Category:
The Sovereignty Of God
What God ALLOWS
Is Not Always His WILL
Some Christians have said to me, “It is God’s WILL for some Christians to die from a deadly disease”, because of the experiences they have gone through, watching Christians die after Believers pray and ask for healing.
To such a statement, however, I would like to say:
What God allows, is not always His will.
Just a couple examples of God’s allowance versus His will, as documented in the Bible, are:
God allowed Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
They ate and entered into spiritual death.
God allowed it, but this was not God’s will.
It was also not God’s will for Abram to have a child with Hagar, yet God allowed it.
God did not keep Sarai from conceiving, knowing that Abram would end up sleeping with Hagar and bearing Ishmael, because God actually wanted Ishmael to be born.
Nope.
Rather, God allowed Abram the time to try to figure out the Promise on his own. And God allowed Abram to try to receive the Promise via his own methods.
Let’s jump ahead to the Israelites in the wilderness.
Wandering around for forty years and dying in the Wilderness was not God’s WILL for the Israelites. God even spoke a PROMISE (revealing His will for them) to these people about a Land, flowing with milk and honey. Yet the people did not know HOW to enter into that specific Promise, because unbelief and fear hardened their hearts. So they not only wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, but died in the wilderness, without ever receiving the Promise and Will of God for their lives!
Did God make the Promise to them, just to tease them, knowing that it actually wasn’t His will to lead them into that Promised Land?
No.
The Israelites got to choose their fate. The Israelites got to choose if they would believe God and walk in His will, or doubt and refuse God’s Promises and die in the wilderness.
God allowed them to wander in the wilderness, but this was not His will.
And God did not dare barge in and drag them in by their hands, so that His will would be accomplished. Nor did he think to simply translate them on in to the Promised Land.
No, He ALLOWED them to die in the wilderness …. even as their MOUTHS stated would happen (Numbers 14:28).
In just these three short examples, we are shown a truth about God:
God may WILL one thing for a person and even have His will written down for that person to read (as He has done with the Bible, for us New Testament Believers), but it is up to each person to walk forward in God’s will, to take God at His Word, and lay hold or RECEIVE the Promise of God … even as the Jews had to fight their natural enemies at times, to lay hold of Promises of God, New Testament Believers may have to fight spiritual enemies in order to lay hold of their Promises!
For the Born-Again Believer this means each Believer must:
1) HEAR God’s Will / Promise (which is recorded in His Written Word);
2) BELIEVE God’s Will / Promise as it is written;
3) then take the steps in the process of how God says one is to RECEIVE His Will / Promise (one example: Mark 11:23-24).
.
God will NOT just zap a healing (or any other prayer request) onto you without you having to BELIEVE first, that you have received your answer to your prayer request (Mark 11:24) … with the occasional exception of a “gift” of healing that comes through the laying on of hands by another Believer, however, we will never get all of our healings or prayer requests answered this way.
God has revealed His will in the written form of the Bible for us to believe, to obey, and to receive.
But, we must remember to do our part of the Word: Believe we have received our answer before we see it, and then stand immovable, unshakable, and fully confident in the Truth and dependability of the Word and the Character of God … for Faithful is He Who Promised, to do exactly what He has Promised to do for us (Heb 10:23).
Amen.
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“So we see that they (the Israelites) were not ABLE to enter because of UNBELIEF”
– Hebrews 3:19
“The Word they (the Israelites) heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard”
– Hebrews 4:3
“And those (Israelites) who formerly had good news preached to them (regarding the rich and prosperous Promised Land) FAILED to enter because of disobedience”
(disobedience of believing God at His Word and trusting Him to do what He Promised)
– Hebrews 4:6
“Let us hold fast the profession (confession) of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised)”
– Hebrews 10:23
“through FAITH you will inherit God’s Promises”
– Hebrew 6:12
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