God Doesn’t Barge In

By Sarah K. Howley

Amipotence explains how God works with us to sanctify us.

Amipotence has been presented as a viable alternative to omnipotence, particularly in relation to the explanation of evil in the world. It provides a plausible explanation of how God works in the world. Amipotence is the belief that God collaborates with the world around us, including people and nature, to influence outcomes for our wellbeing. This is love manifest—his affirming us and working for our wellbeing. Amipotence also provides us with an interesting approach to sanctification, incorporating how God works and influences the world and people for our wellbeing.

Sanctification is generally defined as an immediate as well as a progressive transformation toward holiness for believers. This immediate aspect of sanctification results from our joining with the Holy Spirit at the time of our belief. We are “set apart” and “made holy,” or sanctified, to work for God’s glory at the point in time at which we welcome the Lord into our lives. It is also the point at which he begins the progression of sanctification of our life.

Sanctification is not only a moral change but a radical transformation of our lives to love as God loves us. This concept may be likened to the illustration of a house.

If our life is represented by a house, we begin as a house with proper furnishings and windows that work, and areas arranged to welcome and inspire us. Unfortunately, no one is spared the harsh realities of life, accidents, incidents beyond our control, inner hurts. This house that is our life is not spared either.

That lovely starter home we once were will one day show wear from these events as well as the weather. The house suffers; there may be neglect or active harm. Somehow the electricity goes out, the water is disconnected, and the stairs begin to creak and moan. This is the condition of the house, of our lives, our minds, and bodies when we come to Christ. That is the moment of justification and sanctification. That immediate sanctification provides electricity again and we can fully see the issues around us. The peeling paint, the broken windows, the patched cracks in the floor. However, there may be some rooms where the electricity still doesn’t reach, some corners where the lamps don’t work.

Progressive sanctification is what we might call repairing the house bit by bit. Full restoration of the house occurs over time. Some aspects will be immediate: electricity restored and water running again with a simple act. Others take time. God works with us to restore the house and set it back to full functionality, for his purposes. Some of us will have large dining rooms for hospitality. Some of us will have larger libraries for study. Each of us will have different aspects of ourselves that reflect how we glorify God through our sanctification.

The Process of Sanctification

The sanctification of our lives is very similar to the restoration of a house. Most of us are aware of one or two things that may be broken. We may say to ourselves, “I know I can be critical sometimes, but that’s how God made me.” Or maybe we say, “He’s wrong, and I am right,” leaving no room to hear one another. We may be aware of these things. They exist in the well-lit rooms of our house. But all of us also have corners that are a bit dark, closets that haven’t been opened in a long time. God works with us to restore what is broken. Our assent and his collaboration with us, as explained by amipotence, is the spark for all this work.

Sanctification is our growing into Christlikeness. Sanctification includes healing but encompasses much more than that. Our growth occurs by many means, including Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and obedience through the Holy Spirit. However, those activities are just that—activities. Our collaboration and open hearts impact the results of the growth or regeneration experienced and named sanctification.

We can read the Bible from cover to cover every year for ten years and still not grow more Christlike. When we engage our hearts and give God permission to work through the Word with and within us, we are transformed. The ultimate example of this is Saul, who became the revered Paul of the New Testament. He was steeped in the Word of God yet missed the point for decades. Only after God shone a light on what needed attention did Paul transform (Acts 9:1-19 [New International Version]). The amipotent pairing of consent and co-labor are what best reconstructs the house of our life.

Once we agree to work with God, the work may come quickly or slowly; that is unveiled as we work together. But these aspects of God’s amipotence guide us in sanctifying our lives and bring us into a fullness of Christ. The renewal of our minds and selves helps us better love others and ourselves as God loves us.

It is through cooperation and respecting the personhood of each of us, these two characteristics of amipotence in particular, that help us better understand the progressive sanctification and inner healing we undergo as Christians. Just as God does not violate the choices of those who commit evil, he does not violate the choices of those who commit good. God does not force us toward restoration or healing. He seeks permission, shines a light into the dark corners, and invites us into healing. Then he works with us toward that healing, never leaving us alone in it but collaborating to bring it about. He does not heal us single-handedly but works with us. He does not come through like a storm and change us into a new person but does so collaboratively.

Choice of Consent

This transformative restoration requires our agreement or choice to heal so that God can co-work to achieve our healing and growth. There is a hint of why this transformation can be slow in the examples above. We may have heard people say, “That is how God made me.” This phrase can be frustrating for those who want to help others, because it is an indication of unwillingness to open our hearts to the work of God in our lives. The degree to which we open ourselves to his work is the degree to which he can restore or heal the brokenness within us.

