Tag: BIble

RECEIVE YOUR DELIVERANCE

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“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” Exodus 14:13-14

The passage above is not only a very well known one, it is a very comforting one. It is used as a battle cry of sorts for the Christians who proclaim it when they are going through challenging times. It reminds us of not only who our God is, but also of what he is able and willing to do for us when we are “hard pressed on all sides”.

This week, the Lord opened up this passage to my understanding in a very personal way.

The passage, as it is written above, is in the King James Version.  However,  many other versions of the bible write it as:

“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” NIV

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.” RSV

“But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” NLT

While these versions say “The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still/stay calm”, the KJV states “The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace.”

This message is not a comparison of bible translations. When The Lord sent me to this passage, the 3 versions that quote verse 14 as saying  “just be still” were not in line with the message He was giving me. However, when I read the KJV, it all just made perfect sense.

I personally struggle with fighting back when I feel I’m being verbally  attacked. Whenever I am or feel accused, I vehemently fight back by defending myself and it almost always leaves me feeling wretched,  spent and very angry.

It has been a continuous prayer of mine, that the Lord make me, so that I am not affected by what people say to me. It has been a life long struggle, and the older I get, the more it wears on me. As I am  growing in Christ, The Holy Spirit has made me aware that this self defense  mechanism of mine is not a trait that is pleasing to the Lord.  But I just can’t help it. When I’m verbally attacked or provoked,  I engage in the discord by not only defending myself, but mounting a counter-attack on whomever I believe is attacking me.

So it finally got to a breaking point where I confessed to God my bondage to this trait. I was enslaved by it, and I prayed “Lord, I can’t break this chain of bondage…but YOU CAN!

That was when The Spirit sent me to Exodus 14.

Why I say that the KJV of these verses spoke to my dilemma over the others is this:

What does the term ” hold your peace” translate to? It means “to keep silent; to say nothing”. In my dilemma; my challenge, my struggle; that is what my issue has been. Not responding. Not speaking . Not engaging verbally. My struggle has been resisting the indignation that rises within me when I feel that I’m being attacked, or bullied or oppressed.

Therefore,  when the Word of God, brought to Life by His Spirit, tells Me to “Stand still and see the salvation of The Lord. That this “oppressor” (this tyranny of Satan that has had such a hold on me all my life and I could not “change it” by my own power or free myself from it’s chains that bound me) which I see today, I will see it no more!” This bondage; the enslavement;  the powerlessness; “today” God says, “I will set you free! I will deliver you!”

He then sealed it; spoke to my particular condition; and said “I will fight for you AND you will hold your peace.” Meaning, He will fight for me and I will no longer have to fight for myself; defend myself;  rescue myself;  be my own advocate.

I can remain silent under attack, with the ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE that if I trust Him and obey Him, He will fight for me and I won’t have to do a thing!

What a glorious deliverance!

Brethren, is that not all The Lord asks of us? To hand over our fears, anxieties,  worries, concerns over to Him?

Because where we cannot deliver ourselves from these things, HE is more than able to deliver us!

If only we will just trust Him and obey Him.

Think of the story about the woman with an issue of blood for 12 years that is referenced in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. We apply this parable when we are looking for healing from physical infirmities.

But does it really apply to physical infirmities alone?

We all have habitual “issues” of one type or another. That we have had all our lives. Traits that we just accept are alright simply because we have always been that way.

Yet, the whole premise of being born again is that “I am a new creation. Old things have passed away…”. By “old things”, Jesus is referring to all those things in us and of us that are of the carnal nature –which the bible says “is enmity against God”.

If these traits do not exemplify love (the 1st Corinthians 13 definition of love) then they don’t glorify God. If they don’t glorify God, then how can we not accept that we need to be rid of them.

But since they are a very natural part of who and how we are, then as the woman with the issue of blood was desperate to be healed, we should be desperate to be healed of our “issues” as well.

