Have you ever found yourself singing a song in church on Sunday morning, and the lyrics on the screen make you tilt your head a little as you ponder the theology set before you?

I grew up in a church that, despite a number of faults, certainly had a strong foundation on the Word of God. Do I think the preaching was always Biblically accurate? No. Were the perceived inaccuracies intentional? Again, no, and that’s important. I also think it’s important that I mention…I’m entirely confident that the pastor’s heart was good, and I have nothing but respect and honor for him. Indeed, I can trace the foundations of my own Biblical understanding back to his preaching, so I am grateful.

When you have a solid Biblical view of God, there are certain things you know about Him. He is:

• Omniscient – He knows everything
• Omnipresent – He’s everywhere at once
• Omnipotent – He’s all-powerful

As such, there is nothing He cannot do. Let’s not do the “Well, He can’t lie/sin” thing here. You’d be right, but that’s not what we’re talking about. 🙂

There is a phrase I’ve encountered a number of times that has troubled me to various degrees over the years, and only today did I come to a conclusion with it.

The phrase has to do with “giving God permission” to do something.

“Giving God permission” to do anything is an outright ridiculous notion. It would seem to imply that God needs my permission, and not only is that ridiculous on its face, but it also raises myself to a position above that of almighty God!

…or does it?

As a worship leader and a songwriter, I have grace for flowery language to a degree, and even more than that, I understand that there are times where a phrase may hold one meaning in its literal reading, but be clearly understood in another way entirely to most who would hear it. I could maybe dive into that more, but while I do believe that applies here, it is not ultimately what led me to accepting this phrase.

You see, I have been in the IT industry for the better part of two decades, and once you attain a certain level, you have access to nearly everything that exists on your company’s network. You could say that you have permission to access everything on the network.

As an honest IT administrator, there are things you have access to that you would normally not poke around in. Admittedly, this is where the analogy isn’t perfect, but it’s only an analogy.

As an email administrator, you would have easy access to any email that was ever sent or received through the email server, but you don’t think of them as being your emails. As such, my preference would be to, at a minimum, inform the user that I would be looking into their mailbox, but more likely I would ask permission.

It’s not that I needed permission. I already had it. I wanted permission.

I think this is often how God interacts with us. He can absolutely do as He pleases, but His default perspective is to want us to take the first step. He doesn’t need our permission to do anything, but I do believe He wants it. God desires a willingness on our part – a passion and pursuing.

So can we “give God permission” to our hearts? YES! He absolutely already has it, but even as the Israelite priests had to put their feet in the Jordan before it would part, I believe God often wants us to take the first step back toward Him.

As with many ideas, I believe there is room for great discussion here, and I promise that I don’t think less of you if you disagree. Personally, I would always rather error on the side that seems to give God the most glory, which I imagine to be the thinking behind the discomfort with “giving God permission.”

So:

• Am I on to something?
• Was the phrase “giving God permission” never an issue for you?
• Am I dead wrong?

Let me know what you think!