Can We Disable God?

When was the last time you wanted to do something, but you just couldn’t get it done? Maybe you wanted to go to a concert or a football game, but you just didn’t have the money. Maybe you wanted to spend a week in the Smoky Mountains but you weren’t able to schedule that many days away from work.

Even God is not able to do all the things He might want to do. 2 Peter 3:9, tells us, “The Lord is . . . not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” So God wants to save everybody, but there is a problem. Jesus states the problem in Matthew 7:13-14, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to Life and there are few who find it.” In other words, many people are going to perish even though God’s will is that nobody should perish.

Imagine an individual, such as Elon Musk, who offers to give a million dollars to some random person, provided they meet a few requirements. One must first register to enter the competition. They must have been born in one of the lower 48 states. They must be a farmer. They must give considerable money to charity. They must have traveled to all 50 of the United States. They must be well respected and above reproach.

You were born in West Virginia, so you register, buy a farm and start farming while giving liberally to charities and traveling all winter until you have been to every state. Even if you have a good reputation, there is nothing you can do by the rules of the situation to force Elon Musk to give you the reward. He will make his selection from all the people that qualify, and it might be you, or it might not. You meet the requirements but you are not doing the choosing.

Being chosen to receive the reward is something you cannot earn. You’re doing everything right but you can’t make yourself receive the reward. What you can do, however, is take yourself out of the running for the reward. You could quit farming. You could quit giving to charity. You could engage in some kind of nefarious activity and lose your good reputation. You could cause yourself to be unqualified for the reward. Elon Musk might even desire to give it to you, but you have made it impossible for him to do so because you have disqualified yourself from the competition.

In your former situation of meeting the markers, you enabled Musk to reward you if that was his desire. In the latter situation of violating so much as one marker, you have disabled Musk from being able to reward you, even if he very much desired to do so. There was never, however, any situation in which you could have done something to force Musk to reward you.

I began that analogy with the word, imagine, because it was a fantasy. Neither Elon Musk, nor any other very wealthy individual is likely to give any of the rest of us a million dollars, nor should they be expected to. It’s their money. (So don’t buy that farm.)

There is, however, an individual who has promised us a valuable “prize” if we meet some requirements. Of course, I’m referring to God and the promise of Heaven, which He has promised to everybody who meets certain requirements. As in the analogy, God’s promise is only available to those who enter with the proper registration. As Peter taught believing Jews in Acts 2:38 that was accomplished by repenting and being baptized, and verse 47 adds that God added those who were saved to the church. Jesus indicated years before in Mark 16:15-16, that people who believed and were baptized would be saved. This article is in regard to those who have properly “entered.”

Again, as in the analogy, there is nothing any of us can do to force God to reward us with Heaven. We can’t do several good works and hand him our list demanding to get into Heaven. Later in Matthew 7, quoted above, Jesus says in verses 21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord,’ have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

We do not have it in our power to force our way into Heaven. Our opportunity to spend eternity with God exists only because of, and through, God’s grace. We cannot earn it as a reward that God must give us because of what we have done. In the analogy, many farmers born in the lower 48 who meet the other requirements as well did not, would not, receive the reward because there was one other requirement. You had to be the one Elon Musk chose and you could not earn nor force that.

Perhaps, a better understanding of our situation would come from a better understanding of Heaven. Some people tend to think Heaven is all about us because Jesus said in John 14:2, “I go and prepare a place for you.” No, Heaven is all about God. There is a reason God’s will is not in full force on the earth as it is in Heaven. There are people on earth who will not be in Heaven.

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death,” Rev. 21:8, to name a few. Gal. 5:19-21 adds a few more, “ . . . adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like . . . [T]hose who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Some of these behaviors are thought of as egregious sins, others may not seem so bad (contentious, jealous, selfish) but they will keep a person out of Heaven, as will being guilty of “the like.” People whose lives are invested in any of these things, or “the like,” have disabled God from being able to save them, even though He wants to do so.

While there is nothing we can do, no matter how good it might be, to force God to take us to Heaven, to save us, we can disable God from saving us by carrying the guilt of activity which cannot be allowed in Heaven. On the other hand, while we cannot force God to take us to Heaven, we can enable Him to do so by living lives acceptable to Him, for example, Gal. 5:22-23, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” to name a few. By incorporating these behaviors into our life we are making it possible for God to save us. Not forcing Him, not working to earn, but enabling.

It is worthwhile to note that, by and large, the items in Rev. 21:8 and the list in Galatians 5:19-21 are behaviors that arise because people are focused on themselves, what they want. Others may be in the way of their desires, or may be tools by which they can achieve their desires. The items in the list in Galatians 5:21-23 are behaviors of people who put others ahead of themselves and are guided by consideration of others. Behaving in the manner of Rev. 21:8 and Gal. 5:19-21 will disable God from being able to take you to Heaven. Behaving in the manner of Gal. 5:21-23 will enable God to take you to Heaven. You can choose to enable God, or you can choose to disable God, but you can’t force Him.

There are certain behaviors and attitudes that will be part of Heaven, that belong in Heaven because they are characterisitic of love, and God is love. They will be in Heaven. There are certain behaviors and attitudes that don’t belong in Heaven because they are all about self and are thus abhorent to God. Be certain, they won’t be in Heaven. It’s what Heaven is all about. Are you disabling, or are you enabling God?