I'm reminded of Gandalf's magic in The Lord of the Rings. He causes things with declarative statements: "Your staff is broken". "You shall not pass".
In Middle-earth it comes down to a timeline that has already happened and is now being replayed, of which a few inhabitants are granted special insight. It acts like magic, but it's not clear what direction (if any) causality runs.
If I understand LoTR correctly (including the Silmarillion), there is a God figure (Iluvatar) that has at least ordained. It's a replay or not, depending on how you interpret whether the Valars' song was events happening, or just made events happen. But in either view, Iluvatar is still controlling it all, because he controlled how the song went, even though Melkor tried to mess it up.
In Middle-earth it comes down to a timeline that has already happened and is now being replayed, of which a few inhabitants are granted special insight. It acts like magic, but it's not clear what direction (if any) causality runs.