We live our lives out of our theology or understanding of God. Our demeanour, the way we carry ourselves, how we view work, rest, ministry, family, marriage, sex, relationships, people, money, giving, possessions, heaven, His kingdom, the Holy Spirit, the work that He has called us to, etc. all gets carried out from the perspective of our theology.
But let’s start with the person of God. God is not an “it” or a she. He uses the singular masculine form (He/Him) in His word to address Himself not because He is gender biased but because He has sovereignly chosen that particular reference point.
There are many things that we can discuss about pertaining to who He is but let’s deal with His omnipotence and goodness in this article. God is all-powerful. And God is good. We grasp that in theory. But sometimes we don’t live that out in a practical sense.
How so, you ask?
Well, sometimes, some of us address the devil on equal terms as God. Yes, the devil does have some level of power. But there is none like God. We sing that “You have no rival, You have no equal”, but when we face issues pertaining to spiritual warfare, our practice can sometimes be miles apart from our proclamation! Let’s never forget that the end about the devil has already been written way before his time and there is nothing he can do to stop that advancement. The devil is just but a part of the plan of God to bring about closure to what Adam did in ushering in sin and abdicating dominion to the devil during the days shortly following creation.
We need to lean in our hearts and open His word to recognise how God works and this will give us the tools to recognise the fingerprints of things that are not of Him (the evil one).
God is good (Nahum 1:7) and all things work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). This would mean that if something is not good, it is not of God. Sickness is not of God. Famine is not of God. Generational curse is not God. And while we know this for a fact, we need to navigate our lives with these truths in mind and not fall into the trap of negating His word.
What can sometimes happen to us whenever we are faced with adversity or terrible circumstances, is that we can fail to persevere in prayer and give up in leaning into His goodness altogether. It is human nature to prefer to walk away from the route of perseverance (in prayer) and accommodate the enemy’s lie that we can do nothing about it.
I recall this dry “winter” season that I had. I could almost sense Him whispering its season as a preparation for me to dig deep. During that season, almost on a daily basis, words like “you’re not going to make it through this winter” filled my mind. It was difficult and weighed on my countenance as I struggled to reconcile goodness with adversity. I even had difficult conversations with God like, “God, You already know that You will deal with this, so why not just do it now and get it over and done with?” Of course, He never did answer. But one day as I was just getting some work done, He spoke it clearly into my spirit – “Spring will come.” And it dawned on me then that winter was for a season, just like the dry wilderness with its tests that Jesus had to go through. Each of us will have dry winter seasons that we will need to hunker down and plough through till spring arrives.
With that, I persevered and true enough, spring arrived and along with it, the breakthroughs and joys of the season. As people of God, we are not exempt from hardship, difficulties and the issues of life. Yet we are called to overcome them and not allow them to negate the seeds of His word planted in our lives. I would fully understand at this juncture that you’d be saying “that is literally calling me to do something impossible.” Well, of course, and that is why we need the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us all things!