Understanding God's Jurisdiction

 

 

"Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

“Psalms 78:41

Is there anything that God cannot do? Are there any limitations to His power? Can anyone or anything stop His will from coming to pass? Many would answer these questions with a confident, "NO!" But as you read the Word of God you will find that the answer is actually both yes and no. Though in one sense God is unlimited in His power and can do anything, it is also true that He has placed some limitations upon His operations. For example, Hebrews 6:18 says that it is impossible for God to lie. James 1:13 says that God cannot be tempted with evil. Yes, God is all powerful, but there are limitations He has placed upon Himself that we must understand.

 You see, although God is omnipotent and sovereign, He has placed limitations upon Himself in this dispensation; especially in respect to His relationship with man. It is essential that we discern between God's actual power, Or His inherent power (i. e., His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence), and the power He can demonstrate based upon limitations He has established for Himself. In order for us to cooperate with God and receive His blessings we must understand His legal jurisdiction and how He can be limited, especially by our actions.

I have divided this article into four session: God's jurisdiction and His will; God's Jurisdiction and His Word; God's Jurisdiction and man's will; and God's jurisdiction and faith.

God's Jurisdiction and His Will

In Hebrews 1:9 we see the positive results of staying within the jurisdiction of the will of God.

Read here what the Word of God says concerning the Lord Jesus: "Thou has loved righteousness (God's jurisdiction), and hated iniquity (Satan's jurisdiction); therefore God, even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Hebrews 1:9

Jesus lived within the boundaries of the perfect will of God, and, therefore, experienced the full measure of the blessings of God. He was not anointed with the oil of gladness just because He was the Son of God. He was anointed with the oil of gladness because He loved righteousness. His measure of blessing was "above His fellows" because He loved righteousness and hated sin. He was blessed because He stayed within the boundaries of the perfect will of God.

God desires to bless us. He has things laid up for us. Ephesians 2:10 states that the Lord has prepared paths ahead of us; paths He has "...before ordained that we should walk in them." But when we wander outside of His will we exit His jurisdiction, thus hindering Him from blessing us. There is, you see, a good, an acceptable and a perfect will of God [Romans 12:2]. If you are only operating within the "good will" of God then you are probably crossing back and forth between God's jurisdiction and the devil's jurisdiction. When you operate in this manner you will wander in and out of the blessings of God and in and out of the harassment of the devil. That's a dangerous lifestyle for a believer, and yet is the way many believers live.

To be in circumstances, or to be like the prodigal son, does not necessarily require that you be in full rebellion to God. By simply walking in the works of the flesh as stated in Galatians five, you will find yourself outside of the jurisdiction of God [where He has the right to bless you] and inside the jurisdiction of Satan [where he and his cohorts have the legal right to attack you]. The prodigal son forfeited his blessings when he walked out of his father's house. Staying "in the house"— inside the boundaries of the will of God—will keep you in the place where the blessings of God can flow. Leaving "the house"—exiting the boundaries of the will of God— will separate you from the power of God and limit His blessings in your life.

In his book "Plans, Purposes, and Pursuits" Kenneth E. Hagin recalls that the Lord spoke to him one time and said, "I bless all of My people as far as I can. But the reason there is not the move of God and the depth of the flow of the Spirit, and the fullness of the manifestation of the Holy Ghost today is because men do not take time to hear from Me. They do not take time to follow My plan set forth in the scriptures. The more closely you follow My plan, the more My power will be in demonstration and in manifestation" [underline mine].

 This is one reason that some of us are not receiving the blessings of God. It is not that blessings don't belong to us in Christ. It is not that God does not desire to bless us. It is because we have submitted to works of the flesh rather than to the will of God. It is because we either have not listened for God's plan, or have not carefully followed what we know to be His plan. In so doing we have put ourselves "across the border" from the jurisdiction of God. We have limited God and forfeited His blessings by operating outside His will. Jesus is Lord within His jurisdiction, but He cannot bless us when we "walk" outside His jurisdiction. He cannot bless us to the full extent of His desires if we are outside the boundaries of His perfect will. God's will for your life not only includes the specific instructions of His written word, but also His plan for your life, His call upon your life and His assignments to you in life.

