Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Sovereign God



Psalm 103:19-22 The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Continuing on in our Friday small group Bible Study with a series on the topic of “Knowing God”, His attributes, his essential nature of His character and His relationship to His creation. And by doing so gain a great wealth of insight into who He is, for such knowledge of our Heavenly Father, Lord God will bring stability, strength, and the ability to live a balanced life with pure and true love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), as our Maker intends for here and now, until He calls His children home to Heaven. Holiness is happiness, so we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). This week, we focused on the sovereignty of God – the Creator of the universe with supreme power and dominion forever and ever. What does that mean and what does that look like?

Isaiah 40:25 “To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.”

Because a sovereign monarch is such a foreign term to most of us in this day and age, it would be good to define the word and associated idioms. Sovereign means “supreme ruler”; a king. Dominion means supreme authority and the territory subject to such lordship authority. Combine “king’s domain” and you have a “kingdom”. God’s kingdom. Three times in the Psalms passage above, it says “bless the Lord”, which implies attributing to God the praise that is due Him, recognizing who God is, what He has done, obeying, serving and thanking Him. We ask for God’s blessings, but do we bless God? Is God being blessed today in our families, our communities, our schools, in our society? Or is it more like what is spoken in Daniel 4:30The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” Who is on the throne of our heart? Do people live as Isaiah 40:25 suggests in our thoughts, words and actions, as if equal to God? – “you will be like God” was the Devil's lie to Adam & Eve (Genesis 3:5).

Isaiah 45:5-6 I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

What inexplicable peace, confidence and rest it brings to our life to understand the character of this One, the “I Am”, who is supremely sovereign. May your faith be strengthened by His Truth.

Psalm 33:10-12 “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”


Isaiah 40:13Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has taught Him?”

In Christ, Brian

2 comments:

child of God said...

Hi Brian,
I am doing some studying on spiritual warfare and I am realizing that there is just so much I do not know. There is so much information in Scripture of God and how He works it is mind boggling.

God is Sovereign and He has given authority to the sun, moon and stars. Psalm 8:6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:

God created all and He gave us authority over all of it. This, I am finding out, is so vast! What God has given us control over, Satan has stolen from us and tainted with sin. He distorted and warped so much of what is ours.

When we meet this awesome Creator of ours the glory of the great I AM will all come alive in knowing Him.

Blessings brother,
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Brian Ray Todd said...

"When we meet this awesome Creator of ours the glory of the great I AM will all come alive in knowing Him." Excellent conclusion Child of God. This study, and really all studies, focus on what 1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Notice the "But". There is a choice to make. The sinful desires of the fallen flesh, the God-rejecting world and the deceiving lies of the devil tempt us all to say: "not Thy will, but my will be done". Knowing Truth is essential to making a decision for our sovereign Lord God and His kingdom. Ephesians 5:8 explains, "] For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." Thank you for your view and comment. Bless the Lord.