A friend of mine recently experienced what must be a mother’s greatest nightmare: the suicide of one of her children. Not only did he kill himself, he did so in one of the worst possible ways. The grief and trauma suffered by this mother and the rest of her family is almost unimaginable.
Yet both this young man and his mother were Christians. Joey (not his real name, but one I’ll use to protect their privacy) had battled with schizophrenia for years. He had seen countless visits to the psychiatric ward of his local hospital, and innumerable changes to his medication in the course of the doctors’ efforts to stabilise his condition. More importantly, he had been the subject of much prayer by many people over many years – including many hours of prayer by myself.
Although at one point his illness had seen him turn his back on God, over the last couple of years he had returned to faith and renewed his commitment to Christ. Many people, myself included, were believing for his healing and deliverance.
Now, it would seem that all that faith, and all those prayers, failed. It would seem that the devil has been victorious, and this little corner of the Kingdom of God has taken a sickening defeat.
Do I believe that Joey is in heaven? Unquestionably. He was not responsible for his actions on that terrible morning, and I have no doubt that God’s grace was still extended to him. In that sense, he has not been defeated. Joey is more alive at this moment than he has ever been. He no longer has schizophrenia, nor is he bothered by the demonic force that I am convinced plagued him during his earthly life. Even the emotional scars from his childhood that gave ground for his mental and spiritual problems have been totally healed.
Yet, at least in my heart, there is the frustration of knowing that Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will would be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven. The freedom and victory that Joey is experiencing now in the presence of God should have been his here on earth, where he could have shared it with those he loved.
Perhaps the harder question, though, is what we do with the defeat. So often those who have been through such an experience deal with it by taking the predictable path of saying “God allowed it. We don’t know why, but He knows best.” I know that usually when Christians say this they are not actively “blaming” God, or being angry with Him; but I still want to shout “NO! NO! NO! God did not want this! For some reason He didn’t prevent it, but it’s not what He wanted!” It saddens me that it is so easy to put the responsibility on God, even if it is only for “allowing” things to happen. When we meekly accept something as God’s will when it is clearly not God’s will then we are, whether we intend it or not, putting the blame on Him.
We – the Body of Christ – are the ones to whom He has given the mandate of dominion. It was not God who allowed this: we did, by not rising to the fullness of the authority He has given us. No, I’m not trying to “beat up” on myself or anyone else – I’d just like to see the Body of Christ take responsibility for where we are at.
Every time we say “God allowed it”, whether it be death, sickness, demonic oppression, or any of the multitude of other evils that the enemy seeks to inflict upon mankind, we weaken our faith. After all, if “God allowed” defeat this time, who are we to say that He will not allow defeat next time … and the next … and the next …
Does God take even the very worst of situations and bring good out of them? Most definitely. That does not mean that He caused them, wanted them, or even “allowed them so that the good would come.” He is perfectly capable of bringing about the same good outcomes without the terrible situation.
Is it hard to say, “This was not God’s will” when we don’t understand how God’s will could have been violated in this situation? After all, isn’t He sovereign? Definitely! Yet, for reasons that we will probably never understand till we get to heaven, in some situations He does not give permission for it to happen, but He does not step in to prevent it.
God’s will for people is summed up in Jesus’ statement, “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Somehow we have to learn to keep our eyes on His will, not on the situations where His will has been blatantly violated. As hard as it may be when our eyes have seen horror and our hearts have been rent by agony, we must continue to hold to Jesus’ victory. No matter what is happening in the present skirmish, we must cling to the truth that the war has already been won. We dare not allow us to believe that there is any situation in which God does not want us to be victorious – any situation in which He would deliberately allow our defeat.
To do otherwise is to give the enemy ground that he will most assuredly take.
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This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.
There is one God, the God who manifested Himself in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
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5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
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9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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