The Bible tells us God always does as he pleases and his will is never thwarted. God always prevails in all circumstances and against all odds. God has never been defeated and never can be. However, the greater the odds God faces and overcomes in his dealings with man the greater the “glory” God receives. Throughout the Bible we see numerous stories where God prevailed against tremendous odds. In each case the Bible informs us God was glorified. God gave us these Bible stories for our edification; so that we might know him and have faith in the Lord our God in all circumstances, no matter the odds.
Isaiah 55:11 – So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing in which I sent it.
Psalm 33:11 – The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.
2 Peter 3:18 – But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
What glory does God receive if he helps one army defeat another army of equal size? None. What glory does God receive if he uses the best and brightest of us to achieve his goals. None. We see this pattern play out in the Bible over and over where God uses the least of us for his purposes or God ensures the odds are heavily stacked against him before he acts. It’s as if God is trying to level the playing field so his victory is not a given. Or maybe God just wants to work up a sweat or get a good workout. I’m kidding of course. Everything is easy for God. What we do know is that God receives more glory the harder the task and the greater the odds are against God. Let’s take the Bible story of Gideon for example. Gideon was a timid Israelite who was scared of his own shadow. Gideon was probably the last person anyone would choose to be the savior of Israel yet God chose him to be a mighty man of valor and champion of Israel. God instructed Gideon to gather an army of 32,000 Israelites to go against 135,000 invading Midianites. The odds were still not great enough to glorify God to his satisfaction so God had Gideon send all but 300 soldiers home. God then used the 300 Israelites to defeat the 135,000 Midianites. God did this for his glory and to prove that he is God Almighty.
Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
Isaiah 46:9 – Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
Luke 1:37 – For with God nothing will be impossible.
Psalm 18:46 – The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
A second example is Moses. Egypt was the greatest country on earth when Israel was in bondage and they had the greatest army of that time. Did God raise an army to free his people? Did God stretch out his hand and destroy all of Egypt? No. Instead God used a stuttering eighty year old shepherd armed with a simple wooden staff to free his people Israel. It was Moses who delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage by the strong right arm of Almighty God. No person would have conceived such a thing; only the mind of God. God stacked the odds against himself and triumphed; to his eternal glory! Are you starting to see the picture here and God’s modus operandi? God always goes against great odds, against all odds, otherwise what’s the point of the struggle? In addition, God almost always chooses an unlikely underdog to be his champion.
Isaiah 45:5 – I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.
Psalm 50:15 – Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.
Psalm 34:19 – Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Titus 2:15 – Speak these things (the gospel), exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.
Do you want another example? Let’s look at the Bible story of David and Goliath. In one corner we have a nine foot tall giant Phillistine warrior named Goliath who weighed in at close to 400 pounds. Every day for a month Goliath issued a challenge to the Israelite army to send their champion out to fight him in one on one combat to the death with the winner’s country being declared the victor in the war between the two countries. Goliath had no takers. Goliath also blasphemed God every day so God sent forth his underdog; a shepherd boy named David armed with only a sling. David hurled a stone that struck Goliath in the forehead knocking him unconscious. David then cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword and held it up for the Philistines to see. The Philistine army ran away in terror, knowing God was with Israel. God’s honor was restored and God was glorified!
Jeremiah 17:7 – Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.
Isaiah 43:11 – I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.
Psalm 50:23 – Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.
Psalm 37:3 – Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
You’re probably telling yourself that could only happen in the Old Testament times but not today because God no longer does miracles. You’d be dead wrong. God does not change. If God did miracles in ancient times then he still does miracles today; they’re just not as obvious as in the past. I’ve studied all the Arab-Israeli wars and I can tell you in every instance God miraculously saved Israel from destruction. In every war Israel has fought Israel was outnumbered one thousand to one in personnel and equipment yet Israel managed to win and win convincingly. If it happened only once you could say maybe it was a lucky win or a coincidence. But Israel has won five or six times in the same fashion which tells me each victory was a miracle. The hand of God was at work protecting his beloved Israel. One thousand to one odds are right up God’s alley. God used his power to defeat the Arabs, who were supported by Satan. God saved his people and was glorified! The spiritually aware believer can see the hand of God at work when he performs miracles but the nonbelievers cannot see the truth of God because Satan, the god of this world, has put blinders over their eyes.
Malachi 3:6 – For I am the Lord, I do not change.
Ephesians 1:6 – To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Psalm 14:1 – The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
2 Corinthians 4:4 – Whose minds the god of this age (Satan) has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
God will usually choose an unlikely underdog for his service; someone you’d least expect. That’s why I’m certain the Apostle Paul was appointed by God to bring the gospel message to the Gentiles. Saul of Tarsus (later called Paul), a Jewish Pharisee, was the perfect candidate for God and the last person on earth anyone in the ancient world would expect to serve Jesus Christ. Did God choose on of his disciples or another holy man of God to minister to the Gentiles? No. That would be too easy. Instead God chose the worst enemy of every Christian; a persecutor who hated all Christians and who relentlessly imprisoned and killed Christians at every opportunity. God’s choosing Paul was the personal equivalent of winning a battle against great odds. The result was the same. God was glorified by selecting Christianity’s greatest enemy and making him the champion of Christianity. Never before or since in recorded history has the greatest enemy of anything flipped to become the greatest champion in three days. That’s why I know without a doubt that Paul met Jesus Christ in his glorified body on the road to Damascus. That’s why I know Paul is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. There is no other feasible explanation for what happened. If Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus it could be for only one reason. Jesus was appointing Paul the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. God was flipping the script and charging Paul with helping those he previously persecuted. This about face brought glory to God!
Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
1 Peter 1:25 – But the word of the Lord endures forever.
2 Peter 1:3 – As His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.
John 17:5 – (Jesus speaking) – And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Scripture says God is “inscrutable”, which just means God is impossible to understand and interpret. Nobody knows the mind of God. Prophets, kings, priest and holy men of ancient times served the Lord for forty years and never came close to knowing what was on God’s mind and why God acted as he did. God knows everything and we know next to nothing. What I’m saying is not new or unexpected. I don’t have any special knowledge of what motivates God. However, as Christians living in the current end times we have an advantage over all believers who came before us. God has provided us with a record of human history through his eyes. I’m referring to the Bible, where God recounts the history of man from creation to the last Day. We can look at the stories in the Bible to see how God handled various situations when dealing with man. Yes, God is unpredictable but God is also unchanging and he likes to do things a certain way. If we’re students of the Bible and spiritually aware we can detect patterns of behavior that not only verify God’s identity but also helps us predict what God will do in the future. I mean, God is not being sneaky about this. God is purposely telling us everything he has done in the past and will do in the future as an example to believers so we can know him and what is to come.
Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 112:1 – Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.
Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Matthew 5:16 – (Jesus speaking) – Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
It’s not hard to discern the patterns of history if you’re paying attention. King Solomon tells us there is nothing new under the sun. It is hard to see historical patterns in the times in which we live because we’re too close to the situation. We can’t see the forest for the trees. However, we can evaluate the current and future historical trends if we have a proper guide and that guide is the truth of God, our Holy Bible. What proof do we have that our God is the one true God? Only God can do two things; bring someone back to life and tell the future. Only our God Jehovah has the documented eyewitness testimony in the Bible of bringing several people back to life. Only the power of God can bring someone back to life. God’s word contains over 1000 prophecies, over 500 of which have been fulfilled and documented as historical fact. God is the author of history and prophecy is only history recorded in advance. Prophecy is telling the future and it’s easy for God. Prophecy that comes true verifies the identity of God. All the other fake religions and false gods sponsored by Satan throughout human history do not contain even one fulfilled prophecy. This proves our God is God and Satan is a liar and an imposter. Resist Satan and flee from him!
John 8:32 – (Jesus speaking) – And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Hebrews 2:10 – For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
1 Peter 4:16 – Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
Titus 2:13 – Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
The main purpose of this blog is to allay the fears of all believers living in these perilous times when it seems the world is going to hell in a hand basket. God said these times would come but we are not to worry because we have the hope of resurrection and eternal life in heaven. We are to put our faith in the Lord and persevere in our good works until the last Day. We know the times will become more evil, wars will flourish, and society will start to crumble. Man will ultimately destroy himself were it not for God’s intervention. This is all chronicled in the Bible so we shouldn’t be surprised by what is coming. Believers are in God’s hands. The question for nonbelievers is, “what are you going to do about it?”
Psalm 37:5-6 – Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass, He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday sun.
2 Corinthians 4:17 – For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
John 17:4 – (Jesus speaking) – I have glorified You on earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
2 Timothy 3:1 – But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.
Believers will be raptured to heaven before the end time tribulation starts but God is going to do what he’s always done for those left on earth and that is to save us from ourselves at the very last minute when the situation is bleak, the odds are greatest against us and our destruction seems imminent. For those who don’t know, I’m talking about the battle of Armageddon on the last Day. Then everyone will see the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth on the clouds of heaven and in the presence of his holy angels and all the saints; to save Israel from destruction. God will be glorified on earth and in heaven! It’s a little bit like those old western movies where right when it appears all is lost we hear the bugle of the U. S. Calvary coming to the rescue. Only this time the bugle is the trump of Almighty God and the calvary is Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. Praise God in heaven for his mercy and grace!
Isaiah 40:5 – The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Revelation 19:16 – And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.
Titus 2:11 – For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Isaiah 45:22 – Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Man is God’s greatest creation yet man is born lost because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. All men are therefore destined for eternal damnation in hell forever. God receives his greatest glory whenever a person is saved unto eternal life in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The Bible tells us that God and all the angels in heaven rejoice whenever a human soul is saved. There is no greater glory to God than that. Very few people will go to heaven when you look at all those who have ever lived. Maybe only one in a thousand people go to heaven. All I know is the odds of going to heaven are great so whenever someone is saved God is glorified. This fits God’s pattern perfectly.
John 14:6 – (Jesus speaking) – I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
1 Corinthians 6:20 – For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 – To which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
If you’re a believer you’re one of the lucky few who will fellowship with God in heaven forever as a son of the Most High. As a nonbeliever you’re in trouble from the start because you’re going to hell when you die unless you make a dramatic change. The only way to escape hell is to accept the grace God is offering you through the blood of his son Jesus Christ. Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is easy and the instructions are in the Bible (see Romans 10:9). Jesus died on the cross for your sins so God is always ready to receive you, against all odds, but you must choose God of your own free will and you must do it before the rapture occurs or before you die. If you die unsaved you’ll abide in your sins and go to hell for all eternity where you’ll be in continual pain and torment. So you have a choice. You can go to hell and cause grief to the God who made you or you can glorify your heavenly Father by accepting his grace. Please don’t make the wrong choice on this one. Forever is a very long time. A trillion billion years is only a day in eternity! Give God the glory he deserves by accepting his precious gift of eternal life! As a disciple of Jesus Christ I’ve told you the truth of God which I’m commanded to do. It’s up to you to decide whether to serve God or Satan. Choose wisely!