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God is constantly moving, turning, maneuvering, and establishing all things in His providence toward His intended aim. Even, and especially, when you cannot see Him at all.
Like the biblical character Job, you may scratch your head and whisper quietly enough so that no one around you hears your fear. Like Job, you may wonder where God even is. Like Job, you may mumble quietly, “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him” (Job 23:8–9 niv).
Read Job 23
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior.” (Isa. 43:1b–3a)
“I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you.” (Isa. 46:4)
“I will go before you and level the uneven places; I will shatter the bronze doors and cut the iron bars in two. I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches from secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord. I am the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.” (Isa. 45:2–3)
“Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.” (Deut. 31:6)
“Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9)
The kingdom agenda, then, may be defined as the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life. That has serious implications for us. The reason so many of us believers are struggling is that we want God to bless our agenda rather than us fulfilling His. We want God to okay our plans rather than our fulfilling His.
Trusting Jesus Christ for your salvation will get you to heaven. But trusting Jesus Christ for your salvation doesn’t automatically get heaven to come down to you. Getting into God’s kingdom is through conversion, but getting God’s kingdom into the manifestations of your everyday life comes through commitment and discipleship.
There are times when God will allow or even cause things to happen that seemingly appear to be in contradiction to what He wants. For God to achieve His ultimate sovereign purposes, He will at times providentially allow things to take place that are outside of His preferences. This is because in His sovereignty, God will allow things He does not prefer in order to accomplish His ultimate plan.
Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. (Isa. 45:15 niv) A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps. (Prov. 16:9) Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the Lord’s decree will prevail. (Prov. 19:21) No wisdom, no understanding, and no counsel will prevail against the Lord. (Prov. 21:30) The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. (Ps. 33:10–11 niv)
God is sovereign, yes. But because He has granted freedom to us as human beings, He has to incorporate providential involvement in order to achieve His sovereignty.
This includes even using (never condoning) sin, sinners, and Satan to accomplish His sovereign purposes.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (nasb).
Yet the principle of providence argues that God has not abandoned the world, but rather works within His creation to cause everything to conform to His unchangeable will.
Colossians 1:17 says clearly, “He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.”
Acts 17 records: The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyo...
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There is nothing that you have received that was not either created by God or created by things that God created.
Ephesians chapter 1 highlights this for us: In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace . . . to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory . . . with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (vv. 4b–6a, 12, 14b nasb)
The primary reason God is working everything out toward His intended outcome is “to the praise of His glory.” God sets about to guarantee all that He has created fulfills and satisfies its created purpose, which is to bring glory back to Himself.
We are made for God. Our lives are not about us; they are about Him and His glory.
There is another reason, though, why God causes all things to work together. He does it for His glory, yes, but He also does it for us—for good.
Thus, God is also seeking to bring about benefits and blessings in our own lives as well, in the lives of those who love Him and walk according to the paths of His purpose.
Friend, nothing comes to you that doesn’t pass through God’s providential fingers first.
(Num. 22:21–39).
(Esther 6:1).
(Josh. 6:1–20).
What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For he tells Moses, “I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.” So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. (Rom. 9:14–18)
Friend, the greatest truth you can ever know about God (next to hearing and receiving the message of salvation) is His sovereignty. Because when you know that God is in control—even of those things that appear to be out of control—you are able to move through life benefiting from the blessings of assurance, peace, and self-control.
Psalm 115:3 tells us, “Our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases.”
While Scripture teaches soundly on God’s sovereignty, it also teaches that within God’s sovereignty, our decisions are used as part of the movements in history. God doesn’t dismiss what we do; He uses it.
Lamentations 3:37–38 which says: Who is there who speaks and it happens, unless the Lord has ordained it? Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High? It is both adversity and good that come from the Lord, and these are largely dependent upon our own choices.
God will also often use negative situations in life in order to develop within His children a greater resolve, refinement, and maturity (James 1:3; Rom. 5:4).
Lamentations 3:32 tells us, “For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness” (nasb).
Nehemiah 2:6
The king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me [Nehemiah], “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.
God has positioned you where you are as well. It may not make sense to you right now. But if you will learn to trust His heart even when you cannot spot His hand, you will discover—like Esther—that He knows the path you are taking and how to get you where He wants you to be so that you can fulfill your greatest level of kingdom impact in your own legacy.
It is in those times when we offer God only partial obedience that we allow the fruit of our unaddressed sin to linger in our lives and circumstances much longer than it ever should. When you or I fail to fully deal with something that God told us to deal with long ago, we will continue to face the repercussions from it.
In order to pull off this goal, Satan uses people and systems to seek to destroy the program, promises, and purposes of God.
What God wants to know before He gives you spiritual responsibility is that He can trust you to have the wisdom and self-restraint to use the spiritual weapons of warfare when the going gets tough. He wants to know that the spiritual won’t be thrown aside when the natural issues of life show up.
It’s only when you have demonstrated a reliance on spiritual weapons for spiritual battles that God is going to release you for your time, your season—your ultimate purpose in life.
Bear in mind that whenever God creates a gap before any evil is about to occur, that gap is always good news in a bad situation. Recall how God told Nineveh through Jonah that in forty days, Nineveh would be destroyed. Why didn’t He just destroy them right then and there? Because He left open a window between judgment declared and judgment implemented. He left open a window of grace, where His mercy, movement, and miracles could still turn things around (Jonah 3:4).
You know that it is time for God to move you to your ultimate purpose when He gives you a position that enables you to leverage the influence He’s given you for the advancement of His kingdom.
God always blesses you to be a blessing. Not so the blessing will end with you, but so it will flow through you.
This is because, biblically speaking, a blessing is only a blessing when it can flow through you and not just to you. In Genesis 12:2, God told Abraham, “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”
When there is little or no concern for God’s kingdom in the use of the blessings He has given to you, you have literally just cut off your blessing. In fact, many people watch their blessings become a curse when they choose to hoard them for personal gain rather than kingdom expansion.
We place personal preservation ahead of kingdom expansion, all in the name of security. Yet what we are doing is also what Esther did when we refuse to take risks for God’s agenda. We are forgetting that if it wasn’t for the goodness of God in the first place, we wouldn’t be where we are.
Your life—my life—Esther’s life—all of our lives are about the kingdom of God. When we lose sight of that, we’ve missed God’s plan and program in history. As Deuteronomy 8:18 states, “But remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your fathers, as it is today.”
One of the reasons why God often doesn’t do much with His people is that they aren’t willing to be used by Him. They’re just free sand with no purpose, intention, focus, or skill. They are just hanging out somewhere. What God is looking for is Silicon Valley Saints—saints who have learned that their value is tied to the extent of their usefulness in His kingdom. What good is a refrigerator that doesn’t keep food cold? Or a stove that won’t heat up food?
Likewise, your usefulness to the Lord and His agenda determines the providential pathway He leads you on. Will you take the goodies and run? Or will you, like a wise businessperson, reinvest the assets of blessings He gives you in order to build a greater opportunity for growth, influence, and impact than ever before?
