Author: Allen Forte

Difficult circumstances are very real.  But often, we don’t see how God is at work in these circumstances because we see so much of what is at work against us.  Scripture shows us an example in the book of Job.  Job was a man who lost everything important to him because of his righteousness before God.  The devil believed Job served God only because God favored him, and that Job would curse God when he seemed to lose that favor.  But the devil was wrong. Through many trials, Job did not stop believing in God nor did he curse God.  Job not only believed what he heard, he believed what he saw.

I would like to be more like Job.  I know I am too easily moved and too easily challenged.  I cry out and complain about my circumstances when things don’t go my way.  Many of us tend to base our beliefs on the promises God makes to be good to us.  We put our faith in what we hear in His word.  But that’s not enough.  To endure the way God intends, we must not only hear with our ears, but we must be able to see with our eyes and hearts how God is at work in our most challenging circumstances.  We must look for what we hear!

Scripture encourages us this way in Psalm 34:19-20, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.”  I’m sure when we hear these words, it’s difficult to find them encouraging at all. We question what we hear, but if we look, we can see God in these words.  We hear, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  Why, we might ask, must the righteous face many afflictions?  When we hear something negative, we tend to withdraw and shut down. When we do this with scripture, we give up the chance to hear all that God says, and it becomes difficult for us to see Him in what He says.  We need to keep looking.  He says many are the afflictions, but He also says He will deliver us through them all.

I want to share a method to help you not only hear all that God says, but also see Him in all that He says.  The scripture says, “many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”  Reverse how you read this scripture and look for the promise of God’s good.  Now the scripture says that the Lord delivers the righteous out of all the many afflictions he will face.  This is what I mean.  This way we can hear more easily that the Lord is saying He will deliver you from all the afflictions you will face.  You can be sure of that because He said it.  We are more easily encouraged when we hear Him in this way. And because we are encouraged by what we hear, our eyes and our hearts can more easily see Him at work in ways we would not have seen before.  We are never happy with afflictions, but we can be joyful to know that He is always going to be there to deliver us, because He said it.  Sometimes, nothing will change about our circumstances until we change how we see our circumstances.

So, if you want to learn to see Him in all areas of your life, you must go beyond hearing simply what the Word says.  You must get to a place of assurance that He said it, you saw Him in it, and He is performing what He said He would perform.  Towards the end of his trials, Job said to God “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.”  Job was saying to God, when I listen well enough, I will see you in all that I hear, and then I will learn to see You in my circumstances always.  God said He would deliver the righteous, so learn not only to hear Him, but to see Him at work in delivering you through your daily trials. He said it, you see it, and you believe it.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

The ant is a small creature without human intelligence, yet it teaches us an important lesson in preparing for its future. Ants treat each coming winter as a natural disaster. If they are caught above ground during the freezing temperatures, they will die.  An ant colony must store a surplus of food during the summer so its members can survive the winter below ground on their provisions. Ants live today as if it is tomorrow.

We could learn a lot from the ant.  Scripture tells says so in Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, they have no captain, no overseer, or ruler, yet they prepare their supplies in the summer and gather their food in the harvest.”  The ants live today as if tomorrow depends on it.  How much more would we benefit if we lived the same way?

If you want to secure a better tomorrow for yourself, you must act with prudence today.  Prudence is thinking that what you do today will impact what you face tomorrow.  Prudence is the first step toward learning to live your life free of the desire to consume all that you have.  God wants us to be prudent because otherwise someone will use our greed and laziness against us.  Ants work hard in the summer to store up for the times when they cannot work at all.  They are smart enough to know if they don’t do this, they are likely to die.  The devil doesn’t want us to have the wisdom of an ant.  Instead, he wants us to be just smart enough to believe we can get our needs met from the people who are less wise and lazier than we are.  He makes us believe we can be satisfied by taking from those who are unwilling to prepare for properly for themselves.  The devil wants you to be a smarter lazy than the lazy people around you.

But God says it is smart for you to work hard with your own hands at things that do not include taking from the hands of others.  God wants you to prepare yourself today for the life you want tomorrow. The ant doesn’t take from other ants. The ant takes from what doesn’t belong to any other thing.  It is not prudence when we take advantage of the unwise for our personal gain.   Rather, it is deception and laziness.

