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But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
God's faithfulness is a beautiful gift! Through His faithfulness we are graced with salvation and hope which yields encouragement and perseverance. I know some of the things mentioned will not appear to be "deep" but they are something we need to remind ourselves frequently of.
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;" This is so encouraging! I heard a word study done on the word 'wait' and it literally means "to anticipate". Isn't that neat? It doesn't merely have a "patience" connotation, it could literally read this way, "But they that anticipate Father God to act on their situation shall renew their strength." Such a beautiful truth! I am so encouraged that I can have immense faith in my God to act no matter what is happening (maybe not the way I always want but for my good).
Let's not forget that not all of us are necessarily to the point where we can 'anticipate God to do something about it', we are human and can fluctuate at times. God desires the end result of us becoming the complete man to be relentless faith, but I am so thankful that He is faithful even when we are struggling finding the faith! 2 Timothy 2:13, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." God understands if we have to ask Him for faith. When facing a trial or tribulation don't try to feign faith if you really do not feel you have it. God long's for us to ask Him for things...sometimes faith!
Romans 8:28 states, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Pastor Rob Turner from Apex community church in Centerville Ohio once said, "God is more interested in our growth than our comfort." That truth has really stuck with me. I say that to say let us not mistake our discomfort with God's lack of goodness because His goodness is a more mature goodness than that. God's goodness is in breaking us, knowing it will produce a stronger more resilient faith...it gives us staying power. He does work out things for our good because He loves us even if they seem uncomfortable at the time. For example, let's say you have a child and you have been granted a foreknowledge that if they leave your house to go out with their friends for that particular night they will be in a fatal car accident. You may try to petition them to not go, maybe even ground them if they will not listen. You may try these subtle methods at first but if you see they are failing, there is not one loving parent that is reading this that wouldn't take a sledge hammer (or something else of the sort) and break their child's legs. WHOA CHRIS! Didn't expect you to go there! Isn't true love and goodness weird? Now if I isolate that situation and just say, "My dad took a sledge hammer and broke my legs!" That doesn't have a 'working out to our good' ring to it. But if I tell you in context 'the why', it now changes into a relentless act of love. You may be going through something so dark and scary you are not understanding why God is allowing this to happen. Just as the child in the above example kept trying to leave the house without the knowledge their parent had, so are we at times because we cannot see everything like God. Now let's say the child get's word that the friends she/he was going to go out with that night died in the wreck, this child, I would venture to say, is now thanking the parent for breaking their legs. So one day we will be thanking Him for all the hardships that produced righteousness in our lives, and that is God's definition of "all things working to our good".
One final (true) story,
There was a police officer, who was a Christian, that a friend of mine knew. This man began to suffer in his faith in God to the point of almost giving up. One night, while on patrol, he took a very peculiar man into custody. As this police officer was escorting this man to the police station, the criminal began to sniff in the air around him. As this now sniffing man became more and more blatant with this annoyance the police officer asked him what he was doing. The sniffing man said, "I smell blood, you're a Christian aren't you!". The police officer proceeded to say, "I do not know how that is even relevant to anything." The criminal said in response to this statement, "Oh it's relevant...it's relevant.." As a result of this situation this restored this police officers faith. The criminal was obviously under satanic control and satan in this situation became an unwilling servant of our MIGHTY GOD! This story really shed light on the verse that states, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." 2 Timothy 2:13
I do not know what you are going through but I do know this, God does not orchestrate anything to hurt us as to never come back to Him. Remember that God does not do petty human things, He has pure and holy purposes for us. So the next time something isn't going quite right, run to HIM!
Sincerely,
Chris Goff
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Reaping and Sowing
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that naturea will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
Galatians 6:7&8
"Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully."
2 Corinthians 9:6
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
James 4:8
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9
"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children."
Hosea 4:6
This week I want us to focus on a spiritual principle that I feel goes under our radar alot of the time. It's called reaping and sowing. If you sit and think about it the whole of God's spiritual structure and/or law rides on this principle. It is a neutral principle to a degree, giving that it works for both the believer and non-believer. This principle works unto rewards and unto punishment, to the reaping of eternal life or corruption. So with all of that said I feel it is very important to show God we are setting our hearts to understand this spiritual principle.
