He allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, "Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!" -- 1 Chronicles 16:21-22
Sometimes this passage gets quoted by people who might be or claim be or think they are prophets. These days prophecy seems to be where you find it. Maybe it always was, but finding God's will in our lives is rarely, if ever, a matter of a self-proclaimed prophet, the Pope, the President, or some celebrity's proclamation over us.
Our circumstances, the odd breaks we get -- serendipity is prophetic. We find ourselves where we are supposed to be. I recall a phrase that I read somewhere long ago admonishing the reader to "love it the way it is". Using "love" was kind of odd, but I took it as accepting and trusting in God's goodness no matter what happens.
I was reading an old book about the sovereignty of God. The author was clearly a Calvinist. I'm not, but I do think God is always sovereign in the long run. God is the perfect and ultimate counterpuncher. This is why hubris is so dangerous, and why we should never gloat over our enemies' failures.
We are in a dance with the Lord. He knows what He wants to do, and, as the perfect partner, makes even our missteps look graceful by always being where He should be. He has no use for the automaton that would be required for fixed and fastened predestination. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17) because God wants us to love Him as He loves us, and compulsory love with programmed obedience is not worthy of the name.
