Luke 22:31-32
31 And the Lord said,[c] “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
God has the revelation machine on high these days, and yesterday was amazing. After dinner, dad and I were sitting outside his RV at Lake Lanier talking. I told him that I had asked Laura the night before whether God would let a man fall to teach him/change him.
I asked my dad the same question. Before he could answer, the story of Peter came to mind. I immediately got my notebook out and looked up the story found in Luke. Yes! God will let a man fall.
In this passage, we see several things:
1) Jesus knew ahead of time that that fall was coming.
2) satan HAD to ask for permission to do his nasty work. This re-emphasises that God is in complete control.
3) Jesus’ prayer was NOT that the fall wouldn’t occur. Rather, the prayer was twofold:
a) That Peter’s faith would not fail.
b) That Peter would then use this experience to strengthen his brothers.
The context of this lesson was rooted in Peter’s pride. There was no way in Peter’s mind that he would ever deny Jesus. After all, there is a reason that Jesus named Peter the rock, “hardheaded” as he was.
For the last 8 months, my pride has been getting squeezed. God invited Larry and I to come to know Him better coming back from the TN Souly Business retreat last October. This required greater humility. This required time in the desert. My pride needed a lickin’.
I know that I still have enough pride for the world to chew on, but I bless our God for taking a hunk of it out of me.
Yes, Jesus will let you fall. He will let satan into your life to rip you apart and shred the junk off of you that you may then strengthen the bretheren.
People ask why God causes things that are bad to happen. I really dont believe that God so much causes them as He lets them. It might be mixing words, but it would seem that we walk around in such a blessed state of grace all of the time that when God removes His grace from us, we stand naked in our sin. The resulting behavior is all a product of our natural man that has yet to be fully santified in competition with our spirit man, which is pure.
So, God removes His grace, and we fall. We cannot help but fall because He is not there to hold us up. The Lord removed Himself from me, and I fell, but it was completely me that did the falling. God just let it happen. Therein lies His sovereignty. He knows what must occur in order for healing and change to happen. So His grace says that His sustaining grace must be removed for a season until our eyes are opened and we cry out for His mercy.