SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. So few believers today understand an eastern covenant. As a result, most believers today misunderstand God. As a result, many believers today say, God works in mysterious ways. Have you ever heard him say that? Well for believers, it’s not supposed to be a mystery and some of the questions that you have been asking God, God, why am I still sick? God, why did my uncle die of cancer? God, why am I in poverty? You’re about ready to get the answer. I have to tell you, when I first read the statement by Craig Hill, he’s my friend, but he said, God is not in control, and I said, “Craig, are you meshuga?” That’s the Hebrew word for crazy. And he responded…
CRAIG: You know, Sid, I am meshuga, meshuga for Messiah. Everybody has to be meshuga for somebody, so I prefer to be meshuga for Messiah. But you know, talking about that issue, when I say God is not in control, of course I’m not saying that God is not all powerful. I believe God is all powerful. God is all knowing. But what I think many people mistake is the difference between the concept of sovereignty and control. I believe God is sovereign, but not in control. And the reason is, is control implies using your power to manipulate people and circumstances to force a desired outcome. And sovereignty is instead having ownership over everything, but working through delegated authority, offering people choices with consequences. Here would be the obvious point. If God were in control, we read in the Bible, it’s his will that none should perish. Well then none would perish. But we observe that’s not true.
SID: Right.
CRAIG: People are perishing. How can that be? The answer is God is not control. God is sovereign. What that means is God offers people choices, and there are consequences. What that means, for example, receiving Jesus the Messiah. God doesn’t force anybody to do that. God doesn’t say, I will manipulate and control, and force you. No. He offers a choice, He says, this is life, this is death and it’s eternal, it’s your choice. That’s sovereignty. So God isn’t controlling every circumstance. See, we see horrible things happen. We see in our day people being beheaded, people being murdered, people being violated and terrible injustice happening. All you have to do is pick up a newspaper or watch a news report and you see all kinds of things happening that are awful. They’re not God’s will. That’s not what God desired and wanted. Well why is that happening? There’s a very simple reason. Because God isn’t controlling all those circumstances and allowing this, and allowing that. What God has done is delegated authority to man. He did in Genesis, Chapter, Verse 28. He said to Adam and Eve, “I give you dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals, the earth.” Satan came and tricked Adam and Eve into giving that authority to him. He said, of his kingdom, which is a kingdom of death, destruction, devastation, and fortunately, God had a plan. He sent Jesus the Messiah on Earth, and when Jesus died and shed his blood, he created a covenant. And in that covenant when he rose from the dead, he said this: “All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me.” He didn’t take authority with him to Heaven. He turned right around and gave it back to us as believers. And the situation, which we now live, Sid, is this. We have a partnership with God. God has given us his delegated authority on this earth as believers by covenant. That’s what covenant means.
SID: You know what bothers me, Craig?
CRAIG: What’s that, Sid?
SID: That God is so good, but he’s so misunderstood by even his own children. For instance, when you get sick and you know that God has the ability to heal you and you’re not healed, or a loved one dies from cancer, a part of you, one part, your mind says, I love God, but your heart says, God, you’ve disappointed me. I hate that misunderstanding. What would you say to someone who’s uncle died of cancer and God did not heal him, and his uncle loved God?
CRAIG: And what we find, Sid, is there are many, many variables on the earth, all kinds. There are nutritional factors, there are emotional factors, there are sin factors, there are all kinds of things that affect that, yes, God has made a covenant with us, and it’s his will to heal. By the blood of Jesus, he’s given us authority to implement that. But here’s the strategy of the enemy. The strategy of the devil is to destroy someone or to bring death and sickness upon someone and then turn right around and say to those around, God did that, God let that happen, and people get disappointed in God. You know, there’s somebody watching right now that’s exactly your circumstance. You had a loved one that died and in your heart, you said, God, why did you let that happen? And you know, here’s the truth. God was not the destroyer of your loved one. Satan is the one who destroyed, who took, who came to steal. God is the only one who loves you. And the purpose of the enemy is to get you to shut your heart to God and shut him out. Do you know today, that if you’ll open your heart and say, God, forgive me for blaming you, what will happen, it will change something, release something in your own heart and you will restore the glory and the presence of God in your life again.
SID: You know, the story you told me about the woman that was almost raped.
CRAIG: Yes.
SID: If you will explain that, this explains someone who understands the covenant. And then when we come back after the break, I want to explain what an Eastern covenant is.
CRAIG: Well very few Christians understand it. You know, this was a lady that got an understanding of covenant. She was just having her quiet time, reading the Bible, and she got a scripture, Isaiah 54:15. It said, “If anyone fiercely assails you, it will not be from me and whoever attacks you will fall because of you.” Well the Holy Spirit told her to memorize that and meditate on it, which she did, and she didn’t know why. About two weeks later, there was a knock on her apartment door. She lived alone. She opened the door. A man forced his way in and said, “I’m going to rape you.” Well immediately, that word came up from her spirit and it was a little bit of a, she had to struggle, should I really test it out, because the consequences are sort of dangerous here. She decided, I’m going to go with what I believe God told me. She said to him, “You’re not going to rape me.” She said, “Furthermore, I’m in covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ. What that means is he’s in me, I’m in him. What you do to me, you do to him. What have you come here today to do today, to rape Jesus Christ?”
SID: Oh my goodness.
CRAIG: The man went, “What? What?” He didn’t know what to say. He started to get afraid. And she said, “No, see he’s in me. Whatever you do to me, you do to him. Furthermore, I’m the apple of his eye. What that means is, that’s [unintelligible]. You’re putting your finger in the pupil of God’s eye right now.” She said, “You have no authority in this apartment. God gave this to me. I have authority. He gave me a promise. Now get out!” The man did everything he knew to do to try to put her fear. He said, “If you don’t cooperate with me, I’m going to kill you.” She said, “You know what? My life doesn’t belong to me. My life has been given over to the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and if it’s my day to die, I’m fine with that. I don’t think it probably is, but that’s his decision, not yours. And so my life is in his hands and you will do nothing to me today. Now get out!” Now some people hear that and they think, well I don’t know if I would respond that way. But you know what? God had given her a word in season.
SID: But you know what? The key is understanding Eastern covenant. This woman had chutzpah. That’s Hebrew word for “nerve”. And you’re going to have chutzpah, that’s a Hebrew word for “nerve”, when you really grasp this, when we come back.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth