Hi, how are you guys doing? Hope you all are fine. Today I would like to write on a topic that is very challenging at its heart, which is trusting in God in our quietness.

Isaiah 30:15
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,

Let me first give you a little information on Israel. The Bible says that Israel was the apple of His eye. They were a people chosen not because of their own brilliance in any way but because they were the smallest of people. Almost whole of the Old Testament is about the love of God in action over Israel. They are a people who are dear to Him and it is to them the Messiah came. The Bible has a lot of history of the world hating the people of God, that however is more out of subconscious envy than anything else because the world does not see a brilliant Israel but still wonders how they can be the apple of His eye. The truth is that it is not about a brilliant people but rather about a brilliant God. It is like “the fox and the grapes”, what the fox couldn’t have, he made believe they were sour and that is same with the world and Israel, what the world knows they can never be a part of, they write-off.

May God bless Israel as a people and also as a nation!

Coming back to Isaiah 30:15; we see that the returning and rest refers to repentance and patiently waiting for God’s deliverance. God and His redemption came in the human form of Jesus Christ centuries after and it was not on their own strength but in quietness and trust that the strength of God was granted unto them. This is the same applied to us now, sometimes we go so far ahead in action on what we think is a one way street. Our repentance then is in a 180° turn, that being a U turn on that road of life and then moving ahead in a direction that will set you against the flow of this world. If you ask me from where am I to expect that this will work then the answer is in the quietness and trust that shall be given your strength.

Ecclesiastes 4:6
Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.

How many of you have witnessed God’s deliverance in a situation. Is it not like an Oasis feeling in the desert where on a road of hardship and thorns you can find soothing relief? When such deliverance has come your way, how much of your effort was counted then to that credit? It is the same with the Salvation that came through Christ (2Timothy 1:9), the oasis of God’s goodness set against the backdrop of man’s damnation. There is no condition to which the subject is applied in order for the deliverance of God to come forth. The deliverance of God comes not because of what man does or who the man is but because God chooses. In fact the storms in our lives are purposefully set there by God (Psalms 107:25-28), because the relationship between God and His people can be likened to that of a parent and child. The parent sends the child for sports and the child is rigorously trained and in that comes the time when the child ask the parent for the equipment he needs, the parent provides and therein lies the two way relationship. So when the deliverance of God comes it is like plentiful rain falling on a scorched dry region. The God we have is such that the needs he places in our lives are enough to swallow us a hundred times over but then when He acts in deliverance that need is the filled to the extent that it wipes away our tears (Rev 21:4) for that is the Lord’s calling upon those who call to Him for redemption (Joel 2:32).

So the next time you have a situation where the more you act towards it only worsens the scene, may you then aptly remember and apply Isaiah 30:15.

Hello people, how are you doing today? It’s been a long time since I have written and I will however be writing more frequently now as I am back home for good in Mumbai. Today I would like to write on the Sovereign will of God and free will of man.

In the world today, even the mostly godly of people consider that their free will is outside the Sovereign will of God. It seems that either they are subconsciously trying to protect God from the blame of all the bad stuff that happens in the world or may be these people consider their lives as times when they meet up with God and let his will be done in worship and other times in their everyday life where they feel they have the choice to follow God or not. The sad thing about this kind of thinking is that man raises himself above God without knowing it. Man feels insecure about God’s Sovereignty and so man tries to seemingly defend God saying that God has no hand in the bad stuff that is happening in the world and this same man will also feel that man has the power to choose God’s will in his life.

Let’s read; Romans 9:10-16, 18-24
10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” 13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel [l]for honorable use and another [m]for common use? 22 [n]What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

If you need any more convincing then here is more scripture to show you that God’s people are not God’s people by the peoples own so called free will but by God own unconditional Sovereign will.

John 1:12-13 (Him refers to Jesus)
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The reason we have trouble understanding this is because, the world considers God as something isolated from creation. Creation has come from God and the very reason creation exist is because it is sustained by God. So creation acts as God decrees. However what is right and wrong applies to man not to God, because the Law was something God gave to man, with which sin was made known but sin does not apply to God because sin primarily comes from disobedience to God and that can only apply to man but never to God and that is why we have Romans 5:19-21.