"My people perish from lack of knowledge." Ever hear the saying, "knowledge is power"? Well, when talking about this reaping and sowing principle it proves to be very true. Now reaping and sowing is the broad truth but can we think of specifics in scripture? How about "Draw nigh unto God, then He will draw night unto you", or "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, THEN the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness" or how about, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". So let's render these a bit different to illustrate the principle. "Sow into drawing closer to God, and reap Him drawing closer to you", "Sow into walking in the light as He is in the light, and reap Him cleansing you from all unrighteousness", "Sow into the confession of sins, and reap His faithfulness and justness to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness". Do we get the picture? Scripture is absolutely riddled with this underlying principle.
Now let's draw our attention to Galatians 6:7&8 which states, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that naturea will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." I love this one as it helps me pass personal tests in my life. For example, you have the opportunity when by yourself to watch something you are not supposed to watch or do things you should not do, believe it or not when you pass these tests by "fleeing and pursuing" (see devotional entitled "Fleeing and Pursuing") you have just sown into the Spirit! When you sow into the Spirit God has some kind of spiritual gifting for you in the end if you do not become WEARY OF DOING GOOD. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." We must live our lives in light of this principle if it is to be well with our souls!
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7. So if we do not live our lives in light of this priniciple what does that say about us? It means we are deceived! Paul says BE NOT DECEIVED, GOD WILL NOT EVER BE MOCKED (proven to be a liar) WHATEVER YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! SOW THIS IS WHAT YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! ARE GOING TO REAP! I have wrote about this before in other devotionals but feel the need to hammer on it some more. There is a great many people deceived out there. They think because they have prayed a prayer that they are instantly ok. They teach a doctrine unsupported by scripture and I pray those are the people that read these posts before it is too late. Galatians 5:19-26 says, The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. I pray we all begin to live by these core principles again. We live in a very dark world that is constantly sowing into the flesh and reaping nothing but destruction! I am so thankful for Jesus sacrifice! He has enabled us to be partakers of the Holy Spirit thereby being a people capable of living within the healthy bounds of reaping and sowing! Let's keep fighting to stay in the Spirit so we do not gratify the lusts of our flesh! So the next time you have the opportunity to watch, do, look, hear something you are not supposed to and YOU DO NOT GIVE IN, give a little elbow jerk in the air and say "SWEET! I JUST PASSED A TEST, THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS TO ME"! Guess what happens as you continue to pass tests? YOU BECOME A TRUE DISCIPLE! You are now disciplining yourselves and showing God that you can be a person that is entrusted with MUCH instead of LITTLE! Remember brothers and sisters, you can store up treasures to reap just as you can store up wrath, just because it is not immediate does not mean it isn't coming. DON'T GROW WEARY! Let's pray for each other please! I mean that, I pray for the people who read these posts please be lifting me up as well!
Sincerely,
Chris Goff
Galatians 6:7&8
"Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully."
2 Corinthians 9:6
"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
James 4:8
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9
"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children."
Hosea 4:6
This week I want us to focus on a spiritual principle that I feel goes under our radar alot of the time. It's called reaping and sowing. If you sit and think about it the whole of God's spiritual structure and/or law rides on this principle. It is a neutral principle to a degree, giving that it works for both the believer and non-believer. This principle works unto rewards and unto punishment, to the reaping of eternal life or corruption. So with all of that said I feel it is very important to show God we are setting our hearts to understand this spiritual principle.
"My people perish from lack of knowledge." Ever hear the saying, "knowledge is power"? Well, when talking about this reaping and sowing principle it proves to be very true. Now reaping and sowing is the broad truth but can we think of specifics in scripture? How about "Draw nigh unto God, then He will draw night unto you", or "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, THEN the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness" or how about, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". So let's render these a bit different to illustrate the principle. "Sow into drawing closer to God, and reap Him drawing closer to you", "Sow into walking in the light as He is in the light, and reap Him cleansing you from all unrighteousness", "Sow into the confession of sins, and reap His faithfulness and justness to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness". Do we get the picture? Scripture is absolutely riddled with this underlying principle.
