How God Moves

Have you ever gotten a thought stuck in your head that you can’t seem to drive out or dismiss? Whenever there’s a quiet moment it pops into your head. You lay down to sleep and sleep won’t come because you’re turning this matter over in your mind.

This has been my experience over the last several months. The thought I have been grappling with is this: Isn’t it funny how God moves? I don’t mean His actions are humorous or comical. Far from it! What I am speaking of is God’s works and actions in our lives are often perplexing or hard to account for.

Several months ago I began thinking about how God had called our daughter Hope home to glory. When she got cancer I began earnestly praying for her healing and did so almost to the end. I finally realized God was taking her home and it surprised me. I wasn’t thinking that way. It wasn’t even on my radar. God moved in a way I had not expected.

As I have wrestled with this matter for an extended period of time my understanding of how God moves and works has brought me to several conclusions. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, there are times when I have no answers.

I now believe that admitting we don’t know everything and we can’t answer every question is an excellent place to begin. This conviction comes from considering Isaiah 55:8-9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts than yours. Edward J. Young brings out the point being made here when he says, “The ways and thoughts of God are incomprehensible to man. Even though God reveal(s) them to man, he cannot fully understand them”(emphasis added). We are caught in a trap of our own making when we think we can fully explain how and why God moves and works like he does. We can’t put God in a box. He transcends any philosophical or intellectual box we might make. Furthermore, He is often silent as to His reasons for how He works in a specific situation. It is not unusual to find ourselves in the position of Job.

I also believe we can’t predict how, where, or when God will move or work. Jesus spoke of this in John 3:8, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. Peter made a similar point in 2 Peter 1:21, For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

We don’t control the Spirit. He moves when and how He wants to move. He works here and then He works over there. We don’t have a formula to predict what He is going to do. He doesn’t even save everyone in exactly the same way. Just listen to or read people’s testimonies as they relate how God saved them. We can tell where He’s working or where He has worked but not where He will work or when He will work. So the working of the Spirit has its mysteries.

When I speak of mysteries or things that can’t be fully understood or explained I am led to my final point: We are called to trust God. We must wait on Him. Do we really believe Isaiah 55:11 where God tells us his word, “Will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it’? Do we take comfort in the words of Daniel 4:34-35 where God is honored with these words, His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: “What have you done?”

Last week as I walked through the plant a man who is a Christian asked me, “Do you believe a person who professes to be a Christian and then commits suicide will go to heaven?” I answered, “I believe if they truly trust in Christ they will go to heaven.” He replied, “How is that possible?” I told him the only answer is the grace of God. I then asked, “Have you ever heard of William Cowper?” He shook his head no in response. I said he should read the biography of his life.

On several occasions he tried to commit suicide. He failed each time because something went wrong with the means he was using. He was in and out of asylums during his life.
Throughout his life he experienced periods of darkness and doubt. You see, he suffered from what people of his day called melancholy but what we call depression and despair.

Yet God used him to write some of the most theologically sound hymns that can be found. My favorite speaks to the matter I am addressing. I close with the first and last verses of his great hymn.

God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.

Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His work in vain;
God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.

Your elder,
Jim Gordon