Romans 5:19-21
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 [o]The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You see time and the effects of time comes from God and so when a man dies, in most cases we say that God has taken him away but we don’t apply the term murder to this because in the case of man when man takes away what is not rightfully his, even if it is his own life, he stands convicted because he is a tenant in his own body and the creation around him and so as accountability deals generally with responsibility of what man is a steward of. So the accountability that applies to man cannot be applied to God because everything is from God and belongs to Him exclusively (John 1:3). What I am trying to say from all this is that the right and wrong that is applied to us cannot most certainly apply to God. You see God gave man the Law so that man’s nature of sin/disobedience may be made known to man and that was precisely the purpose of the Law. Even though the Law came from God, it cannot be applied to God (Luke 6:1-11) because God has no sin; and disobedience does not apply to God. The difference between the actions of man and the actions of God is that the actions of man are based on current situations and a resolution that emerges from his own/derived knowledge but in the case of God, He is knowledge Himself, He foreordains situations, He builds rebellions and tears them down (Romans 9:17). He is like an ecosystem from which his creation is not separated. There is no transgression if a lion devours a zebra but instead it works towards and not against the purposeful ecosystem.

Isaiah 45:6-7
6 That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other,
7 The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the LORD who does all these.

Yes man is made in the image of God but man practices humility before those whom he considers superior but humility does not apply to God because he is the first and last in Superiority and Authority. Do you know, what is the ultimate purpose of man according to the Bible? It is glorifying God and delighting in Him forever. You see man is called to be humbled and God is to be glorified.

In the case of Jesus, He is fully God and fully Man, His humility, tiring and hunger were as much his human aspect as is His glory, granting Salvation and forgiveness of sins aspects of his Deity.

John 10:7, 11 (Jesus’ Humility – Man)
7 So Jesus said to them again, “..I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep…

John 17:1 (Jesus Glorified – God)
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,

Glorifying God comes from obedience to Him and I am not talking dietary restriction or appearance regulation, I am talking about fulfilling God’s call in your life and if God has called you to do something then he will also give you the exciting desire to get it done. Fulfilling God’s purpose and delighting in it will make you feel the very essence of God’s pleasure in your being and that is what will take you on a high.

God’s will is done by those who are for Him and even those who are against Him. Consider the atrocious penalty that came against Jesus on the Cross, God made that too work in His favor, resulting in the Salvation for mankind. In fact you will see the extent to which God is in control that even the rebellion that comes against Him, cannot happen unless He raises it against Himself (Rom 9:17). Consider this, you and I know that it was man who severely tortured and crucified the Lord of Glory (Jesus) (1 Cor 2:8), yet the Bible says that it was the wrath of Father that Jesus consumed, the wrath which was due unto the world (John 18:11). As I said earlier creation is not separate from God, which goes to the extent that even Satan works, probably unknowing but surely hateful, towards fulfilling the purpose of God. Though Jesus was sinless He bore the sins of the world that the Father may punish sin for which Jesus paid the price. Do you see what am getting at, the Bible alone show God is such control that what is for God is from God and what comes against God is also from God, which all works to fulfill His eternal purpose.

If you would like some more scripture that shows God using the people against Him, to fulfill His purpose, then you should read Isaiah 10:12-15. The difference between God’s will carried out in God’s people and God’s will carried out in those who are against Him or don’t even believe in Him, is that only in the case of God’s people, only they can feel God’s pleasure in their actions, as he grants them what it takes to do what He has called them to do (Eph 2:10) and that is why with compassion He calls them as His people.

Psalms 34:8
O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Do you see any room for free will in all this? The concept of free will in a person’s mind only shows that he is inclined towards Dualism, which is more cultish in thinking about the world as battle ground for good and evil, God and Satan. If there was any truth in this popular school of thought, then this so called god would never be able to tell the outcome of such a battle because being able to tell/make the outcome in his favor means he controls the battle but then that does not leave much room for free will does it? The concept of free will actually inhibits a person from seeing God in all His Splendor and Majesty.