Hi Mike,

I wanted to add some comments to a recent response letter post of yours entitled “How God Makes Us Commit Evil”.  As always you thoroughly, yet succinctly explained from the Scriptures God’s Total Sovereignty.  I am aware it is only God that can give someone (spiritual) eyes to see, (spiritual) ears to hear and a (humble) ‘heart’ to embrace the depths of this Truth. 
So, the question I have asked myself and the question I get sometimes from the few who ask me and ‘accept’ it (even if their acceptance is for but a moment before that seed is snatched away as it did not take root) who may be going through a personal struggle (whether it be their life’s difficulties or overcoming personal sin):

“Well, what do I do then?  If God has predetermined this struggle for me and it is already written in my book (Psa 139) it seems there is nothing I can do.”

In other words, it seems common that the natural man has a fatalistic attitude (in a negative way) and has a “what’s the point of trying then” was they realize this truth.  We tend to immediately forget all the Words that tell us what we are to do about it.
Scriptures like ‘repent and be baptised, Persist in your prayers until you receive His Spirit, beat your body daily, be vigilant, resist the devil and he will flee, humble yourself, have faith and believe God will meet your NEEDS and it is the trial of our faith that is precious to God, it is the development of the fruit of the spirit that God is doing in us (Lord Willing in this age)’, etc.
I understand we are all have the same in our reaction to “The Words that I speak are spirit and life (zoe)…. and the flesh profits nothing”… its very discouraging to our flesh and we immediately, therefore ‘walk with Him no more’ or we embrace the Truth as ‘honey in our mouth’, yet bitter in our stomach as God shows us the two- edged sword of His Word by revealing to us over time
how much we still do love the world and the things in it (despite our claims otherwise), how impossible (without Him and His Spirit working in us) to put our love for Him and His Word even above our love for our wife and family (despite our claims otherwise), how impossible (without Him…) it is to destroy the idols of our heart, how impossible (without Him…) to ‘do the things that I say’…(every word…) till we realize the depth of the Truth “Without Him we can do NOTHING”.  And even after we realize this, we must be vigilant against ‘that beast’ rising up all the days of our life, lest we fall.  So, we either immediately walk with him no more, or like Peter are delayed in walking with him no more… either way we do live out every word…
I point out to them that all the scriptures mentioned above do seem so contradictory to the natural man in light of His total sovereignty. How do I reconcile that ‘it is my own righteousness’ that keeps me from entering into The Kingdom of God? How do I reconcile that until I completely fail (“7 times”) and ‘give up on myself — that is to say ‘come to myself’ I will not overcome? Even then I may not get what I think I really want or need.  How do I reconcile that despite MY OWN efforts to humble myself, I won’t be truly humble till HE humbles me?
I point out that we must come to terms with the fact that we really do NOT want to ‘lose the whole world’ so therefore we must be ‘dragged’ to the wedding supper.. that it is us that the Scriptures talk about… and the only reason we have not done some of the horrible things others have done (from physical rape and murder to cursing God and then die) is because God has not brought about the circumstances in our lives that we would do that (Lord willing, physical rape and murder is not written in our book, but there are many other things that are just as hideous that are), the only reason we have not done outwardly what Job’s wife wanted him to do and “Curse God and die” is not because we are not Job’s wife but because, Lord willing, God has not brought about the circumstances that would cause us to say and think that, so if we would judge ourselves (say that we have the same flesh and same capabilities of Job’s wife to say that, but only God’s mercy and plan for us has prevented us from committing that particular sin) then we can repent from that sin. Only then will we not be chastened with the circumstance that would be necessary for us to see that we are Job’s wife. I say it is only God that can ‘knock us off our spiritual horse’ and bring us to the point of recognizing that we, too, are ‘Chief of sinners’.
So the best advice I can seem to come up with when posed the question “well, what do I do then?” (or even when I pose this to myself for the things that I personally deal with) is to repent, be baptized by the washing of water by His Word and point Scriptures like Luk 11 and persist to ask God for His Spirit and then rely on Him to do it as I stay vigilant (with Christ in me the hope of glory) and trust by the faith given to me to know ‘He is able to finish what He has started as He truly is the author and finisher of my faith’.
One of the hardest things to come to terms with regarding knowing God’s total sovereignty is we (I) really don’t trust Him to give us what we want (in this age) and we are really loathe to lose the whole world… and we realize we didn’t count the cost of discipleship which we must repent of after walking away and then we must count the cost… we have a hard time admitting it and being that honest with ourself as we ‘want to be spiritual’ and appear spiritual to our brothers in sisters in Christ, but we want to set that spiritual standard and not have the impossible standard Jesus & His Word has set…(of course then we realize ‘Who then can be saved?’  With God all things are possible).  He was willing to lose the whole world… and it is impossible without God, without Christ in us to live up to that standard. 
There are many scriptures (like Eph 2) that we agree with but only in times past (we tend to insert – ‘when I was a heathen in the world’), that we don’t realize it is speaking to us while we think we are doing wonderful works in Babylon, willingly working and waiting for Rachel. It is then when our sins are even greater… since much is given much is expected… and Eph 2…. in times past… applies to us throughout our maturing process (is, was and will be)… until we are delivered from captivity… when we can declare with boldness that we know the truth and the truth has set us free and is setting us free. When He brings us to that point of judging ourselves on this matter, then and only then we can then truly repent. Still this process of sitting on the potter’s wheel, having water (The Word) poured over our clay being, with His fingers exerting the perfect amount of ‘pressure’ (bringing about only the necessary evil and circumstances); for only the Potter can use this pressure to perfection, and when we are shaped the Potter finishes His work and places us in the furnace (fiery trials) until the unseen imperfections are burned out and the good He puts in us is strengthened.
The Potter needs all of it: the water, the wheel, pressure, heat and a fiery furnace, for clay without constant water flow clay has no utility. It dries out and breaks into pieces, but with water it can be molded in His hands with pressure from his hands and fingers. Once the image is completed, the wheel (this eon) is no longer needed and is discarded. Once complete, the pressure (the evil and circumstances in our lives) is no longer needed and is done away with. The fiery furnace (after being purified as a spiritual man and the Father becomes all in all) is also discarded after its usefulness is complete, and we (the clay) now have the utility (usefulness) God intended from the Beginning for the next eon in God’s plan. But until this has all been completed this process (parable of the sower) does not stop, and Lord willing, we will endure until the end and be saved, not from, but through the process this life God has determined.

