God is not in control. Based on sermons by Tommy Miller.
God is in charge. Big difference!
If God were in control, it would mean every ounce of pain that you've endured, every betrayal that you've been through, every disease that you have, He is the author of.
Or he's trying to teach you, by afflicting you with pain and torment.
This doesn't fly.
Nihilists do not believe that their participation in creation affects the outcome at all.
And western theology isn’t far behind.
Therefore, why would you breathe?
God is in charge.
Way different than being in control because people that in that are in charge, can afford other people their authorization.
And once they've afforded their authorization to someone else, the results of that area of authorization become their responsibility.
What you've gone through is not the result of God being in control. It's the result of God being in charge and giving creation to Adam and Eve and them failing to steward it well.
It is a crooked ancestry that brought pain and suffering and not your father that's in heaven.
Your psyche and nervous system will be on edge, and you’ll do less in life, if you think the pain that you've been through is a result of your father's will and decision.
That’s a Father you should not follow.
In western evangelicalism, we overemphasize God's ability to change the world.
It's not a secular culture that's breeding most of these things into the subconscious understanding of humanity.
The teaching that has invaded the Christian church throughout history, yields the same ideals.
The gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of new creation, restores all things to the rightful place, while religion steals them from you.
Western evangelicalism has taught us that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
That promotes neuroticism.
Neuroticism is an unusual bent towards negative emotion.
It will steal gratitude. It'll steal growth. It'll destroy your nervous system. It'll destroy your biology, because we believe that what we're supposed to do as Christians is focus on what's wrong all the time.
Gratitude is the precursor to abundance, not complaining.
In Matthew, it said that a master came and divided his talents among his servants.
To one he gave one, to one he gave two, to another he gave five.
When the master came to settle accounts with the servants, to the one that had five he made five more. And he said, "Well done." to the one that had two, he made two more and he said, "Well done." And to the one that made one, he said, "I was scared, so I hid it."
If that were to taught in modern western evangelicalism, we would create a program in our church for people that hide their talents. All of the church's energy and all of the church's focus and all of our leadership assets and resources will be pointed toward the people that aren't doing anything.
That's not kingdom.
Just as your sore knee is not the only thing that you've got going on.
Squeaky wheels don't have to get the grease.
It deprives everything else of satiation.
It deprives everything else of resource and love and compassion.
It deprives you of gratitude.
It deprives you of any rest at all.
Genuine Pentecostal circles teach that you should always be focused on what's wrong.
Jesus had to be convinced to focus on what was wrong and he only did it to fix it and then he moved on.
That is Jesus not succumbing to the Jezebel pattern.
That's Jezebel. When you're always confronting the squeaky wheel, you don't keep confronting the squeaky wheel. You take what you gave her, and you give it to somebody that's faithful.
If your knee is the squeaky wheel, you take the attention that you're giving it and you give it to something that you can show gratitude for.
If your chronic migraines or whatever very-real-issues show up in your body, it's just something having a louder voice than the voice of the Lord and you coming off your throne to confront it.
there is no kingdom model where the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Everybody gets love, care, and concern.
But we don't have to give trophies to sore knees.
There's a subtle cost for rewarding inactivity.
There's a subtle cost for bringing all your attention towards negativity in your life.
Western evangelicalism has produced small-mindedness towards human ability.
It suggests that not only are you going to be subject to suffering, but that suffering is non-negotiable and that suffering is something you can never do anything about.
The bible says, "The heavens, yes, even the heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given into the hands of men."
This is what in charge and in control looks like.
God being in control, bad deal.
God being in charge, much better.
God has relinquished his authorization to other people. And if they fail, He’s responsible, but He’s not at fault.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ was God exercising his responsibility over creation, not admitting fault.
He's not at fault for what you've gone through.
He is the solution to it.
He does not have to claim fault to claim responsibility.
Adam and Eve were given a commission by God.
Be fruitful, fill the earth, multiply, subdue it. Make it like Eden, like Heaven.
