Acts 17:26 And He made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, determining beforehand their appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwelling, (27) That they might seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, even though He is not far from each one of us.
[Part 2 of 2] As the Leader, the Ruler, He is ruling the earth for the purpose of our salvation. He is ruling so that we may be saved. Let us take as an illustration the case of Chinese immigrants to the United States. We have found that a great many of these immigrants are very open to the Lord. But if they had remained in China, it is not likely that they would be this open. The Lord Jesus exercises His authority to cause so many foreigners to come to this country. Then once they arrive, they become open to Him. This is an illustration of the Lord's ruling the earth for the sake of saving people. We believe that God has chosen us, and then at the right time the Lord Jesus, the Ruler of the kings of the earth, exercised His authority to produce a certain environment so that we had no choice except to believe in Him. In a sense, we have been "caught" by the Lord. There is no way for us to escape from the Lord's "trap." We have been caught by Christ and in Christ. Before we were saved, we were like mice running loose. But the Lord Jesus exercised His sovereign authority to set up a trap to catch us. In this matter He is sovereign; He is the Ruler of the kings, arranging the environment so that we were constrained to believe in Him. Without such an environment, we would not have believed in Him. We all were caught by Him and constrained to believe in Him. Praise the Lord that we believe in Him!
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Acts, pp.146-147. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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