GOD’S PROTECTION – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

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“The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Psalm 121:7-8
Sometimes Christians ask, ‘Given the Bible’s promises about God’s protection, why do Christians still experience hurtful, even evil, events?’ Psalm 121:7-8, quoted above is a good example of such promises.

This psalm has four stanzas—the first states that our help comes from God; the last three make illustrative promises about how God helps us (verses 3-4, 5-6, 7-8). These promises, taken literally, suggest that nothing bad will ever happen to God’s people. But that’s not the psalmist’s point. Rather, he says that God will watch over His people wherever they go and whatever they do; God will not ‘slumber nor sleep’ (verse 4). David expressed God’s watchfulness in detail in Psalm 139:1-12. And Paul summarized God’s care in Romans 8:39: Nothing ‘shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord‘.

God is with you today—right now—watching over you and your whole life. Nothing passes through the filter of His will and awareness, ‘even forevermore.’ Nevertheless, we need to be like David and say:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24

Look what God says to His end times church. The church that He raptures to heaven so they will not experience the wrath of God poured out with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements. They have come through the prophesied tribulation, even great tribulation for six years of the last seven years prior to Jesus’ return to set up His Millennial Kingdom. Look also at what He says to the church that is left behind to face the wrath of God.

Each seal of the seven seals that Jesus opens represents what transpires during each year of the last seven years and the first six match the six signs that Jesus gives us in the Olivet Discourse. It is at the sixth seal that John sees the celestial signs that precede the Rapture and the Wrath of God poured out with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements.

THE SIXTH SEAL

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:12-17

Each of the seven churches represents the state of the church in each of the seven years. It is the sixth church, the Church of Philadelphia that is raptured and it is the Laodicean church that is left behind to face the wrath of God but God still calls them to be zealous and repent.

THE SIXTH CHURCH – CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA (Philadelphos – love for a brother. What remains of the faithful church will be bound by brotherly love)

“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name... Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” Revelation 3:8, 10-11

THE SEVENTH CHURCH – CHURCH OF LAODICEA (Laodicea is a combination of two Greek words (LAO, meaning “God’s people”; and DIKE, meaning “justice or judgment”) Judgement of God’s people

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.“ Revelation 3:15-19

“God watches and weeds us, and continues His labour upon us, till he brings us to the end of his promise.“
Richard Sibbes

TIME TO BECOME ELIJAH’S

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America has entered into the times of Baal, says Jonathan Cahn. His latest Prophetic Message is timely and challenging. However, it also demonstrates that God is totally in control as the events that have unfolded in America are exactly in line with a template assigned by God that has played out before in Israel’s history. The timing is mind blowing.

As Jonathan reveals in this video, Christians in America have entered a time when they will face the greatest challenges and the greatest darkness in their history. Survival as Bible believing Christians will be impossible unless we become like Elijah.

What prepared Elijah for what God had planned for him to do? It was in his isolation at Kerith Brook when he was being fed by ravens, sent by the hand of God. Camped in the wilderness, isolated from everyone, Elijah was totally dependent upon God and God alone to meet his every need. It was in his time of greatest fear and need, that God prepared Elijah for his later ministry.

Like Elijah and many of God’s heroes He had to strip them of everything that was important to them and take them to a place of utter brokenness. And like Elijah, there, in isolation by our Kerith Brook, he will carefully tend to our needs. In the most unreal ways, he will provide for us, feed us, clothe us. And, in the process, we will learn how much he loves us and that we can trust him.

It is in our seasons of hurt and isolation that he does an amazing work in us. But that amazing work in us is not for us alone. It is to prepare us for the amazing work God wants to do through us.

Your Kerith Brook might look quite different from Elijah’s. However, regardless of circumstances, God’s plan is the same: he wants to use this time of isolation, this time of pain and loss, to mold you into His image. He wants to meet your every need. He wants to prove that He is good, loving, faithful. He wants to show himself as the Great I am. He wants to build your faith so that you can eventually leave the Kerith Brook.

Then, when He sees that you are ready, He will use and lead you in ways you can not even imagine but for certain it will be to a place where His power and might can shine through you.

WHO GETS THE GLORY IN YOUR LIFE STORY?

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Roughly 2,600 years ago, the most dominant and deadly superpower on the earth was Babylon, which is modern day Iraq. Their tyrant king Nebuchadnezzar set up a gigantic golden image of himself. The Jews which he had appointed to rule with Daniel over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image.

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“Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” Daniel 3:13-15

God delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace and this was Nebuchadnezzar’s response

“King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endures from generation to generation.” Daniel 4:1-3

Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God but in a second dream which Daniel also interpreted God had not finished humbling him, Nebuchadnezzar was warned by God that if he did not humble himself and repent of his sin within one year, he would lose his mind.

“It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Daniel 4:24

That very thing happened and, returning to the throne after wandering around the yard eating grass and sleeping outside for seven years, he sent forth an official state letter explaining this complex and confusing season of his life and acknowledging God’s sovereignty over the earth.

“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?” Daniel 4:34-35

From Nebuchadnezzar’s experience three big questions arise that everyone needs to answer,

  1. Are you really and truly investing your life to build God’s Kingdom, or some other empire like your business, family, or even ministry that are not truly for God?

2. Do you worship the “Most High God” alone, or do other rulers like people, pleasure, power, prestige, or peace get the best of your time, energy, and money?

3. Who gets the glory in your life story? If you get the glory in your life story, then it’s a biography. If God gets the glory in your life story, then it’s a testimony. The reason Nebuchadnezzar went crazy for seven years is because he took the credit/glory for all the success in his life. It took a catastrophic experience in Nebuchadnezzar’s life in order for him to talk about God in a grateful and humble way. Sadly, for most of us, it will take a catastrophe in our life before we repent and acknowledge God’s sovereignty.