God is the Lord of ALL life & is sovereign over all things:
Dark, light, peace, calamity, pain, and joy.
By Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17
The very airwaves that Satan uses to deceive are The Lord’s. The tactics of the enemy belong to the Lord…
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1
Today Satan is “an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14), and his devils are “ministers of righteousness” (v. 15). They have occupied teachingg “doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1), so they are not wreaking mayhem in the material realm.
Nothing of His creation operates outside of His order, which is under His complete divine authority. This is difficult for many humans to receive. The flesh gets very angry at this truth. The flesh & love of self reviles the ht of God having complete authority over them.
He is the Lord of Life & and Death.
“To this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living”
Romasn 12:14
Job 12:10 tells us that in God’s hand is the very breath of every single living thing, the breath of all mankind. He owns the very air we breathe.
I Chronicle 29:11 tells us that God is sovereign over everything that is in the heavens and the earth and that He exalts Himself as head over ALL, with might in His hand to make great and to strengthen everyone that He pleases to strengthen.
He doesn’t just say that He “allows” darkness & calamity: He says He creates it Himself.
Isaiah 45:7 God says He is: “The One forming light and also creating darkness, causing well-being and also creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.”
Isaiah 31:2 teaches that God is “wise and brings forth disaster, and does not ever retract his words.”
His words create All things.
Isaiah 47:11 says that “God Himself brings about evil and disaster upon the unrepentant
Amos 3:6 declares that when calamity occurs in a city, the Lord is the one to have done it.
Psalm 33:10,11 tell us that “The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples.”
Believers have (false) belief in their own free will, but human will is immediately nullified by the only One with truly free will, God.
He ordained beforehand the actions of ALL men. He designed every outcome, paved every step, and calculated every second of everything, whether physical or spiritual.
He gave authority to Pilate to judge the Son. (John 19:11)
He raises adversaries against His chosen ones. (Exodus 4:21; I Kings 11:14-23)
He ordained the actions of evil men by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God that they would nail Christ to the cross. (Acts 2:23)
The sovereignty of God encompasses every bit of righteousness that men do, as well as their sin. He is the very fire that comes, burning all sin within the material to either refine His chosen or consume His enemies.
Humans don’t have personal experience being Sovereign, we have never known what it is to do whatever we want, whenever we want, to whomever we want…
Our finiteness could never truly comprehend such Power.
Sovereignty has no limits. “Sovereign” humans are limited in sovereignty because we are but a tarnished image of God.
God has decreed that evil is for the glory of His name (character, reputation, standing & title). He has full dominion over the actions of evil men. He is dominant in all aspects.
Experiencing reality through vision of the flesh, using the wisdom of the world one cannot understand this sovereignty. No matter the evil that transpires, no matter how heinous, God has a purpose & a reason for it.
This does not in any way alleviate moral responsibility, but rather further condemns, as humans are willing actors through our words and deeds & since God is no respecter of persons, & God creates this system & creates the laws; so we can be both His created vessels & responsible for our sinfulness, simultaneously.
We can’t forget that God’s ways are NOT our ways.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:8,