Now let's draw our attention to Galatians 6:7&8 which states, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that naturea will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." I love this one as it helps me pass personal tests in my life. For example, you have the opportunity when by yourself to watch something you are not supposed to watch or do things you should not do, believe it or not when you pass these tests by "fleeing and pursuing" (see devotional entitled "Fleeing and Pursuing") you have just sown into the Spirit! When you sow into the Spirit God has some kind of spiritual gifting for you in the end if you do not become WEARY OF DOING GOOD. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." We must live our lives in light of this principle if it is to be well with our souls!
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7. So if we do not live our lives in light of this priniciple what does that say about us? It means we are deceived! Paul says BE NOT DECEIVED, GOD WILL NOT EVER BE MOCKED (proven to be a liar) WHATEVER YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! SOW THIS IS WHAT YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! ARE GOING TO REAP! I have wrote about this before in other devotionals but feel the need to hammer on it some more. There is a great many people deceived out there. They think because they have prayed a prayer that they are instantly ok. They teach a doctrine unsupported by scripture and I pray those are the people that read these posts before it is too late. Galatians 5:19-26 says, The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. I pray we all begin to live by these core principles again. We live in a very dark world that is constantly sowing into the flesh and reaping nothing but destruction! I am so thankful for Jesus sacrifice! He has enabled us to be partakers of the Holy Spirit thereby being a people capable of living within the healthy bounds of reaping and sowing! Let's keep fighting to stay in the Spirit so we do not gratify the lusts of our flesh! So the next time you have the opportunity to watch, do, look, hear something you are not supposed to and YOU DO NOT GIVE IN, give a little elbow jerk in the air and say "SWEET! I JUST PASSED A TEST, THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS TO ME"! Guess what happens as you continue to pass tests? YOU BECOME A TRUE DISCIPLE! You are now disciplining yourselves and showing God that you can be a person that is entrusted with MUCH instead of LITTLE! Remember brothers and sisters, you can store up treasures to reap just as you can store up wrath, just because it is not immediate does not mean it isn't coming. DON'T GROW WEARY! Let's pray for each other please! I mean that, I pray for the people who read these posts please be lifting me up as well!
Sincerely,
Chris Goff
Monday, October 5, 2009
Free Will?
"For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." Romans 9:17&18
"But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said." Exodus 8:15
"And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go" Exodus 8:32
"And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses." Exodus 9:12
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:" Romans 1:24
"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness"
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance" 2 Peter 1:5-13
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". Some verses make it appear that God chooses every outcome, even our choices about right and wrong. I believe this is true to a point, in light of scriptures such as the one at the beginning of this paragraph (read the devotional entitled "Predestination" to understand a bit more of the position I have taken on this). But make no mistake, we are to take the scripture as a whole. I have heard people say that God wouldn't be sovereign if He didn't choose everything, so it just appears we have a free will but we really don't. I feel they are blending two different schools of thought into one that make this topic very muddled, so much to the point that they get relaxed with their sin. I say this because I have seen what this belief does to people, it causes an upset in their pursuit of holiness. I was recently told about a guy that has a leadership role in a ministry that does not believe we have a free will and is looking at pornographic material on the internet. It is one thing to struggle with a sin, it is far another thing to give yourself heartily to it and have a theological argument to back it up. Wouldn't that be convenient? "God choose anyways and He knew I would come to Christ and I would still sin". It is something subtle that can end up crippling us spiritually if we do not have a proper grasp as to how all of this works. Did Pharaoh have a choice? Does anyone have a choice? Let's break these scriptures down.
I think one thing we must understand is that God allows us to be aware of His sovereignty through His foreknowledge in predestining people but some of us have taken it a step farther and have believed because He chose the over-all route for things He must have controlled our wills as well. So let's look at what Paul said. Paul mentions that God hardened Pharaohs heart. Now it is interesting to note that Genesis says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Why wouldn't Paul make mention of this? I think he didn't because he wasn't debating this issue of free will. Because Paul knew the scriptures even better than we do, right? So for this piece of information to escape Paul is a little astounding IF he were merely arguing for man's choice. What I believe Paul is illustrating is that God makes decisions through His foreknowledge BASED upon HIS FORESIGHT OF THE CHOICES WE WOULD MAKE! God places us before the foundations of the world but we are the ones who have to acted out in REAL TIME! "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" Now note this verse isn't saying make sure you "prayed the prayer" and then once you have confirmed that you have "prayed the prayer" you have now made His calling and election sure. That doesn't take alot of DILIGENCE, the very word Peter has chose to illustrate this point. The Apostles had an understanding of the reaping and sowing principle so much that they believed this is how one endured to the end by "SOWING INTO THE SPIRIT TO REAP ETERNAL LIFE!" Now some of you may think I have jumped off topic but I have not, I am using this to illustrate your CHOICE to MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE UNTIL YOU SEE JESUS IN HIS GLORY! Anything less than this is not standing firm until the end which WAS NOT GOD'S CHOICE FOR YOU! How do we know this though?
Ok, so back to Pharaoh, Paul and Genesis say that God hardened Pharaohs heart, but in Genesis before it says God hardened Pharaohs heart it says Pharaohs hardened his own heart. Ok so now what, is the scripture contradicting itself? NO WAY! Look in Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2. It suggests a person can CHOOSE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS SO MUCH THAT GOD ENDS UP FINISHING THE JOB! This should not be foreign to us. Just as God has chosen our current active repentant faith in Christ to be the means by which He completes us for our good, so the inverse happens as well. Think about it, you respond in obedience and you reap knowing God better.(remember the law...sow to the spirit to reap eternal life...sow to the flesh and reap corruption) Respond in disobedience and reap corruption. WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWS THIS WILL HE ALSO REAP. Or it could read this way, "Whatever a man CHOOSES to do, whether good or bad, is what he will get back spiritually".
So what is the answer Chris? Do you choose or does God choose? The answer in my estimation is clearly both. FOR WHOM HE FOREKNEW HE ALSO PREDESTINED! What is that foreknowledge about? Has to be about seeing what we would choose to base His decision on the where, when, and how. In my mind, if we had no say so in our matter the scripture would merely read, "He predestined." Why put the word foreknew in there? He was evaluating what we would decide if we were offered His grace. Also, look at Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:" Romans 1:24 Now does that say the "LUST OF GOD'S HEART?" NO! YOUR HEART! Now look at 2 Thessalonians 2, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" What does it say? THEY CHOOSE NOT TO RECEIVE WHEN PRSENTED, and because of the reaping and sowing principle we will always have a cause and effect. In this case the cause is written like this, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" WE NEED TO GRASP THIS REAPING AND SOWING PRINCIPLE! It is really the foundation for everything!
Now some of you may still be locked into the mindset that God cannot be sovereign if He didn't choose everything for us, even to the point of us being unrighteous but follow me really quick. I was talking with a believer on the phone once who was telling me a pastor (whom I respect greatly) made the comment that God could not be sovereign if we had a choice in anything. This statement has never sat well with me as I had heard it before in some variations. What came to me next to respond to this person blew me away as I had never even thought about it before (which told me it was God answering for both me and this brother). Wouldn't ultimate sovereignty be giving us a free choice and STILL being so brilliant as to accomplishing things the way He wanted? I mean come on, would you be more impressed if I bossed you around to accomplish my will, or I was able to manipulate things in such a way that I made you CHOOSE what I set out to accomplish anyways. You had your choice, I just knew what you would choose, which makes God the ultimate "chess" player of the universe. I don't know about you, but that old argument that says God is not sovereign if He doesn't make every decision for us, whether for the good or for the bad, pails in comparison to giving us a free choice and still being MAGNIFICENT ENOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH HIS WILL! What a mighty and amazing God! So what's the official answer in a nut shell? It's both! God will finish the job either way YOU CHOOSE TO GO, whether to the righteous side or the unrighteous side! Thats why we must be a people who constantly sow into the Spirit! This way we are bound to make our calling and election certain! Because be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man (or woman) sows, this will he also reap! You have a choice to make! GIVE INTO THE SIN OR NOT GIVE IN and make no mistake, if you are running headlong into wickedness it was not God's desire for you, but He is also not mocked. Remember the scripture says "He resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble." Humility is obedience, obedience is to cease from sin, ceasing from sin gives you even more power to stop the things you always thought you were bound to! But, He resists the PRIDEFUL! ALL SIN IS PRIDE! You are telling God with your actions "Other people may need to do that but not me." PRIDE PRIDE PRIDE! The Bible says if we are PRIDEFUL He will RESIST US. That word resist means "TO STAND AGAINST; TO OPPOSE." I don't know about all of you but I do not want the God of the universe opposing me! Let's stay connected to the vine! Let's reap ETERNAL LIFE!
