Some people seem to get in their own way – I’m sure anyone can relate, but did you know the Epistle of 2nd Timothy speaks specifically of those who ‘oppose themselves’? Many believers have pre-conceived notions of who God is and what He’ll do, without even consulting His word to find out His ways. If Satan can get you to start blaming God for all your troubles, then friend, you are in a tough spot. Its time we stopped making assumptions and get in alignment with the promises God has granted us. Tune in now to find out how…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…(below)
“This is going to seem like a strange point to make but there are Christians out there who are working against themselves, and the Bible actually speaks of this. There’s a fascinating scripture to be found in the second book of Timothy which reveals something every believer ought to get a hold of. Now, some people are flat out angry and mad at God because there are some things in their lives that haven’t gone according to their own plans or expectations and they’re blaming God for it. The cold hard truth is that, despite what we may feel about these issues God is innocent, He is not to blame for what might appear unfair to you. What we often try to pin on Him is in fact is a work of the enemy that’s trying to cause us to doubt God’s goodness in your life. Let’s read this passage now, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, lpatient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (2 Tim 2:24-26)
Now did you notice this last verse I read to you, it says “that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil“. Friend, whenever we think, speak or act against God’s word, we are opposing ourselves and ultimately God himself. It’s Satan who takes men captive and the number one way He does this is through deception. Deception and ignorance are Satan’s dynamic duo of destruction. If you don’t know God’s word, then you’ll be ignorant of His ways and if you think God is the one ‘out to get you’, then you are deceived. Knowledge of God’s word is very important as I have stressed in other broadcasts. But notice also in verse 25, it takes meekness or humility to come to the realization that perhaps we are a part of the problem, and this can be hard for some of us to accept.
The trouble is we have many pre-conceived notions and ideas of who God is and what He’ll do, without even consulting His word to find out what His ways are. If Satan can get you to start blaming God for all your troubles, then friend, you are in a very difficult place, because you are denying assistance from the very one who is able to set you free from your predicament. It’s interesting that some religious institutions often try to make out we can be more pious of Holy by embracing, poverty, suffering or even sickness but we know from God’s word, that these came into the earth because of sin and are a part of the curse. Accidents, disease, sickness, death, and disasters come as a result of the fall of man, the cursed earth, Satan and his cohorts. Adam knew no sickness before he knew sin. Dr. John Alexander Dowie, who helped reintroduce divine healing to the Church in the last century, said it this way, “Disease (is) the foul offspring of its father, Satan, and its mother Sin.”
The Bible pictures Jesus as the Deliverer of men and women—not as their destroyer: Satan is the destroyer. Jesus is the Deliverer and Jesus said “For the Son of Man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:56). Friend, the topic of sickness is so vast I don’t have the time to cover it all here, but suffice to say, sickness was a curse outlined in Deuteronomy 28:15-22, 27-29, 35, 58-61 and this has not changed.
It would be foolish then, to attempt to express false piety by embracing something that Christ annulled when he died on the cross. There is no poverty, sickness or disease in heaven and after all Christ said in the Lord’s Prayer that, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven“. It is therefore God’s desire through prayer to enforce His will upon the earth through His people, just as it is in heaven. However, we are trying to enforce His will through a sin infested and cursed earth, with the devil and demon forces working against us. This is the source of opposition in our lives, not God. If God was in cahoots with the devil, then Jesus wouldn’t have gone around healing all who were ‘oppressed of the devil’ while he was on earth. No, my friend, it’s a satanic lie of religion that suggests that good and evil come from God or that God is on the side of evil and uses sickness, poverty, disease and death for his purposes and glory. One of the scriptures that people use to prove that both good and evil come from God is Isa 45:7 and it says this…” I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.“ Now one of the things I’ve learned down the years is it’s so important we read a scripture in its proper context. So, let’s go up a few verses here and find out exactly what God is talking about in the full context of this passage:
Isaiah 45:5–7
5 “I am the Lord, and there is none else, There is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, That there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
Did you catch that my friend, in verse 6, God is talking about the rising of the sun? We all know that when the sun rises from our standpoint, it does so because of the earth’s rotation. So as the earth perpetually rotates once every 24 hours around the sun, consequently; there will be half of the globe in darkness and half of the earth in light. Therefore, when God talks about darkness here in this context, he’s not talking about spiritual darkness, merely the darkness that falls on one side of the earth, as it rotates in its daily cycle. Notice that it says, “the rising of the sun, and from the west.” We all know that the sun rises from the east and heads west from our vantage point here on the earth but If we view the earth from the North Star, which is God’s viewpoint (because heaven in scripture is always mentioned as being located in the north), then the Earth turns counterclockwise and it rotates from the west, towards the east, just as the scripture states. So, in this passage God is looking down upon the earth from above, from his heavenly perspective in this chapter of Isaiah. We also know from the book of James that God is the Father of lights, and we know that in Him there is no darkness at all, so this is not referring to spiritual darkness. God would have to put himself out to in order to create darkness because darkness is the absence of light. He cannot by nature do this! Now what about the next verse, “I make peace, and create evil.”