2 Corinthians 3:17 says:

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

And John 8:36 says:

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Our liberty is not unto the flesh to do as we please, as the Apostle Paul said in Galatians,  but when the grace of God reveals to us through the Holy Spirit, where in ourselves – our personalities, our ways , our habits, our mindsets, our thinking, our understanding, what we argue for, what we insist on, what we can’t let go of – we are in bondage – enslaved to carnality – the same grace of God, in Christ Jesus, where we now lay our whole selves at His feet acknowledging how we are powerless to change or free ourselves – saves us. He then says to us, just as He said to the Israelites through Moses “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which I will shew to you to day: for the Oppression whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”

What a blessed gift to enter into the relief of God. Where we no longer have to be afraid or enslaved. He will fight for us, and we will be at peace.

Remain encouraged,  brethren. Remain steadfast. Remain faithful to Him. For He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and God is not a man that He should lie.  He watches over His Word to perform it!

May we continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

THE TIME OF YOUR DELIVERANCE

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Exodus 2:23-25 reads “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.”

When I read this passage the first time, I wondered why it read “God remembered His covenant…”

My first thought was was that the word “remembered” seemed a bit odd to be used in conjunction with God as it somehow implied that He had forgotten.

But since we’re talking about God here, then we know that cannot be true. God forgets nothing.

Then in that same Exodus. Chapter 3 verse 7 “And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.”

Again, knowing God to be all knowing, we know that it wasn’t at that moment when He was talking to Moses that He saw the affliction of the Israelites for the first time.

So I wondered, why all these references that gave the appearance of ‘recent discoveries’.

Well, the answer to that question was in the very next verse.

“So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:8)

The Lord did not suddenly remember Israel. The Lord did not suddenly hear their cry after all these years. The act of calling to remembrance was not for the Lords benefit. It was for ours. The Israelites, and we who are reading/hearing the scripture today. This call to remembrance simply denoted that it was now time for the deliverance to begin.

In that verse 8, the Lord said “ So I have come down to deliver them…”

Up until that point, the Israelites had to endure the suffering that they were enduring. They had to pass through that time of trial & tribulation. The time for deliverance had not come yet. But when it was time, The Lord “came down”, through Moses, to deliver them out of their bondage.

Brethren, our God is a God of timing. He does His work according to His perfect time table. This story of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and the other stories of deliverance in the bible serve to do one thing for we believers. They serve to remind us that God hears the cry of His people. But He will move ONLY at the apportioned time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says “He has made everything beautiful in its time”.

We are required to seek God in prayer. We are required to call on Him in times of trials and hardship. But we also have to learn the ways of this God through the scriptures that he has provided for our benefit to know that He moves according to His perfect plan for us. We just have to remain strong in Him. Trust and believe in His promises and believe that He will move on our behalf at the appropriate time.

Keep in mind, when the Lord did lead the Israelites out of captivity; inasmuch as that served as their deliverance out of Egypt, the end of their captivity, it was just the beginning of their journey to the promised land. A journey that took 40 years! A journey that was filled with just as many trials and tribulations. But even along the way, through the miracles that the Lord performed through Moses on their behalf, He continued to assure the people that He was still with them.

So, when we get delivered out of a particular situation, that doesn’t mean that we have necessarily arrived at our promised land. It simply marks another phase of our journey in life, en-route to eternal salvation.

There will be trials, brethren. At every phase of the journey. But, there will always be deliverance! Because it is the God who delivers us out of the captivity that protects us along our journey. He will cause plagues will befall those that oppress us and seek to hold us captive! Red Seas will be parted when we are cornered! Manna will fall from heaven and quail will be provided to feed us when we are hungry! Water will come forth from the rock to revive us when we are thirsty!

The Lord will continue to deliver those who remain faithful to Him at every turn in their journeys. We just have to remain faithful. We must continue to trust. God will deliver us. We have to remain obedient to the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because there is a price to pay for disobedience and rebellion. Just as was in the case of the same Israelites, because after a 40 year through the wilderness, despite all the ways that God proved to them that He was with them, most of them did not make it into the promised land. Because they were not obedient. Because they did not trust in Him. Because they did not wait for their deliverance.

Wait patiently and faithfully for your deliverance. For when it is time, the Lord will surely bring it about.

Share your thoughts that you might encourage your brethren.

In Christ,
The handmaid at His feet.