 

God wants to bless us all. He wants to meet our needs. But we must live within the boundaries of His power and authority. We must get out of the territory of the works of the flesh. We must get out of the territory of doing our own things our own ways and enter into the territory of God. We must enter into the territory of His perfect will for our lives.

 Get out of the devil's jurisdiction and into God's jurisdiction. You will find that the harassment of demonic entities will be broken over your life and you will cross over into the "land of milk and honey"; the territory where the blessings of God always flow!

 

God's Jurisdiction and His Word

We must walk within the boundaries of God's will in order to live safely and receive the blessings of His jurisdiction. But what is God's will? Though the specific aspects of God's will for our lives can only be discovered by time in prayer and by following the Holy Ghost, the most basic aspects of God's will are clearly recorded in His Word! This reality radically changed my life as a young Christian man. For years I had heard from the pulpits of dead denominational churches that it was impossible to know the will of God. Then one day my understanding was opened and I realized that God's will and His Word were one!

To abide within the blessed borders of God's jurisdiction and experience His great blessings, one must live within the boundaries of His Word.

God's blessings have always been tied to this condition of walking within the boundary lines of His Word. Believers who expect to experience the blessings of the Christian life without meeting the conditions of the Christian life are ignorant of the Bible and of the operation of spiritual laws. You see, it is not a matter of whether God wants to bless us or not. The fact of the matter is that God cannot bless us if we live outside of obedience to His Word. Over and over again the Lord places the condition of obedience upon the receiving of our needs and the fulfillment of our desires.

Deuteronomy 28:1-2 says, "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God."

Likewise Joshua 1:8 says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

To abide within the scope of God's blessings one must abide within the boundaries of the teachings of His Word.

God's Jurisdiction and Man's Will

We know that the Lord is sovereign. Yet in His sovereignty He has chosen to limit Himself in His dealings with man. He has limited Himself by giving man a will and, therefore, the freedom to choose whether or not to cooperate with Him and His Word. He has also designed that most of His own operations in the earth would be through the agency of man.

In His dealings with humanity, especially as concerns His desire to bless, God will never violate the human will. Though he desires that all men be saved [I Timothy 2:4 and II Peter 3:9], He will never force anyone to get saved. Though He has the power to rescue and liberate those held captive to sin, and though He has the power to unshackle the prisoners of darkness, He cannot do so until they call upon His name. He cannot rescue those bound by Satan's rule if they choose to continue to live there. Again, God cannot because in His omnipotent sovereignty He gave man a will (the right to choose), and has placed that as a limitation over His dealings in our lives.

This reality is clearly demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus. In John 5:1-9 we read the story of Jesus healing a man who had an infirmity for 38 years. Before He could heal this man Jesus had to ask, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh, had to find out if the man wanted to be healed before He could heal him. He had to know the man's will. The man clarified to Jesus that it was, in fact, his will to be healed by reporting that each time the water of the pool was stirred he tried to get in, but someone always got in before he could. After ascertaining the will of this impotent man Jesus said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."

In Mark 10:46-52 we find the story of blind Bartimeus. After Jesus called Bartimeus to himself he asked him, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" He needed to find out what Bartimeus wanted even though he knew what Bartimeus needed. He needed to know Bartimeus' will concerning his own thy faith hath made thee whole."