God also doesn’t want us to be sluggards in the way we live. This type of living is wasteful, unprepared living.  It’s the type of living in which everything we face daily must happen perfectly for us to have what we want.  Life is not perfect, and it is not going to play out perfectly for us unless we work at it.  The ants prepare for a disaster before there is a disaster. They are not sluggards.  There are no slackers in the ant colony.  

Often, we create our own disasters because we do not prepare ourselves for the successes we want in life.  If you learn to get to work on time or to do your homework, you may learn that you can find a job, keep a job you like, or finish school with the degree you want.  Life gives back to the prepared all that they put into it, but life passes sluggards by because they are too lazy to prepare.  Sluggards are not ready when their ride comes.

If you want to live in favor, wisdom and understanding, God wants you to be like an ant.  He wants you to be accountable and responsible for how you live.  The ants have no king, no overseer, and no ruler, yet each ant contributes its part to the preparation of the whole colony.  Often, we do not have what we want because we have not shown ourselves to be responsible and accountable enough to have those things.  When we learn to be accountable for how we live, wisdom and knowledge will come to us, and we will live more abundantly.  God wants us to get caught up doing today what is needed to secure a great tomorrow.  God wants us to rise up from our laziness, unfold our hands, step out of the poverty of our desires, and step into the prosperity of someone who lives today as if it is the last tomorrow they will see.  If the ants can do it, then, with God’s help, so can we.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

While the Israelites were still in the desert, God instructed them to build a tabernacle so God’s presence could rest among the people daily.  The scripture says God would hover above the tabernacle in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.  Wherever the cloud moved, the people would follow; wherever the fire moved, the people would follow.  They understood when the cloud and the fire were present, God was in the house.

At that time a tabernacle was a physical, movable dwelling where God lived; today God wants our lives to be the place where He lives.  He doesn’t want a building; He wants a life—your life.  But if He lives in your life, how will others know He is there?  What will be the signs?  Scripture says in Philippians 1:5, “Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.”  God is saying that if we have allowed Him to build His house in our lives, there should be some clear evidence that He is there.  Like the tabernacle of old, when God’s house is in your life, there will be a cloud and a fire that stands out for all to see.  Gentleness is one way people will know that God is alive in His house when His house is in your life.

The cloud of God and the fire of God are the goodness of God with us.  His clouds are not there to bring darkness to our days nor is His fire there to burn our lives when we get too close to where we should not be.  If His house is in our lives, we will have a cloud that is first visibly gentle to others.  You should not bring darkness to the lives of others by your cloud.  You should not bring storms to the lives of others with your cloud.  You should not bring thunder and lightning to others with you cloud.  If the house of God is in your life, then your cloud will brighten a dreary day in the lives of others.  It will brighten a dark day for others.  Even on a sunny day, your cloud will stand out brighter in the lives of others.  If there is pain, your cloud with sooth and comfort.  If there is sadness your cloud will bring the light of joy.  If there are needs in the lives of others, your cloud will point the way to and bring provision to them.  God is the only one who can use a storm to calm a storm.  He can use your cloud to clear up the cloudy lives of others if you are willing to let Him build His house in your life.

If His house is in our lives, we will also have a fire that is felt by others.  This fire is not meant to consume; instead, the fire of God warms.  This fire is not one that burns; instead, it lights up the darkness around others.  This fire is not one that brings pain; instead, it is a fire that bring healing.  This fire is not one that destroys; instead, it gives rise to life.  This fire is one that stands against the cold in the lives of others.  This fire lights the path and refines the lives of others.  When God lives in your life, your fire is a gentle, loving, gracious and eternally glowing flame that reveals the hope that we should all have when God is in the house.  Your fire will help illuminate the things others should think on, the things that are just, the things that are pure and lovely, and the things that are of virtue.  Your fire should reveal the things that are of God.

