God without limits. . . .

 

Yesterday I read about the power of God in that He can do anything, yet that power corresponds with His purposes. For example, He could have made us to have three heads, but this did not fit with His wisdom or His will. For this reason, I take caution when someone says God will or will not do something, or that things just happen without Him being involved.

There are some who put the actions of God into time categories called dispensations. What happens in each time period is often restricted to that era only. For instance, the miracles done by the apostles don’t happen now that all of them are dead. In other words, these gifts were restricted to only a certain group. The reasoning varies. One writer says:

In Acts 8:5–18 we read of the apostles coming to Samaria to communicate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the believers there. Philip, though he possessed those gifts, could not communicate them, because Philip was not an apostle. If the gifts could only be communicated by an apostle, they must have ceased when the last of the apostles died. There is no need for such gifts today.

This assumes that ‘those gifts’ meaning miracles, healing, and speaking in tongues, were only done by the apostles, and because they are not emphasized in later NT books, they must have stopped happening. It also assumes they are not needed today, yet fail to explain why they still happen.

I’ve heard said that any instance of such things is fake or from human or demonic sources. Since the enemy “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) as do false teachers, this can happen. Cults also do their best to seem like genuine believers, so imitation is not a shock.

However, what about genuine healings? What about those who have visions of Jesus and are saved without a preacher? What about those who speak in tongues and seem to follow all the NT rules for it? We see the fakes with often bizarre behavior and tend to lump them together, but is that reason to say there is no need for these gifts? One writer says:

We have the complete inspired revelation of God in Holy Scripture (2 Peter 1:9–21). Since there are no forthcoming revelations from God, there is no need for miraculous signs to confirm such revelations. The Word of God is complete, final and sufficient.

I agree, but is it possible that these and other gifts of the Holy Spirit are still given but for a different reason? Instead of using them to confirm the Word of God (or to confirm personal theories) perhaps God heals people because they ask Him to heal them? Because He loves to bless them? To the sick He says:

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5:16)

Perhaps God still does miracles so that He will be glorified? When Jesus was asked who sinned to cause a man to be born blind, He replied, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3) Who are we to limit what God will do to bring glory to Himself? Medical explanations for healings still wind up being “We don’t know” and “Only God could do this.”

As for tongues, I know people who have deeply struggled with problems that put them in that “I don’t know how to pray” mode that the Bible says can happen. “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26–27) These people testify that they wound up praying in tongues, not forced or even sought, yet this was a comfort that God was praying for them.

That God can do whatever He wants to do is a comfort to me. I cannot limit Him. He could create another world if He wanted to, or even grant me the ability to understand what and why He does anything. He can speak through a donkey, make the sun move backwards, and rule the universe. Who am I to say He no longer heals, does miracles, or any other marvel?

PRAY: Jesus, there are false teachers on both sides of this issue. Enable me to trust You and keep reading Your Word, asking for what I need to know and do that You are glorified. Grant me also discernment so I will not make assumptions or put any limits on Your power or Your choices.

God only wise…

What a great vanity for a glow-worm to boast that is as full of light as the sun — leaving its proper place only to fall into confusion and thicken its own darkness. This is God's lesson again,  another instruction in the folly of thinking I can run my own life in even the least dimension without needing the wisdom of God. Such epitome of pride.

Charnock jolts me by saying how humans, by pushing the wisdom of God aside in Eden, got a crack in the head which has continued more than five thousand years. And we can feel so secure with our heads, not realizing they do not work as our Creator intended.

You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” (Isaiah 47:10)

To be guided by my wisdom is to be led by a blind leader, even to follow a traitor and enemy to God and ourselves. My prudence often proves hurtful to me as it fails even when I thought I was okay and had no idea that my glowing was that of a mere bug in the scheme of things.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5–8)

To fear the Lord and depart from evil is inconsistent with my conceit of my own wisdom, and totally inconsistent with trusting in the Lord with all my heart. It is God-playing to trust my own wit as if it were equal with or superior to the wisdom of God. The only solution God gives:

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (1 Corinthians 3:18)

The true way to wisdom is to be sensible of my own weakness, and it is not merely dropping the comparison but realizing there is no comparison. Since the fall, human wisdom is the wisdom of the serpent without the innocence of the dove. It flows from self-love, runs into self-interest. It is the wisdom of the flesh, and a choice — when I cannot bother with God, but do my own thing. But my ‘best’ wisdom is imperfect, a mere nothing and vanity. How even dare I compare myself in any way with God? If a holy and innocent wisdom is to be had, I must fill my empty well from His pure fountain.

