Will God Allow Some Things to Happen That He Does Not Want?

If I’m a Soldier, Where’s the War—Part 7

Over the course of this series, we have seen the Scriptures indicate how the spiritual world is inexorably linked to this physical world. We have understood God to be in total control.  But, if this is so, many ask, “Why does so much that is so bad continue to happen, even when Christians pray?”

It is almost as though God is allowing some things to happen that He does not want! How can this be, if God is all-powerful and all-loving? There are several factors we must look at and consider before answering this question.

Standing in the Gap
It may be that there was no one to stand in the gap. Ezekiel describes a scene from God’s perspective saying, “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore, I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads” (Ezekiel 22:30-31).

There are occasions when God’s holiness and justice demand a reaction and retribution, but He seeks a means of dispensing mercy instead. In this verse, we find God looking for someone to be an intercessor on behalf of the nation so that He would not pour out His wrath. But, finding none, He executed justice, rather than the mercy He would have preferred to give.

Our Responsibility
While God wants spiritual battles to be won here in this world, we must remember He has given to us the responsibility of being prepared for it, fighting it, and enduring it. We might well lose a battle God wants us to win, if no one is practicing an active, “sword faith”—if no one was familiar enough or willing to say, “Thus saith the Lord….”

Understanding the Times
I believe there are battles God wants us to win, but perhaps there were none who had an “understanding of the times”—they did not know what to do. God has had men ready for such occasions in the past and they will be greatly needed in the future: “…of the children of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…” (I Chronicles 12:32).

It seems as though several Christians today have been given the understanding of the times in which we live. However, when they voice their concerns and warnings, the rest of the kingdom rarely gives heed, or worse, they ridicule the speaker. On the other hand, too many relinquish their right to voice an opinion, avoid the news of the day and hibernate through their lifetime from the rest of the world.

Strength in the Lord
God may want us to win wars when we can’t because no one was being strong in the Lord. We have too few Christians experienced in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, Bible study and sword-faith.

Don’t we remember a time when the disciples could not cast out a particular demon, so they took the victim to Jesus?  He told them, “However, this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). If Jesus Himself says that some things God would wish and allow will not happen unless these spiritual disciplines are practiced, how much more authority do we need before we pay attention to this?

All too often, fasting is an overlooked discipline that nearly every great man of God has incorporated into his life’s disciplines and practices. Yet many church leaders today simply pay no attention to it or call it old-fashioned or unnecessary. You may be wondering what God would like to do in your local church, but cannot because there is no spiritual strength, conviction and discipline being practiced.

What might God want to do with our nation if there arose a generation who were ready warriors, skilled in His Word, who understood the times and were seasoned by biblical spiritual disciplines? What might our country be missing because these Christians are absent, AWOL or simply sitting back waiting to be blessed—waiting for God to make their life safe, soft, easy and comfortable?

Eyes to See and Ears to Hear
Another problem that leads God to hold back from doing all that He wants is that there is no one with eyes to see and ears to hear. Think of the number of times God speaks only to have men become willingly deaf. Before each address to the seven churches of Asia, the Lord states, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7,11,17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).

How many times does God need to say this before we get it? Doesn’t it alarm you to think of how much there is elsewhere in the Scripture that God has said that we might have missed or be missing simply because we didn’t have ears to hear what He was saying or eyes to see it? 

Too often our trains of thought are more like bumper cars, and we careen off one fleeting satisfying thought to another—always looking for something that’s safe, soft, easy and comfortable. What might we be missing simply because our attention and focus is on something other than Him?

So what do you do now? Do as the apostles did. Give yourself to the study of God’s Word so that you become skillful with it. Be careful and stay on guard because you do have an enemy like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

In the safe, soft, easy and comfortable sanctuaries we have built for churches and church life in the 21^st century and filled with an easy gospel of blessings, it is far too easy for Christians to become couch-potatoes at home and pew-potatoes at church. We want to sit back and wait for God to come to the rescue, for Him to provide for our every whim, altogether forgetting that we play a pivotal role and that there are forces around us that have impact on us.

“Christian soldiers marching as to war” don’t sit on the sofa or stay in the pew. If you’re a soldier, where’s the war? You are in the midst of it day and night. It not only surrounds you; it involves you. And, after you’ve done all you can and should, stand!

Gerald Robison is co-founder of UnveilinGlory, a seminar and resource ministry dedicated to unveiling the glory of God in all areas of life and taking it to all peoples of the world. UnveilinGlory is best known for the book and seminar Cat and Dog Theology. Gerald has pastored churches in the U.S., Australia, and the Netherlands, and he continues to lead national seminars for Walk Thru the Bible Ministries.