If God has made His house in your life, then you will have a cloud and a fire over you that tells others the Lord Himself is at hand.  So let Him build His house in your life.  Let your gentleness be known by all.  Don’t be anxious about anything.  Live in the calm of God, knowing that His house is in your life.  If you do this, you will have the peace of God to guide you in all things.  Others will see God in you, and they will glorify Him for that.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Sometimes the things we face in life that are so compelling that we find it hard to believe things can be any other way for us.  We may know of someone who is sick, homeless, or in a difficult relationship.  We may know of someone who does not know the Lord.  We may be held by something from our past that continues to live on in our present.  Whatever your thing may be, we often look at our circumstances and find it hard to believe things can be different for us.  When you find it hard to believe something, it means you have found it easy to believe that something is impossible.

Scripture tells us something like this in Luke 1:18 when Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist had a conversation with an angel who told him he would be father to John.  Scripture says, “And Zacharias said to the angel, how shall I know this?  For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years?”  Zacharias was saying fathering a child at his age and his wife having a child at her age was simply impossible.  We are past all that.  I want you to know that we may be past some things in our lives for sure, but nothing is past possible with God.  Nothing.

If you want to live with the understanding that no thing is impossible with God, you must learn to live with the knowledge that God is also the God of nothing.  You see, before any thing existed at all, God existed.  So, if He existed before a thing existed, then nothing had to be made possible by Him just like any other thing was made possible by Him.  When God tells us no thing is impossible for Him, it is more than mere words; it is His Word in which all things are possible.

Many of us believe like Zacharias.  We look at our situations, and we say it is past possible for this thing to happen.  But like with Zacharias, there is also an angel in our lives telling us to be ready for God’s plans for our future.  The angel is there to remind us that all things are made from some things that are currently no thing until God makes it something of it.

So, as you live out your life and the challenges that are before you each day, learn to ask the Lord to take the things that are nothing in your life and to make them something so that you can live joyfully with anything that happens with you.  The angel responded to Zacharias’ unbelief by saying “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and to bring you these glad tidings.”  God was saying to him, I am about to take nothing and make something great, so receive this blessing with gladness and joy!

You have your situation, I have mine, and others have theirs.  No matter what we face, if we involve the Lord in our lives in any way, we can learn to live with the understanding that no thing that He tells us is impossible for Him. And unlike Zacharias, who thought that since it was past possible for him it had to be past possible for God too, let’s live as if nothing is just a something that is possible but just not yet.  Wait then, expecting to have what is yet to come because with God no thing is impossible, and all things are possible to those who believe on Him.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

To my daughter.  I want you to believe deep in your heart that you can achieve anything you put your mind to; that you will never lose.  You either win or you learn.  Just go forth and aim for the skies.  I can’t promise you to be there for the rest of your life, but I can promise you to love you for the rest of mine.

This is an encouraging message from a father to a daughter that could be even more encouraging were it inclusive of a reality that we tend to overlook in life—we forget to involve the Lord in our life.  There is encouragement and inspiration in the words of this father, but they lack the power to change the realities of life a daughter will face.  Only the promise of the Lord and the Power of His word at work in our lives can do what this encouragement ultimately cannot.

In Philippians 4:10-13 scripture says what this father says but in a different and more powerful way.  Verse 10 says, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.”  Paul is thanking the people of Philippi for their help in his hour of need by rejoicing in Christ and acknowledging their work and service towards him.  If you want to achieve all that you set your heart to achieve, you must do that with a heart that is set to serve through the power of Christ.  When you can rejoice in Christ you can find it easier to be thankful for the efforts of others towards you.

Continuing with verses 11-12, Paul says, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content:  I know how to live humbly, and I know how to live in prosperity.  Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”  Paul is saying life may be tough at times and it may not always be easy, but I will be ok with what life brings because I live through the power of Christ.  If you want to live at peace with life, you will need to learn to make your low times the high times for you, and you will need to learn to make your high times the times of humble gratitude.  You will need to learn to be full of what you have and at the same time to want more of what Christ can provide.  If you want to win and never lose at life, and if you want to learn through all things in life, you must live, work, and play at life in the Power of Christ.