Blessings,

M____
Hi M____,

Thanks for sharing with me these thoughts. They seem to be the anecdote to four different letters I have received in the past month from brothers and sisters who shared with me the feeling that God has forsaken them and is no longer working in their lives. It seems that all the exhortations of God’s Word are to no avail at this time, and while they completely agree with the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, they still struggle to accept that sovereignty. Job knew God was sovereign, he said so at the very beginning of his trial.

Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

But this is chapter two and while Job had just been smitten with boils “from the sole of his feet to his crown”,  the mental and spiritual trials at the hand of his three comforters, are not yet even begun. Before it is all done, Job is accused by God Himself of “reproving and condemning God in order to make himself righteous.”

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Job really is all of us, and we all come to see this only after we have lived very outwardly exemplary lives which Job so eloquently describes in Job 29.

Job 29:14  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment [ was] as a robe and a diadem.
Job 29:15  I was eyes to the blind, and feet [ was] I to the lame.
Job 29:16  I [ was] a father to the poor: and the cause [ which] I knew not I searched out.
Job 29:17  And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

We cannot shortcut one word of the words that proceed out of the mouth of God, and this letter makes that clear while also acknowledging that God is, even in our failures, making progress toward that remade vessel which is molded perfectly by the Master Potter’s hand, and is then fired in the furnace of trials, to burn out all the imperfections and make a vessel that seems good to the Potter.

I pray that the Lord will continue to open up His word to you.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike