Ultimate Security: Finding a Refuge in Difficult Times by Derek Prince Read Free Book Online

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    As I pointed out, God foreknows, and then He chooses—and His choice is always based on His knowledge. These facts should relieve us of a lot of anxiety! If God has chosen us to do something, He has done so because He knows it is by His grace that we will be able to complete the task for which He chose us. It is very important to understand that, in all God’s dealings with humanity—as a matter of fact, with the whole universe—He always retains the initiative. In fact, the initiative never passes out of His hands.
    I want to illustrate this truth from various aspects of God’s activity recorded in the New Testament. It is important to dwell on this reality because, today, many Christians scarcely ever leave the initiative with God. Instead, we are inclined to think that everything depends on what we do—even to the point of thinking that if we do not do something, nothing will happen. In a certain sense, that is true. However, it is not the total, or real, truth.
    The real truth is that God set everything into being. For instance, in the new birth, or salvation, the initiative is with God. Many people think they were born again because they decided it. However, that is not really the truth. We are born again because God decided it. We have to respond to God’s decision, but without His decision, it never could have happened by us alone.
    In the exercise of His will [God] brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. (James 1:18 nasb)
    Notice the first part of the verse: “In the exercise of His will [God] brought us forth by the word of truth.” We were born again because God chose to make it so. The New International Version translates this portion of the verse, “ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth.” Always remember that the new birth proceeds not from our choice but from God’s choice.
    This is also true of salvation, which is an aspect of the experience of being chosen. Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica:
    But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:13 nasb)
    God chose you for salvation. You were not saved because you chose it. You were saved because God chose it. Never pull the initiative out of God’s hands. As long as you see that the initiative is in God’s hands, you can rest—you can feel confident and secure. However, if you think that everything starts with you, you will never have real inner peace and rest. You will always be uneasy.
    If God has chosen us to do something,
it is because He knows that, by His grace,
we will be able to complete the task.
    God Called, or “Appointed,” Us
    The same principle—that the initiative rests with God—is true of our calling. Jesus said to His apostles,
    You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. (John 15:16 nasb)
    Jesus was saying, “You didn’t choose Me in order to become apostles. I chose you.” This is true of every function in the body of Christ. We do not choose our calling; we have a calling because the Lord has chosen it for us. Peter applied this truth to his own experience. Speaking to the council gathered in Jerusalem, he said,
    Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. (Acts 15:7 nasb)
    Peter went to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion and a Gentile—not because he chose to, but because God chose him to go. (See Acts 10.) Everything significant in the body of Christ and in the service of the Lord proceeds out of God’s choice, not out of man’s choice.
    The principle of God’s initiative may be seen as well in