Finally, in verse 13 Paul says essentially what this father says but with words of Power.  He says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Paul is saying I may not achieve all that I put my mind and heart to achieve, but that is ok.  There is one thing that I can do, and it is this.  I can pursue all that my heart desires for me though the Power of Christ Who promises to strengthen me when I do so.  So, I may not become the engineer I put my heart to become, but I can pursue my dream of becoming an engineer through the Power of Christ.  “I can do all things” doesn’t mean I can be all that I ever want to be, or that I can do all that I ever want to do.  It means if I want to do anything at all, I choose to put my efforts to do anything through the life of Christ. 

If you choose to put all your efforts to do what you want through the Power of Christ, He promises He will never leave you nor forsake you.  He is the only one Who can deliver on the promise of being with you for the rest of your life and loving you for the rest of your life.  And His life too.  If you want this for your life, then encourage yourself to stop doing things on your own strength.   Whatever you want to do in life, aim to do that through Christ Who is the Power of success for all that you will ever need and want.  With Christ, you don’t have to aim high, you just have to aim for Him.  If your heart is set to find Him, He will find your aim and move into your life.  You become a winner in Him.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

After the flood that destroyed everything on earth but Noah and his family, Noah built an altar and offered a sacrifice to the Lord.  The scripture says the Lord smelled the sweet aroma of the sacrifice and vowed to never again curse the ground because of man, although the imaginations of man’s heart is evil from his youth.  This area of scripture has always caused me to pause and check inside my heart to see if I find any evil lurking there.  I’m saddened to say I found a lot of evil ways in me that I didn’t expect to find.  Alarmed at that, I asked the Lord to help me purge thoughts of myself because for me evil starts there.  It is thoughts we have of and for ourselves that sets us on the wrong side of things before God and others.

But how could I rid myself of something that hid itself so well from me?  Even when I said I wanted to root it out, I couldn’t always find what was lurking right under my nose.  Scripture has the answer to this in 1 Chronicles 29:18. Here, King David is praying to God when he says, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our fathers, keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and fix their heart toward You.”  David knew that the people must guard their hearts.  He knew that God would test the heart of every man, and that He takes pleasure in uprightness of the heart of man.  He speaks of uprightness rather than righteousness of heart.  So, he asks God to fix the heart of the people to be towards Him because David knew the people would have trouble doing it themselves.

So, what is this uprightness of heart that David speaks of, and why is it so hard for people to attain?  Let’s look at the heart of the three people David mentioned in his prayer to God.  Abraham was upright in his heart towards God because he willingly decided to follow the plan God set for his life.  All that Abraham did was done with this in mind.  Yes, he may have sinned along the way, but he walked with God in his heart.  He never questioned the path he was on.  He never attempted to chart his own path for his life.  No, Abraham fixed his heart to follow the plan God had for his life.  Abraham saw a lot of God in his life.  This is hard for us to do today because we see more of ourselves in our lives than we see of God in our lives.  When you see more of you than you see of Him, you will be challenged to fix your heart on Him.

With Isaac, we find a man who was delivered by the hand of God as a child from a sacrificial death for God.  Isaac had all the reason in the world to wonder about God, but instead he was steadfast in his belief in God because God delivered him as a child from being sacrificed.  Isaac found it easy to fix his heart on God because he saw how much God’s heart was fixed on him.  We find it difficult to fix our hearts on God in this way because we have not experienced the deliverance in our lives like Isaac.  We say we love God, and He loves us, but we probably love ourselves more.  So, our hearts are fixed on ourselves more than on Him.

Jacob had to rely on God to provide the basic needs of life for himself and for his family.  So, Jacob fixed his heart on God the provider because he saw no other way to sustain life for himself and for his children.  Jacob was a believer in what God believed in.  We find it difficult to fix our hearts this way because we often find it difficult to believe in things the way God wants us to believe in them.  There is still too much of our heart ruling our lives and not enough of God heart living in our lives.  

David knew the challenge with our hearts so he prayed that God would fix the heart of His people on Him so that they would live more in uprightness of heart.  We are like the people of David’s time.  We cannot fix our hearts to God by ourselves because too much of our hearts are still fixed on ourselves.  If you are going to be upright before God, you must first be upright right for others.  More of them and less of you.  

