 100 years ago. It’s well, “Let’s see. That happened. I wonder what God’s trying to teach me. This evil thing happened. Maybe it was because I didn’t do this. Maybe God’s trying to show me this.” Have you ever reasoned through your circumstances, and tried to figure out what God…? How many of you are parents? How many of you have ever taught your kids anything? How many have ever tried to teach your kids? But you know, if you’re trying to teach your kids something, you tell them what it is you’re trying to teach them, and you help them get that job done.

But you know what? Many times people who think the way I’m talking about talk about God as, “God’s trying to teach me something, I just don’t know what it is.” Don’t you think he’s a better teacher than then? Maybe he’s trying to teach you to believe the word, to stand on it, and to resist the devil. “Why did this thing happen?” I don’t know. Maybe God’s trying to teach me something?” What’s he trying to teach you? That the Bible is true, and that you have authority in the name of Jesus, and you can use it. “Well, what if it doesn’t go?” Having done all the stand, stand, therefore. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.

What I’m really trying to say to you is that there’s a worldview issue that we have to get. And as we move into what God is trying to teach the church in these days, there’s an adjustment we have to make. Yes, God is ultimately sovereign. Yes, God’s will is going to be accomplished. But we have such a key and pivotal role in this, that we have to embrace the truths that the church is God’s delegated authority in the earth. Corporately, and individually, we have to embrace the authority of Christ, we have to learn the ways of God. We have to learn the Scriptures, the promises of God. We have to become warriors. We have to crucify passivity. We have to let the Spirit of God inspire us with a militancy that’s not a fleshly, carnal militancy. Have you ever met somebody that’s just kind of maybe a cheerleader type personality? It just always, you know, exhorters and stuff, and it’s a good thing you know, exhorters. But how many know sometimes it can be just excited flesh? Somebody said, you know that age and treachery will always overcome youth and zeal. And the devil is old and treacherous. And human youth and zeal will wear out.

But there is a divine in raw work of the Spirit, called The zeal of the LORD of hosts. The zeal of the Lord of Armies. Hosts means armies. The warrior king. We are the people of the warrior king. And he’s wanting to work in us a militancy of spirit that hates evil and seeks to destroy it. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and we’ve been called to that same commission. That’s the good news of the kingdom of God. We win. But it’s a real war. There are casualties in this war. The enemy tries to kill us with disease and sickness and accidents and tragedies. There are all kinds of things that go on, that are designed to get us out of the war before we can reach the full maturity of the capabilities that God would have us walk in. There’s a war that we’re in, and we have to make the adjustment.

There’s a different mentality during wartime, than there is during peacetime. You think differently. Now I wasn’t alive for World War Two. But there was a pulling together, a conserving of energy and resources, a sense of working, both at home and in the in the war. There was a United sense, “We are working together to defeat an enemy, and we’re going to do everything we can support this effort.” But you know, when the war is over, everybody relaxes and assumes a different lifestyle. And we’re in a war and are called to be warriors. And this war is going to last all our life. So Paul exhorts Timothy, endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Endure hardship. You know, I don’t know about you, but do you ever have these things happening? You go, “Why is this weird thing happening in my life? You ever feel Like that? And the Bible says, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you.” I think, “Why is this strange thing happening?” And it says, “Think it not strange.” But you see, we don’t have a military mindset. We don’t have a warrior mindset. And so we think it’s strange that war is going on, and that darts are flying and that stuff is happening.

We were created, to have dominion. We were created to be God’s under rulers. We were created to walk in the authority of God, and to be his image and likeness in the earth. You know, when God created man, Genesis chapter one, I know you’re familiar with this, he said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness, let them have dominion.” And it goes on and talks about subduing. That word, the Hebrew word for subdue means to trample underfoot. How many know, think about this now if you never have, how many know that Satan was in the earth when God created man. That right? Or did God say “Where’d that snake come from?” He was right there wasn’t he? He was in the garden. I mean, we know Satan used the snake, but what I mean is God knew that Satan and fallen angels were in the earth when He created man and gave him dominion. He knew that. And he said, “Have dominion and subdue the earth.” Well, did He mean subdue the dirt? The dirt wasn’t rising up in rebellion. Right? He created him to bring judgment on Satan, and evil spirits, and to rule in God’s place, over the kingdom of darkness. Man was created for that dominion.