A prerequisite reading to this article are my previous blogs on Relational Theology Makes Finding God's Will a Meaningful and Useful Experience and Sermon Outline: Seeking God’s Will with Joy and Anticipation!
In this article, we shall focus on the dynamic concept of "co-agency". Here is one of those truly Biblical concepts that make the Christian life and walk exciting and meaningful. In my personal theological journey, this is the best discovery next only to the Omni-competence of God. (see my separate blog on Traditional Views of God" ).
The proposition presented by Relational Theology affirms God's active role in history and current events mostly based on the active participation and cooperation of His people either through petitional prayer or supplication (which by definition, relationally, is simply a request by at least one of His people for His Divine intervention into the course of history or the consequences of previous actions by either God or man or both).
This strongly suggests that God's active role in worldly and individual affairs is confined to that of preserving His creation or responding to the prayers of His people. In all other situations, God takes a backseat or a passive role.
This means that for every action, there will be a natural reaction NOT necessarily actively instituted by God but simply a consequence of natural law (which God has previously ordained and created).
A man will commit murder, and the relatives of the victim or the state will seek vengeance or revenge. This happens without the active participation of God in the process. This are all simply the implementation of His created "natural law". Using the logical extreme, a man jumps of the Empire State building and, without the active participation of God, NATURALLY falls to his unsavory death. God's participation in all this is passive and confined to that of maintaining the "normality" of natural laws. This has tremendous implications on prayer (see my blog on Relational Theology Makes Prayer Meaningful).
The planets of the solar system do not collide, not because God is constantly preventing it from happenning in an active sense, but simply because God created natural laws of gravitational and other forces that put things into perfect balance, after which God simply sustains or preserves His created work but more in a passive sense.
It is quite illogical and inconceivable to think that God is active in each and every minute event in His creative work. To say so would imply that God is also active in the sinful acts of His creation, and that is completely false and ridiculous. All we are proposing here is a consistency of thought because we are building up towards a very important conclusion and implication for all of these under the perspective of Relational Theology.
Relational Theology teaches and affirms co-agency in God's continuing creative work in the world. What this means is that God's people have been given the unique privilege of participating as partners and/or co-agents in God's will for their individual lives and for the whole world. Absorb that truth for a moment. Very few positive things, or even NOTHING, will happen in the world UNLESS God's people actively participate in God's continuing work!
There will be no revivals, unless God's people "who are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways". There will be no evangelism. There will be no respite from drought. There will be no respite from floods, earthquakes and other "natural" catastrophes, UNLESS and UNTIL God's people act either through prayer or through direct ministry or service to address the natural course (or deterioration) of events.
There will be no healing. There will be no prolonging of life like that of Hezekiah. I am ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED that today, I have long-time Christian friends who believe that God heals ONLY through medicine or the medical profession, whereas time and again, it has even been proven that big pharma drugs have been dispensed with unknowing patients becoming victims and guinea pigs for their lack of research into side-effects and consequences. God heals ALL the time. Big pharma kills much of the time. Where does our faith lie? Have we become too "naturalized" that we have come to have VERY LOW EXPECTATIONS OF GOD in terms of His direct intervention into our lives????
May it never be! God is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is NO OTHER WAY to interpret this properly. God is the same not only in attributes but in the way He deals with man and participates in their affairs. Read the Bible in its entirety. Read the many times God has reversed events, He has even REVERSED HIS OWN WILL, as a response to the prayers and petitions of His people!!!
Such privilege that worthless as we are, God has given us value that we can influence the course of events and history as God's elect. Such responsibility that if we fail to do our part, God does mostly nothing either and souls are lost to eternity and diseases kill even God's children prematurely, and failures remain failures and hurts remain hurts and depression remains depression! WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE! We are indeed responsible when nothing happens to our lives, our neighborhoods and our communities.
Co-Agency in the Great Commission and results.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing..." These passage now known as the Great Commission obviously implies that without man doing the "verbs" nothing will ever be accomplished in terms of reaching a lost world. Unless man would "go", "make disciples", "baptize", no one will ever be reached with the gospel of salvation through Christ. It would be ridiculous to think that Jesus would make such a command and thereafter do all the work or let the Holy Spirit do all the work.
When Acts 2:47 states that "the Lord added to their number...", it definitely did not mean that the Lord did all the work. It was His people overflowing with the joy and power of the Holy Spirit that captivated those who were thirsting for something more than mere religion and ceremony. It was the voice of His people speaking forth the good news of salvation that made the world respond intelligently to the gospel. Without man's co-agency, the Lord and the Spirit would not act. Note that much of man's co-agency was that of knocking heaven's doors through prayers of petition as well as prayers of worship.
There is Co-agency Even in the Consequences of our Sin.
Surprising but true. Read 1 Chronicles 21. Recall that God punished David because he ordered a census of Israel that even the not-so-godly Joab knew was open defiance against God's decree.
...under development. Pls. come back and be blessed!
Discuss 21 and there is co-agency even in the consequences of our sin. The consequence of David's sin was David's choice.
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