Hi there,
So there are times when God's prevention is obvious: the people of Noah's day, Sodom and Gomorrah, Achan. But a lot of times God's prevention is a lot more subtle: if you had got on that plane you'd be dead, Joseph fed his family during famine, if you hadn't been schizophrenic you might have been cancerous. On and on it goes. If Jesus had made a sacrifice, the world would have fallen in to permanent war - that sort of thing. So it will be with many things in our time. If there hadn't been the theory of Evolution, men may have lost interest in the word and its power (simply because it didn't matter to them). How often God does these things, and we do not praise Him (but how could we?)!
If you get to Heaven, God is going to prevent you from wasting your time in Heaven; if you end up in Hell, God is going to get you to wait, until you have sufficient strength to end your torment. The power of this, is that everywhere that God could have been (manifestly), He yet exerts influence over, that it not fail without Him. God dwells where there is a place for Him, Heaven loves too late, Hell refuses Him entry. We must be mindful that things in our life are not His desire, but that we persevere and forge through them. Have you surrendered to God? That also might end up saving you from something, that you would walk straight in to, if you did not have faith. The question is "how do we navigate the Will of God?".
Navigating the Will of God starts as was said with "praise". But more than that, it is to do with resting in His Will, as much of it as we know: we need to have confidence that only knowing part of the story, will not disqualify us from the race. Does the runner give up, because he is not at the finish line? No! So also we must commit to the race, that God has given us. Part of this is having a preference to be only drawn in, to these spiritual matters as much as we can tolerate. We do not need to live in fear of the tower of Babel, since noone is going to start speaking the same language all over the Earth, anymore. You wouldn't fear the internet, since there is no way to find all the people on it, in real life - this gives room for the Word of God to speak online! The point is God's power is working: just as we have been sent to join in the labour of others (gospels, from memory), so we can trust that we will not be crushed by the Will of God (concerning things like the tower of Babel).
Indeed there are things that God just can't reveal now because if He did, things would be far worse for people, people who are far better of to go through the trial than avoid it. Going back to the example of being schizophrenic rather than having cancer: do you think you know better than God concerning cancer? Doesn't it make more sense, that God suffered the thought of you reaching Heaven early and not having the strength to abide there? People in Heaven don't get cancer, but people who deny God's Will don't get well! You have to reach in to this, you have to say "Father I know that my schizophrenia is your will, that it would not be your perfect will if I suffered something else in its place, but give me the courage to bring it to an end, when its efficacy is over! In Jesus' Name Amen!" There is power in the Word - you must believe this!
I hope this has been of some encouragement.
God bless.
So there are times when God's prevention is obvious: the people of Noah's day, Sodom and Gomorrah, Achan. But a lot of times God's prevention is a lot more subtle: if you had got on that plane you'd be dead, Joseph fed his family during famine, if you hadn't been schizophrenic you might have been cancerous. On and on it goes. If Jesus had made a sacrifice, the world would have fallen in to permanent war - that sort of thing. So it will be with many things in our time. If there hadn't been the theory of Evolution, men may have lost interest in the word and its power (simply because it didn't matter to them). How often God does these things, and we do not praise Him (but how could we?)!
If you get to Heaven, God is going to prevent you from wasting your time in Heaven; if you end up in Hell, God is going to get you to wait, until you have sufficient strength to end your torment. The power of this, is that everywhere that God could have been (manifestly), He yet exerts influence over, that it not fail without Him. God dwells where there is a place for Him, Heaven loves too late, Hell refuses Him entry. We must be mindful that things in our life are not His desire, but that we persevere and forge through them. Have you surrendered to God? That also might end up saving you from something, that you would walk straight in to, if you did not have faith. The question is "how do we navigate the Will of God?".
Navigating the Will of God starts as was said with "praise". But more than that, it is to do with resting in His Will, as much of it as we know: we need to have confidence that only knowing part of the story, will not disqualify us from the race. Does the runner give up, because he is not at the finish line? No! So also we must commit to the race, that God has given us. Part of this is having a preference to be only drawn in, to these spiritual matters as much as we can tolerate. We do not need to live in fear of the tower of Babel, since noone is going to start speaking the same language all over the Earth, anymore. You wouldn't fear the internet, since there is no way to find all the people on it, in real life - this gives room for the Word of God to speak online! The point is God's power is working: just as we have been sent to join in the labour of others (gospels, from memory), so we can trust that we will not be crushed by the Will of God (concerning things like the tower of Babel).
Indeed there are things that God just can't reveal now because if He did, things would be far worse for people, people who are far better of to go through the trial than avoid it. Going back to the example of being schizophrenic rather than having cancer: do you think you know better than God concerning cancer? Doesn't it make more sense, that God suffered the thought of you reaching Heaven early and not having the strength to abide there? People in Heaven don't get cancer, but people who deny God's Will don't get well! You have to reach in to this, you have to say "Father I know that my schizophrenia is your will, that it would not be your perfect will if I suffered something else in its place, but give me the courage to bring it to an end, when its efficacy is over! In Jesus' Name Amen!" There is power in the Word - you must believe this!
I hope this has been of some encouragement.
God bless.