The OT speaks that even if “many years teach wisdom, it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes us understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.” (Job 32:7–9) Even a child can be a vessel for the wisdom of God.

The NT affirms: “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20)

PRAY: Such shame to think that I can do anything apart from seeking Your face and mind. It is through Your precepts I get understanding and how I learn to hate every false way. Whatsoever comes from You is always wise. All that You do in this world is wise, good, righteous; because You are essentially wise, good and righteous. And the gospel is evidence of our folly — for if You told me Your Son should be crucified, I would think it cruel and unjust. How can goodness and the only One who kept the law die for those who violate it? Yet as Your wisdom unravelled Your plan, You show the marvel of how You put together justice and mercy, love and wisdom, no matter how absurd it appeared to the ‘whacked in the head’ reasoning of humans, me included. Put my foolish pride where it belongs. Replace it with greater reliance on You, including the things I think I can handle without You. And to the only wise God be glory, through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.

God’s wisdom

 

Some Canadians are quite stirred up by the next American leader’s jesting that Canada should be the next state of his country. At the same time, the Canadian leader is rapidly losing the confidence of voters and even those who elected him. Today’s newspaper gave an account of discussions between these two leaders. When one joked about taking over the other, the unpopular leader in Canada quipped in return that they could work out a trade, maybe take two states in trade. At that, all talks about a take-over ended and I chuckled.

Then I read this in Charnock’s book in a section about the wisdom of God:

The wisdom of God hath given to men diverse offices, set them its diverse places; some have more honorable charges, some meaner. Not to give that respect their offices and places call for, is to quarrel with the wisdom of God, and overturn the rank and order wherein he has placed things. It is unfit we should affront God in the disposal of his creatures, and intimate to him… that he had done more wisely in placing another, and that he hath done foolishly in placing this or that man in such a charge. Sometimes men are unworthy the place they fill; they may be set there in judgment to themselves and others: but the wisdom of God in his management of things, is to be honored and regarded.

My time with God each morning is not about politics but to focus on Him and His will. All human leaders have flaws, but this response to what seems a joke to some and a threat to others, was met in such a way that it made me wonder if this was one reason the Canadian leader was given his place. His response showed wisdom in humor. It also pointed me to this verse in today’s readings:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

Charnock says we trust the physician’s skill with our bodies, and the lawyer’s counsel with our estates; but are loath to rely upon God for the concerns of our lives. This applies to many concerns, political issues included. I can list a few things in my own life that I’ve questioned why God allowed such events, or prevented some desires. The Word of God and godly people give answers that show me that my Sovereign God is not joking about anything. His judgments and plans are incomprehensibly wise. The ways He carries them out are as wise as His resolve to do what He does. I am almost always unable to understand His methods, never mind His reasons, because His judgments and ways are both unsearchable.

But God understands my griefs. He knows exactly what I need. None of His remedies are beyond His skill. I might be bewildered and feel hopeless, or think at times that He isn’t caring that I am distressed, or that there is no way this can be a good thing, but He reminds me;

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

From His Word and my experiences with Him, I know that when I cannot prevent harm or danger, He knows how. If I can’t seem to escape evil or sorrow or trouble, He knows how to deliver me. He means to do what He promises to do, no matter how deep I might dig myself into a hole:

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Timothy 1:15)

This world is sinful, guilty and cursed, and His solution is Jesus Christ. I’m so amazed that He included me in this gracious gift.

He also makes clear that Jesus is the only way, just as He declared: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) The deeper He makes Himself known to me, the more I understand why He is the only Savior, not me or any other way.

PRAY: Oh Lord, You hear my questions and You understand my desire to know why when it comes to Your dealings with me, and with others. But You also know what I need to know, and what I do not need to know. You sometimes put words in my mouth that startle even me, yet You sometimes will not allow me to say anything. Trusting your wisdom is often a challenge, yet You grant the gift of faith that I may bow to Your will without any outcry. I am amazed at Your goodness and also at Your wisdom.