The Sovereignty of God

The Bible is clear that God is sovereign. But what exactly does sovereign mean? Sovereignty and sovereign are defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as:

• Supreme excellence or an example of it.
• Supreme power especially over a body politic.
• One that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere.

God is sovereign; He is the supreme power and authority.

Many negative circumstances in life (sickness, pain, untimely death) are sometimes explained as God, in His sovereignty, has chosen this for you. People seem to think that the sovereignty of God means that He can pull a trump card out of his pocket at any given moment and operate contrary to His word. That’s why when someone doesn’t get healed it is sometimes explained that it is not God’s will to heal you because He decided this in his sovereignty.

Now, yes God is sovereign, meaning He is the supreme authority – but God cannot and will not violate His own word. If He did, He would be a liar and His word would have no integrity.

Heb 6:18 NIV
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

Titus 1:2
a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time

If God Himself would violate His own written word, then how could you believe in the written word? James said when you pray that you have to, “believe and not doubt,” Jesus said when you pray you have to “believe that you have received it.” It would be impossible to absolutely believe if you didn’t know what God’s will was or that God might change His will for whatever reason.

How can you believe (have faith in) a healing promise (or any promise for that matter) in the Bible if God, in His sovereignty, could pull a trump card and not let the Bible promise apply? If this was the case, then God could pull out the trump card and decide that the promises of healing just aren’t going to apply to you. If the healing promises of God are this unpredictable then any promise from God is just as fickle, even the promises for the forgiveness of sins.

So, if God could change His will for any particular person for any particular reason then how could you have faith that you are born again? Maybe God, in His sovereignty, pulled the trump card and decided that the promises for the forgiveness of sins just aren’t going to apply to you. Sorry, you’ll have to die and go to hell because God has decided this in His sovereignty. If this was the case then God would have no integrity and would be violating His own word! If this was the case then it would be impossible to, “believe and not doubt” and impossible to “believe that you have received it.”

The bottom line is: A promise of God in His written word is what defines God’s will. God will not violate His word.

We all know a person that lacks integrity in their word. They say they’ll be there at 5:00 and you know to not even look for them until 6:30. They say they’re going to do something and you know you are going to have to finish it because they will either half do it or not do it at all. This is a picture of a person that lacks integrity in their word and actions.

The almighty Jehovah God is the ultimate definition and example of integrity. If God said it, I can be 100% assured that it is His will to perform it. There are no shifting shadows with God. If God’s will isn’t being performed in my life, it isn’t because God changed his will. See: Is everything that happens to me God's will?