So, like David, why don’t you make this a prayer request of your own.  Ask that the Lord will keep the thoughts and intents of your heart upright before Him, and ask that He will fix your heart to lean toward Him more than towards yourself.  If you do this, He will do what you ask and more of what you do in life will be pleasing to Him.Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

We are in the middle of some tough times these days.  COVID does not seem like it will ever go away. Our economy seems to be weakening. Essential things are more costly today than in times past. Many are unemployed still. Work is available but people are hesitant to get back to work because of COVID. Our leaders are more divided than ever, and they contribute to more of us being divided. Things are just difficult right now, and it seems like we have no where to turn in hopes of getting relief.

But we do. We can turn back to prayer. Yes, back to prayer. God hears all our prayers all the time, but we must get beyond praying just because times are difficult.  We must get back to a life of prayer, even in the good times. Scripture encourages us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “Pray Without Ceasing.” But why? Why are we encouraged to never stop praying? I believe it is because God knows stuff will always be happening in our lives, and so it is in prayer that we learn to always talk with God about the things going on with us.

I used the phrase “talk with God” because I believe this is what He means when He says pray without stopping.  He is encouraging us to talk with Him always about all things. We have come to think of prayer as our way of asking God for things, and that is partly the reason we pray. But more than asking for things, prayer is the way we simply cultivate and deepen our relationship with Him by talking with Him when we are not asking for anything at all. So, we should encourage ourselves to pray and keep praying always. We should talk with the Lord and keep talking always. If you are not in the habit of talking with God, you should ask yourself, who are you talking with?

The bible tells us to watch and pray because our Spirits are willing, but the flesh is weak. So, keep praying always. You do not want to become comfortable talking with the Lord only when you have problems you cannot resolve on your own. Keep Praying. Do not let your good times make it easy for you to stop talking with the Lord. Keep praying. If you learn to keep your heart and mind open to talking with the Lord, you will learn to:

• Endure when things are tough because you know He is there, and He knows your situation—satan does not want to be in the same place as the Lord;
• Walk in the light and not in the darkness because you know He is the light and the way;
• Walk under the guidance of wisdom and insights because He shares these things with you that others want but they cannot have—the things that others want to see but they cannot see; 
• Be at peace with difficult and challenging people and situations because the Spirit gives you the ability to live in grace and patience—you pray to the One who can change the things you cannot change;
• Comfort those who are fainthearted and who are overcome by the things they face because you have the strength of the Spirit working in you;
• Live a thankful life no matter the circumstances of your life;
• Change some things about you that will change some difficult things around you; and,
• Make better decisions about life and about the lives of those around you.

All this because you learn to keep praying.

So, pray and keep praying. When you do, you will learn to hear His voice when the noise of difficult circumstances is all around you. So, keep praying and hold on to every conversation you have with Him. If you pray, He will hear. Keep praying. Hold on to your faith and do not grow weary at waiting on things to change; He will bless you. Do not give up on or give in to your situation no matter what it is. Don’t become discouraged.  Keep praying; hold on to the hope you have in Him when you pray. When you keep praying you are telling the devil that he cannot have a victory over you in anything no matter what the situation is. Keep praying; do not give up. Do not grow weary because in due season He will show you that He has been listening to all you have ever said to Him in prayer. He will not let you down if you do not get down with your circumstances. Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

I believe if God asked either of us to do something great, we would be willing to do it because we know He would help us when things are beyond our abilities to do ourselves. But God never asks us to do anything that is greater than we have the capability to do. With God there is no great or small. All things are the same to Him. We see large and small because we see through the eyes of our capabilities instead of our hearts or our faith.

In 2 Kings 5:10-13, Naaman, commander of the Army of the King of Syria, was sent by God to wash himself in the Jordan river to be healed of his leprosy. Scripture says this: “And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, go wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”  Naaman was not happy at hearing this. He expected a visit in person from Elisha. Naaman indeed became furious at the way he was being treated, and he went away in anger. But his servants reminded him that if God had asked him to do a great thing to be heal, wouldn’t he do it?  Why then would he make a great deal of doing a small thing like washing in the Jordan. Naaman listened to their counsel and did as Elisha had instructed him. He was healed just like Elisha said he would be.

