The Issue of God Control

Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Going to do a show that may be a little controversial today about this God control issue. How many times have you heard the expression, “Well, God is in control”? Is that a cop-out? Is God really in control of everything? I mean, sometimes just saying that sounds sovereign and sounds worshipful and sounds respectful, but I have a lot of questions about that because what about self-will? Let's talk about that in this episode of Self Talk. I appreciate you listening. Be sure and share this with some folks. Um, you know, on the website, on the podcast website at icmcollege.org/selftalk, that's our website for the podcast and there you can get all the episodes. You can also write a review and share, uh, and ask questions. That would help us tremendously if you could do that. Anyway, thanks for listening to episode 179 of Self Talk. I'm your host, that's me. Thanks

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Welcome to Self Talk, I'm Dr. Ray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time together. I thank you for technology, I thank you for each person listening to this show. I pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit would touch us and you would speak through me and you would open up our ears and our hearts to receive what you have for us today. Lord, just let me be correct in what I say. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.

Thanks for being with me today. I want to talk to you about a tough subject. It seems like every time I turn around, somebody's saying, “Well, God is in control,” and I begin to realize that um, that's a cop-out. Matter of fact, I've thought it for a long time. Is God omnipresent? Absolutely. Is He omniscient? Absolutely. Is He all power? Absolutely. But in our lives, everything that happens to us, everything that we go through, is it correct to say, “Well, God is in control,” or is that possibly a cop-out?

Let's look at uh, this particular verse, I think it's a very interesting verse, I want to go a little bit deeper with that. In Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in our image according to our likeness; let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every keep creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’” So God made man in His image and gave man an assignment and gave him authority and rule over the earth. Well, that rule is not the rule of a puppet. He did not make man as a robot to do every single thing that God orchestrated him to do. It's very clear that He made man in His own image and He gave man free will and the ability to choose. As a matter of fact, you go to the Garden of Eden and you see where Adam and Eve made a really bad choice and they, they faced the consequence of that. Now, if they had– if God was in control, why would they have eaten the forbidden fruit? If God is in control, why are people abused? If God is in control, why is there abortion? If God is in control why was there Adolf Hitler? If God is in control, why is our nation like it is? “Well, God's in control. God's in control.” No, He's not. 

Now, I don't mean this disrespectfully to God. What I mean is God has given you the ability to control and as men, we can choose to worship Him, we can choose not to sin and to obey God, and we can choose to love God, and we can choose to praise God, and we can choose to follow His Commandments, or we can choose not to. Now, when I do something that I shouldn't do, that's on me. I controlled that, I controlled my actions. I do things I shouldn't do all the time, so do you. We all, you know, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so sin is a choice, right? I choose to do that. So if I say, “Well, God is in control,” am I blaming God for my sin? Am I blaming God for abortion? Am I blaming God for the Holocaust? “Well, if God's in control…” well, you got to be careful with that because God in His all-powerful being created man with a self-will and the ability to choose. 

Now, one of the reasons He did that and I think maybe the most important reason God created man as a free-will being is because God wanted us to worship, praise, and love Him. What kind of relationship would God have with us if we were just programmed to automatically obey Him and love Him instead of choosing to love Him? You see, if love is not given freely by choice, it's not really love at all so when God created man, He created us the– with the ability to freely - here's that word again - freely love Him, freely choose Him, freely obey Him, and freely disobey Him. God made a…God made a…He took a gamble. You can– might want to say, He said, “You know what, I'm going to give man, I'm going to give man free will. I'm going to give him instructions, I'm, I'm going to give him the Bible, I'm going to give him instructions, I'm going to give him commandments, I'm going to tell him what I expect but I'm not going to force him to do it. I want him to do it out of love and out of obedience.” So man has a free will and that explains why we see so many bad things in our world. 

To say God is in control is like blaming God for all the bad in our world. It's not God's fault that men do awful things, it's not God's fault that we have wars, it's not God's fault that we have all this perversion and then celebrate - celebration of perversion - it's not God's fault, it's our fault. It's not God's fault or God's lack of control that I do things I shouldn't do, it's not God's lack of control that you do things you shouldn't do. God could control us if He wanted to, God could control everything if He wanted to, but God gave man a free will. And then, which is the most incredible thing is God gave man freedom to choose salvation, freedom to choose a relationship with Him, freedom to choose eternal life, freedom to be with Him forever ever by choice. He didn't control that. That's why I truly hate the doctrine of predestination where God has already decided who's going to go to heaven and who's not. No, God's will is for us all to go to heaven, but He gives us a choice. Those that– God said in John 3:16, Jesus said, for those– “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten son, whosoever…” chooses to believe in Him, whoever “...believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” So I have a choice to believe in Jesus. I have a choice to accept His forgiveness, I have a choice to accept my salvation, I have a choice to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that's my wonderful choice. God didn't force me, He didn't choose me and make me do it and He didn't also choose who was not going to do it. He gives us a free choice. 

So freedom…of will, free will, doesn't mean that God's not all-powerful, it just means in His all-powerful nature God made a decision when He created us to give us freedom to choose. God created men and women with freedom to make an intelligent choice and sometimes we do stuff that's not so intelligent. I hope this is making sense to you. So we got to be careful with the expression God is in control because I've seen people - I really think they use that in a way to blame God for everything that's happening. “Well, God's in control, you know, we, we, you know, I just lost my job and my, my wife divorced me and my kids left me, well, God's in control.” No, that was not God's will, that was fallen man doing what fallen man does. that was the sin nature being the sin nature. It wasn't God doing it, it was man doing it. 

So God in His sovereignty gave us free will. Now, does God know the choices we're going to make? He does. You see, God is the Alpha and the Omega who was and is and is to come which means God is eternal, He's timeless. God knows the mistakes we're going to make in the future. Just because He knows what's going to happen in the future does not mean that's His will. God gave– He created the world and He has let the world make a choice. Man. He created man, let man make choice– choices to, to love, a choice to give, a choice to, to worship, a choice to praise, a choice to obey. He gave us that ability which is incredible. Can God intervene and change things? He can. He really can. And you know, it grieves God when His beloved creation makes these horrible choices and chooses to sin and do things that rebel against Him. It grieves Him. He, He's given us a savior and He's given us the ability to confess our sins, who's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He's given us that freedom. 

And so God in His sovereignty, God is all powerful but our sovereign God has created us with the freedom to make choices, so be careful that you're not blaming your choices and the choices of those around you on God. It's not God's fault, it's man's fault. Is God powerful? Absolutely. Is He the creator? Absolutely. Could God wipe us out with a snap of His finger? Absolutely. Could God force us to do– force us to worship Him? Force us to praise Him? He could, but that's not true love. God did not create us to be programmable robots, He created us as living, thinking beings with a conscience so we could choose to love Him, choose to worship Him, choose to obey Him, choose to share the message of Jesus Christ, choose love. It's a choice, it's freedom that He created in us. He was so powerful, He said, “I want to create man with the freedom to love and worship and obey Me. I'm not going to–” God decided not to program us and not to force us but to allow us to do what we want to do and hopefully make the right choices.

You know, my children…I love them with all my heart and I taught them the best I could and I, and I shared the Lord with them to the best of my ability. But at some point, I can't– they get, they're older, they're mature now, they're, they're, they're raised and they got their own families. I wish I could control them, but I don't. I allow them to make their own choices. There is a spirit of control that's in the world and that spirit of control is a manipulating spirit. It's a Jezebel Spirit that tries to control people against their will and causes a lot of confusion, a lot of chaos, and that has nothing to do with God at all. And unfortunately, there are people who try to control other people. That's definitely not of God, that's manipulation and it is evil. I'll say it again, it is evil and it's the Spirit of Witchcraft. And if you're around that, pray. Rebuke it, renounce it in Jesus' name, do your spiritual warfare. 

But I want you to know God is sovereign, He is all-powerful, but everything that happens through mankind is not His will. God's not in control that He is approving everything that's going on in America today or the world today. Yes, He's powerful, He's all-powerful, He's all sovereign, the Alpha and the Omega, was and is and is to come. He is, He is everything. He's everything, but He created man with the ability to make choices. He did that deliberately so we could choose love, we could choose worship, we could choose praise, we could choose obedience. And then by the ability to make choices freely, it is true love, it is that He wants. It is true worship that He wants, it is true obedience that God wants. Why? Because He gave us the freedom to choose it to do it and it grieves God when we choose things that are against His commandments, when we choose things that are out of His, out of His will. It grieves Him tremendously. It grieves Him to see what man has done but it pleases Him for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and worship and love Him. 

