Does God Control Everything? Sovereignty Of God

Welcome to episode 13, lucky number 13. Here we go.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Hey, welcome to episode 13. In the previous episode, I introduced the belief of the sovereignty of God and how, in my humble opinion, I think it's one of the, the worst, um, I guess, teachings or strongholds. We're going to talk about strongholds, but I think it's one of the worst things in the body of Christ going on, it's— if it's— if sovereignty is defined wrongly, and if you're— if this is the first episode that you've picked up on, then I want to define sovereignty of God as ruler of all of the universe, heaven and earth, answering to no one. God does not have to ask for permission to do anything God wants to do. He is sovereign and control, but what that does not mean, in my opinion, is that God controls everything. Now, he could if he chose to. He could come in and change everything, but one of the— and I said God is dangerous and loving. The dangerous part of God is that he, knowing that we're gonna mess up, gives us free will anyway. I mean, how can a loving God— and some people out, well, the loving God, I mean, he's got to control everything. And so no, he does not. In my opinion, God does not control. Now he could, but he does not. And we're going to get into some scripture, we're going to get into a lot of scripture today to kind of back up what I'm talking about, really kind of in the stronghold mentality, to where you're gonna— if, if this is coming rubbing you the wrong way or kind of going against the grain a little bit. I, I'm okay with that. But let's go back to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. I want to concentrate on pulling down strongholds. That is a weapon, and, and we build up strongholds. These are high places either in our mind, in our imaginations. Part of the problem I have is, is the filter that most people are filtering their life through is, I don't think, correct. And when they start talking about Father God, 'cause Father God is not mad at you. Father God loves you. In fact, Father God is love. And we talked about in a previous episode what love is. And I could recite what love is again, and I just might do that. It's found in chapter, uh, 1 Corinthians 13. It's called the love chapter. But it says that love is patient, love is kind, Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, love is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek his own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. That's love. That's Father God. If God is love, then he is all those things. And his Spirit, the Spirit of God, is God as well. And the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, or the fruits, I'm sorry, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So those things, when we start talking about God, if you're talking about an angry or mad or, you know, somebody that's just gonna come down, and we're gonna talk about how God's got his arms folded. If that's the, if that's the image you have of God, your image is wrong. We need to change that filter because Father God loves you. You are his favorite. If he had a refrigerator, if God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. I mean, those are the things that when you start thinking about God, you need to start thinking from a standpoint, and that's that filter process and the foundation that I've talked about in a previous episode. Is the Bible. If you build your house on the word of God, which is Jesus, which is the Bible, which is God— if you build your life on the word of God and you understand that God is love and that God loves you and he wants nothing but good things— but the problem, I think, is when you, when you read Hebrews 11:6, and I think this is where kind of God gets a bad Abinadab. And I, and I understand the New Testament, Old Testament is different. He reacted differently. And we're not going to get into this on, on this lesson, but just listen to Hebrews 11:6. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Now, if you've got God with his arms folded and his forehead kind of wrinkled up, you know, looking at you, waiting on you to mess up because, you know, it's impossible to please God. So he's up there with his arms folded waiting for you to please him, and you know, you're looking at it from a wrong standard, a wrong filter. God is not angry. God's forehead is not all wrinkled up. God's just looking at you, and he's fired up just like a perfect father. Man, look at my son took another step today. I mean, that— my daughter, oh my gosh, look what she did. She just— she was kind. She Thanked me. She— I, you know, I see Father God up in heaven, Jesus at his right hand. So he takes his right elbow and hits Jesus and said, did you see that? That's my picture of God. He, he is the— he is the definition of love. And again, I've got to remind you that I did not write one word of this Bible. So when I tell you the reason I believe I think it's in the Bible, I really don't have a clue other than the way I picture it. And I picture God as being in the spirit realm, knowing that we're walking around in the physical realm, and that it's going to be a whole lot easier to react in the physical realm than the spirit realm. And again, it's going to go back, and I want to go to, to Matthew 7:13 and 14, where it says— this is Jesus talking— enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. So you have wide and narrow, you have, you have many and few. Again, I'm going back to previous episodes, and I guess it's a tease to try to get you to go back and listen to other episodes, but no one ever said this walk, this Christian walk and they shouldn't have, that it's gonna be easy. Jesus himself said it's difficult. And so tying those two together, I think everybody in heaven knows that, you know, this is kind of tough. This is kind of tough. They're using their five senses in this physical realm, but we're asking them to use faith. And so as the perfect Father, if you've ever reared a child, And I think that's— I used to say raised and someone corrected me, so I think I'm going to be— try to get into my English major mode here. But if you've ever reared a child, and while they're growing up you try to reward them when they take the action, you want them to take the action. You don't want to have to do everything for them. In fact, if you have to do everything for the child, that child is not growing up. You've got to You got to get them to start taking steps, and by taking a step, you know, they're going to have some failures. They're going to fall down, and the perfect father doesn't say, "Look, look at Greg. He fell 4 times today." No, Father God's saying, "Oh my goodness, do you believe that? Greg is walking." Greg's not walking. Greg took 2 steps and busted his butt, but Father God sees the steps. He don't see the failure. He don't see the falls. He knows we're going to fall. But what Father God wants you to do, and why it's impossible to please him, I believe he's saying, hey, come, come this way, come use faith. If you want, if you want to make Father God, you want to make Dad happy, start