When it comes the King James translation of 1611, the Hebrew language is dynamic, it’s richer in content than English and quite often the verb tenses were not translated as they should have been by the scribes of the time. If you read the introduction and preface in some of the older versions of the Young’s Literal Translation or better still Robert E. Young’s book entitled, “Hints to Bible Interpretation“, this will better help us to understand God’s loving nature, which has been marred by the occasional inappropriate usage of the tense structures in the King James Version. The author, Robert E. Young was an instrumental figure in revealing deeper truths from God’s word, particularly regarding the tense structure when translating the Hebrew and Greek into English. Although I consider the KJV to be the paragon of all translations, Robert Young explains something that’s often hidden from the common reader. Friend, I want you to get a hold of this. He said, “The original Hebrew of many scriptures was written in the permissive tense, but because the English language has no corresponding permissive tense, the verbs were instead wrongly translated in the causative tense“. In other words, the scribes wrote something like this, “the Lord put sickness on them“, but it should have been translated, “The Lord allowed sickness to be put on them,” and the reason He allowed it, is because of their own choice.
Under the Mosaic Law, when God’s people broke His commandments, they were no longer under His divine protection. All He could do was permit the devil to bring those afflictions upon them. Remember, sickness was one of the consequences of breaking the law; it was a curse and a consequence of disobedience. It was a result of their choice. Going back to the verse in question (Isa 45:7), God allows evil, but He isn’t creating it. Their sin and wrongdoing brought those dreadful plagues upon them. A cursory reading of Deuteronomy chapter 28 identifies there are blessings for obedience and curses or calamities for disobedience. A benevolent God warns His people in advance how to avoid calamity and this is outlined very clearly in this chapter. Let me give you this analogy, let’s say there is a tornado coming to a small town, Frank the local storm warden goes around town and shouts from the rooftops, “there is a severe tornado coming, if you remain outside in the streets, you will be destroyed. I implore you to come to the tornado shelter that I’ve constructed for the entire town, don’t worry it’s big enough for everyone, I have flashlights, food, water etc. to ride this out, so please come immediately and you will be safe, however if you remain outside you will likely die, if not be severely injured.”
So let me ask you this, if some people heard Frank’s warning of danger and chose not to hide in his shelter and died as a result, is it Frank’s fault or theirs? Did Frank kill or ‘smite’ the people who tragically died or was it a consequence of their personal choice? Frank allowed the people to choose their own fate, but he provided a means of escape and shelter to avoid calamity. Frank allowed their deaths, but it certainly wasn’t his will for them to die (he wasn’t the cause); he certainly didn’t approve of their actions. The people, who died, ignored Franks warning to their peril and it’s the same with God. Herein lies the analogy of a God who warns his people, provides protection, and issues the consequences for disobedience, yet leaves the decisions to His people. God is not the one sending the storms of life friend, Satan is the ‘god of this world’ and the entire world lies in wickedness as a result of its fallen state. God certainly does not approve of everything He allows as I have said several times. Many banks are robbed every month in the USA, but you wouldn’t accuse the president of the United States of doing it or even allowing it. You wouldn’t say, “It happened under his administration, so we’re going to blame it all on him.” That’s the same as blaming God for things that happen to us. This is a cop-out. It is both religious and erroneous thinking.”
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