My heart was really stirred this last month. I attended a meeting where
an old friend of mine was ministering. He had been through some
terrible things that nearly destroyed his faith. He became bitter and
angry at God for the things that had happened. 
<p>
When I heard him, he had
humbled himself and was again loving the Lord and excited about the
future. Praise the Lord! However, in the process, he had come to
believe that it was the Lord that caused all his problems. He had
resigned himself to the <b><i>sovereignty of God.</i></b>
<p>
I believe this is the worst doctrine in the church today. I know that
this is a shocking statement and is near blasphemy to some people, but
the way sovereignty</i></b> is taught today is a real faith killer. The belief
that God controls everything that happens to us is one of the devil’s
biggest inroads into our lives. 
<p>
If this belief is true, then our
actions are irrelevant, and our efforts are meaningless. What will be
will be.
<p>
If we believe that God wills everything, good or bad, to happen to us,
it gives us some temporary relief from confusion and condemnation, but
in the long-term, it slanders God, hinders our trust in God, and leads
to passiveness.
<p>
The Sovereignty of God 
<p>
The word <b><i>sovereign</i></b> is not used in the King James Version of the
Bible. It is used 303 times in the Old Testament of the New
International Version, but it is always used in association with the
word <b><i>LORD</i></b> and is the equivalent of the King James Version’s <b><i>LORD
God.</i></b> Not a single one of those times is the word <b><i>sovereign</i></b> used in
the manner that it has come to be used in religion in our day and time.
<p>
Religion has resulted in the invention of a new meaning for the word
<b><i>sovereign,</i></b> which basically means God controls everything. Nothing can
happen but what He wills or allows. However, there is nothing in the
actual definition that states that. The dictionary defines <b><i>sovereign</i></b>
as, <b><i>1. Paramount; supreme. 2. Having supreme rank or power. 3.
Independent: a sovereign state. 4. Excellent.</i></b> None of these
definitions means that God controls everything.
<p>
It is assumed that since God is paramount or supreme that nothing can
happen without His approval. That is not what the Scriptures teach. In
 2 Peter 3:9 , Peter said, <b><i>he Lord is…not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.</i></b> 
<p>
This clearly states
that it is not the Lord’s will for anyone to perish, but people are
perishing. Jesus said, <b><i>Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the
gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat</i></b> ( Matt. 7:13 ). Relatively few people are saved
compared to the number that are lost. God’s will for people concerning
salvation is not being accomplished.
<p>
This is because the Lord gave us the freedom to choose. He doesn’t will
anyone into hell. He paid for the sins of the whole world ( 1 John 2:2 ;
 1 Tim. 4:10 ), but we must choose to put our faith in Christ and receive
His salvation. People are the ones choosing hell by not choosing Jesus
as their Savior. It is the free will of man that damns them, not God.
<p>
People virtually have to climb over the roadblocks that God puts in
their way to continue on their course to hell. The cross of Christ and
the drawing power of the Holy Spirit are obstacles that every sinner
encounters. 
<p>
No one will ever stand before God and be able to fault Him
for withholding the opportunity to be saved. The Lord woos every person
to Him, but we have to cooperate. Ultimately, the Lord simply enforces
the consequences of people’s own choices.
<p>
God has a perfect plan for every person’s life ( Jer. 29:11 ), but He
doesn’t make us walk that path. We are free moral agents with the
ability to choose. He has told us what the right choices are ( Deut.
30:19 ), but He doesn’t make those choices for us. God gave us the power
to control our destinies.
<p>
Typical teaching on the sovereignty of God puts Jesus in the driver’s
seat with us as passengers. On the surface that looks good. All of us
have encountered the disastrous results of doing our own thing. We
desire to be led of the Lord, and teaching that nothing happens but
what God wills fits that nicely. 
<p>
However, the Scriptures paint a
picture of each of us being behind the wheel of our own lives. We are
the one doing the driving. We are supposed to take directions from the
Lord, but He doesn’t do the driving for us.
<p>
Man has been given the authority over his own life, but he must have
the Lord’s direction to succeed. Jeremiah 10:23 says, <b><i>O LORD, I know
that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to
direct his steps.</i></b> God created us to be dependent upon Him and our
independence is at the root of all our problems. 
<p>
As if it wasn’t bad
enough for man to try to run his affairs independently of God and His
standards, it has been made even worse by religion teaching us that all
our problems are actually blessings from God. That is a faith killer.
It makes people totally passive.
<p>
 James 4:7 says, <b><i>Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you.</i></b> This verse makes it clear that some things
are from God, and some from the devil. We must submit to the things
that are of God and resist the things that are from the devil. The word
<b><i>resist</i></b> means, <b><i>Actively fight against.</i></b> Saying <b><i>Whatever will be will
be</i></b> is not actively fighting against the devil.
<p>
If a person really believed that God is the one who put sickness on
them because He is trying to work something for good in their life,
then they should not go to the doctor or take any medicine. That would
be resisting God’s plans. They should let the sickness run its course
and thereby get the full benefit of God’s correction. Of course, no one
advocates that. That is absurd. It is even more absurd to believe that
God is the one behind the tragedy.