God put the world under subjection to Adam and Eve.
He gave them dominion.
That means that what happens to the world is not in God's control, because He relinquished control to them.
There’s a hierarchy.
God was the head of Adam, and Adam was the head of the wife, and Adam and Eve have dominion over creation.
Then a created being came to Eve and gave her a new narrative.
Eve needn’t have engaged the serpent.
She doesn't have to counteract. She doesn't have to yell. She doesn't have to rebuke. She had to stay seated.
That's it. That's what dominion means. That you stay on a throne. You rule by decree and declaration. That's it.
But the serpent said, "Hey, that guy's lying to you. The one that you're in subjection to has not given you a real narrative. Here's the real narrative…."
She believed a voice that she's supposed to have under subjection.
It becomes the dominant narrative in her mind.
The serpent became Jezebel to Eve.
Eve became Jezebel to Adam.
Adam became Jezebel to the Father.
But guess who didn't get up? Who didn’t shout. The one in charge. The Father.
The consequence described in Genesis, it doesn't say, “because you listened to that serpent, you're in trouble”; It says, “because you listened to that serpent, here’s what’s going to happen”.
The pattern continues:
Eve because you were deceived (this is what’s going to happen).
Adam because you heeded the voice of your wife (this is what’s going to happen).
What you pay attention to has huge consequences.
Western evangelicalism overemphasizes God's participation in heavenly activity on earth, it
overemphasizes God's activity and ability to change things on earth.
Genesis, shows God has no ability to change things on earth.
God changing things on earth by himself is illegal after Genesis 2.
God said, "Let us make them in our image and let them let them have dominion."
This principle runs through the entire Old Testament, because if God wants to do things in the earth, he has to be like, "Hey, Abraham, could I get some help?"
A spirit, functioning on earth, without a dirt body is illegal.
That's why demons are always looking for possession. Demons need bodies, even if it's a pig.
The human body is the most sophisticated piece of technology on earth; without it, spirits can't do anything.
If we say God is in control, we underemphasize man's capability in changing creation when it's our responsibility. No one else’s.
If we say God is in control, we overemphasize God's ability to intervene with heavenly things on earth.
He will at your behest.
He will through His hands and feet.
But guess who’s wearing them? You!
If we don't get these things right, we will become nihilistic shells of humans.
The teaching that humans are sinners, saved by grace, waiting on God to move on their behalf
and never teaching identity and destiny, is problematic.
Identity and destiny are inseparable.
Something can't become something that it doesn't believe it is.
You always become what you believe you are.
What God called a lack of faith wasn't ever disbelief in Him.
Eve didn't question God at all.
But Eve didn't question God's identity. She questioned her own. And that's what cost her everything.
The worst thing that you can believe about yourself, is what Western evangelicalism tells you is true.
It's a message of separation.
God does not love you because of Jesus.
Legalism teaches you that God does not love you. Calvin said he hates and arbores you and that he dangles infants over hell's flames.
But we move out of legalism, where your ability to get God to be pleased with you is based solely on your performance. And then we move into grace. And grace is a much better message because now God doesn't love you because of your performance or despite your performance. He loves you because he's looking at you through his beloved son which is also wrong.
It's not good news. For the father to love you because when he thinks of you, he pictures his son. That's insulting.
He loves you because you're innately worthy of love.
You a human by yourself, are crafted from the fabric of the father and therefore innately worthy of love.
Much better news.
Overemphasising the wrong part of a testimony.
if you focus on who you were, which isn't who you are, then you will consistently revisit where you came from.
This makes it harder (impossible?) to lay hold of that which you are called to.
There is a huge culture built around how wicked you used to be.
There is no reason to consistently revisit your former wickedness after you learn that that wicked one is dead.
We have a non-victorious view of the future.
A non-victorious view of the future, of the end times.
A non-victorious view of an afterlife, will cause you to be jealous of dead people.
It will not produce life in your bones.
Doomsday views of what is ahead, is the number one way that both religion and politicians, render the entire culture supremely ineffective.
