Sovereign over us

SOVEREIGN OVER US

The book of Acts is officially called the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, but many say that it could be renamed as ‘The Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit’, because it was God acting sovereignly through the Holy Spirit in people who had yielded their will to his will for their lives.
In Chapter nine we saw the sovereign work of God in changing the entire purpose of Paul’s life and bringing him into the eternal purpose of God. He heard the words of a messenger called Ananias who was told to tell Paul ‘how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake’ (Acts 9:16). Paul accepted the things that befell him as being ordained of God and he aligned his will accordingly, and he saw the will of God being done on earth as it was in Heaven as God reordered him and his world around him. 

We read on in a few verses later in Acts chapter nine how Paul straightaway confronts suffering and adversity in the attempts of people to persecute him and take his life.
22. But Saul became stronger and stronger, and confounded the Jews in Damascus as he debated with them, proving that Jesus was indeed the Christ Messiah 23. Many days after this, the Jews conferred together and decided to have him put to death. But Saul found out about their plans to ambush him, that they waited in the city gates day and night to take his life. 25. One night the disciples took him and helped him to escape, lowering him down through the city wall in a basket.

It was God’s will to keep Paul alive despite the will of the would-be assassins.
And it goes on, with Paul even receiving rejection from Christians and further attempts by assassins to kill him.
26. When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to link up with the disciples but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. 27. But Barnabas took him under his wing and vouched for him before the apostles and told them how the Lord had appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. He told them how the Lord had commissioned him and how courageously he had preached Jesus at Damascus. So Paul became one of them in his comings and goings in Jerusalem.
29. He preached confidently in the name of Jesus and debated powerfully against the Hellenists, who then began planning how to execute him. 30. The apostles and disciples were aware of this, so they brought him down to the port at Caesarea and sent him off, back home to Tarsus.

Even though Barnabus endorsed Paul as being commissioned by the Lord on the road to Damascus Paul was not commissioned by the other apostles at this time for any special mission. When Paul writes his letter to the Galatians he introduces himself as Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead (Galatians 1:1). And as we see later in his letter to the Galatians, that he was led to be alone with Jesus for three years and not receive teaching or counsel or revelation from any other person.
Galatians 1:16 I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days.

He is telling us that the Gospel he received was not from a human source – he did not confer with the other apostles, or anyone else. He went to Arabia, into the wilderness area east of the Jordan and down past Mt Sinai and toward the Red Sea area, and he received revelation from Jesus for three years. (It is conceivable to compare these three years with the three years that the other apostles spent with Jesus on earth). 
Paul would have fully understood how Jesus had lived his own earthly life, in asking his Father to reveal his will and his ways to him and his timing to him, for all that he did on earth. Jesus himself said I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of my Father who sent Me (John 5:30)

Paul would have realized that his own life had been repurposed and was being led by an unseen hand into unplanned events and confrontations, and protected and kept alive and provided for among people whose lives were also being guided by a Sovereign God.
Ever since that meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus it was clear to Paul that everywhere he went Jesus was there, and that everything that happened to him was something that the Father had arranged, and that things that were said to him were things he was meant to hear, even though the circumstances were often difficult or threatening.  He simply knew that things came to pass that he would never have expected to happen if he was totally in charge of things.

Paul would also have understood the quandary of God’s sovereignty and our own free will, because before he met Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, he had chosen to do whatever his conscience told him was right in his own sight and he had no perception of the sovereignty of God in his life. It was only in retrospect that he would have understood that God’s hand was always upon his life in all of his struggles between the good and evil within him.  He knew God in a different way now and faithfully yielded his will to God’s will and he could now witness the wonder of God’s sovereignty. 
An unbeliever would say you were mad to believe in such a wonder as God’s sovereignty. 

Paul was now in a different world, where laws of cause and effect are radically different. Paul had given himself to the will of God, and we know the way he was now thinking after receiving his life changing revelation from Jesus. 
He knew that by placing his life in God’s hands for the Father’s will to be done that he was a partner with Jesus in bringing God’s Heavenly Kingdom order into the earth.
Paul never claimed to have become perfected in this pursuit but said that he was always pressing toward that mark (Philippians 3:14).

When people pray ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’ they may sincerely believe in that as a possibility that might happen someday, but not believe for that to become a living reality in the here and now humdrum of their lives. 
Paul knew what he meant when he prayed that prayer.

The world’s culture, especially in these days tells us to make our own plan and own it and work hard and it will deliver.
Many Christians believe that they can claim any Scripture and own it and believe hard and ask God to do it and he will deliver. 
That is understandable if we put things in the category of standard cause and effect. 

But Paul sees a greater mystery of God’s sovereignty sitting above this limited concept, 
and I know people in the business world and other areas of the work force who do make plans, but they put them in God’s hands seeking to align them with the order of his Kingdom – and they do work hard – and they see God sovereignly at work in their work.  
And I know people who pray to God in their need and surrender their prayer into his hands for his will to be done and they give thanks, and they see God sovereignly at work in their lives.

Paul was later to write about this mysterious way of life in his letter to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.
(In Christ we were destined to fulfill the plan of God, who accomplishes everything according to his design). 
[BTW – predestination is about purpose, here and now - not about going to Heaven or hell (Romans 9)]

Father God, the divine overseer of our lives - sovereign over us – is able to work all things together for his will to re-order and direct our lives in his way and in his time. 
He provides for our natural and spiritual needs in bringing his design for our life to pass.
and your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things (natural and spiritual needs of our soul). But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:32–33, ESV) 
Let us look at what that Scripture is saying. It is telling us that our Heavenly Father knows all about the burdened fretting of our soul and as our Father he invites us to trust him for his provision and to align our thinking and believing in his timing and his way of reordering our lives - seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness – in alignment with his ways. 
This also means inviting his correcting of us when we get off course.

We can believe that God has a sovereign plan for each of our lives that is based on his infinite wisdom, love, and purpose. God's providence involves his ability to orchestrate events and align them with his divine plan for our ultimate good as his children. 
Romans 8:28 – All things work together for good for those who love him and are invited to live according to his purpose.
Romans 12 :1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your which is your reasonable service  (logikos latrea – Logical way to serve him)
We can pray and seek God's guidance in our lives knowing that God actively listens to our prayers and intervenes in response to them. While his ways may not always align with our human expectations, we trust that his intervention is always for our spiritual healing and growth and blessing.
Miracles of timing and seeming coincidence will occur as instances of God's direct intervention in the natural order of things to bring about surprising wonders. These miracles are signs of God's presence and power, confirming his mercy and faithfulness to His children. We grow in faith through this and in commitment and in inner peace.