A GREAT DELUSION
Monday – January 30, 2017
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. I trust that your weekend was restful and productive for you and the Kingdom of God. Those are not mutually exclusive objectives. Whatever is good for you is good for the Kingdom of God, and whatever is good for the Kingdom of God is good for you. We are family of a marvelous (wonderful, amazing, stunning, spectacular, awe-inspiring, fabulous, superb, breathtaking, fantastic, impressive, magnificent, outstanding, and brilliant) God.
There is a great delusion (misunderstanding, misconception, fallacy, myth) in the Church. That great delusion is that God is in control of all things. Now, if any person takes just a minute to think about this, saint and sinner alike, you can only but conclude that God is either doing an awful job or He is not in control of all things. I remember a man once telling me: “mister if God wants you to do something you are going to do it”. There is no question that God has the power to make anything happen but does He have the authority. Does His Word, the Holy Scripture tell that this is how God operates in our lives? As you have guessed the short answer is ‘no’. For Him to do so would violate Scripture which is sin. God is not in the sinning business, He does not break His Word under any circumstance.
Of course there are things that God is in control of and those are the things we cannot control or do not have authority over. An example would be the operations of all created matter outside of the earth and its atmospheric envelope. Even in the earth God is maintaining the natural and supernatural laws ensuring that they work as designed and that they respond to faith powered by love in obedience to the will of God. However with regard to decision making in our individual lives He takes or has zero control. He does however respect our decisions and sees to it that the laws He established function as designed in response to our decisions. For example if we reject Jesus as Lord He will respect our choice of condemnation to Hell (John 3:18). If we violate the Word of God there are consequences mainly that the door is open to the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy to some extent in our lives. On the contrary if we chose to follow Him, His Word, He will ensure that the abundance of life now and eternal life are ours to enjoy. This Truth is extraordinarily important to understand because to accept the lie, the delusion perpetrated by the enemy, is to throw our responsibility onto God. Since He is not going to do our part we are forever (in this life) without a solution. We, mankind, were created in the image and likeness of God as freewill creatures. Nothing could be clearer right in the opening act of this creation.
Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
God, Elohim (pleural God), makes a decision to make man in their own image and likeness and give them dominion (authority) over all the earth. As a side point, Elohim gives the same dominion to both men and women. At the same time that Elohim gives His authority in all the earth to this new creature in His image He also empowers the man (mankind) with supernatural power (Blessing). Associated with this authority and power Elohim gives this new creation in His image seven mandates or orders or commands. The first four commands are found in Genesis 1:28 and the final three are found in the following passage.
Genesis 2:15-17 (KJV)
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Psalm eight confirms the Genesis account of Elohim giving man authority (dominion) and making His very own power (The Blessing) available to mankind.
Psalm 8:4-6 (KJV)
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
The word ‘angels’ in verse five above is mistranslated since the Hebrew word is the same one translated God in Genesis 1:1 and is transliterated from Hebrew to English as Elohim. So we see a fellowship relationship between God and man and that this man is just a little lower than God (Elohim). Let me ask a couple of questions before we move on. Who is responsible for choosing to exercise dominion or not exercise dominion? The man (mankind) created just a little lower than Elohim. Who is responsible to align with Elohim to release the Blessing? The man (mankind) created just a little lower than Elohim. Brother and sister the answer has not changed. I will now move to the first example of a man/woman making a decision (exercise of authority/dominion) contrary to the Word of God. When they did so the Blessing was not released, instead the curse was released. Same thing today.
