Did God Really Allow That!!??



"I believe consequence was designed for us to seek the restorer and to seek Him for the restorative path!"  TDahl

Affliction:

1. a state of pain, distress, or grief; misery: They sympathized with us in our affliction.

2. a cause of mental or bodily pain, as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution.

Synonyms

mishap, trouble, tribulation, calamity, catastrophe, disaster. Affliction, adversity, misfortune, trial refer to an event or circumstance that is hard to bear. A misfortune is any adverse or unfavorable occurrence: He had the misfortune to break his leg. Affliction suggests not only a serious misfortune but the emotional effect of this: Blindness is an affliction. Adversity suggests a calamity or distress: Job remained patient despite all his adversities. Trial emphasizes the testing of one's character in undergoing misfortunes, trouble, etc.: His son's conduct was a great trial to him.

After posting my latest blog "Skillful Navigator" my best friend Sameer suggested that I flesh out the whole does or doesn't God allow terrible things like sexual abuse, etc. and the revelation that I have in regards to that, because people really struggle with that particular area. So, here goes....

First let me preface this by saying that I feel I'm one who can understand by personal experience, the struggle that others may have in this area when it comes to God. As one who has gone through a lot in life dealing with sexual abuse, a rape at the age of 13, painful rejection by family members and others, etc., and being taught that "God allowed" these horrible things to happen to me, made it incredibly difficult for me to trust God. I mean, seriously, I'm supposed to run to the supposedly safe arms of a God who "allowed" such incredible tragedy to touch my life. That was not possible for me and I don't think it would be possible for anyone else. Sure you can get all "religious" and be a "Christian" thinking God "allowed" horrible things to happen to you, but I can tell you that you will never have an unguarded relationship with Him if you believe that about His character. Your relationship with Him will always lack the incredible intimacy meant to be shared between you because you will always hold something back from Him thinking He'll hurt you!

Lets build a foundation here...lets first look at the authority God gave us. Let's go back to Genesis.

Genesis 1:26 The MSG - Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all

the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

The word I want to dissect is "dominion." Dictionary.com defines Dominion as follows:

1. the power or right of governing and controlling; sovereign authority.

2. rule; control; domination.

3. a territory, usually of considerable size, in which a single ruler ship holds sway.

4. lands or domains subject to sovereignty or control.

5. Government . a territory constituting a self-governing commonwealth and being one of a number of such territories united in a community of nations, or empire.

This tells me that we are "in charge" of this earth! In Genesis 1, we see how God created things - by speaking them into existence, and then we see Him hand over the responsibility and authority to us!

We rule this earth by studying the Kingdom of Heaven and what that looks like (righteousness, peace, joy, health, wholeness, prosperity, and the list goes on), and then we are given the principle to use our creative authority to bring forth those things on this earth. Look up all the passages regarding the Kingdom of Heaven. It's crazy good!

Now because sin entered the earth in the garden, there was a huge disconnect! Man literally handed over his authority to Satan. Satan became the one in charge, however God had the perfect plan to not only redeem us, but also redeem our authority that had been handed over! God sent Jesus, and the Word of God declares that the price was paid and Jesus reconciled mankind back to the Father! Everyone was included!! Now I'm sure we can agree that earth is no Garden of Eden! We have man seeking their own agenda's rather than seeking God's. Our world is a broken, broken, broken, place and as you read the Word of God, you will soon find out that it will get worse! It's called birthing pangs that will usher the coming of Christ! However, it does not change our authority!

We have dominion! Not just one person, but mankind! Can we agree that mankind is imperfect? Can we agree that mankind has so many different ideologies and belief systems about how things should be? Can we agree that there are so many different theologies about who God is and His character? So we have mankind all over the board as far as that goes, as well as the fact, mankind is not perfect! We have some preachers teaching that God's going to get us if we sin. We have some that teach that anything that hurts us has to pass through God's hands first and He has to give permission for that pain to touch our lives. We have some that teach that God will get your attention in whatever way He can - He'll even take the life of your child to get you to turn to Him. I had a preacher tell me one time that God allowed all the physical and sexual abuse in my life because He needed to raise me up to minister to those who have been touched by the same things and they needed to be restored. I'm sorry, but that puts a freaking cramp in my brain and it actually makes me angry!

God did not design affliction, but He did create the principle of consequence! You see that in His instruction to Adam regarding the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil! Affliction came as a consequence when man chose to disregard God's instruction for life! What is consequence designed to do? I believe consequence was designed for us to seek the restorer and to seek Him for the restorative path! If there was no consequence, then we wouldn't grow! We would stagnate and just live mediocre lives far below the lives we were created for and designed to live!!

