Sovereignty For All? Not Osama?

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Personal sovereignty is the inalienable right we each have to present ourselves before God and to do business directly with Him. Each one of us can approach the God of the universe, the creator of all things, on an equal footing. None of us needs a mediator or interpreter to represent us in that highest of all courts. We represent ourselves, and we do not need to heed the advice of any legal elite or any protocol protectors.
The rights of personal sovereignty are awesome in their unbounded scope. Governments can throw you in prison and hold a gun to your head, demanding that you do not approach God’s throne, and yet, from the stinking depths of a putrid dungeon, with your lips closed, you can lift your heart to God and do business with the maker of all eternity. No tyrant, political power or personal intimidation can deny you your rights before God.
That having been discussed in previous posts, I come now to the ugly thought of the true universality of personal sovereignty. A previous post, The Divine Right of Everyone, pointed out that human-kind has equality before God. One is not “better” or superior to another, based on rank or station. I pointed out that the wealthy property owner, Boaz, ancestor to King David, received a “blessing” from his lowly employees, when, as the Bible teaches, ‘the lesser is blessed by the greater’. Such an action should have represented an insult, but all humans are equal, despite wealth and station, so the lowest can invoke God’s blessing on the greatest among us.
But allow me to take that thought to another level. Even the vilest and most despised people on the planet have the right to personal sovereignty!
Now, I know that to be an offensive thought, because people have told me so. On one occasion I preached about the truly amazing quality of God’s grace. I pointed out that God’s grace is such that if Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot or Osama bin Ladin were to ask for God’s forgiveness and grace, they could have it. I was confronted later by a delegation of people who insisted that God would most certainly NOT forgive such people. Murderers, serial killers and others were deemed by these church-goers to be outside the scope of God’s grace. It was offensive to them that the goodness of God should be allowed anywhere near such people.
Society at large carries a loathing toward certain evil personas. Society at large, being outside God’s grace and not knowing His ways, is keen to function as judge, jury and executioner for some of those evil characters. So the response I faced to my proclamation of God’s awesome grace is not an isolated case. People do not want the incredible divine privileges which God confers to be conferred on us ALL!
The last person to be deemed to be ‘outside the law’ in Australia, was a bushranger named Ned Kelly. He had become so notorious for his actions that all protection provided under the British legal system was withdrawn from him. He was deemed to be an ‘outlaw’. That word, which most of us know from old western movies, is normally taken to simply mean a ‘baddie’. But its legal application is that the person is deemed to be ‘outside the law’ and no longer under the protection of the law. Anyone could kill an outlaw, any time, any place, without legal recrimination.
But, even if the government of the day designates a person to be no longer protected by the civil law that outlawed person still has the full rights of sovereignty to stand before God and make their case.
Do you want a Bible example? Consider Cain, who murdered his brother, Abel. Cain was the first murderer in human history. He had given himself over to serving devilish will, instead of the will of God. God put a special curse on Cain and made him a vagabond. Yet, when Cain made appeal to God, God listened and gave concessions to Cain. See Genesis 4:13-15.
Believe it or not, God is ready to welcome Osama bin Ladin into His presence. Public enemies number #1, #2, #3, etc, all have personal sovereignty. They can yet change their eternal destiny. Until they are in hell they can still step into God’s presence and do business about their soul with the Almighty God.
I don’t know how that affects you or whether you like the idea or not. Personally I think it is fantastic news! I’m absolutely delighted that God does not write me off, even if everyone else on the planet does. I don’t want to stand before mankind, with all the foibles of resentment, unforgiveness, etc that can get in the way. I want the inalienable privilege, which God affords us all as sovereign citizens under heaven, to come to the Living God, just as King David did when he sinned, and to find God’s grace, even if others don’t want me to have it.

Sovereignty – The Divine Right of Everyone

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I have spoken to the subject of Sovereignty before and will certainly do so again, so you might as well read this post and tune in to why I think the subject is important.

Personal Sovereignty is the inalienable right we each have to be responsible for ourselves and to maintain personal rule over our inner self. While the topic may sound esoteric and of little practical value, it is very important for each of us personally. It speaks to the reason why God can and will judge us for our actions. It also speaks to the way we relate to others and to the power others can exercise over us. It speaks to the responsibilities we carry, the accountabilty we must give, the power we can exercise and the divine potential of our life.

I refer to Sovereignty as “The Divine Right of Everyone” to highlight the fact that personal sovereignty is universal for us humans. God has personal sovereignty too. Our sovereignty is subject to His, since He is our creator, and so He has a much higher place in the grand scheme of things than we do. There is no real need to argue that God has a divine role superior to humanity. That is a given by virtue of the common definition of who God is. My focus is on the amazing equality that humans have. ‘The Divine Right of Kings’ speaks of a specially privileged place which rulers claim as their own. ‘The Divine Right of Everyone’ is my way of pointing to something that is equally owned by all humans, no matter what their station in life.

I want to draw evidence for that equality from an event that occured in the life of Abraham, almost 4,000 years ago. Historical records tell us that Abraham had a small army of trained servants. He put that army to work to rescue his nephew, Lot, who was taken captive by an invading army. On his journey home, after winning a total victory, Abraham met a divine prince, Melchizedek. This strange princely priest was divine – as he did not have father or mother. Melchizedek blessed Abraham, who gave a tenth of all that he had to the priest. In the historical narrative the event comes and goes and nothing more is said about it, except for a short prophetic statement by King David (approximately 1,000 BC) in one of his psalms (Psalm 110:4).