Genesis 3:6 (KJV)
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
This new creation in the image and likeness of Elohim choses to sin, exercises freewill, authority or control over his/her own actions. And there were consequences, the curse enters the earth as hordes of demons flood the earth as this man changes gods, from Elohim to the serpent. The Blessing is no longer available to every man until the Day of Pentecost which won’t come for some four thousand years. Man retained authority but it is all too frequently subjugated to the enemy therefore it is being discharged in a wicked way. The same enemy who got Adam to accept his twisted (wicked) ideas over God’s ideas has continued to do so across the millennia to this day. Once any one of us accepts a deception of the enemy as the truth he will run us around by the nose and we will wonder why all the stealing, killing, and destroying is happening in our lives. The deception I am talking about today is the deception that God is in control and we just have to leave it to Him. So long as we buy the lies, Satan goes about kicking our teeth in. I am sure God must get frustrated waiting for us to decree a thing in Jesus name so that He can perform it but we sit there begging Him to do something and confess that He is in charge.
At no time does God act independent of a man in the earth even with such important matters as the redemption, the catching away of the Church, the Tribulation, the Second Advent, the Millennial Reign of Christ, or even the coming of the New Heaven and New Earth.
Amos 3:7 (KJV)
7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
When Jesus came as the Lamb of God and paid the price of sin which only He could do all authority was given to Jesus in Heaven and in earth and He immediately delegated that authority to those born from above. Although man retained the authority given in the beginning, because he had no relationship with God, there was no Blessing to make it so. We know that there are many examples of people in Covenant with God who exercised authority and the Power of God backed them up but this was not available to the people as a whole. Now, in the name of Jesus our authority (given by God without restriction) will bring its performance because we have relationship in Christ Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus put us back into right standing, relationship with God and got the Blessing back as we see in Acts chapter two. The Blessing is the power of God to enforce on a supernatural level the authority of man exercised according to the will of God. As I bring this extraordinarily important teaching to an end I want to give a few examples of the freewill of man therefore the exercise of control. Now unfortunately this exercise of control in our own lives, the exercise of freewill may have very significant consequences for others in the earth, think about the consequences of Job’s thoughts, words, and actions in fear. Turn to Deuteronomy twenty-eight.
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (KJV)
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
Who is in charge of our listening (hearken), who is in charge of our observing, and who is in charge of our doing His commandments? We are! If we do not “hearken diligently” or “observe” and “do all his commandments” do we get the blessing? The answer is a big fat NO! So who is in control of the Blessing or the curse operating in our life? We are! Just a few verses later God tells how to get the curse operating in our life.
Deuteronomy 28:14-15 (KJV)
14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
Notice where it says “to go after other gods to serve them” that is the high places (ideas we place above the Word of God) I often speak of. We have an initiating role to play in every aspect of this life and God has graciously given us His Word to make the role and the path brilliant with light. This idea of man in control is everywhere in the Bible yet you will hear that God is in control in almost any Church you might enter this Sunday and you may be the one saying it. It is blasphemy in my ears and in the ears of God. When we discharged our responsibility then we can cast the care of it onto the Lord and He will take control and perform it. However, we must cast it completely onto Him and stand back, getting our thoughts, words, and actions off of it giving Him space to work. Consider the next verse.
2 Peter 1:2 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
So how do we have grace and peace multiplied in our lives? The answer is “through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,” Does God just dump this knowledge into our thinking? Who has to diligently acquire this knowledge? Each and every one of us by our own choice must expend the effort to obtain this knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Next time you hear you saying “God is in control” slap your mouth. As I said above, there is a way to give Him control over situations in our lives and that is by obeying the leadership of the Spirit in our assignments and casting the cares of this world onto Him.
1 Peter 5:5-9 (KJV)
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
You see He will care for us but that occurs only in the midst of our obedience. Notice in order not to be one that is devoured by the roaring lion (the devil) we must be submissive to the elders, respect one another, walk in humility, receive God’s Grace, submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, allow Him to promote us, then we can cast the cares of life onto Him and He will handle them, remaining alert to the wiles of the devil, we must at all times be resisting his attempts to establish a high place in our thinking. We resist him by faith meaning we steadfastly believe God and reject anything that even smells sideways the Word of God. The enemy will tempt each of us to go back to God about something we have decreed (not begged for). A second decree is a lack of faith.
I hope that this somewhat lengthy teaching has brought clarity to a topic that will literally change your life for the better and bring glory to God.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
