YOU HAVE A CHOICE WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
Sakkie Parsons
Someone wrote a very honest letter to me and in this letter the person wrote:
"I'm worried about the sovereign will of God for me.
Does that mean that if He decided that I was going to hell then nothing could change it?
Why I ask is, I want to be honest with you, I'm struggling to get along with people, I'm not a people person. I don’t like to help people because it feels to me that people only use and hurt you.
It's a nasty personality trait.
Through all of this I know that I am disobedient. Do I just have to pray to God to help me get to Heaven?"
Let me share my answer to this person:
According to my understanding of the Word, God's sovereign will for the salvation of man is very, very clear and that is that God would like all the people who He created to be in Heaven:
JHN 3:16 “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] [a]only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Saviour] shall not perish, but have eternal life.
JHN 3:17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.
Most of us, however, because our Lord has given us a will of our own, sometimes changes His sovereign will and sometimes a lot and sometimes entirely. So much so that most people exchange the place He has prepared for us in heaven for a place in hell.
With regards to this, while Jesus was on His way to Golgotha to go and make a way for us to spend an eternity in heaven with Him, He said the following:
MAT 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it.
MAT 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it.
So which “narrow path” or “door/gate” is Jesus referring to?
JOH 10:7 So Jesus said again, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, I am the Door for the sheep [leading to life].
Another time Jesus said the following, which makes any other opinions nil and void:
JHN 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
So, as I understand the Word, God never decides that this or that person should go to hell. Man decides with the free will with which our Lord has created him / her – "I do not accept Jesus as my Savior and Redeemer" and God respects the will of man.
Because He has given us a will of our own and we are not God's puppets, but His children, we have the ability to decide whether to follow Jesus in this life, through the grave and beyond, and by this be sure that we are on the narrow road and on our way to Heaven.
Or we can choose to continue on the broad path which after this life, will lead to hell.
Then again, what you have also asked:
Yes, of course, we should always ask our Lord, or to use your words "to beg" to help us move closer and closer to Him and His will in our lives, but I also have to use my own will daily to ensure that Satan does not get his will with me and so I must strive to live out of our Lord's Love law:
MAT 22:36-40
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 And Jesus replied to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others].’
40 The whole Law and the [writings of the] Prophets depend on these two commandments.”ROM 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to [b]love and seek the best for one another; for he who [unselfishly] loves his neighbour has fulfilled the [essence of the] law [relating to one’s fellowman].
I have experienced in my own life that the closer I move to this love principle of our Lord, the harder satan tries to make the opposite a reality in my life.
However, it is like this because, after all, satan has to try to get as many people as possible to live the opposite of this Love law and as a result stumble on the broad path to hell and you just have to look around you to see how successful he is but here is the great glory in this whole set-up –
You and I don’t have to be part of the statistics of the success that satan has in the world.
We just need to stay obedient to Jesus in our lives, and of course satan will use people to try and make it as difficult as possible for us, but how wonderful to know that I have received the power of our Lord to make my own decision in this regard in obedience to His Word:
JHN 10:27-30
27 The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are One [in essence and nature].”
Can you see?
Absolutely no one in this universe but you can pull you out of the hand of our Lord.
Do not use the free will with which God created you in His image to loosen yourself out of His arms, for it's the only way you can move from His arms. Because you are created according to His will, you have a will of your own which he respects, just as He expects that you will respect His will.
Now while we have this great assurance that no one can pull us out of our Lord's hand, and we look at the people around us, let us remember what our Lord had written to us in this regard, especially in the light that you say that you are not a people person:
GAL 6:7-10
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked [He will not allow Himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with contempt nor allow His precepts to be scornfully set aside]; for whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will reap.
8 For the one who sows to his flesh [his sinful capacity, his worldliness, his disgraceful impulses] will reap from the flesh ruin and destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
9 Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in.
10 So then, while we [as individual believers] have the opportunity, let us do good to all people [not only being helpful, but also doing that which promotes their spiritual well-being], and especially [be a blessing] to those of the household of faith (born-again believers).
Greetings,
Sakkie