“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God is so very good; He can’t be any other way. Some have erroneously attributed sickness, disease, tragedy, storms, trouble, death, to God, saying that He must have some purpose for “allowing” these things in the life of a Christian.
No, my friend; people somehow forget there is a thief, the devil, who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth that we may have life, and have it more abundantly! (See John 10:10) Scripture also tells us that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. (I Corinthians 15:26) Sickness, tragedy, trouble, and death is not from God!
In his book, God is Good, Bill Johnson makes the point that Jesus, during His time on earth, did nothing as the Son of God, but chose to live with the restrictions of a man (See Philippians 2:7). Bill writes, “One of the most common phrases used is ‘God is in control.’ It is true that He is the Sovereign God. He reigns over all, and everything belongs to Him. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. . . but does that make Him responsible for Hitler? Is brain cancer His idea? If He is in control, then we have to credit Him with disease, earthquakes, hurricanes, and all the other calamities in life. . . While we are in charge of our own homes, not everything that happens under our roof is necessarily our idea or approved by us.” So often Christians say God has a reason for “allowing” tragedies. Bill continues, “That is lazy theology that somehow releases us from responsibility by shifting the blame to a God who put us in charge.”
We have been given authority by Jesus in Luke 10:19: Behold, I give you the
authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the
enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” We are to rule in the earth
and subdue it. Keep the snake out. Jesus said Satan comes only to steal, kill,
and destroy, but He came that we might have life, and have it in abundance
(John 10:10)! We have been made “kings and priests to His God and Father; to
Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever” (Revelation 1:6). We are
co-laborers with God our Father (I Corinthians 3:9).
Just as God spoke the creation into existence in Genesis 1, we are to speak things into existence. Even regarding receiving our own salvation, Romans 10:8-10 declares, “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Jesus says, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” (Mark 11:23) The words of our mouth are powerful when they come from the heart. Proverbs 18:21 declares this spiritual principle: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” We must speak things that agree with God’s Word; we find God’s promises in the scriptures and apply them to the mountains (obstacles) that confront us in life. Through faith and patience, we inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:12) God’s promises are words of life—never death.
“I will not sacrifice my knowledge of the goodness of God on the altar of human reasoning so that I can have an explanation for why a tragedy happened. But one thing is for sure: He is good—and He is always better than we think.” ~ Bill Johnson
Copyright 2018 Elaine Beachy
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