Douglas Mead

Our Partnership with the Holy Spirit

Again, we know there is tremendous diversity of thought when it comes to the topic of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives today. This is true inside our own churches. I have discovered that many preachers and scholarly people in other faith traditions make declarations about the role of the Holy Spirit which I believe are not supported by Scripture.

Some people assert the Holy Spirit has a controlling, and overriding role in our lives. I suspect that we all hear Christian people say “God is in Control” fairly frequently. The question is, what do people mean when they say this? Unfortunately, they rarely explain what they mean when they say this. The problem is, this is a phrase that has multiple meanings. So, we can’t really know what a person means unless he or she explains themselves.

There has been a debate going on regarding the concept of the “Sovereignty of God” and the “Free Will of Man” for centuries. It has been characterized as one of the great debates of all time.

There are primarily two camps in this debate. One is made up of those who firmly believe that God is sovereign and takes control of everything that happens. Those who align with Calvinist doctrine are among those who stand here.

The other camp is made up of those who firmly believe that God is sovereign, but that He does not want to control everything. Instead, God delegates to mankind the power to make independent free will decisions. I believe this reflects the partnership relationship God establishes with mankind.

It’s a false argument to say that either God does it all and we just need to get out of the way versus we do it all and God needs to get out of the way. Neither of these options is the Scriptural way.

I propose that the way to a meaningful, purposeful and authentic relationship with God is to engage earnestly in the partnership relationship we have with Him. It is us in conjunction with God. This is the way God designed things to be from the very beginning. It is where we base our actions and expectations on Scriptures – the whole of Scriptures – not just picking and choosing selective verses here or there.

You can find a copy of my book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble or other online resources: https://amzn.to/3FMjcJp, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/going-deeper-with-god-douglas-l-mead-mssw/1139414030?ean=9781098087210

Find my second book at https://www.amazon.com/Going-Deeper-Fruit-Spirit-Cultivating/dp/1662855583/.

What about Natural Disasters?

Why does God allow earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons, cyclones, mudslides, wildfires, and other natural disasters? These kinds of disasters result in the death and injury of large numbers of what we could describe as innocent people. I think it is fair enough to say that we may never know the answer to that question.

First, natural disasters are "natural" in the sense that they are the result of the natural laws of our world. The God who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) designed the laws of nature, and those laws periodically lead to earthquakes, hurricanes, or tsunamis. Earthquakes are the result of the earth’s shifting tectonic plates. A tsunami is most often caused by an underwater earthquake.

We read in Matthew 5:45 that “…He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous ad the unrighteous.” God set up the laws of nature to treat everyone the same.

As we reviewed earlier, when God created the world, it was the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived. God called his creation “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Likely, it was a place without pain and suffering. God gave mankind the role to rule the earth. Due to the choices God gave to mankind, we’ve made a lot of mistakes and messed things up pretty good. Suffering is a product of the fall, a consequence of human sin against God (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21). In Romans 8:20 we read where the creation was subjected to frustration and in Romans 8:22 where the whole creation has been groaning. This could include famine, birth defects, earthquakes, disease, wars, viruses, etc. This is not the way it was initially supposed to be. The good material world God created has been corrupted. The root of evil in this world is not material, it is moral. It is found in rebellion against God’s good rule. And from the beginning of humanity, we have all participated in that rebellion.

Is it possible to know the reason for any natural disaster? Specifically, is God causing natural disasters for a specific purpose? Yes we can say that there are many examples of God doing this in the Old Testament. This included as a judgment on sin (Deut. 28:15-68; Num. 16:31-35; 1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:18; the book of Judges). However, I don’t know how we can say that God does this under the New Covenant conditions. Another example was to showcase His power (Elijah and the prophets of Baal – 1 Kings 18:20-24). There were other reasons also. Today, I believe any explanation anyone would try to give for natural disasters would be pure speculation. Many believe today that natural disasters are not specific acts of God’s judgment on specific people.14

The other reality we need to recognize is that time is short and eternity is long. Although life is precious, the fact is that natural disasters do not increase the death rate. Everyone is going to die someday. It’s the way our loved ones die that can cause us so much grief.

Scientists would say that natural events are needed for the earth to be life permitting and life sustaining. They are not evil or wrong in and of themselves. The same kind of natural events that cause misery and distress are also responsible for creating outstanding natural beauty.15

So when a natural disaster strikes us, we should focus on what we can do to mitigate pain and suffering, not on why it happened. We should be asking, “How can we be the hands and feet of our compassionate Lord as we help those impacted by a natural disaster?”

To be continued…

You can find a copy of my book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble or other online resources: https://amzn.to/3FMjcJp, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/going-deeper-with-god-douglas-l-mead-mssw/1139414030?ean=9781098087210

Find my second book at https://www.amazon.com/Going-Deeper-Fruit-Spirit-Cultivating/dp/1662855583/.