The Holy One calls to me this morning. Life has taken some serious turns of late, and I realize a new season is upon me. Things and people in life that I have held near and dear to my heart have suddenly been removed or resolved in a way that represents forms of closure to past seasons, relationships, and even my life lessons journaled, now turned to ashes.
I cannot help but wonder, "What's next?" Holiness speaks to the deepest thoughts in my mind regarding circumstantial decisions I am preparing to make: "Apart from Me you can do nothing". I realize that any plans I might make or even desire to make, in and of myself is destined to fail unless He enables and provides.
Knowing this, I have been asking the Lord for a promise out of His Word that is personal to me and one that I can take claim to in this upcoming season. The Holy One has been teaching me about His Sovereignty for some time now. Today, in answer to my request, and judging by the promise I have received, I know the lessons will continue.
God's immutable Sovereignty is a deep dark mystery. It is the least understood and most questioned Characteristic of our Creator God. God's Sovereignty seems to end every discussion, and it goes far beyond our quest to understand Him.
All the "why" questions do seem to go back unanswered to the mystery of His Sovereignty:
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why are the innocent taken and evil ones left to thrive?
Why are some people healed while others suffer the same infirmities unto flesh death?
Questions abound for things we cannot control or explain, and each one takes us back to God's Sovereignty.
As a person of faith and in a deeply personal relationship with Jesus, the Christ, the issue of God's Sovereignty comes up over and over during my journey here on earth.
Trusting in His Goodness is always challenged by the enemy of my soul. Nothing has changed since Eve was approached by a serpent with a lying tongue suggesting the Creator's motives and His rules for successful living were not in her best interests.
If we are settled in a belief that this temporal life is all there is, the reason for our hope dims as the circumstances overwhelm our desperate need for resolutions here.
However, if, as the Word of our Creator God teaches, and there is a life after this one; another place far and away from the things that cause our pain on earth, then the subject of His Sovereignty can actually draw us closer in fellowship and not repel us away from His Presence.
Who do I trust in any situation in life? Who did I trust when death and divorce knocked at my door and took someone I loved? Humanity will never have all the answers and at some point, we all will have to just trust that God's Sovereignty is ultimately good.
The story of Job has helped me resolve this issue in my own heart and mind. The ancient account of his life and trials have given us a look past the temporal into the Spirit Realm where God resides. It gives us a picture of dark created beings that also exist past all the human senses of sight, sound and touch.
This unseen realm and those dark beings must be factored into our understanding of God's Sovereignty as the Creator of everything even those things that we cannot see or explain in human terms.
This earth and all that may seem permanent due to its age is really just a temporary setting in light of eternity. The mystery and some of the "why" questions in our minds may just have to wait for God's purpose in our eternity to be revealed.
The important point I register today about Job's life and trial was the humbling fact that Job had to wait, amid all the discomfort of his losses, until God chose to speak and bring relief to his pain. Job was powerless to protect himself in or from the hard things that were brought to him. He truly suffered and, in every way, we might also suffer, but in his multiplied agonies, he chose NOT to judge THE Judge.
Job began in the human way of trusting in his own righteousness but in the end, he trusted only in the Sovereignty he learned of his Creator and saw that it was good.
The Promise I have been given for this new season in my life is out of Isaiah 55: 8-13
Isaiah 55:8-13
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the Sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
Have you asked the Lord for a personal promise to hold onto in this month, year, day or season? Growing in intimacy with The GREAT I AM, requires surrender so why not ask for a promise to make that a delight?
The Holy Spirit is Calling. Can you hear Him?
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