The Goodness of God
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will continue to perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (the time of His return)” Philippians 1:6 AMP
Our Mighty Lord is faithful to complete all good things in you and me. Sometimes it’s by Sovereign rescue, which I want to share during this time together. But as we mature in Him, we partner to get His will accomplished. Make no mistake, His will is always “salvation”. The Greek is “sozo”. The Hebrew meaning of that word is “to save, to keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction; to save a suffering one (from perishing) i.e., one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health.”
Attacks against us come, but again make no mistake, they are never from God. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly. I am the Good Shepard. The Good Shepard lays down His life for His sheep”. (John 10:10,11).
Some say, “God is Sovereign and He did cause or, at the least, allow the bad things to happen.” First of all, of course it’s true that He is sovereign; but the dictionary defines “sovereign” as “1st in rank, order or authority”. Religion, however, often insists that God controls everything. Not true.
For example, 2 Peter 3:9 states, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. But do all? No. Jesus said “ … broad is the way that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it”. (Matt 7:13-14). If God’s will automatically came to pass, we would all be saved. But in His Sovereignty and love, He has freed us to make our own choice. He does, however, know who belongs to Him (as He is Omniscient) even before we do – and our Good Shepard does protect us when we can’t protect ourselves even when we make bad decisions!
However, in this life, for now, before The Rapture, and due to evil, loss occurs. At this point, let me just express our sorrow and grief for those who’ve suffered crushing loss of loved ones, or life quality. Our hearts can only be healed by the love of God and the knowledge that we will see those loved ones on the other side, as too many have gone before us too soon. For other losses, like money or positions we won’t care at all once we see Jesus!
God Rescued Me!
For the sake of recalling how God has rescued, not just me, but you – whether we’re aware of those times or not – let me list a couple of foiled attempts by the enemy in the hopes you too can appreciate how, I’m sure, the Lord grabbed you out of some major trouble!
I was:
1. Electrocuted by age 5 – flew across the room, over a chair, hit the wall, slid down it and was dazed for some time after. I’ll assume I’m normal!
2. Abducted at age 6 by a young, demented teenager while walking home from school. He dragged me behind a building to violate me in some way. I kicked, punched, and screamed until, afraid, he dropped me and he ran off.
3. At 25 years old, and six months pregnant with our first child, I was grabbed by a butcher in front of his meat market and dragged inside – screaming before hundreds of people who looked on without helping me. It was Halloween time, and this was at The Boston Public Market. The four butchers inside laughed as the man dragged me into the cooler, then proceeded to “touch me inappropriately” in front of the carving table with all his knives. I’m sure he was after my baby for a Halloween sacrifice. But my dear cousin saw me from about 200 yards away and ran through the crowds into the store and burst into the room yelling “Leave her alone.” The butcher looked dazed, dropped me from his grip and ran off – surely that was a demon and my baby the intended sacrifice. I ran back to Rochester for the rest of the year.
His Undeniably Supernatural Intervention …
So, I was electrocuted once and abducted twice by age 25 and had the typical close-call accidents. However, three potential car fatalities were absolutely supernaturally upended by the Lord.
1. While driving with my children in the car, I spun out of control on ice on a highway and the car rotated 3 times. I heard the Lord say, “Take your hands off the wheel and your foot off the brake.” So, with no control left and at least 6 cars coming towards us, I closed my eyes and said “Lord, just don’t let us be crippled when this is over.” Eventually, the car stopped spinning, but I kept my eyes closed. I heard the Lord say, “Now open up your eyes and drive off.” “Off what?” I thought, as we had been heading toward an embankment. When I opened them, we were safely parked on the exit ramp facing in the correct direction to “drive off.” And we did! Praise God!!
2. When I was 31 years old, both my parents were in the hospital dying. Lying on the couch one evening to rest I thought, “I know they’re dying, but I’m going to die tonight.” I called my spiritual mom. She didn’t comfort me with well-meaning words. She said, “I’ll get right on it,” hung up and did warfare with her daughter. I fell back to sleep. One hour later I awoke, got off the couch and 10 seconds later, a car
full of drunken kids crashed through that wall at a high speed, running over the couch I had just moved off of. The police said, “Do you know how lucky you are? The last person this happened to is still in a coma from 6 months ago”.
3. Last one, so as not to either bore or traumatize you! My daughter and I were driving about 60 mph on the highway when God graced us with a “quantum physics” moment. She looked into the rearview mirror and saw a truck fast approaching. As he paralleled us, he began to crank his steering wheel in our direction to get to the off ramp. Later, she said, “it was obvious from the look on his face that he never saw us. Like we were invisible”. She didn’t try to avoid him but thought, “That guy is going to hit us. I wonder what God is going to do.” Just then his truck drove through the hood and entire front of our SUV. We watched the red of his truck meld with the gray of the SUV to produce a wavy, particle looking purple color where they were crossing through one another. He passed through our car without even a hint of disturbance and drove to the off ramp as we kept on our way. A non-accident, intersectional happening – God dimension stuff! A dazzling Jesus-move, like when He walked through the Upper Room wall after His Resurrection. By the way, it took 2 weeks to process this and then we started screaming! That’s not all of it but pretty close. You get the point and I’m sure you have your own experiences where you were mightily rescued too.
Some would say we are “lucky” when these things happen. But no, you and I are “blessed” as that word denotes the privilege of Divine Intervention, for we belong to Abba Father, and He knows who are His before we even know Him. He takes care of us as a good parent does as we are even yet in the womb. It is a covenantal, family gift of God. Covenantal grace, mercy and love has no end.
CeCe Winans recorded a song “The Goodness of God” which began to play on YouTube as I was writing this. It has become my song of love and thanksgiving to our Father for all the times He has rescued me and my loved ones – from salvation to everyday life. Please enjoy and feel free to join in because this song says it all!
With love from one of …