To continue the analogy, God is not the one who hires all the teams and directs all the work to repair the dilapidated home, as omnipotence would say. Instead, he works alongside us to do these jobs. He may point out the door that is stuck, but we are the ones who must acknowledge that issue and work on it with him. He shines the light, and we may continue to ignore it. Yes, we humans choose the next step; he does not violate our choices. This choice to ignore his influence will consequently slow the progress in our healing.

When Jesus was approached by people along the roads, they came to him. They approached with already open hearts for his work. Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10 [NIV]) and the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:24-34 [NIV]) came to him in expectation of his work; they joined him on the road. This approach showed their inherent willingness for Jesus to work together with them to restore.

Those who Jesus happened upon on the road, he asked a question, “What is it you want?” such as the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9 [NIV]) and Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52 [NIV]). They did not approach Jesus, but Jesus approached them. It happens both ways, but one inherently has a posture of willingness, the other doesn’t. Since love does not violate the rights and person of others, Jesus does not presume the desired outcome and complete it; he asks them what they wish. This is the choice that people make to permit Jesus to work in their lives, illustrated through their words and actions. This is the choice that we still make, as affirmed by the description of God’s way of working in the amipotence theory.

Choice to Collaborate

Many of us would say that we chose to heal a long time ago and that made no appreciable impact. The step that follows agreeing to heal is the work, the co-laboring with Jesus. When Jesus healed the ten men with leprosy outside of Jerusalem, he didn’t touch them and then they immediately grew new skin (Luke 17:11-19 [NIV]). He touched them and then they followed his instructions to go back to the temple and show themselves. They had a job to do as well, not just waiting around for someone else (Jesus) to do the heavy lifting. This is the collaboration with God to complete the work. There was not only the posture of asking for healing, but they followed Jesus’ instructions in faith. The man in Lystra listening to Paul had faith and stood up to find that he had been healed (Acts 14:8-10 [NIV]). He had to act in faith, doing his part when God did his.

These incidents recorded in the Bible are often of physical healing. However, when we consider the woman at the well (John 4:4-26 [NIV]), she had a fractured history which may be understood to have included a number of internal wounds. She asked for living water and found joy in knowing Jesus who healed the inner woman and restored her to society.

Jesus himself said that he came to heal the brokenhearted in Luke 4:18 (NIV). Jesus and his followers embraced the idea of inner healing through cooperation. The process of transformation and sanctification that is perhaps most impactful to us as individuals is the inner healing of past hurts. Jesus heals these too through his love. God influences the world around us for that healing—a great deal of which, in inner healing, is immediately surrounding us and indeed within us.

As individuals who carry past hurts, we need to consent to God’s work and then carry out the labor he leads us into. At times, that is work between us and God alone; at other times, that is co-work with a counselor; and in other times, a family member or trusted friend. The familiarity of that pain from our past can stop us from being willing to heal, yet God will continue to shine that light on the stuck doors or broken tiles until we address the issues. He can only initiate transformation when we willingly set out to do so and actively work with him.

The idea of God’s loving influence co-laboring with us to bring about good and our wellbeing can be extended to sanctification. God doesn’t just barge in. God, with our consent and in his great amipotence, joins with us transforming us into his Christlike children. God cannot stop the evil that may, or indeed does, occur in our lives, but he co-labors to bring healing to what was broken in the measure to which we allow it.

Bio: Sarah K. Howley is the founder of InspiritEncourage and author of several Bible studies. She is a certified counselor in the Chiesa Apostolica in Italia. Sarah often travels the world, usually with espresso in hand. Follow her at inspiritencourage.com to keep in touch.

OORD’S DRABBLE* RESPONSE

Sarah Howley draws on amipotence to explore the meaning of sanctification. She describes sanctification as a radical transformation, growing in our capacity to love as God loves. Her analogy of repairing a house, piece by piece, beautifully illustrates the gradual, moment-by-moment healing this process entails. Central to Sarah’s vision is collaboration with divine love—never coerced, but requiring our free participation. Such healing is what God desires for all, yet an amipotent God cannot accomplish it alone. God needs our cooperation. I deeply appreciate Sarah’s reimagining of sanctification through the lens of amipotence and her call to co-labor with God.

For more on Oord’s view of sanctification, see this article.

* A drabble is an essay exactly 100 words in length.