As she spoke, I could hardly believe what I was hearing. But it didn’t take me long to recognize the familiar words that had caused deep turmoil within my husband and I years ago. This time, however, I was better prepared for it…

Now, I know none of us would ever say that God isn’t sovereign, but too many Christian people still have this subtle mindset. Believers who’ve been deceived into thinking that God must not really be Who He says He is. And let me emphasize again that the deception usually comes subtly…

The word sovereign means: “Having absolute, unlimited, predominant and unrestricted control.” Okay, now keep this definition in mind while we see what God’s word says about His sovereignty.

Psalms 103:19 says, “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.”

Now, do “good things” and life come from God and “bad things” and death come from Satan? Obviously we recognize that suffering, sickness, and also death came from the fall and as the direct result of sin. But this physical consequence was established by God—not Satan. This is important for us to understand.

Now Satan is the “prince of the power of the air.” However, Satan is merely that…a prince. He’s not the King. Satan has limited power and this power is only what God allows him to have. A good example of this is in Job 1, where God needed to grant Satan permission to touch Job’s body. Obviously Satan couldn’t take Job’s life without God’s permission either. Psalms 103:19 says, “The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” The word ALL quite simply means over everything.

In Revelations 1:18, Jesus also declares, ”I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Photo Credit: Linus Bohman

It’s very clear that Satan does not have the power over death, but Jesus does. Because God is still sovereign over all!

Now let’s go back to what I was referring to in the beginning of this blog where I was a bit taken back by what I was told. Someone emphatically told me that our son’s death was NOT God’s will and was an act of Satan. She said it is never God’s will that anyone dies at a young age. And if we would have utilized our God-given authority over death, Austin would still be alive and with us today. We didn’t have enough faith.

She went on to say that Jesus always healed everyone who was sick and when we face an incurable sickness, it’s because we’re not claiming the authority God gave to us. (Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”)

These words were familiar to us because, during our many hospital experiences, there had been others who had similarly said that if we had enough faith, Austin and Alisha’s heart conditions would be healed. But our children were suffering since we didn’t claim the power we were given.

Now let me remind each of us, that we can be fairly certain that Jesus was in contact with many sick people during his first thirty years of His life. However, He didn’t heal each of them. He was as much a part of God before He began His healing ministry. We don’t understand why God didn’t have Him perform miracles before this. In the same way today, there’s no simple formula that says if you do this plus this, then God will heal you in the way you’d like.

But, my friends, what about God’s sovereignty? If Jesus holds the keys of heaven and hell and has the power over death, what makes us believe that WE can command life into our physical bodies. Or that we can say that it wasn’t God’s will for someone to die.

Yes, “life and death is in the power of the tongue,” but this power is really not OUR opportunity to demand health or life into our bodies as some people make it sound. All power comes directly from God. And all healing comes from Him and is not merely a result of our strong faith or the faith of another individual. Yes, our faith can move the hand of God and enable Him to work, but there’s no simple formula that will always bring about healing. (If there was, He wouldn’t really be God, would He? If God is sovereign, then we can’t control Him.) No one but Jesus holds the key to death or life.

Satan was given power, yet it is limited power. Anything he does still doesn’t surpass the sovereignty of the Almighty God.

God didn’t want Job to die, so he didn’t give Satan permission to take Job’s life. The same was true for our son. If God didn’t want our son to die, Austin would still be with us today. Please understand, I am not saying that we shouldn’t pray in faith for miracles in our lives…because God does miracles! And faith is powerful. But the final decision is God’s. And we need to surrender the outcome to Him.

We can rest in the assurance that even when God’s permissive will doesn’t make sense to us, it will always make sense to our sovereign God. There is a bigger picture that we can’t see or always understand.

The shootings of innocent people, brutal abortions of thousands of babies, sexual abuse and many other heart breaking disasters were never part of God’s perfect will. Yet, God allowed people to choose. Thus He allows the consequences of their choices. But be assured, He WILL someday rectify these wrong choices. So rest in His sovereignty.

Satan’s lies need to be debunked. When we don’t allow God to be sovereign, we give Satan more credit and power than he really has. And this glorifies him. But let’s recognize Satan’s lies and glorify the only One Who’s worthy of our praise. God. Our perfect, sovereign Savior. Praise Him!

~Cindy (For The Mullett Family)