God Is In Control? Part 2

It was pointed out in our Alpha course, that Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy Will Be Done" thus God's will isn't always being done, unless we get involved. If God's will already is done then we don't need to pray that prayer.

We think it should be so easy. Everything that comes is God's will sent to teach us something and all we have to do is accept things as from God and learn. So, that prayer means acceptance of God's will then. No. That prayer is asking God for his will to be done. It is a prayer asking God to move, to change things.

To ask for God's will to be done we first need to be sure that it is God's will that we want. We need to be sure that God is truly good.

There are those lovers of God who believe He is good who find themselves under attack. In my parents' church there is a pastor who had been on the mission field in Madagascar and came home because of a disease. I have been to their church numerous times lately and have seen this pastor again. I remembered there was something special about him from the old days when I also went to their church when I lived at home. My mother lent me a book he wrote and in it I read a chapter on deliverance for the Madagascar natives from the evil spirits that come from their ancient religious beliefs. He tells about how the people were delivered in the name of Jesus.

The people of my parents church are not pentecostal, or inclined towards acceptance of supernatural gifts. Nevertheless, faced with the need for confronting the supernatural occult powers of the ancient religion of the Africans, this dear pastor found the essentials that could overcome.

This dear pastor was attacked with a disease and had to leave the mission field.

In this same church I have a dear old friend from our teen years when we were in the youth group, who got cancer and the radiation damaged her heart. She had hands laid on her and the cancer went away, but the remaining damage to her heart is life threatening. She is the one person in the church who is a visionary. She has tried to hold a prayer meeting in her home because she wants to see growth in the church, but the church has been slow to respond. She has a sincere heart for God and her life is under attack.

My mother has a friend whose son is a missionary. She has other sons, but the son who is on the mission field is the one who is faced with a paralyzing illness.

I have a friend from church who prays for people and counsels them. She has a vision for restoring the limbs of war veterans and others who have lost body parts. She herself has diabetes and badly damaged legs and feet. She wears braces on her legs and is wheeled into hospitals where she goes to pray for the sick. She keeps believing for her own healing. She keeps getting attacked. She has had numerous attacks on her own body, and her husband and son both died on her recently. Her son was one of two sons who was most passionate about God and was also a provider for a wife and two daughters. He was just starting to see victory in his life over his problems in health and finances. She keeps believing, but she has an uphill battle. She is aware of her enemy, and does not accept the negative things that have come into her life as coming from God.

It is a staggering reality to recognize just how much of a price one pays to love God, to love the truth and to fight for it. In my own life, I cannot believe when I look back how tangible the enemy that has come against me in my quest for my own victories. But I have had to fight for good to prevail over evil. I have had to fight for God's will over Satan's will. That is why I don't think that God is automatically in control.

My friend from my parents' church (with heart damage) and I have talked about this. We talked about the passage in Hebrews that says the men of old died in faith never having seen things that they hoped for, and would only see in heaven. I said it is kind of like the founders of the United States who died with the vision of America. They didn't get to live it, but they could see it one day. Abraham and other founders could see the glorious things they were contributing to one day, though they could not participate in them. We can see the power and the miracles that God's people should one day experience. My friend from my church who is in braces is doing everything she can to help everyone she can see the power of God in their lives and to experience it herself, and to pay it forward for the future generations.

It is obvious that it is possible to experience more of God's miraculous power by being in a closer position with God. The faith healers whose ministries have produced great miracles prove that. We don't have everything God would have for us without a tremendous fight. We don't have God's will done on earth without a battle that involves our own will and determination fully engaged in it. Sadly, this is a revelation missing in the earth, and my little post on my little blog is an attempt to bring that revelation to someone.

In countries that are war-torn, where Christianity is threatened and Christians are forced into hiding or are threatened with death or torture, the battle is obvious. In the West, in America, the battle is very real but subtle. We are also under constant attack, but the attacks are things like depression, or lethargy and compromise - keeping the power of God locked up and keeping a relationship to God off in one compartment of life. If Satan can have it this way, he is appeased.

In this life we never have a true victory with ease. It will always come with a price. The will of God has to be fought for. This is how it has been for me. I discovered, yes, I do love God and want his best for my life and now, oh, I have to fight an enemy for it.