Last week we touched briefly on the”grid of God”. On reflection we are reminded of a profound truth:

God permits, in His wisdom, what He could prevent in His power.

Our lives are made up of our choices. There is the perfect will of God for us, which our Heavenly Father wants us to choose by following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or His permissive will. Am I in purpose or permission?

The book of Job records how the devil had to apply for a permit to the Lord in order to touch Job’s life. God granted him permission but forbade the devil to actually take his life. Why did the Lord allow it? Although the record declared Job was perfect in many ways, there was an area of fear in his life, (Job 1:5) This is a foundational truth that when I operate in fear, I give the devil a permit (permission) to touch my life. Fear gives the devil a foothold. Fear is creative. Recognise its source, it is of the devil. Fear is not of God.

All fear is built on a lie
Deal with the fear
And fear stays near.
Deal with the lie
And fear will die.

The Holy Spirit of God will guide me to nail the lie and exchange it for what God is saying. God’s word is truth and is creative. His word creates faith in Himself. In God we trust. Why should I listen to my unruly heart which gives the devil a foothold, when God is the strength and love of my life? The Lord Jesus Christ is my Victor and through Him alone do I access victory.

There is only one healthy fear and that is the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Psalm 25:14 “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant.”

In permission I reap the consequence of a wrong choice. God created us with free choice. I can choose to follow God’s perfect will in His purpose, or I can choose otherwise and suffer the consequences. In the economy of God there is no waste. He will use my wrong choices as learning curves to teach me the error of my ways and to teach me His ways. As I humble myself before Him, I find His Everlasting Arms drawing me closer to His side. Here I nestle in the security of His unconditional love. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” The closer I am to the Lord in an intimate relationship, I will learn to recognise His voice above the clamour of the other voices in my life.

The shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary redeems all my failure and sin and gives me a brand new start. God has a grid over my life. Nothing can come to me through it but that He allows it to. God loves me but there is a discipline in love: loving correction for my good. God will use everything that comes my way, either in purpose or permission, the trial of my faith (1 Peter 4: 12) or the consequences of my wrong choice, to teach me His ways and bring me to another measure of maturity in His Son, the Living Christ. Christ in me, the hope of glory!

I find security in the grid of God over my life, knowing that He is in full control of my circumstances. God’s law of sowing and reaping operates in my life. What a man sows he reaps, but a repentant soul walking in humility, will find the mercy and grace of God in abundance to brighten the path, lighten the load of the reaping. Our Heavenly Father’s loving correction raises up His testimony in our lives that we may proclaim, “God’s mercy re-wrote my life!”

Romans 8:28 declares the truth of the grid of God, “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:39 declares that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.