I can see some of Naaman’s attitude in myself.  I believe I am ready to do the great things God would ask me to do, but I get an attitude when I’m asked to do the little thing that is right before me.  Why am I this way?  Or perhaps, why are we this way? We can see several things in Naaman that may be in us as well.

First, Naaman expected God to answer his prayer the way Naaman saw it happening. Many of us will miss the blessings of God that are right before us because we expect things to happen the way we want them to happen. God’s ways are not our ways.  We must remember that.

Naaman became angry at the situation and with God. He got an attitude! In doing so he offered up what he thought was a better way to solve his problem. The problem with this is Naaman could not solve his issue; that is why he needed God. We must remember that our attitudes are the one thing that can take us higher in the favor of God or move us completely out of the favor of God. Choose your attitude well.

Naaman had a talk with himself about how poorly he thought he was being treated by God. He told himself how he could have done what God was asking him to do on his own. Why then, he asked himself, did he need to do anything at all? We must remember that God never treats us poorly. When we come to Him with our problem, God must often heal us first of the unseen problem before He can heal us of the thing that we can see. He is the vine, and we are the branch. We cannot tell the vine where we want to grow. God must be our God, but we try to make Him our God by owning Him. We are His children, and He does with us as it pleases Him. We do not get to do with Him as things please us.

Ultimately Naaman changed His attitude and did as God asked him to do. He was healed because of this. He went on down to the Jordan river and washed himself seven times just like Elisha instructed him to do. Naaman was healed just as Elisha said he would be healed. We must remember to be ready always to do the little things God asks us to do as quickly as it is possible for us.  God will not twist our arms to make us do anything. But He will wait patiently on us as He asks us, “Will you do it?  Our response should be immediately and boldly, “Yes Lord, I will do it.”  Will you do it today? Will you commit to living a life that says whatever the Lord asks of you to do, whether big or small, you will say to Him by your actions, “I will do it”?

Live a Delivered Life. Love you.

There was a period in the history of man and God where man did not have a king.  After the Israelites conquered the promised land, they lived on the land of promise, but they no longer had Moses or Joshua as their spiritual and earthly leaders.  I guess it would be natural that the people would soon fall away from following God when their spiritual leaders had been lost and not replaced.  In a way, since Moses and Joshua died, the people let God die in their lives.  They allowed themselves to do as they pleased.  

That was then.  What does it feel like to us today?  Judges 17:6 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  So, what does it mean “right in his own eyes”?  If you and I see the same thing, but you see it differently than me, is it possible that we could both be right?  Could both of us be wrong?  I submit that the only way to be right in your own eyes is to give up your right for what is right before God.

When the Israelites had to learn to live without Joshua and without Moses, they had to learn to live before God.  But they didn’t do this.  Instead, they fought one another trying to live before one another.  People who had lived as one—as brothers, as relatives, as children of God—now lived as enemies towards one another.  They became noisy before one another.  They pursued what was right and best for themselves more than for anyone else.  They took one another before judges to have matters of dispute settled.  In many ways, they found it easier to live together as enemies than as brothers.  How could this be?  Because God is the only thing that can bring together things that would naturally be separate.   The Israelites couldn’t love one another.  The most the judges could do was to enable them to manage their hate and dislike towards one another.

When we fight with one another about what is right or wrong, we are more likely to be wrong than we are to be right.  Why is this so?  Because the only standard for what is right is found in God, so when we base right and wrong on anything else, we are likely to get it wrong.  We can be right before man, but man could still be wrong in his judgment.  Every king must have a king, every captain must have a captain, every law must itself have a law, every leader must have a leader, and every piece of authority must have over it an authority.  Everyone one of us who would rule our own lives must ourselves have a ruler over our lives.  If we have no one to answer to but ourselves, then we have no way of knowing if we are right or wrong because we are a poor standard for what is right.

