Vazquez Counseling

The Resurrection of our LORD Jesus Christ is the most important event in the history of mankind, as it not only proved that Jesus was our long-awaited Messiah, but it also guaranteed Christians Eternal Life.

Way back in the Book of Genesis, our Father in Heaven promised that the Seed from the woman would come, and that He would crush the head of the enemy. In other words, when our Messiah would come, He would not only destroy the enemy of our souls, He would also put a stop to all of the devil’s schemes, all of his ideas of usurping God and of destroying His people.

Before mankind fell, our LORD knew that Adam and Eve would sin and lose the title deed of the Earth and the entire Universe to the enemy of our souls. When Adam and Eve chose to sin and defy our LORD, they chose to believe a lie and handed over the title deed to the Universe, which had been rightfully theirs, to the enemy of God, who is also the enemy of everything that is Holy and Righteous. By listening to the serpent, Adam and Eve lost everything God had given them; they gave the Universe to the most evil being in all of Creation, satan himself. And at that moment that idiotic devil thought he had won; he laughed and cackled because he truly believed he had defeated Almighty God.

However, our enemy was dead wrong because no one and nothing can defeat our Omnipotent Father. What the devil did in deceiving humanity is that he sealed his own fate. The devil and his demons will burn in Hell forever precisely because the devil tried, unsuccessfully, to steal what belonged to our Father God. And not only that, the enemy and his minions have caused an immense amount of suffering for God’s people through disease, war, broken relationships, and everything evil that they could think of because they controlled the world for thousands of years. In carrying out unimaginable evil throughout human history, they have condemned themselves to eternal damnation. When our LORD Jesus willingly gave His Life on the Cross, He purchased His people and the entire Universe for His Father. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been working to restore this world back to the Glory that was the Garden of Eden ever since Jesus ascended while His Apostles watched. Only the Elect of God, those who are truly saved and have absolutely no doubt that they are saved can perceive how our Blessed LORD has been rebuilding Creation ever since the Ascension of Christ.

What the enemy did not know, and could not know, is that God Himself in the Person of God the Son would come to Earth, clothed as one of us, and that He would willingly give His Life to earn back the Universe and God’s people for His Everlasting Father. What the devil did when he believed he could be God, an impossibility for any created being, is that he entered Eden to deceive God’s crowning achievement, mankind, something, by the way, that our LORD sovereignly allowed. Think about it, could the devil, a mere creature with a limited intellect , ever outsmart the All-Knowing KING of the Universe? The thought that anyone could defeat God is indeed laughable, and only that idiotic devil could be so self-deluded to believe that he could win in a war against the Almighty.

Our Father God had a plan the whole time to redeem mankind and all of His Creation. He foresaw that His people would need a Savior, and God the Son knew from the beginning that He would come to accomplish the task of providing salvation for His people. Nothing that happens catches our LORD by surprise. If God knew that the Fall of Man would bring about so much chaos, including sending His own Son to the Cross, why in the world would He allow it to happen? Our LORD could have created the Garden of Eden without the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in it, so man would never eat of it. Our LORD could have stopped the serpent from entering Eden. These questions are what I call the “what ifs” that many people throughout history have wondered, in light of all the darkness and evil in the world, a darkness that has caused untold pain not only to God’s people but to God Himself.

In my experience as a counselor, I have found that my clients who have anxiety, depression, or whatever mental health condition ails them, often engage in “what if” scenarios in their minds, whether that are playing the “would’ve, should’ve, or could’ve” game, or are worried about things in the past that in reality, they can no longer change. We also tend to worry a lot about the future, which is not promised to us.

I challenge my clients to live in reality. In other words, don’t worry about the “what ifs” in your life; instead, concern yourself with the “what is” of the reality around you, what has truly happened, what is currently happening, not what you regretted that happened or what you wish would happen.

Looking back at why would God ever allow sin and death to enter the world, the Truth is that we may not know why there is suffering in the world on this side of Heaven. What we need to rely on is that our God is Sovereign, and everything that happens is filtered through His hands.

In Romans 8:28-30, Paul the Apostle taught the following:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible)

In these famous verses, the Apostle Paul explains that everything that happens in our lives has a purpose, even the things that are painful. Then, the Apostle explains why this is so. He states that God knew us before we were born, and that He called us personally, justifying us, and He will eventually glorify us. What our LORD is showing us through this passage in the Bible and many more like it throughout the Scriptures is that He is acutely aware of our sufferings, and He is fully in control. The Scriptures clearly state that God uses our suffering to bring Him glory. God’s ultimate goal is for us to spend an Eternity with Him, in spite of our suffering in this world. If Christ Himself, the Son of the Living God, suffered the most painful death in the history of mankind, will God not use the suffering of mankind for His Glorious purposes?

It is clear in the Scriptures that our LORD is not the author of evil or the creator of our suffering. Our LORD allows suffering in the world, but he did not initiate it. In His sovereignty, our LORD allows suffering, which is a result of sin, because sin has consequences for His people, as it has also for satan and his fallen angels. The difference between us and demons is that our Blessed Father has made a Way for us to be saved and spend Eternity with Him. The consequence of our sin for God was that He had to sacrifice His own Son on the Cross, in order to rid the world of that sin and to save His people, who, in our own efforts would have no hope of saving ourselves. Still, these long explanations of why so much darkness and evil exists in the world is of little comfort to a parent whose child is dying of cancer, or someone who is in the midst of a horrible divorce, or anyone really who has been suffering and continues to suffer.

In conclusion, those of us who have believed the Gospel and are born again believers trust God implicitly. We know in our Spirit that God exists, that He is sovereign in everything, and that He has called us to serve Him and His people. Our LORD Jesus said in John 3 that people born of the Spirit are like the wind. The wind blows where God wants, and people cannot perceive what the wind does. They know it’s there, but they don’t know where it’s going or what it is really doing. And thus are the Holy People of God are like. The people of the world know that we are here, but because we serve an infinite God Whose purposes and wisdom are far above what people who don’t know Him can understand, we truly are like the wind. Those who are lost or who don’t yet know God cannot comprehend the Christian’s mission. Yes, Christ has sent us to make disciples of the nations and to baptize people in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching people everything Christ taught us. Yes, if you don’t know Christ, you see us, but like the wind, you cannot comprehend how our Blessed LORD is using us to accomplish His mission. Once you believe in the Gospel AND you are born again, you will understand completely how the Spirit of God moves, and you will trust God implicitly. Amen and Amen.