Hi Mike,

I have a quick question for you to answer when you get the chance. In Psa 139:16 it says all the days ordained for you were written in His book before one of them came to be. I always thought that God had a separate spiritual book for each of us with our days written in it, but after watching one of your videos, I might have understood it wrong. Is the book that our days were written in the Bible, and that’s for all of us because He knows we shall live by every word? Or does He have a separate book for each of us? If it isn’t a separate book, then He must be constantly causing us to do things, and although He knows the end from the beginning, our lives would be unfolding day by day. Is He making decisions for us as He goes along? If this were true, how could He know the end from the beginning? I am really confused. Help me, please.

Thanks,
S____

Hi S____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

In Psa 139:16 it says all the days ordained for you were written in His book before one of them came to be. I always thought that God had a separate spiritual book for each of us with our days written in it, but after watching one of your videos, I might have understood it wrong. Is the book that our days were written in the Bible, and that’s for all of us because He knows we shall live by every word? Or does He have a separate book for each of us?

The answer is that both are true. “Man [ Greek – anthropos, mankind] shall… live… by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, in a spiritual sense, not a literal sense, and there is also a separate spiritual ‘book’ for each and every individual who has ever lived. That is the meaning of “the books”, plural and “another book” singular, Christ’s Words, the Bible, in these verses:

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books [ plural, individual, spiritual ‘books] were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life [ Christ, “the Word”, the Bible]: and the dead were judged [ by that “… other book”, Christ, “the Word”, Joh 1:1] out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their [ indivual, Psa 139:16, Rom 7:17-21, predestinated] works.

“The book s were opened [ each individual book]… and the dead were judged out of those things written in the book s… Every man according to their [ individual] works”. Here is another way of saying what is in those two verses:

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap

For those who are given to understand it as it is revealed throughout scripture, even our sins are not of ourselves, but are worked by God through ‘our own lust’ which is always excited within us by the adversary.

Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

But what does “the sum of God’s Word” reveal concerning “our own lusts”?

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

James tells us that our lusts are our own lust”. Just like Joseph twice told his brothers that they “sold [ him] into Egypt”, nevertheless their sins were not their sins, but were actually the work of God, so too, Paul here twice tells us that “our own lust” and sins are not our sins at all, but are “sin that dwells in us” operating through “the law of sin… that dwells in me”. Then James again tells us that there is but “one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy”.

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

For any who still doubt God’s sovereignty of the wicked and evil things we all do, let God Himself make His own case:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

There is a lot of “evil in the city”, as you very well know and have experienced. Job experienced evil and could not understand why. God spoke through Elihu, and told us that whether we are good or evil, God is not impressed or obligated to us to so much as explain himself.

Job 35:1 Elihu spake moreover, and said,
Job 35:2 Thinkest thou [ Job] this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
Job 35:3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
Job 35:4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
Job 35:5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
Job 35:6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
Job 35:7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

“My righteousness is more than God’s”. That was what Job, who was the Old Testament type of each of us, thought, and that is what we all think every time we question why God is doing things with His creation, as He pleases.
God never bothers to explain Himself, except to remind us that He is the Potter, and we are the clay, and He is showing mercy on His “vessels of mercy” so they can later show mercy on those who are not at this time being shown that mercy. It is His ultimate mercy on all which justifies the wicked men for the day of evil, which God is making for Himself at this time.

Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

So there is both “another [ singular] book” and we all have a book of “all our days” individually “when as yet there was none of them”.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books [ plural, individual, spiritual ‘books] were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life [ Christ, “the Word”, the Bible]: and the dead were judged [ by that “… other book”, Christ, “the Word”, Joh 1:1] out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their [ indivual, Psa 139:16, Rom 7:17-21, predestinated] works.

Yes, your daily activities were ‘written in His book when as yet it had never been.’
I hope this helps you to look behind the curtain that is this life in these bodies of flesh, and see how our Creator is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” and not after our own wills.
Your brother in that all powerful and all knowing Christ,

Mike