Bill Johnson and Bethel Associate Pastor and Dean of BSSM Dann Farrelly discuss God’s sovereignty and what Bethel Church believes, understands, and teaches regarding the sovereignty of God.
god is in he’s absolutely sovereign and
that he’s in charge of everything but i
don’t credit him with hitler
i don’t i don’t credit him with uh the
disasters that take place
in the earth
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so let’s talk about uh god’s sovereignty
and how we understand god’s sovereignty
uh does he control everything is he in
charge of everything but doesn’t control
everything what are some of the ways you
think about that and understand
scripture
probably my understanding in this area
uh creates the greatest challenges for
me
in the body of christ among friends and
i have dear friends that we have
wonderful conversations again but my
approach uh is that is that god doesn’t
control everything he’s in charge of
everything
and uh uh
the way i’d illustrated say well okay
you’re a parent or you’re in charge of
your household but you’re not in control
of everything that happens you know
something additional breaks something
will happen somebody will say something
that was unkind those things aren’t
because of your influence they’re
they’re they’re they just happen because
you have a household of free will so
that’s my approach
is that god is in he’s absolutely
sovereign and that he’s in charge of
everything but i don’t credit him with
hitler
i don’t i don’t credit him with uh the
disasters that take place uh in the
earth i don’t i don’t look at these and
go well this is the plan of god who’s
devised wickedness so that his glory
could be seen for me that’s absolute
nonsense and so i look at his at his
sovereignty
scene
in that he work he’s written you and me
into a sovereign plan
and for for example uh god is not
willing
that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance
god is not willing so is it god’s will
for people to perish
no
are they perishing yes
yeah why because there’s
there’s a wiggle room in there somewhere
yeah where where we have some measure of
influence on the outcome if if for
example we decide let’s just say you and
i represented the entire church we
decide we’re not going to evangelize one
nation
well then there’s a whole bunch of
people that don’t come to know christ
now i have friends who would say well
that was god’s will
that i struggle with i started with that
because
he has imparted
an understanding of his heart
and to grace to do what what he assigned
us to do and that is to go into all the
world preach the gospel that’s our
responsibility
and wherever
prayer goes into
a missions effort and then missionaries
go in or evangelists or whatever go into
that effort there’s a harvest of souls
that you don’t get
yeah you know angels are not assigned to
preach the gospel we are
you know jesus could do it better
himself you just show up you know and
preach and angels could do it better i’m
sure
you know that
show up in their magnificence oh of of
course
they got a lot of static too sometimes
from people like samson’s parents or
chris gideon gave a lot of static to the
agent
but the point is we’ve been given
the assignment so we’ve been somehow
written into that sovereign plan yeah
it’s probably
it is probably an area that’s easiest
to misunderstand
but i can’t ignore it i have to i have
to live responsibly that’s the whole
point is what scripture says you’ve been
we’re supposed to live like we have real
authority and real responsibility that
we’ll be held accountable for so it’s
like that in some ways to
not live like that it’s very uh
unscriptural yeah and to blame it on
god’s sovereignty well it’s just god’s
will
no yeah no
well and
and like you said he’s he’s transcended
he’s the creator in him we live and move
and have our being so like if he doesn’t
want if he’s not
uh in charge of everything it doesn’t
happen it doesn’t exist so there’s a
level at where he
is ultimately responsible for everything
that exists because he’s the creator yes
but if if he’s created a system where
he’s
he’s empowered other beings other than
himself who actually have the ability to
make decisions who’s whose actions
matter on the planet then in some ways
within his sovereignty he’s creating
other people who have the capacity to
make decisions other than he would make
and i think that’s the world view of
scripture you see a lot of powerful
um
decision makers in the angelic and
demonic realm as well as the human realm
as well and
in in the lord’s sovereignty sometimes
i’ll say to the students he’s so
sovereign he’s decided to be in control
of what he wants to be and not in
control of things he doesn’t want to be
it’s good that’s how
that’s how big he is yeah and yet um
for his
his purposes he’s decided this is the
way like i’m going to actually empower
these beings i’ve created with real
authority they they’re
they matter yeah yeah the level of trust
uh in that is just
incredible in that moment it is and
we’re called co-laborers
you know i mean only the holy spirit in
us the grace of god working in us could
qualify me
to co-labor to work alongside
the lord
it’s it’s a grace one of the words that
oh
when i’m talking about this it’s just
that god’s not omni causal in other
words he’s omnipotent he’s all powerful
and you know
and and um
but he’s not the one who’s causing
everything to happen that his in his um
the beauty of creation he’s
empowered um these these people made in
his image to
to defile the garden or
to abandon the connection you know um
and and our choices are powerful and one
of i think it’s gk chesterson he was
talking about how the lord in some ways
is
um he’s trying to create people
to destroy evil not by destroying people
so you can’t you can’t destroy evil by
destroying creation but god’s opted to
not do that right but he’s trying to
destroy evil by creating people who know
what it is and
don’t find it interesting
excellent who don’t love it
and who have learned to love
righteousness
justice and mercy and walk humbly with
the lord and so that’s like for his
purposes um of who we’re becoming
this is the way he’s decided to
to create to give human beings and
angelic beings authority yeah and yeah
to have our
our decisions matter
yeah somehow he is
he is more glorified
by it happening that way
i mean obviously everything we’re
assigned to do he can do better quicker
everything yeah but for some reason it’s
been written into the
into the code that we get to be a part
of what he’s doing on the earth i mean
the whole the whole beginning uh genesis
1 be fruitful multiply subdue the earth
he he he planted
people humanity in an adverse climate
and told them to bring change
and he’s he’s just he’s commissioned us
to represent him well
and now because
earlier i mentioned
jesus modeled what life could be like
with no sin
and completely empowered by the holy
spirit now
because i’ve been forgiven
and the holy spirit is in me it’s
actually possible
to follow the example that jesus said so
i get to now be a co-laborer in living
in purity
and living in
in in kindness affection love for people
living in power we get to co-labor with
him and demonstrate his authority
on the earth and he’s glorified
through that i mean that that brings him
glory
uh in a way that he wouldn’t get
otherwise yeah all becoming like him in
relationship with him
yeah beautiful
and the thing we we
like to remind uh
the folks here often is that this is a
relational journey
it’s it’s not it’s not
achievement-centered
it’s it’s uh yeah um
we like outcomes you know like
we got to heaven
i like the outcome the person got healed
i saved enough money to buy the car you
know it’s the outcomes he likes the
journey
he likes he likes the moment that uh i
couldn’t sleep so i got up and prayed
you know he he likes the journey where i
didn’t know what to do so i just poured
over the scripture for insight and what
his heart was his mind was he values the
journey and he rewards me with the
outcome
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