God, the Sovereign Lord!

Deuteronomy 3:24 – “Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?” NIV

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I was reading in a theology text about the sovereignty of God. In the conclusion, the author wrote that God is sovereign, meaning He is in control over all that has happened or will happen, and over all individuals. He further stated that God has the right and the power to do whatever He wants. Where I agree on some levels, I disagree on others. Let me explain!

God is sovereign. The Hebrew word for sovereign is “pantokrator” and it simply means, the all-ruling God, as in absolute and universal God. The word Almighty and omnipotent is associated with this term. The prophet Isaiah declared, “Our God reigns!” And it is echoed throughout His word. He reigns Supreme over all the earth. I am in complete agreement with this truth! God is the all-ruling, Almighty God!

Moses declared in our text that there is no other god in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works that He does! Which brings me to the second point. He’s all powerful, and there is no one like Him! He can do anything. We see that also portrayed throughout scripture starting with creation. Everything God does is a demonstration of His power. He is all-powerful! He can mimicked, but not duplicated!

God is also omnipresent! David wrote in a psalm that there was nowhere he could flee from the presence of God. Nowhere! And it’s the same for us! God is everywhere, at the same time, all of the time. Nothing and no one escapes Him. He’s not waiting on a taxi to get to you and your situation, He is already there!

And God is omniscient! He knows everything, about everything, and anything! There is no revelation that He needs to have! He already knows it all! Not only does He know everything, He knows how to operate wisely with that information. He’s awesome and truly amazing! He’s God, the Sovereign One!

The part that troubles me, as a Believer, is attributing everything that happens to God. I don’t agree with this for a number of reasons:

• Just as we know there is God, we know there is the devil. He has been given authority, by Adam, in this natural realm, and constantly keeps things going. When the sea was raging, while Jesus and His disciples were in the boat, Jesus rebuked it. Why would He rebuke what God was doing? The devil creates all kinds of havoc in this world, and people are quick to blame God. God may not stop it, but that doesn’t mean He is responsible for it! Let’s learn to ask Him what’s going on, so that we are attributing His works to Him, and the devil’s work to the devil.
• We are told to pray! If God does what He wants to do, irrespective to mankind, then why do we need to pray? If things are just happening around us and we’re just puppets on a string, doing His bidding, then what need is there to pray! I can tell you this, I have seen God’s hand move in numerous situations, and I know that prayer brings changes in this earth realm. We don’t change God, but we can definitely call out to Him to change situations and circumstances. And He not only promised to answer, He answers!
• He knows what we are going to ask, say, or do, before we do it. Again, He’s omniscient! That doesn’t mean He’s writing the playbook of our lives to the tiniest details. For example, as a teacher, I know my students pretty well. If I offer them free time, I can easily tell you what they will do. (This is by no means to say that I operate to the same degree of the Father, just an example!) In knowing this, I do not make them do a particular activity, I just know that they will. Free choice is what God has given to us! For Him to overrule our free choice, with His choice, is a violation of what He promised. (Can He overrule? Yes! He is God!) I asked for His guidance in choosing a mate, and He led me to my husband. But there were other men in my acquaintance. I could’ve chosen another! My life may have been miserable, and definitely a lot different than it is, but it was my choice! So while He has the right to do what He wants, He doesn’t!
• And yet He does! When He wanted a virgin to conceive, He overrode the natural course of things! When He wanted to raise Jesus from the dead and allow His Blood to cleanse us from our sins, He did what He wanted to satisfy the payment for sin. When He decided that we could only be saved by believing in Jesus and what He did at Calvary, that’s just the way we are reconciled to Him! When He said that if we die in our sins, we will go to hell, it will happen as He said. When He said a display of love towards Him is measured in our obedience, He set the standard! What He has determined through His word, is so! He is sovereign, and His will, and His way, will be yardstick by which we are handled by Him! Period!

When our oldest child was born, she was diagnosed with abnormal seizure disorder. We agreed that wasn’t God! We asked everyone we knew to agree with us in prayer that she would be healed. She was declared whole by six months! Not a single seizure since we prayed. Did God give her seizures? No! I’d say it was an attack from the pit of hell, before I attributed that to God! But He sure did heal her!

I was told by a well meaning pastor, when I asked about divine healing, that God is sovereign and I have to trust Him. He was absolutely correct, while he was absolutely wrong! He was saying that I needed to trust God with the prognosis over my daughter because it was His will and that’s why she was like she was. However, I came to understand that it is His will to heal, and because He has all power in His hand, He had the ability to change it! So the Sovereign Lord God healed all of our children from one thing after another, because we dared to believe Him.

Here’s what I have found! Don’t get mad with me, get mad at those who desire to teach us error! Those who accept this que sera sera gospel have not been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ with accuracy! They haven’t prayed and seen mountains moved. They haven’t believe for a change and seen it come to pass. They haven’t expected divine interventions and rejoiced over them! Because if they had, they would never again buy into this “God’s in control, so we just have to accept it” doctrine ever again!

Let me reiterate! I believe in the Sovereign God! His Son is Jesus! He is absolutely amazing and does wonderful things! His love and mercy is boundless towards us! No one can match Him and everyone and everything falls short, in comparison to Him. Way short! But He has given us access to Him, to His throne, and to power through the precious Blood of Jesus! We don’t have to settle, accept, or get over anything that is contrary to His Word! We just need to recognize this Amazing God we serve, is willing to be amazing for us! Wonderful Jesus!