|
Does God make you say what you should say?
Does the Holy Spirit make you go where you
should go, and do what you should do? Do you ever make
mistakes, bad decisions, or say things that you
regretted? Then is God in control?
There is a Bible translation that renders I
Tim.6:15 “Kings of kings, and Lord of lords” as
“God is the blessed controller of all things.“ I
know this is a sacred cow, but is it true to all of
Scripture?
Need
many verses
An important rule of Bible interpretation is
that you need at least several verses to make a
teaching. To take one verse and make a sermon on it is
not wise. God wrote the entire Bible, so it must all
agree. The casual reader will not take the time to
find out the truth; that’s why good teachers are
needed for the majority of people.
So, is anything in our power?
Authority over the devil:
Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give
you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in
no wise hurt you.”
I John 4:4, Greater is He that
is in you that he that is in the world.”
James 4:7, “Resist the devil
and he will flee from you.”
Mark 16:17, “And these signs
will follow those who believe, in My name they will
cast out devils …”
(There are a lot more verses in my brochure
titled, You have Authority.)
King
over your own life:
Rom. 5:17, “…those who
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness will reign in life through the
One, Christ Jesus.”
Rev. 1:5-6 “To Him who loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has
made us kings and priests to His God and
Father.”
What
we say, we get!
Don’t kings give orders? In my brochure, What
difference Does it make what I Say? I explain some
of this issue. It’s also a strong teaching in the
brochures on faith.
Briefly, a few of the verses are: Mark 11:23,
we have what we believe and say. Joel 3:10, Let the
weak say, I am strong. Jesus spoke to things, and in
John 14:12 it says that we will do what Jesus did. In
James 3:2-6, the tongue is compared to a steering
wheel, and in Prov. 18:21, “Death and life are in
the power of the tongue.” Your future is in your
heart, Prov.4:23, and spoken out your mouth,
Matt.12:35.
We
reap what we sow.
That means we harvest what we
have planted. Everything
we do in life is a seed.
Gal. 6:7-9, “Do not be
deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man
sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to
his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he
who sows to the Spirit
will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And
let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due
season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
I Pet. 3:9, “… not returning
evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the
contrary, blessing; knowing that you were called to
this, that you may inherit a blessing.”
Luke 6:36-38, “Therefore, be
merciful just as your Father also is merciful. Judge
not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you
shall not be condemned. Forgive and you will be
forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; good
measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running
over will men put into your lap. For with the same
measure that you use, it will be measured back to
you.”
Luke 18:30, Mark 10:30, Obadiah
15, Eph. 6:8 are other verses that agree.
The
choice is ours.
Deut.
30:19, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today
against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing;
therefore, chose life, that both you and your
descendents may live.”
Josh.
1:8, Psa.1:2-3, and James 1:25 each say that if we will
spend a lot of time in the Word and do what it says,
then we will be made successful at whatever we do!
Heb. 11:6 says God is a rewarder
of those who diligently seek Him.
Matt. 6:33, “Seek first the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things will be added to you.”
Just once reading through the Old Testament and
you will see that as long as God’s people obeyed
Him, they were blessed, healed and prospered. If they
didn’t obey, then they had to experience bad
government, sicknesses, and calamities. A list is in
Deut. 28. God
has not changed.
If
… then …
Do you see that God is an if-then God?
II Tim. 2:19-22 says that just like in a large
house, there are vessels for fancy use, and others for
garbage. He says if you want to be a vessel
God can use for great things, then cleanse
yourself from sin.
(For how to do that, see I John. 1:9)
According to Matt. 7:24-27, you will be like a
wise man if you hear and do what Jesus
taught. Jesus told a story about two men. The one who
didn’t do what he learned was compared to a house
without a foundation. So when the storms of life come
(and they came to both houses) the one without the
foundation collapsed! Now whose fault was it that the
house collapsed?
God’s? Or the man’s foolish decisions?
So,
is God Sovereign?
It’s up to you. Every time you allow fear or
worry, you take the situation out of His hands. When
you beg Him, you are in fear, not faith. He can work
as long as you are in faith and at peace. And if you
are taking the matter into your own hands because you
think God isn’t doing anything, you’re in
unbelief. Fear
and unbelief stop God, Mark 6:5-6 and Matt.
14:25-31.
In addition to faith, stay in love and obedience,
and God can be King in your life. That’s how God can
make everything work for your good! To understand
that, read and reread Rom.8:28, John 14: 15, and I
John 3: 22-23. He is King of
kings! You give the orders from the Word, then praise Him with
those verses until it comes.
That’s how faith works.
For more help, get my brochure, If it’s
God’s will, why doesn’t it always happen? (and others on faith).
Are you are wanting God
to control you; maybe help you not talk so much, or
maybe talk more?
The
more time you spend with God, the more He’ll be able
to control you! |