Lord continue to reveal your truth to us! Thank you giving Your Spirit to us for revelation and guidance! I pray for everyone who will read this that it will prove profitable for them, grant all of us repentance I pray!
Thanks brothers, and sisters!
Sincerely,
Chris Goff
"But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said." Exodus 8:15
"And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go" Exodus 8:32
"And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses." Exodus 9:12
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:" Romans 1:24
"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness"
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance" 2 Peter 1:5-13
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion". Some verses make it appear that God chooses every outcome, even our choices about right and wrong. I believe this is true to a point, in light of scriptures such as the one at the beginning of this paragraph (read the devotional entitled "Predestination" to understand a bit more of the position I have taken on this). But make no mistake, we are to take the scripture as a whole. I have heard people say that God wouldn't be sovereign if He didn't choose everything, so it just appears we have a free will but we really don't. I feel they are blending two different schools of thought into one that make this topic very muddled, so much to the point that they get relaxed with their sin. I say this because I have seen what this belief does to people, it causes an upset in their pursuit of holiness. I was recently told about a guy that has a leadership role in a ministry that does not believe we have a free will and is looking at pornographic material on the internet. It is one thing to struggle with a sin, it is far another thing to give yourself heartily to it and have a theological argument to back it up. Wouldn't that be convenient? "God choose anyways and He knew I would come to Christ and I would still sin". It is something subtle that can end up crippling us spiritually if we do not have a proper grasp as to how all of this works. Did Pharaoh have a choice? Does anyone have a choice? Let's break these scriptures down.
I think one thing we must understand is that God allows us to be aware of His sovereignty through His foreknowledge in predestining people but some of us have taken it a step farther and have believed because He chose the over-all route for things He must have controlled our wills as well. So let's look at what Paul said. Paul mentions that God hardened Pharaohs heart. Now it is interesting to note that Genesis says Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Why wouldn't Paul make mention of this? I think he didn't because he wasn't debating this issue of free will. Because Paul knew the scriptures even better than we do, right? So for this piece of information to escape Paul is a little astounding IF he were merely arguing for man's choice. What I believe Paul is illustrating is that God makes decisions through His foreknowledge BASED upon HIS FORESIGHT OF THE CHOICES WE WOULD MAKE! God places us before the foundations of the world but we are the ones who have to acted out in REAL TIME! "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" Now note this verse isn't saying make sure you "prayed the prayer" and then once you have confirmed that you have "prayed the prayer" you have now made His calling and election sure. That doesn't take alot of DILIGENCE, the very word Peter has chose to illustrate this point. The Apostles had an understanding of the reaping and sowing principle so much that they believed this is how one endured to the end by "SOWING INTO THE SPIRIT TO REAP ETERNAL LIFE!" Now some of you may think I have jumped off topic but I have not, I am using this to illustrate your CHOICE to MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE UNTIL YOU SEE JESUS IN HIS GLORY! Anything less than this is not standing firm until the end which WAS NOT GOD'S CHOICE FOR YOU! How do we know this though?
