The Ways of God

How God Reveals Himself Before a Watching World

Henry T. Blackaby, Roy Edgemon

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780805454758
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Have you ever wondered how God is at work in this world? How is God accomplishing His purposes and revealing His will to His people, ever molding them into the holy people He wants them to be? In this newest book from Dr. Henry Blackaby, the ways of God are explored so that Christians might share a glimpse of understanding of things too great for the mind to hold. Dr. Blackaby discusses how the ways of God reflect His nature and glory, how they are different from the ways of man, and are constant and consistent with His word. The ways of God are to bring His children into holiness in order to enter into a relationship with them. Eternal and mysterious are the ways of God.

CHAPTER 1

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God's Ways Are Not
Our Ways

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the LORD.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

—Isaiah 55:8-9

AS THE CREATOR AND RULER

of the world, God's very nature is eternal and supreme. He is the Sovereign God. We are flesh and blood, created by God to serve God, placed in the context of time by God. It is no surprise that His ways are different from ours. What is surprising is how often we ignore or mistake that incredible difference. Not as surprising is that we overlook the main element of that difference—sin.

Sin is failing to walk in God's ways, or choosing not to follow them. Sin has affected everyone (Rom. 3:23); therefore, no human naturally has godly ways. We build our own cultures and societies, even within Christianity. We can easily make critical judgments and choices based on traditions, old or new, instead of looking to God's Word as the plumb line of eternal truth.

How can we recognize God's ways if they are not like our ways? The Bible provides instruction on how the Word of God can help us learn the ways of God. Some people have a tendency to select verses and use them out of the context from which they were written. Any verse they might choose will be true, but no one can understand the dimension of a verse without knowing what comes immediately before and after it.

God Makes Himself Available

Isaiah 55:6-11 is a tremendously helpful portion of Scripture. It says to seek God “while He may be found” because it is one of God's ways to make Himself available to us. Next, we encounter a little connecting word sprinkled throughout these verses. This word appears in most translations and supplies a context as we study. The connecting word is for. Whenever we see a connecting word in the Bible, it means that what we are going to read next is based on what came just before. We cannot understand what we are about to read unless we connect it to what we have read.

Isaiah 55:6 tells us that we cannot seek the Lord just any time we choose. You might say God is always available! Well, let the Scripture correct you. There were times when Israel sought the Lord, but God said that it was too late (Jer.11:14; Isa. 63:17) and He would not hear their prayers. Throughout the New Testament this statement also holds true. One example was when Jesus wept over the failure of Jerusalem to receive Him as the Messiah. “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes…because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you” (Luke 19:42, 44). Do not presume upon God. His ways are not according to our way of thinking. It is crucial to know His ways and what the Scriptures say about them. It is our life!

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out of my mouth.” —Isaiah 55:6-11a

Seeking God while He may be found also implies that there are times when it might not be possible to find God. Does it mean that God is not there? No, it means that there are some things that God says must be in place if He will hear us and respond.

What comes after for in these verses declares that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. That is why we must call on Him and forsake wicked ways and thoughts so we can turn to the Lord and receive His mercy and pardon. God says in Isaiah 55:9:

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

But to understand the dimension of that statement we must see it in context of the inevitable results, the profound cause and effect of God's words and God's thoughts. Then the incredible truth becomes understandable.

God Forgives

Every expression of the ways of God in the Bible seems to go against the ways of men. Thinking as a human, Peter was ready to prevent the sacrifice of Jesus because a wise teacher and good friend might be lost in death. Peter was ready to deny Jesus the cross (Matt. 16:22-23). The cross was God's way. Peter's ways were not God's ways. The promised Messiah died sacrificially so that He would rise to live again and provide eternal life to all believers for centuries to come.

Isaiah said that when a wicked man turns to the Lord, the Lord will have mercy on him and freely pardon (Isa. 55:7). This Scripture reveals that mercy is another way of God. Mercy always humbles us. Grace does not. If we know what we really deserve and know that God removed the penalty from us at an awful cost, we may think without humility, Thank you God that—no matter what I do—you are always there to help me. God is there, but He will not bless us regardless of our sin. That is never God's way as is evidenced throughout Scripture. If we keep and hold sin in our heart, the Lord will not hear us (Ps. 66:18).

God's willingness to forgive us is certainly one of His ways. Forgiveness reflects the love of God. However, our focus in these days is too often on the grace of God when it needs to be on the mercy of God. Grace follows mercy, and mercy follows repentance. Confessing our sins is agreement with God. Repenting, or turning from the confessed sin, brings God's mercy. Repentance also means that we believe God will respond by withholding judgment and extending His own righteousness to cover our sins. God in His mercy is willing to forgive us and remove the penalty that we deserve. God's grace gives us what we do not deserve—exemption from the judgment. God forgives us because it is His way.

The apostle Paul is one of the greatest examples of God's grace and love that is found in the Bible. Paul lived the first part of his life as Saul. He was later called Paul. Saul's theology was totally wrong. He was violently prejudiced against Jesus and bitterly opposed to the Christian movement. Saul persecuted Christians with blind zeal. He agreed to the stoning of Stephen and voiced threats against the church.

On the Damascus Road he was confronted by Jesus, who said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Then Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 26:14-15). Saul lived a religious life but did not have peace with God. He would later say, “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16 KJV). Jesus quickly answered that hunger in his life. Saul repented and obeyed Jesus.

Can you imagine how Saul must have felt about his actions toward Stephen and the others whom he had persecuted? He had to have been broken with remorse. But whatever guilt there was on Saul's conscience, Jesus washed it away. Jesus may never have audibly spoken the words to Saul, but Saul knew that his debt was paid and he was pardoned. The past was as if it had never been. Saul later became known as Paul, a new name to go with his new heart.

Look at God's pardoning grace in Psalm 103:10-12:

“he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Jesus also shared how grace sets you free when He said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:31-32, 34-36).

God promised that He will abundantly pardon those who turn from wickedness:

“As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the
eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

—Isaiah 55:10-11

This is a crucial truth. When God speaks, it is so (Isa. 46:10). God speaks only when He intends to accomplish what He says (Isa. 46:11b; 14:24, 27). This is another one of the ways of God. When God speaks, He is already in the process of doing what He says.

God's Way of Faith

Faith is the confident expectation that God will do what He has said He will do. Faith is accepting God's statement as clear evidence of what we do not yet see (Heb. 11:1). However, faith is not blind. Faith is based on what we know about God. Living by faith will affect every part of our lives, from our families, to our workplaces, to our involvement in church. Faith is a way of God (Heb. 11:6). God chooses to work in and through a person who believes Him, trusts Him, and obeys Him.

Abraham is one of the greatest examples of faith. God made a covenant with Abram based on his faith in God (Gen. 12:1-3). Abraham was called Abram before God changed his name to reflect that he would father many nations. When God spoke to Abram, God said that He would be Abram's God if Abram would obey and trust Him. God would bless Him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out to follow God's direction to a new land and a new life (Gen. 12:5).

The faith of Abraham became the pattern of all faith that is acceptable to God, even to the point that God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Even the good works of Abraham were nothing in God's sight; but Abraham's belief in God, expressed in his obedience, was credited as righteousness and was considered worthy by God (Rom. 4:1-3).

Romans 4:20-22 explains that Abraham was often confronted with ironies that seemed cruel. For instance, he was promised a son when, from a fertility standpoint, his body was “as good as dead” (Rom. 4:19). “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding t...

Table of contents

• Front cover
• Half title
• Full title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Group Discussion Guide
• About the Authors