“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15-19, NASB)

Does God rule or does He not? Here is an important question to ask as we read today’s devotional. It says in today’s passage,

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give Thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast, because Thou hast taken Thy great power and hast begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.’ And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”

It appears that there are contradictory words in today’s reading. In verse 15, unknown voices loudly proclaimed, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” Further, in verse 17, the twenty-four elders fell on their faces, worshiping God, saying, “We give Thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast, because Thou hast taken Thy great power and hast begun to reign.” What do you think? The words “has become” and “begun to reign” imply something happening that did not happen before. For example, if I say, “She has become my wife,” I am saying that she is my wife, but prior to today, she was not. If I say, “She has begun to live with me,” I mean that we are now living together as husband and wife, but prior to today, she was not.

So, according to this reasoning, does God rule or does He not? Yes, and no. Yes. God has always ruled because He is the Creator, able to make or destroy everything at His will. And no. At present, it is understood that God does not exercise authority over all things, as individuals have been granted free will. This allows His sovereignty to be accepted voluntarily rather than imposed. Strange paradox indeed. God is sovereign, and He rules over all, but allows it to be done in our hearts by our choice. At the snap of His fingers, He can command His angels to roll up the heavens like a scroll and destroy the earth with intense fire (Isa.34:4, 2 Pet.3:10). At His command, He can summon everyone, humans, angels, and demons, to stand before Him to judge them, and has the authority to send them to heaven or hell according to their deeds. God can condemn Satan and his angels right now and send them to hell, but He does not.

It says in verse 18, “The nations were enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” So why doesn’t God do this right now? He is willingly playing along with Satan’s God-wannabe parody for one reason and one reason only. He wants to redeem us mankind from the prison of sin and death. If God wants to, all He has to do is simply destroy both man and Satan and the world they corrupted and start all over again, and not deal with Satan’s blasphemy. Imagine an evil man holding a knife to your child’s throat and demanding you hand over your money, and you have in your hands an AK-47, pointing at him. What would you do? You can shoot both the thief and your child and take control of the situation. But you will not do that. Because you want to save your child, you will play along with the thief even though you have more firepower than he does.

Remember the words of Jesus in the wheat and the tare parable, “Allow both to grow together until the harvest… in the time of the harvest… gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Mt.13:30). God rules over all but does not rule over mankind because He is waiting patiently for them to voluntarily surrender to Him. He is waiting for the day when the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord in our hearts. Therefore, the question, “Does God rule or does He not?” is not about whether He has the authority to rule over the world, but rather whether we will surrender our hearts to His rule. Does God rule over your heart or does He not? This is the vital question we need to ask ourselves today, for one day in the near future, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.

• What do you think the twenty-four elders meant when they said, “Thou hast taken Thy great power and hast begun to reign?”
• Is Christ seated at the throne of your heart and rules over your life, or does he not?