Neuroscientists say that when made to believe that the future is inherently hopeless, and their purpose is essentially vanity, the human mind frazzles.
God has not said, "Here's the blueprint. Here's the kingdom. Bring heaven to earth. I'm going to sneak in and blow the whole thing up some time, but it'll be fun in the meantime”.
There is absolutely no incentive to be a manifest son, bringing heaven into the culture of the created order, if you believe that God's going to come back and explode it at some point.
Nihilism is the byproduct of bad theology. If sometimes you don't want to wake up and breathe air it’s because you don't realize that humanity got us into this mess and it’s humanity is going to get us out.
Demons work through doctrines. That message inversely, is what's being preached in most western churches.
It leaves people, helpless sinners that can do nothing about their past, present, or future.
It leaves people, envying the people that have died before them, that cannot wait till they go home.
And creation is screaming, groaning for a group of people, not God, to stop trying to escape, and a group of people to occupy and be manifest sons on earth, so that creation can be delivered into the glorious liberty of beloved sons.
Chaos enters a kingdom when order is fractured.
Had order been maintained in Genesis, we would have had no issues but getting on with beautification and increase.
Every dysfunction can be traced to disorder.
Every disorder can be solved through authorisation.
Your body is not authorised to determine its own condition. Your body is a slave to your soul.
Your soul is not authorised to determine its own condition. The spirit is the governing entity of the human soul.
The human body is the governing entity of all of creation.
If you zoom out and look for dysfunction, you will find disorder in a very identifiable realm.
You can't go outside of it.
Order exists in every facet of the godhead.
Jesus said, 'I don't even do what I want to do. I do whatever I see the father doing.”
Jesus Christ himself said, "Apart from him, I can do nothing."
So apart from him, you can do nothing, too!
There is order, structure, function in the Trinity.
The son only says what he hears the father saying. He's perfectly in subjection to the father.
The holy spirit is in subjection to the son.
Your spirit is one spirit with His spirit.
Therefore, that spirit is in dominion of your human soul.
Your human soul tells your biology what to do.
Your biology tells creation what to do.
If your spirit renders your body whole, healed, saved, delivered, and kept safe and sound, then your body can only rule you through volume and coercion. Your body becomes Jezebel.
Chaos enters a kingdom through dysfunction.
A breach in rank in file in any realm, marriage, family, sickness, poverty, creation can be attributed to a breach.
Romans 8 v19.
"For the earnest expectation of creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God."
Positional sonship is different than experiential sonship.
Positional sonship is where something is true of you.
Experiential sonship is where it's true to you.
Creation will never be delivered by positional sons, because you've never not been one.
You have been God's son from before the foundation of the world.
But because of the order of the kingdom, creation is not in subjection to your spirit.
Creation is in subjection to your body. Your body is the interface between heaven and earth.
That's His desire. Properly ordered sons, because order produces life
and chaos produces fracture.
When rank and file break, something always moves to occupy the vacuum.
Chaos never shows up until authority dethrones itself first.
Chaos never takes hold until authority has been abdicated.
1. Do you believe you have any say over what happens in the future?
2. Do you believe God is the one that's supposed to fix all your problems?
3. Do you think that dying and going to heaven is better than answering the cry of creation manifesting as a son?
If there's disorder, if there's dysfunction, then something wants you to show up that doesn’t have authorised power.
The Jezebel pattern, is about unauthorised power. It's somebody that wants a say that wasn't given authorisation to have one. It manipulates through co coercion and volume.
The Leviathan pattern, twists language. It's difficult. Leviathan usually occupies distance.
You ever notice that, if you don't see somebody for a long time, you start growing suspicious even though nothing new happened? That's Leviathan.
The Absalom pattern is far more sinister, way more difficult to confront. Absalom garners loyalty through shared pain.
Strongholds, your reasonings that justify dysfunction. Absalom will be your stronghold.
Absalom will even dislike you if you get healed, because your friendship is based on shared pain. Misplaced loyalty and shared pain.