If you get a chance, look up all the scriptures on affliction! It will blow your mind. Obviously God wanted to communicate something to us in regards to this! Here are a few....

Psalm 107:17 NIV - Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities

Psalm 119:92 - If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Romans 12:12 - Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

God does discipline us, but never with evil things! God teaches us His ways through gentle correction only! He disciples us and calls those things that are not as though they were! He'll speak the perfection He sees in us! He'll give us words of worth and value! He'll mine the treasures deep within our hearts and through that, we fall in love with Him. There are those times we continually choose the wrong path. We continue trying to fill our lives up with the counterfeits the world offers designed to medicate our pain instead of eradicate our pain!! God eradicates pain, the world just medicates the pain! The world's way is designed to keep us on the hamster wheel going absolutely nowhere! However, God allows that freedom of choice and He just waits patiently until we come to the end of ourselves. And we always do! Unfortunately, many times after coming to the end of ourselves, we've completely destroyed ourselves emotionally, sometimes physically, and even financially, and in many cases, we've destroyed others as a result of our choices. BUT GOD....can and will restore that which we've broken if we give Him the chance! In fact, God says He will put you back to where you would have been had you never had a set back - even as a result of your own choices!! That my friends is GREAT news and I literally have watched God do this in my life for the last 20 years!!

I recently asked someone who is in a great deal of emotional pain because of doing things their own way for so long, and as a result left a wake of destruction in their own life as well as the lives of other people; if they wanted to "go back to the trough" or "experience God's love on a level they never have?" Their response was "I don't know what God's love is supposed to feel like! The trough is easy to go back to and its comfortable." My response to that is, the journey will not be easy at times but will be so rewarding because the past won't haunt you. When I talk about my past, it literally is like I'm talking about a girl who no longer exists. It doesn't hurt anymore. I had to get real over and over again. I had to confront myself when my actions didn't line up with my mouth. I referred to that in my life as the great disconnect. What I meant by that is when my mouth would be able to say all these things I desired, but my actions were not lining up, I knew my belief system was in serious need of God's perspective. I slowly persuaded my heart and through the years have exchanged my beliefs for His and thus experienced amazing restoration! The person returned to the trough which breaks my heart, because God has so much for that person. Until they find that God is a safe place to bring everything to and let God do the heart surgery needed, they will find themselves even more broken than they have been in the past!

Because this world is broken, pain is going to touch your life - period, end of story!! God gave man authority and mankind is imperfect and therefore will cause pain through their choices and actions. It is not God allowing it! I was sexually abused because a man made a choice and I happened to be the one that experienced the consequence of his choice. It ripped my world apart! It changed who I was! It broke my heart and it broke God's heart!! Every single time pain comes to our lives it is because someone, somewhere, at one time, even ourselves, misused the authority we've been given and made a choice that contradicts what God taught us. We still deal with the consequence of Adam and Eve's choice way back to the Garden! For example, people die! Families are broken to pieces when death touches their lives! There is huge loss when a loved one passes away! To redeem death, God gave us Christ and we now have the promise of being reunited with our loved ones when we accept Him as our Savior! God has never taken away our authority to choose! We can choose to take the brokenness that touches our lives, give it to God, the only one that can restore and redeem the hurt, and make an exchange with Him. Our brokenness for His wholeness! It's a process and if we are willing to go through the process it will strengthen us and in the redemptive process we can help others along the way! That's receiving double for your trouble!

God knows when we're dealing with the will of people - their freedom to choose - we are going to get hurt! So don't harden your heart. Don't close yourself off to opening your heart to God and others. Trust Him! You want to know the character of God - Read I Corinthians 13! God is LOVE, it's not just what He does, its who He is! Remember that the only thing God allows is our freedom to choose!

For those of you who are really struggling with trusting God and struggling with the concept of whether He allows things or not, please reach out to me - my email is below! You want to know the character of God - Read I Corinthians 13! God is LOVE, it's not just what He does, its who He is! Remember that the only thing God allows is our freedom to choose! So, if what's happening in your life doesn't look like who you read God is, then be confident it is not God doing it to you! You are just experiencing a consequence - even a consequence as a result of someone else's choice! Remember, God can and will redeem your life if you allow Him to!!

In His Grip, Grace, and Strength,

TDahl

info@tammydahl.com