God Does Not Play Dice

By Fred Pruitt

First Things First

The title of this piece is a quote from Albert Einstein. He was very disturbed about some aspects of quantum physics, especially the “uncertainty principle.” In layman’s terms, it simply means that the universe at its core is unpredictable. Einstein couldn’t take this. After he gained his laurels due to his papers on “Relativity” and “Light,” he spent the bulk of the rest of his life trying to find the “Holy Grail” of all physics, the so-called “unified field theory.” The attempt of the theory is to reconcile the properties of gravity and light as they are functioning with large masses and limitless distances, with quantum mechanics, the theory that describes things at a sub-atomic level. The reason Einstein was upset about the uncertainty principle, is because He believed everything happened according to how God purposed it. Though he didn’t put it into our terms, Einstein was echoing the words of Paul in Ephesians 1:11, that God works “all things after the counsel of his own will.”

Who Are We – Where Are We Going?

Who are we? Where are we going? How are we going to get there? What is our purpose and how do we fulfill it?

Let’s consider this as the sum of all we are saying: Man does not become God, but God becomes Man, without ceasing to be God. He is the transcendent Father God, and He is God in immanence in human beings, so that Jesus’ word is true, quoting the Psalms:

“The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest;  because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:33-36).

In other words, our future is not to merge with and become the “GODHEAD”, but to become fully HUMAN (the divine in the human) eternally — just as a tree expresses God’s TOTAL GLORY simply by being what it is, which is God expressing Himself as a tree, even so we, in living out our “human” lives fully without reservation in Him, are God expressing Himself as “you and me.” It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ word in us, that “Ye are gods!”

I was thinking about that, and it hit me that “pantheism,” a charge with which we are often saddled, involves an ultimate merging “back” into the “ONE,” i.e. the “GODHEAD,” where all distinctions are lost. At least so it seems to me.

“Distinctions” (i.e. separate distinct self-aware creatures) are DANGEROUS business, especially when “will” is involved (doesn’t matter much for trees, but does for humans). For a “creature” (created individual self) to be given “free will,” that is, an “individual” will which is completely free, involves risk of eternal ramifications. Grave risk. Because, if the will is to be “distinct,” then it must also be completely free to choose its way, or else it is a sham. There is no freedom if at bottom the will is not free.

Before I go further, let me also address this term – “free will” – so that we can be clear on that. Martin Luther wrote a book called, “The Bondage of the Will.” The basic point of the book, as I understand it, is to reveal the truth to believers and unbelievers alike, that we are not just ourselves alone, but that we are as a “ridden horse,” and we do the WILL of the one who rides us. If the one who rides us is Satan, then we are in rebellious will. We are in the “will” mentioned in Isaiah 14, where Lucifer (“Light-bearer”) by his eternal word broke himself off eternally from the One Will that works all things by these statements: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14).

Where, we ask, is the point of separation? It is in the “I will.” It is a separate “will,” broken off from the One Will, stating that it will be, on its own power, greater than the God Who created it. Lucifer broke open the kingdom of a “separate” will from God’s, which because of his high position, immediately catapulted him out of the Light of God which he was supposed to “bear,” into the kingdom of his own separate “light,” which turned out to be darkness since he had no “light” of his own. He has been trapped there in outer darkness ever since.

Now, when I say, as I said above, that we have “free will,” that “free will” is only used to determine one particular choice. Will we be God’s, or will we be “for ourselves?” (And to be for ourselves, we are in darkness, and “ridden” as a horse by the prince of darkness. There is no gray area which is just human.) That choice of God or not God, simply determines whose horse we will be, that is, which rider to ride us. If we choose “ourselves,” by default we serve the enemy; we do his will, we desire his desires. (John 8:44; Eph 2:1,2; 1 John 3:8; Rom 6:16,17). We are slaves of unrighteousness!

If God in Christ is our “decision,” then we live in and do His will. Just as before we were the SLAVES of unrighteousness, and we did the bidding of unrighteousness as its slave, now we are slaves of righteousness, and do the will of righteousness. We do the bidding of our inner king – either our deceived selves doing the “lusts of our father the devil,” or our redeemed selves, acting on the desires of the Father, Son and Spirit.

How Do We Become Free (even though we are slaves)?

One of Sting’s songs says: “If you love somebody, set them free” ….

Is not that what the Lord God has done? He has chosen to set us completely FREE because in Love that is the only way we can be persons. Rather than force our submission by brute violence or intimidation, God has eternally chosen to woo us by His love and by the consequences of our expressed Freedom, to continually draw us into the center of Himself.

But what, paradoxically, is the result of complete nothingness before God, that Only He might be All in us, that we live in Him willing and doing of His good pleasure? Amazingly and paradoxically – we find our complete unrestricted Freedom!!!! Exercising our royal option as “kings and priests unto God,” living in and of the kingdom of heaven, we do what we please, because like Jesus, we know that everything we do pleases the Father.

“I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:28,29).

We may have to take a big gulp before we declare what Jesus declared for Himself, but since it is HE in ME AS me, and not “just” me, I must declare also that it is true for me!

I can’t stress this enough, I know I say it over and over, but God’s plan is to populate the universe with sons who express the Life of the Father/Son/Spirit by BEING THEMSELVES! This is what Christ came for. This is what He has accomplished! Son of Man!