<p>
 Acts 10:38 says that Jesus healed all those who were oppressed <b>of the Devil </b>. It was not God who oppressed them with sickness. It was the
devil. It’s the same today. Sickness is from the devil, not from God.
We need to resist sickness and, by faith, submit ourselves to healing,
which is from God through the atonement of Christ.
<p>
I know someone is thinking, What about the Old Testament instances
where God smote people with sickness and plagues? There is a lot I
could say about that if I had the space, but a simplified answer to
that question is that none of those instances were blessings. They were
curses. God did use sickness in the Old Testament as punishment, but in
the New Testament, 
<p>
 Jesus bore our curse for us ( Gal. 3:13 ). The Lord
would no more put sickness on a New Testament believer than He would
make us commit a sin. Both forgiveness of sin and healing are a part of
the atonement Jesus provided for us.
<p>
Deuteronomy, chapter 28, should forever settle this question for all
who believe the Word of God. The first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28 list
the blessings of God and the last 53 verses list the curses of God.
Healing is listed as a blessing ( Deut. 28:4 ). Sickness is listed as a
curse ( Deut. 28:22, 27-28, 35, 59-61 ). God called sickness a curse. We
should not call it a blessing.
<p>
Knowing that God is not the author of my problems is one of the most
important revelations the Lord has ever given me. If I thought it was
God who killed my father when I was twelve, and some of my best friends
before I was 20, if it was God who had people kidnap me, slander me,
threaten to kill me, and turn loved ones against me, then I would have
a hard time trusting God, if He was like that.
<p>
On the contrary, it is very comforting to know that God only has good
things in store for me. Any problems in my life are from the devil, of
my own making, or just the results of life on a fallen planet. My
heavenly Father has never done me any harm and never will. I KNOW that.
<p>
I am not saying that there is nothing to learn from hardships. Most of
you reading this article have come to the Lord because of something in
your life that overwhelmed you and caused you to turn to the Lord for
help. That situation was not from God regardless of the results. It was
you turning to the Lord and the faith you placed in Him that turned
your life around, not the hardship.
<p>
If hardships and problems made us better, then everyone who has had
problems would be better for them. Those who have the most trouble
would be the best. That simply is not so.
<p>
Let me illustrate this with a story about my son, Joshua. When he was
only a year old, I was loading lumber on a large truck in the heat of a
Texas summer. I had Joshua with me, and he was having a big time
playing in the lumber yard. By mid-afternoon, he was tired and sleepy
and started to lie down in the dirt for a nap. I knew his mother
wouldn’t like that, so I put him in the cab of the truck to lie down
and take his nap.
<p>
He had been wanting to get into that truck all day, and when I put him
in there, he revived. I had to roll the windows down because it was
hot, and Joshua was leaning out the windows and waving at me in the
side view mirrors. I told him to lie down and even gave him a spanking,
but he didn’t take heed. He leaned out the window too far, fell out of
the cab, hit his eye on the running board and landed on his head.
<p>
I ran up to him, prayed over him, and held him until he quit crying.
Then I told him that was why I told him to lie down and go to sleep and
not lean out the window. 
<p>
I used that situation which caused him pain,
to teach him, but if Joshua would have been like the sovereignty
teachers of today, he would have gone out and told all his friends that
his father made him fall out of that truck to teach him to obey. That’s
not so. I did what I could to restrain him. I would be very hurt if
that’s the way Joshua thought I was.
<p>
Likewise, I don’t believe it blesses our heavenly Father for us to
blame Him for all the problems that come into our lives. Sure, He will
comfort us when we turn to Him in the midst of our problems, but He
doesn’t create the negative circumstances that hurt our lives.
<p>
 God is sovereign in the sense that He is paramount and supreme. There
is no one higher in authority or power, but that does not mean He
exercises His power by controlling everything in our lives. God has
given us the freedom to choose. He has a plan for us. He seeks to
reveal that plan to us and urge us in that direction, but we choose. He
doesn’t make our choices for us.
<p>
In many instances, it is our wrong choices that bring disaster upon us.
In other cases, our problems are nothing but an attack from the devil.
In some cases, natural forces of an imperfect world cause us pain. Our
tragedies are never the judgment or correction of God. Jesus came to
give us abundant life. The devil came to steal, kill and destroy ( John 10:10 ). Don’t ever get that confused. If it’s good, it’s God. If it’s
bad, it’s the devil.
<p>
This is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity that must be understood
properly if you want victory in your life. Believing that God controls
everything renders a person passive. Why pray and believe for something
better? Whatever God wants will come to pass. That simply is not true.
<p>
The Lord is the answer to all our problems. He is not the problem.
<p>
If you would like more ministry on this pivotal point, please order my
teaching entitled, <b><i>he Sovereignty of God.</i></b> There is much more detail
on the teaching than I was able to put into this article. This teaching
will change your life.
<p>
I suggest that after you listen to it that you share it with someone
else. I really believe that confusion on this subject is how Satan
pushes his will off on most people. This teaching could change
someone’s life.
<p>
-- Andrew Wommack<br>
Capitalization of keywords by Randy Lucas