Ok, so back to Pharaoh, Paul and Genesis say that God hardened Pharaohs heart, but in Genesis before it says God hardened Pharaohs heart it says Pharaohs hardened his own heart. Ok so now what, is the scripture contradicting itself? NO WAY! Look in Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2. It suggests a person can CHOOSE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS SO MUCH THAT GOD ENDS UP FINISHING THE JOB! This should not be foreign to us. Just as God has chosen our current active repentant faith in Christ to be the means by which He completes us for our good, so the inverse happens as well. Think about it, you respond in obedience and you reap knowing God better.(remember the law...sow to the spirit to reap eternal life...sow to the flesh and reap corruption) Respond in disobedience and reap corruption. WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWS THIS WILL HE ALSO REAP. Or it could read this way, "Whatever a man CHOOSES to do, whether good or bad, is what he will get back spiritually".
So what is the answer Chris? Do you choose or does God choose? The answer in my estimation is clearly both. FOR WHOM HE FOREKNEW HE ALSO PREDESTINED! What is that foreknowledge about? Has to be about seeing what we would choose to base His decision on the where, when, and how. In my mind, if we had no say so in our matter the scripture would merely read, "He predestined." Why put the word foreknew in there? He was evaluating what we would decide if we were offered His grace. Also, look at Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:" Romans 1:24 Now does that say the "LUST OF GOD'S HEART?" NO! YOUR HEART! Now look at 2 Thessalonians 2, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" What does it say? THEY CHOOSE NOT TO RECEIVE WHEN PRSENTED, and because of the reaping and sowing principle we will always have a cause and effect. In this case the cause is written like this, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" WE NEED TO GRASP THIS REAPING AND SOWING PRINCIPLE! It is really the foundation for everything!
Now some of you may still be locked into the mindset that God cannot be sovereign if He didn't choose everything for us, even to the point of us being unrighteous but follow me really quick. I was talking with a believer on the phone once who was telling me a pastor (whom I respect greatly) made the comment that God could not be sovereign if we had a choice in anything. This statement has never sat well with me as I had heard it before in some variations. What came to me next to respond to this person blew me away as I had never even thought about it before (which told me it was God answering for both me and this brother). Wouldn't ultimate sovereignty be giving us a free choice and STILL being so brilliant as to accomplishing things the way He wanted? I mean come on, would you be more impressed if I bossed you around to accomplish my will, or I was able to manipulate things in such a way that I made you CHOOSE what I set out to accomplish anyways. You had your choice, I just knew what you would choose, which makes God the ultimate "chess" player of the universe. I don't know about you, but that old argument that says God is not sovereign if He doesn't make every decision for us, whether for the good or for the bad, pails in comparison to giving us a free choice and still being MAGNIFICENT ENOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH HIS WILL! What a mighty and amazing God! So what's the official answer in a nut shell? It's both! God will finish the job either way YOU CHOOSE TO GO, whether to the righteous side or the unrighteous side! Thats why we must be a people who constantly sow into the Spirit! This way we are bound to make our calling and election certain! Because be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man (or woman) sows, this will he also reap! You have a choice to make! GIVE INTO THE SIN OR NOT GIVE IN and make no mistake, if you are running headlong into wickedness it was not God's desire for you, but He is also not mocked. Remember the scripture says "He resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble." Humility is obedience, obedience is to cease from sin, ceasing from sin gives you even more power to stop the things you always thought you were bound to! But, He resists the PRIDEFUL! ALL SIN IS PRIDE! You are telling God with your actions "Other people may need to do that but not me." PRIDE PRIDE PRIDE! The Bible says if we are PRIDEFUL He will RESIST US. That word resist means "TO STAND AGAINST; TO OPPOSE." I don't know about all of you but I do not want the God of the universe opposing me! Let's stay connected to the vine! Let's reap ETERNAL LIFE!
Lord continue to reveal your truth to us! Thank you giving Your Spirit to us for revelation and guidance! I pray for everyone who will read this that it will prove profitable for them, grant all of us repentance I pray!
Thanks brothers, and sisters!
Sincerely,
Chris Goff
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