Adam's sin was not eating the fruit. Adam's sin was abdication.
Adam immediately placed blame on his wife.
Chaos enters every family, every church, every marriage, every business, every nation through the same exact front door.
And the front door is abdication.
When sons don't take sonship type responsibilities.
When husbands don't take husband type responsibilities.
When wives don't take wife type responsibilities.
When leaders don't take leadership type responsibilities.
And the process goes the same every single time.
Abdication. Idolatry. Bitterness.
Every single time.
Somebody showed up because you didn't. Now you're mad at them and you're afraid to confront them because you've idolised their emotions. You don't want to make them mad, and because you don't want to make them mad, you're just going to get bitter at them for taking your spot.
This is where we all end up. The pattern infiltrates every aspect of the human existence.
Some people carry pain. we, gladly let it stay there because it's a result, a badge of what we've been through.
Yep. And because it's a badge of what we've been through, it's also an excuse to not show up.
Chaos enters every family, church, marriage, business, and nation through the same front door.
a vacuum. in abdication.
Jezebel is the spirit of illegitimate occupation or unauthorized power.
Jezebel appears because somebody stepped down because somebody is not ruling because something is now not in subjection. She takes an empty throne.
Leviathan is the spirit of disorder. It thrives in chaos.
Leviathan just twists. The thing that you need to do to keep Leviathan out of your body, your family, your circles is communicate.
Leviathan thrives where separation and distance exist.
Leviathan never creates truth. It simply distorts it.
There is a piece of every one of these patterns in the Genesis narrative.
The serpent quoted God to Eve to get her to rebel. Just a few words difference.
The few words, are the twisting that comes from the Leviathan pattern.
Absalom is the spirit of stolen affection.
Absalom was King David's son.
Absalom suffered a legitimate injustice.
His sister was assaulted.
David did nothing about it.
Absalom was extremely upset with David.
Absalom tells people “the king won’t do anything about your problems, if you need somebody to talk to, cry right here.”
Absalom creates wound licking clubs.
They never put the responsibility on you to walk into wholeness, because they become irrelevant if you get healed.
It's a pattern.
Absalom can show up in your body.
Absalom showed up in Genesis.
Eve, he just doesn't want you to be as powerful as he is. If you eat it, you'll become like God.
And he's kind of scared of how big of a deal you are. Yeah, just listen to me.
Absalom stands at the gate. He sympathizes. He validates. He gathers the wounded. And then he offers an alternative kingdom.
God's government.
The father reveals to the son.
The son reveals to the spirit.
The spirit reveals to humanity.
Humanity reveals to creation.
When this rank and file remain intact, life flows, truth flows, peace flows, protection flows, identity flows, and provision flows.
Anytime there's dysfunction, when there's disorder in one of those steps, the moment there's a fracture in one of those pieces, dysfunction becomes the reality.
Western theology will steal identity and destiny from you.
Demons work through doctrines.
Doctrines that downplay us/our, as Son's, involvement in creation.
Doctrines that that overemphasise God's participation in redemption, and convince you that there's absolutely nothing you can do because God's in control.
Western evangelicalism will teach you that you're living in someone else's house and if something is in your way, just deal with it. God's in control. Hardly!
Psalms says that He has delivered the earth into the hands of men.
Genesis says that he gives you the commission to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.
If you want to tear a wall out, tear the wall out. If you want to remodel, remodel.
You were made for this place.
You weren't made as for this to be like a testing ground so you can make it somewhere else.
Adam and Eve, if they had not been uninterrupted by the fall, had no exit strategy.
The entire creation was formless and void.
God spoke and He formed Eden.
That means the rest of creation remained a blank canvas for the dreams and desires of His Sons and daughters to come to pass through their will on earth.
That purpose for us never went away, it was just paused.
If we don’t realise this world is ours to steward and govern, if we abdicate, chaos will be the governor.
Practically we need to look at where the disorder is. Find the dysfunction. Find out where the gap came in order, and step in. We need to show up.