December 9, 2008

Hi Mike,

I hope you are doing well. Another question for you if you don’t mind. Still struggling with this sovereignty issue; not that he did it this way, but do you think God, before the world began, sat down and planned everything; the beginning, the middle, and the end, the answer of every tongue, every good thing, evil thing, personality, mood, death, life, molecule, basically everything that exists and once he had it planned he said something like ‘let it be’ and his plan began and therefore, although he is keeping an eye on what’s going on, it has all already been put down on paper, so to speak. because Psa 139:16 seems to explain it this way.
Basically I just can’t accept how totally sovereign he is. I must say that when you said in that last e- mail that if there is one maverick molecule in the world then God is not sovereign, it gave me that sense of peace that I sometimes experience with this. Although short lived, it is nice when it raises its beautiful head. I seem to get that feeling when I experience his sovereignty in my heart and not just my head. If I could just put this beast of the throne I would be fine, and I know it’s a lifelong process and all in his timing. I think I understand why he would create a spirit or spirits to go against himself, but what I can’t understand is if every answer of every tongue is of the lord, then is he not sending an evil spirit to himself. It seems that way to me. Please give me anything that will help me put this beast off the throne, when you get time of course. Thanks for all your hard work, Mike.

God bless you and yours,
S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your question. It is always good to hear from you. You ask:

“… do you think God, before the world began, sat down and planned everything; the beginning, the middle, and the end, the answer of every tongue, every good thing, evil thing, personality, mood, death, life, molecule, basically everything that exists and once he had it planned he said something like ‘let it be’ and his plan began and therefore, although he is keeping an eye on what’s going on, it has all already been put down on paper, so to speak because Psa 139:16 seems to explain it this way.
… Basically I just can’t accept how totally sovereign he is…

All I can do is quote the scripture:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

How detailed is this total sovereignty? It is total or it is not sovereign.

Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father:
Mat 10:30  but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  

Dethroning the beast within and admitting that everything we do is actually being done by God’s design, is what the scriptures teach. “Even the wicked are made for the day of evil.” “When I sin, it is not me doing it but sin which God placed in my members for the day of evil in me.” That is simply what we are being taught when Joseph tells his brothers that they sold him into Egypt, but then he adds, “It was not you but God.”

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all [ things] for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I [ am] Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years [ hath] the famine [ been] in the land: and yet [ there are] five years, in the which [ there shall] neither [ be] earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now [ it was] not you [ that] sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

These things are what Christ called “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.”

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Christ goes on to say that God has given His apostle ears to hear, “but it is not given to them.”

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

So when Christ says, “Who has ears to hear let him hear,” He is speaking of those who are “given ears that hear and eyes that see… the mysteries of the kingdom.”
Just like you, I struggled for over two years to come to accept this doctrine. My beast within was loath to give up his throne, but in the end I had to concede that “God works ALL things after the
counsel of His own will.”

Eph 1:11  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:

You too, will come to see the depth of the truth of that verse in God’s own time.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike