If God is for us
By Ivan Ho 6 May 2017
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:28-31 NKJV
God gave the dream to Nebuchadnezzar but didn’t give him the interpretation. Daniel was there at the right place and the right time to interpret the dream. The awesome dream spoke of the destinies of nations and the everlasting kingdom of Christ. However, of all people, the dream was first spoken to the idol worshipper Nebuchadnezzar.
God also gave Pharoah a dream but it was Joseph who interpreted it for him. Again, Pharoah wasn’t a godly man even though he was first given the dream.
Some people have dreams and visions but they have all sorts of wrong interpretations because God has not given them the interpretations.
Jesus sometimes spoke things in parables but only His disciples were given the understanding.
Everyone can have access to the Bible but unless people are given the understanding by the author of the book, ie God Himself, just reading the Book itself would have little impact on their lives.
Through Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, God foretold the rise and fall of five major world powers before Christ will establish His everlasting kingdom on earth, hundreds and thousands of years before these world events happened. This is the sovereignty of God yet some people live in delusions in thinking that they can change what God has already predestined in His foreknowledge through their prayers?! Our prayers are only effective if we pray things according to what God has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.
There are many things we should pray without having to seek the will of God, like praying for the sick, like casting out demons, like going to the world to preach the gospel of the kingdom, like making disciples of all nations, because Jesus has already given His disciples the authority to do so.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV
But there are some things that belong in the sovereign will of God that no matter how fervent we pray, it will not change what God has sovereignly decided to do before the foundations of the world, like when and the manner in which Christ will return.
Let us not move in assumptions like so many so called prophetic, or rather pathetic people do. They pray in the flesh, prophesy in the flesh, interpret God’s word according to their own understanding, and worst of all, live in denial and presumptuosly. They think that just because they read the Bible and attend church, God must stand by them in everything that they are involved.
Jesus says: “When two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst”. The key issue is: “Are people coming together in the name of Jesus or in their own name?” Many people use the name of Jesus to meet, to pray and to do all kinds of things which have nothing to do with our Lord Jesus. Then they would ask Jesus to come and join them.
So who is the Lord here? Jesus only stands by His own name in the sense that He is only committed to doing everything that is according to the will of the Father.
Let us walk humbly and circumspectly before God, seeking to do His will. If God is for us, no man can be against us…..The key word is IF!