Who Is in Control of Your Life?

The religious reflex is to say, “God is!”  But God is not totally in control of your life.  You are largely responsible for what happens to you.  God is actually only in control of your life to the extent that you believe that He is, say that He is and allow Him to be.  The extent to which you will believe and say that He is depends on how much of His Word abides in you.

If God were totally in control of your life, you would never sin!  It is not God’s choice for you to sin; it is your choice.  You were on your way to hell before you were born again.  You chose to be saved and go to heaven.  God did not force you to do it.  God does not force anyone to do anything.  He sets before you life and death and asks you to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).  But it is you making the choice, not God.

If we could just get this through the heads of religious Christians, we would be a long way toward having them walk in the blessings of God, including healing.  Too many Christians use God’s sovereignty as a cop-out.  In effect, they say, “Whatever happens to me is part of the perfect will of God for my life, because God is in control of my life.”  They lie back and allow the will of Satan to be done in their bodies, their finances, and the rest of their lives.  I’m not kidding.  I knew a Christian woman who attributed everything that happened to her to God.  When she got a pay cut, she told the sinners where she worked that God was using this to teach her something.  That was unintentional slander of God’s character.  She later lost her job completely.  I wonder what God was teaching her then.  If God were really like that, Satan could lose his job because God would be out-doing him.

Death and life are in the power of your tongue (Proverbs 18:21)!  God framed the worlds with His Word (Hebrews 11:3); your personal world is framed by your words.  You decide if you will have sickness or health, poverty or wealth, anxiety or peace, depression or joy.  James said that your tongue is like the rudder on a ship (James 3:2-6).  You steer your course through life with your mouth.  It is not up to God to do that; it is up to you.

Please understand that you do not have the right to do whatever “you” want.  When it comes to your place of service in the Body of Christ, God arranges the parts as it pleases Him (1 Corinthians 12:18), and you do not have a say in the matter.  He is your Lord and you obey Him whether you “feel like it” or not.  But if you walk with Him, He will work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).  You will find yourself having godly desires that line up with His will for your life.  I am not teaching against consecration; consecration is vital.  In fact, unconsecrated Christians will have a very difficult time receiving healing or anything else from God.  If you are resisting His will in one area, it is difficult to line up with His will in another area at the same time.

God is not in control of the earth.  He owns it but He does not run it.  The devil, by and large, runs Planet Earth.  But the only reason that he is “the god of this world” is that men cooperate with him.  By himself, Satan cannot run this world, and neither can God.  It is man who decides what happens here.  We can authorize Satan to act and we can authorize God to act.

Psalm 115:16:
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

God has given you the ability the resist the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9) and make him flee (James 4:7).  So YOU are in control of whether or not he gets a place in your life.  That’s why God commands YOU not to give him any place (Ephesians 4:27).  This command shows that YOU (not God) are in control of how much “place” (opportunity) the devil has in your life.

God has already given you all things pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4).  It is not a case of God doing something new for you.  Everything you need is at your disposal; you simply receive it from God.  God has already taken care of all your needs, including healing.  You decide whether or not to receive what you need.  That is not God’s decision – it’s YOURS.  If God had His way completely, you would walk in EVERY blessing that Christ gave you as your inheritance.