Suppose you hold in your hand the most powerful weapon in existence, capable of demolishing all the combined forces of the universe at the press of a button. The most stupid thing that you can do is to point it at your own face, and then try to press that button over and over again. But this is what Christians have done with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God through the centuries. No enemy can ever hope to survive against this weapon. The only way is to manipulate the person to point it at himself. And except for several token concessions to avoid alarm, the devil has achieved almost complete success in doing this throughout church history.

God has revealed to us the doctrine of divine sovereignty, and Christians have used it to hurt themselves, to scare themselves, and to limit themselves. Worse, Christians have pointed the doctrine back at God himself, and used it to eradicate his own promises and commands. By a covenant, signed and ratified by the blood of his own Son, the Sovereign God has guaranteed to us visions, dreams, prophecies, miracle healing, material provision, spiritual power, total victory, and many other things. We could use the doctrine to increase faith, reverse defeat, and overcome suffering. We could use it to announce that God will do for us even more than what we ask or think.

Success is our destiny. Power is our destiny. Healing is our destiny. Prophecy is our destiny. Our destiny is to preach the gospel with overwhelming power, and to perform the same miracles that Jesus did, and even greater miracles, so that God will be glorified by giving us whatever we ask in the name of Christ. But Christians have usually used the doctrine to declare that God would use his sovereignty to produce things that are against what we ask or think, and even against his own word. Predestination is often used as an excuse for unbelief and failure, and “the will of God” is used to avoid blame. This satanic deception has been codified in historic books and creeds, and enshrined as orthodoxy in churches and denominations.