It pleases Him when we obey Him, it pleases Him that we are adopted as children of God joint heirs with Jesus Christ, that pleases God. And the message, the good news of Jesus Christ, it pleases God. Will we share that with other people? I hope this makes sense to you because there's so many people that want to play the God card, “Well, God's in control, God's in control. You know, whatever bad happens, God's in control. Whatever happens, God's in control,” whatever. Stop blaming God for stuff that we do, that's all I'm saying. Stop blaming God for stuff that is not his fault. It's our fault. Could He intervene and stop us? Let, let me tell you something. I read something interesting not too long ago. If God were to intervene and to stamp out all evil, He'd have to get rid of us because we've all sinned. Thank you, God, for not stamping out all evil. I'm not saying you listening to me you're evil, but I'm saying is if God get rid of all sin, all of us have sinned so we don't want to get rid of all sin because that would include us, amen. 

God loves us. He gave us freedom to make choices. I pray today that you'll make choices according to the will of God, according to His word, and you will freely choose to love God and to worship God. You only get to him through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through Me.” That's a choice, to come to God through Jesus…freely, we can do this. God's not controlling your choice right now. And if you're listening to me and you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and asked Him to forgive your sins, it's time to do it. God's not going to make you do it, He's not going to control you and force you to do it, He's given you a choice to do it and to change your life forever and have eternal life with Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit and have that peace that passes all understanding. Everything to win, everything to gain, and nothing to lose, amen. Amen. 

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time together. I thank you, Father, that you are omniscient, all-powerful, you are our Heavenly Father, you are the creator of the universe and we praise you and we worship you. And Father, forgive us for blaming you for things that is really our fault, mankind's fault. Lord we ask for you to protect us, I ask you to send your Holy Spirit to anoint us. We just speak blessings over everyone listening to the show, I speak an anointing, let the Holy Spirit touch everyone listening to the show right now. Father, we just give you praise. We sing you praise for your word, for your truth, and we give you, we thank you that you've given us a choice to receive your son, Jesus Christ, to receive His sacrifice on the cross, receive His forgiveness, receive His blessing and receive eternal life and receive adoption as children of God through Jesus. We thank you for that incredible gift and I pray all listening today if they have not made that choice, that we will freely make that choice now. Thank you, Father. In Jesus name, I pray, amen. Amen. Well, thank you again for listening to another episode of Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.

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Hey, well thank you for listening to today's show about God and control. You– we've been given a choice. You know folks, if you've prayed to accept Jesus as your savior, maybe through this podcast, you know, this prayer, it kind of goes like this, “Lord, I, I know I'm, I'm a sinner and I want salvation. I want to know that I'm saved, that I will have eternal life, I want your Holy Spirit. Lord, forgive me. I acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He died on the cross for my sins, He rose on the third day. I ask you to come into my heart. Holy Spirit, come into my heart, I receive Jesus Christ as my savior now. In the name of Jesus Christ, forgive me for my sins. Lord Jesus, I receive you now. Amen, amen.” And if you prayed this prayer, please let me hear from you. Maybe the best way is just to email me at drrayself@gmail.com. d, r, a, y, s, e, l, f at gmail.com. I would love to hear from you.

Check out my new book, it's on Amazon, it's called The Call by Dr. Ray Self. God called, you answered, this is what you need to know. Or if you'd like an autographed copy - not that my autograph is that valuable, but some people like it - you want a signed copy uh, sent directly to you, uh, we do that for just a minimum donation of $15. And you can do that probably through– the, the best way to do that is through my Cash App account because that way I, I see it immediately, and that is $drrayself, dollar sign, d, r, r, a, y, s, e, l, f, all one word. That's the Cash App, $drrayself, and I'll send you an autographed copy, um, anyway, God bless you, thank you so much for listening. I pray you have accepted Jesus and yeah, God is all-powerful, He could control everything, but out of His love for us, He's given you a choice. Make the right choice today, make it Jesus, amen. Amen. Thank you so much. God bless you.