If you want to live in right standing before man, learn to live humbly before God.  If you want what is right from man, learn to live humbly before God.  If you want your neighbor to do right before you, learn to live right before God.  If you want what all men want, learn to quiet down your life before men and live quietly before God.  He will make sure you have all the things you need—the things others seek in the wrong ways.  If you need judgment, quiet your life, and let Him judge first.  Learn how not to live like man lives.  If you do what man does, you will receive the sentence that man will receive.  Man’s best is nothing compared to God’s provision showered upon you.  Try to live before Him in humble submission to His Lordship over your life.  If God is your God, if He is your King, if He is your Lord, then you will learn to live a quiet peaceable life in submission to the higher things of the Spirit that are not seen by those who live for themselves.  If you quiet down, God will speak up on your behalf and make the noise of you and about you in the lives of others.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Scripture tells us Jacob and his children were forced to leave their homeland and go to Egypt because there was a famine in all the land.  In Egypt they found food and shelter because God had blessed their brother Joseph to rise to the prominence there as second in command to Pharoah.  Joseph had his brothers bring his dad and all that he had to Egypt where they would be cared for.  Pharoah, it is said, gave Jacob and his family the land of Goshen.  Goshen was the best land in Egypt.  But more than that, it was the land where God would protect His children from the hardships that were to come.  Goshen is God’s protected place.

God did not fight for the Israelites in Egypt.  Instead, He protected them while they were there.  And like them, God does not expect you and I to fight every day to live in peace where we are.  Often, He wants first to be our protection right where we are before there is a need for a battle.  But we must see how He works and be willing to accept protection more than we want to fight a battle.  

Scripture gives us another example in 2 Kings 6:8-23.  The king of Syria sought to kill the prophet Elisha because Elisha was doing the work of God to warn Israel about the plans of the king who fought to destroy the Israelites.  Scripture says, “And Elisha’s servant said to him, alas my master!  What shall we do?  So, Elisha answered, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  Then Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant and allow him to see what he did not see yet.  Elisha’s servant saw the host of the Syrian army all around them and wondered in fear what they could do to save themselves.  But he did not see that what surrounded them was itself surrounded by a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire.  The Syrians surrounded Elisha, but God had surrounded the Syrians to protect Elisha.  

Even though God could have easily destroyed the Syrians, God did not fight the Syrians that day.  Instead, He blinded them so they could not see where they were.  When God opened their eyes, the Syrian army found themselves prisoners of Israel.  Yet still God did not fight.  Contrary to human impulse, God fed the Syrians, nourished them, and sent them back to their homes.  By blinding the Syrians to the natural things they wanted to do, God revealed to them the power of the Spiritual things they did not see.  Now understanding the power of God, the Syrians never again raided the land of Israel.  Without spilling a drop of blood, God gave the Israelites His protection as He had given their ancestors in Goshen.

Like the Israelites, we must learn that often God’s protection comes just before He engages in the things we want to battle in our lives.  He wants to protect us from ourselves while He protects us from others.  He wants to protect us from those who would hurt us and do us harm, but He also wants to protect us from being like those who would hurt, harm, or endanger others.  Why is this?  Because sometimes we come up against an enemy stronger than us, and sometimes we are our own enemy or the enemy of someone God is trying to protect.  God wants us to live in the place where His protection abides.  He wants us to live in the Goshen He has prepared for us.

Perhaps God is not as willing to fight others as we are ready and willing to fight.  Instead, we must learn to live under His protection.  By opening the eyes of our hearts, our faith, and our beliefs, we can see what we struggle against is surrounded by the army of God.  Our natural eyes and our minds will tell us to fight those who fight against us.  But the Spirit of God might just be saying to us to stop fighting what God does not want to defeat.  Instead, learn to live a protected life—a life that says no matter what comes against me, there is something greater that surrounds the thing that has come up against me.  I know I will be protected so I will wait patiently here in my Goshen for the hand of God to deliver me and to deliver the thing that comes against me.

God’s Goshen is the best place for you to live under His protection.  When you take matters of your life into your own hands, you take God’s hands off the matters of your life.  If you will accept God’s protection, then you will be able to let God choose when and how to fight the battles that come your way.  Learn to live under His protection then you will know that you are protected.

Live a Delivered life.  Love you.