That is the pinnacle of God’s plan as far as it has been revealed to us:

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Rom 8:18, 19 KJV)

Just as we are so proud of our children when they have accomplished something on their own, without dad’s and mom’s help, even more so our Father in heaven is delighted in us. And He is even more delighted as we rise up into our adulthood, and realize that He is not “dictating” to us, but rather says to us, as He said to Moses: “Why do you cry unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they may go forward.” In other words, “Why are you crying to me, Moses? You are sufficient in me to go forward.”

Look at Samuel’s charge to Saul before he anointed him king:

“And the spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.

And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.” (1 Sam 10:6,7)

Samuel told Saul that once the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, to “Do as occasion served him,” in other words, “Do what you want to do,” or, “Do what seems best to you.”

Implicit in that word, of course, was that Saul continue to act in the Spirit of the Lord, because later on in the story we know he reacted out of presumption and unbelief and Saul ended up not working out as king.

But the first prototype always seems to be the failure – the negative that points to the positive. Adam/Christ, Cain/Abel,  Ishmael/Isaac, Esau/Jacob, Zarah/Pharez,  Eli/Samuel, Saul/David.

Despite the fact that Saul did not work out as King, nevertheless the word to Saul is true. “Life in the Spirit” is to act according to our own desires and wills (which are HIS), in freedom and faith which works by love, which is the outcome of our inner unity of person and will with Christ.

Saul’s fall (as well as Adam’s), shows both the “danger” implicit in being given “freedom,” and the fine line between “self-will” and “Self-will.” This is the “narrow road” and the “straight gate,” which few seem to find.

We are MEANT to be “ME-expressors.” Read Jesus’ story, especially in the gospel of John. There’s Jesus, from the outside seeming like a crazy man, the ultimate “Me-expressor,” the ultimate no-holds-barred “I do what I want to do egotist.” Doesn’t this fly in the face of everything we have been taught about humility and walking in meekness?

Look at 2-yr olds — the “terrible twos” – if there ever was a “me expressor,” it’s a 2 yr old saying “NO!” On the one hand we can say, “Well, there’s the devil being rebellious in that little child” — OR — we can say “there is God bringing about right consciousness through the NECESSARY realization of our individual selfhood, which can only come about through the confrontation of opposites.”

In other words, one cannot “lose” a life, or die to it, if he has never even realized he had it in the first place. Therefore, in order to come to the place where we count everything and even ourselves as nothing before God, there must be a consciousness of “I am me” inside each of us. We ARE selves and God has eternally ordained that we would be selves. And this is all part of this process whereby the Spirit raises our consciousness into Him as one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

GOD has ORDAINED terrible two’s!!!! Are they not precious in His sight?

For it is through this apparent conflict between “opposing wills” that two things are accomplished. First, we realize, rightly, that we are separate, distinct individuals, with our own lives and desires to express ourselves. (That involves the very very very dangerous “game” of living in “separation” as if it is real, because we MUST KNOW our distinction from all others, including God [but do we see the “danger” implicit here, because to fool around with “separation” means we might never let it go?] )

And secondly, through that conflict of “opposing wills,” we learn the One Will which operates All and willingly join in with it as our own expressed will. For when we know we are “one” with God then we must of necessity be of “one will” with Him. Even the man described in Roman Seven wills one will with God, but he cannot at that stage, produce what he thinks he should produce. It takes the Romans seven experience in order that we might be “carried on wings of eagles” into Romans 8: 1-2;9, where we ultimately find ourselves in the perfect “service” of God living in an unbounded freedom, since the borders of the kingdom are as wide as infinity!

Consider the great pianists, Artur Rubenstein or Vladimir Horowitz. When Rubenstein played Chopin or Horowitz played Beethoven, who were they as they played: Chopin and Beethoven, or Rubenstein and Horowitz – or both? It was Chopin expressed as Artur Rubenstein and Ludwig Van expressed as Vladimir Horowitz. Chopin and Beethoven become newly alive, vibrant, individual and distinct in the fingers of masters. Rubenstein and Horowitz were lauded the world over not because they could play the composers’ notes better than anyone else, but because when they played in their freedom on the stage, Chopin BECAME Rubenstein, and Beethoven BECAME Horowitz. They WERE the music when they were most THEMSELVES. Maybe they didn’t write the music, but they played the ever-livin’ HELL out of it!!!!

What does the whole creation groan for?

The MANIFESTATION of the sons of God!!!! Sons, who KNOW who they are (He as them), and who through being prodigal or by trial and error have come to know NO CONTRARY WILL in themselves. Through their sufferings, hardships and perseverance they “come to themselves” even while feeding off the crumbs which the swine left. Now they are ready to “trust themselves” and “do as occasion serves them.”

When I was a kid, I used to we wish there was a “smart-pill” that you could take, that would make you know everything, and then there would be no need for school.

Now, though, I’m glad for the experience I have under my belt. No “smart-pill” could produce that. But this happens that we might know that this current “trial of our faith” is producing nothing but gold, pure gold, precious in His sight, and in ours as well. “Be not weary in well doing, for you shall reap in due season, if thou faint not.”

Then what is our commission for today?

To stand up and “do as occasion serves thee, for God is with thee.”

Let’s get to it ….