This reality that God will not violate the human will is also seen in the calling of God upon people's lives. He never forces His will on people, but simply invites them to "follow Me." After He makes this invitation, it is up to each person to submit their will to His will. Even Jesus, who ministered as a human being, had to submit His will to the Father in order for the power of God to flow through His life and the plan of God to be accomplished through His death. condition. Bartimeus gave Jesus permission to heal him by telling him that he wanted to receive his sight. Only then could Jesus say, "Go thy way;

 

God Has Chosen To Move through Man

 In order for us to understand God's jurisdiction in this physical realm we must recognize the authority which he delegated to man. In the beginning God delegated unto Adam a special authority in this physical world. In so doing, He granted unto mankind a jurisdiction within which he had the right to rule. And though Adam yielded up a part of that authority to the devil in the Garden of Eden, it is still necessary to have a physical body to exercise authority in the earth.

 You see, there is a strong relationship between authority in this earth and having a physical body. For God's power and authority to be maximized to its fullest potential in the earth, it must flow through the clay-based vessel of a man; a physical body. This is why Satan desires to possess and control men's lives today. It is so that he can exercise his authority in the earth through the use of their bodies.

 As one studies God's Word, he will discover that the omnipotent God of the Universe has chosen to limit Himself to working through the agency of man. In support of this we find certain scriptures such as Ezekiel 22:29-31 which teaches us that in His overall blueprint of the ages, God has chosen to limit His right to deliver men through the prayers of a man,

 "The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

" Romans 5:12-21 is very clear that it was through man that our redemption from sin had to come, "...much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. .. by the obedience of one (man) shall many be made righteous".

Romans 5:15, 19

This is the mystery of godliness as Paul declared in 1Timothy 3:16. God had to become a man in order to exercise His power and authority in the earth and bring redemption to mankind.

From these and other scriptures we understand that God has to have a vehicle, as it were, to move through in this physical world. That vehicle is man. For in this earth realm God has delegated authority to man, and He will not violate nor alter that which He has spoken out of His mouth [Psalms 89:34]. Therefore, God will continue to operate and perform His will in this earth through the vessel of mankind until time as we know it is no more and His plan is complete! This reality is another boundary which defines God's jurisdiction.

 

God's Jurisdiction and Faith

A final condition that acts as a border in defining God's limitations and extents to bless is the border of faith. James 1:6-7 and Hebrews 11:6 clearly point this out. James 1: 6-7 says this concerning our receiving the blessings of God: "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

God cannot and will not move outside the boundary line of faith. Not only is it impossible to please God without faith, as Hebrews 11:6 declares, but one will also limit God from working in his life without faith.

In Psalms 78:41 we read of how the children of Israel, through doubt, hindered God from blessing their lives, "Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel."

 God was limited by the lack of faith of the children of Israel. Because they failed to mix faith with God's Word, He could not take them into the promised land of Canaan [Hebrews 4:1-2]. Hebrews 3:19 makes this truth so obviously clear,

"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

 It was not a matter of God's desire to bless Israel that kept them out of the Promised Land. It was a matter of them not believing what He had clearly spoken. He could not fulfill His declared will and purpose without their cooperation by faith.

Matthew 13:58 says of Jesus that, "...he did not many mighty works there (in Nazareth) because of their unbelief." Mark's gospel says that He, "...could there do no mighty work" [Mark 6:5]. This was not a matter of Jesus' will to heal the sick in Nazareth. It was a matter of His limitations to bless people outside of the boundary line of their faith.

God is the Almighty, all sufficient God of the universe. However, He has placed borders and limitations upon the use of His power and upon the outpouring of His blessings. If the believer ignores this reality it will not only cost him many of the benefits of his covenant with God, but may also lead him to the place where he points an accusing finger at God. If we are not walking in the blessings that God has promised in His Word, it is because we have not positioned our lives in that place where God can use His power to bless and to save. Recognize that there is a range of authority that defines God's power to bless and place yourself within the jurisdiction of His power and love.

Conclusion

Understanding that God has established borders which define and limit His own exercise of authority in this physical realm helps explain why things happen to believers and why, though we have many promises from God, we seem to experience a low level of blessing in our daily lives. God will not transgress the borders of His jurisdiction. These borders are the borders of His Word, the border of His will, the border of man's will, and the border of faith.