using your faith. That's, in my opinion, why that's impossible to please God, is he's trying to draw us into using faith. And then with that right there fresh in your mind, I want you to go to Luke 18:8 again. And I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on earth? And I, I just— that thing just went all over me when I read that, thinking, oh my goodness, is Jesus asking if when he comes, when he returns— and he's going to return, he's one day closer today than he was yesterday— but when he comes back, he's asking, will he find faith? That is a, that is a powerful question. And the whole reason why I believe that this— you have got to use faith. And Jesus declares himself the King of Kings, not the king of victims. And if you blaming everything on God and every— well, God could have done that, I guess it wasn't God's will for me to do this or me to do that— in my opinion, that just gives you an out. You don't have to try. And I know that may be a little bit harsh, and it may be a little more than what you wanted to hear, but we're talking warrior stuff here. You know, my favorite scripture is Revelation 12:11, and that is a warrior scripture. So we're in a battle here. If you're, if you're not ready to fight, and if this makes you uncomfortable, you may not enjoy this episode or this podcast. But we are in a battle, and we are in a battle, and our, our main goal is to give glory to God. And ultimately what we want to do, and what I want to help you do and myself, is to hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." But we can't do it blaming God. I don't think we're going to get up there to heaven and God's going to say, "Well, you didn't use faith, but well done, my good and faithful servant." I mean, I don't think that's going to happen. So here we go. The whole reason I started this is I have been battling a toothache And this is a little insider podcast baseball. I'm a couple of— 2 or 3 episodes ahead of when I post it. I've got to get a little head start. I'm doing an episode every day, but it took me a while to get it into Apple. You don't care, but it's been 2 or 3 days since I've seen my colleagues and they asked me about, you know, how I was doing. And then I ranted and raved because I told you, you know, they know I'm a fanatic. But, you know, I don't think that people know how fanatical I am. You know, just my everyday walk, my Christian walk. I, I try to be a little more relatable, but I told them that I've been battling this toothache and I've been battling it for 4 or 5 days. And I know I can go to the dentist and I know that I can go get a shot if it's an abscess or if it's something. But I'm telling you, the pain is up the back of my head. And it, I mean, it was difficult to blink. And I've been battling that. And so I'm using my faith. I am cursing that. And I'm telling that ache to get out of my body. And I'm getting after it in faith. You know, I mean, I know I can use my 5 senses. And I know I can go to the dentist. And I know that I can take some medicine. But I also know that by his stripes I'm healed, and I'm just calling on those stripes. And I've got to tell you that in the last 2 days, my tooth don't hurt near as bad as it did. Now, it hurt pretty good for 3 or 4 days, but it's a— I mean, it's a process with me. It's, it's me walking this faith. And if you don't exercise your faith muscle, I mean, we're just— it's going to atrophy. And I just believe that a lot of us, you know, and it's painful, I'm telling you, it's so much easier to just get a shot and a pill. And even though a root canal is bad, it's over. But I'm telling you, my tooth is fine. And it's, it's just, I believe it's because I base it on the word of God. And I just started speaking to that tooth. And, you know, because in Mark 11, I think it's 22, 23, it says, say unto the mountain, be thou removed and cast into the sea. One of our anchor scriptures. And do not doubt in your heart, but believe what you say. You shall have whatever it is you say. And I'm saying to this tooth, I want you healed. That is— and that's why that tooth's being healed. It's not because of anything wonderful, it's because of what God has already done. That's called the grace of God, and you're saved by grace through faith. You're also healed by grace through faith. You've got to use faith, and that's the whole purpose of this podcast, is to get you in the Word and get you exercising that faith muscle. And I know I say this all the time, I say that's the whole purpose of this podcast, but it is. And this is the whole purpose, is to encourage you in the word of God. And it— by it saying it's impossible to please God without faith, it's not because he's got his arms folded. It's actually— I see God with his arms out saying, take another step. Taking it like a perfect God on a baby, little baby guy, little baby Greg trying to heal this tooth. And he's saying, just stay with it. I know it hurts. I know that tooth hurts, but stay with it. Take another step. Take it. And, and over the course of 3 or 4 days, my tooth is a whole lot better. And I'm planning on, by the time I put this podcast up on the web, that it is going to be fine. So I didn't tell you all that to talk about my tooth, but I do want to give you a behind the scenes of how how a fanatic or how someone that's been in this for 28 years. This is— I take the Word of God and I actually apply it to my life because I want, I want God to say, "Well done." But I also, if Jesus was to come back today, I want him at least see somebody doing, using faith. And he can look at me and go, "Greg, you should have gone to the dentist." That's probably what he's going to say. But I, I, I'm using my faith and my tooth is better. So it ain't all the way well, and I, I don't know why it wasn't just an instant healing. I've had instant healings before, and we're going to talk about all that. I know it's probably freaked 3/4 of you out, but I'm a fanatic and I am— this is a battle, guys. This is not— Satan is a punk and he come to steal, kill, and destroy. And fear is real, and doubt and all of this garbage that's being piled onto us. We need some good news, and we need some good— a good word every now and then coming into your life. And this is a lot longer than I wanted to go, but tomorrow I'm gonna tell you— I'm gonna tell you about the bumper sticker.

Whoo!

I'm gonna tell you about the bumper sticker that got me— changed my whole viewpoint and has got me— that's what, that's what really created— that was the seed or the entry, the jumping-off point where I had to do something. So I'm going to tell you about that bumper sticker tomorrow, but until then, I just want to thank you. I don't think I'm— because I've gone on so long, I'm gonna have to just tell my sponsor we're not going to do no sponsorship today. So go buy 1211 Apparel and grab something really nice. But if not, thanks again for making it this far if you've made it, and I'll see you on the next podcast. Well, actually, I meant to say I'll see you on the next episode, but in all honesty, I probably won't see you at all. But thanks for listening.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.