In the New Testament, however, almost 2,000 years after Abraham, new light was shed on this transient encounter. In Hebrews 7:7, after recounting the meeting of Abraham and Melchisedek and the fact that the priest blessed Abraham, it is pointed out that “the less is blessed by the better”. That is to say that the divine is able to bless the human, because God is greater than man.

If personal sovereignty was not equally shared among humans then there would be a pecking order of human superiority. The greater would be able to confer blessings on the lesser. Kings and people of personal might would be seen to be the originators of blessing for lesser people and underlings. Yet, on the human plane, those who might be deemed to be ‘lesser’ in terms of their station may equally confer blessing on those who are their superiors. Let me show you an example from the historical records collated in the Bible.

In the book of Ruth, speaking of events that occurred approximately 1,300BC, we see the wealthy landowner, Boaz visiting his employees. If the right to bless others is only conferred on those of superior station in life, then Boaz would do the blessing and the underlings would wait to receive his graces. This is not what we find. Ruth 2:4 records: “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless you.” The servants conferred blessing on their boss! Is this not an outrageous act? Should not Boaz be incensed by their impertinence? How dare they speak to their employer, the mighty Boaz, as if they had anything to give him? Boaz was perfectly happy to receive their blessing.

The reason they could do so is because of personal sovereignty. Each man and woman on the planet has the same right to stand before God and the same right to be in relationship with God, that every other person is given. So the servants of Boaz could just as readily go into God’s presence to invoke a blessing on Boaz as he could go to God to confer a blessing on them. The divine right of kings does not work here. Kings have a peculiar set of responsibiltiies and privileges, but they have no more personal sovereignty than the lowliest servant or street urchin in their kingdom.

Every human on the planet, no matter their gender, age, social status, health, geographical location, cultural background or whatever, is invited, equally, to become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Every drop of innocent human blood is able to cry equally to God for vengeance. Every person alive is allowed to cry out to God and call upon Him for salvation and deliverance. Every widow and fatherless child is watched over by God, no matter what their religion, culture, social standing, and so on.

There is a profound equality which empowers us all to stand before God and to do His bidding for our lives. We have the right to get about God’s business. We have the privilege of drawing on God’s resources, no matter what tyrrany we are under, or what limitation has been pressed on us.

Praise God for personal sovereignty. It is an inalienable privilege which we should all explore. People may limit our physical liberty, steal our material goods, injur our physical bodies, block our employment opportunities, look down on us, falsely accuse us, and many other inhumane things. But they cannot stop us from stepping into God’s presence and doing business with the God of all eternity.

Sovereignty and Judgement

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Personal Sovereignty is our inalienable right (something that cannot be taken from us) to stand before God. And that’s profound because it gives us an amazing personal value when we can stand before one who is of much greater authority than kings, presidents, magistrates, media magnates, military leaders and power brokers. I sense that if we could grasp the true significance of this incredible personal privilege it would impact our entire life. 

Another way of capturing a glimpse of our personal sovereignty is to consider what happens in judgement. I’m not talking about what happens in your nation’s judicial system, but what happens at the end of time when everyone is judged before God. What happens is that, as I just gave it away, “everyone is judged before God”. 

Did you get that? Did you catch the awesome significance of that fact? 

If you were some lesser being then your parents might stand before God on your behalf, discuss your behaviour and make a deal. They may come up with a plea-bargain or some other construct, to which you are not really a party, but simply a pawn. If you were ‘owned’ by someone else then they could make you pay for things you didn’t do, or they could negotiate on your behalf, striking whatever deal they choose to make.

But that is NOT what happens at the Great White Throne of Judgement. On that day YOU stand before God, on your own, accounting for yourself, because you are a Sovereign Citizen. And, it’s not that you have something over everyone else. We ALL get to stand accountable before God, because we are all sovereign citizens. We all have the same right and privilege to stand before God and account for ourselves before Him. We each have the same opportunity to come before God and make a personal commitment that gives us the same eternal privilege that everyone has access to. 

Your social standing, education, income, ethnicity, physical prowess or disability have no relevance when it comes to your personal sovereignty. Wicked King Ahab was advised of God’s judgement due to come upon him (see 1Kings 21:20-29). He was evil and deserved to be destroyed. But when he turned to God in prayer, even he was given a concession by God. He was worthy of destruction, yet he still had personal sovereignty and the right to come to God. 

That’s how every one of us can come to God as a sinner. We are worthy of God’s eternal damnation, but we have the gift of personal sovereignty so we can come to God and ask Him for the grace which is ours through Christ Jesus. It’s as available to Saddam Hussein and Osama BinLaden as readily as it is to us. Even they, for their evils, have the right to stand before God and do business with Him. 

I pray that you grasp something of the awesome possibilities God provides to you by allowing you to stand before Him and do business with Him. You are not subservient to anyone. Others will not determine your eternal destiny for you. You are given the grace to stand before God and to ask Him for what you will. He is not at your behest – you cannot make Him do what He does not want to do – but you can meet with Him and let Him do business with you.