Good & Bad Decisions
Good & Bad Decisions
If there has been a time in the history of mankind to make the right decisions in life, it is now. The Bible tells us of the many bad decisions made by individuals and nations through history that have caused so much sorrow, pain and death to themselves and the world at large. The consequences are more severe and long lasting than anyone can imagine. I know of people who have lived all their lives in regret and condemnation of self because of these bad decisions in life. Many do not realize that bad decisions are a product of the knowledge of good and evil which comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Eve made a bad decision even though God had told her not to eat of that fruit of good and evil, she disobeyed and unleashed a plethora of evil upon the earth. The good part of that fruit is also another form of evil. That is why God said, no man is good. Therefore, nothing has been good that the devil with one single lie corrupted the world and mankind. People often say they are good not realizing that the good that they are referring to comes from that forbidden fruit. We were never meant to be good or evil but righteous in the sight of God. That is why He bestowed His own divine nature on Adam and Eve who let it fall into the hands of the devil and brought about a sin nature upon man.
Many people today are in throes of making bad decisions because of what is happening in the world. I am glad to say that many are also on the pathway of right decisions or good decisions. However, a decision one way or another is not the end of the matter. This can be both the good news and the bad news. The good news is, if you make a good decision today it will work for you, but the bad news is, you could also make a bad decision soon after and destroy the good decision. Therefore, one must allow God to make decisions in life. Now, not all decisions made by God feel good to us. Yet, it is the right decision because God made it for us. Therefore, if God made it for us, it is righteous in His sight and we will reap the benefits of that decision. Yet, we can go through a great amount of difficulty in life because of what God decides for our lives. This then is the test of our trust in God.
I know that I am a bad decision maker when it comes to my life and making decisions that surround my life. So, I decided long ago to let God make them. Little did I know that by submitting to God, my life would face the bitterness of change in my thinking. A new discipline had to arise along with great submission. However, when I allowed God to make the decisions great blessings and outcomes of wisdom followed that I could never have imagined in a million years. The more I allowed this, the more it became apparent that God wills and purposes in our lives to succeed. No outcome however small the victory maybe lessens the glory that goes to Him alone. The beauty of submission to God’s decisions in life was peace and joy. There were difficult times of adjusting my thinking to His ways and that will always be there because God challenges us to go higher each time. Many do not understand this discipline and think it unnecessary as they have already arrived at a certain level in their faith. One cannot remain in that level of faith because faith is always challenged with change and time and can become less or non-existent with time, circumstances of life and the attacks of the enemy.
Fresh levels of faith must be achieved at each phase of our journey in life and that requires right decisions in life. For example, a time may come when God will call someone into full time ministry. You need faith to leave it all behind and go forward. The rich man who possessed much goods could not take up his cross and follow Jesus. The call had come at an inopportune time for him and so he rejected the call. He did not have the faith to follow. Likewise, in many instances in life such as in times of economic hardship, health and in overcoming offence and unforgiveness, one is challenged in their faith to keep to the words of the Lord written down for us. That is the challenge and we cannot decide to go forward in our faith unless we allow God to have His way with us. Apostle Paul spoke of pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in God. He never sat back on his laurels and thought to himself that he had arrived even though he was a mighty minister of God.
Our present world situation is pressing upon us to go to that next level in our faith. The decisions we make from here on must be good ones. Bad decisions will bring us down no matter how small or insignificant those decisions are. Self examination of character will quickly tell us how much we are unwilling to allow God to make our decisions at this time. The truth is, many decisions have been taken out of our hands by the government and by God. The enforced decision making of another, in this case the governments of this world, has taken out our decision making in many ways on an earthly plain. Now, we must know what God has to say about all this. The governments too will take decisions independently of each other as time goes by and have already started to do so. Soon basic things like air travel, banking, working, public access etc. will all take on significantly new approaches and have already begun and so we must decide what our response is going to be. Many decisions will be thrust upon us and therefore we must make sure of our understanding of the scriptures and what the Holy Spirit is telling us before we abide by decisions being made for us by people who do not know the scriptures. Ultimately, governments will enforce rules upon us and try to force us to do things that will come from their push for global well being. This is already happening with the vaccine that they want us to take in the future and the downloading of an App on our phones to track Covid 19. These are the beginnings of decisions that we will be forced to take. The expectations of the world population will become even more strenuous as governments lean toward globalisation. This is when we must decide what to do in the light of the word of God. The whole scenario is being set up for the anti-Christ to come and have his global decisions accepted easily. He does not have to do much now except come up with some great decisions on an earthly plain and people and governments will go running behind him.
The decisions you take now will affect your faith, your natural life, the future of your family, the Church and how you conduct daily life. You must decide on what to do but I pray that you will decide along with the Lord. Let Him make the decisions for you by praying and asking Him each time you are required to decide. I cannot stress how important this is going to be for you. I know that any decision I must make will not be decided by me but by God. The reason for this is obvious. That I may be righteous in His sight. What is going on in the world today is all culminating to test our faith for the end times. Since we are forewarned by God about the events of this world, we will have no excuse for making the wrong decisions. I think the nature of what is going on as well is an indicator that we are at the very last days of our journey on earth. Many who will decide against walking with Jesus will fail and fall. The times that are coming are beyond any one person’s ability to handle. Already much is happening with the world that is causing much grief and death. There is more to come. However, our decisions will matter not only for us but for many others who will be brought to us or come to us for solutions. We must lead them to Jesus.
Every time I decide one way or another, I must weigh up my decisions in the balance of God’s word. This is the true balance. The Spirit of God will guide all who endeavour to know the will of God for their lives. This is our ultimate hope in life. When we are Spirit guided, we are free from what man says to us. It may cost us our lives or something else, but we must decide on what the Spirit says. Many men, women and children found that out when the ultimate decision was to be made, to choose Christ or deny Him. Many failed in their walk with God by choosing worldly solutions to their problems. Till we understand that the Spirit life is the superior life, we will not know how to walk with Christ. It is only when we come to that knowledge that we will break free from worldly decisions.
Love & Blessings
Pst Noble
10th May 2020