I have a very good Christian friend, who is physically handicapped. He has seen all of his prior dreams destroyed. He has seen his ability to make a decent living disappear. His hopes and aspirations of a wife and a family, vanish. He struggles with fears and insecurities, like we all do, but I cannot pretend that I understand or that I can relate, for I cannot. He goes to bed every night alone, he lives alone, and in his darkest moments, like tonight, the enemy convinces him that our Lord has abandoned him and that he is forsaken.
I spent many hours this night convincing him of the promises of God. I was hard with my friend this night, he was hard with me. My conversation with him was about as honest as it gets. Platitudes and theory will not get us very far, for Jesus Christ our Lord is at the very center of reality.
It is no accident that the enemy tries to convince us that Our God has abandoned us, that we are alone in the situation, that all is lost, and that there is no purpose in our sufferings. For if hope is lost, then next comes the darkness. This is so much a part of human experience. Did not even our Lord Jesus, cry out in the very darkest hour, from the very core of His humanity "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me ?"
Ultimately, we will not find peace in our circumstances. I cannot answer my friends questions, I do not know why God allowed him to be handicapped. I do not know why he suffers and others don't seem to suffer as much. I do not know if he will be healed. I do not have the answers. This is what I do know, and this is what we have to hang on to, the promises of God.
It is vital that we understand that God, regardless of our faith, if we are in Christ,then He is going to put food on our table, a roof over our head and clothes on our back. You can take that to the bank, no matter what level of faith you operate in. These are promises, they are cast in stone, and they cannot be broken. These are unconditional promises, meaning they require nothing from you, other than being in Christ.
So what is faith all about? Why do we exercise faith? Faith is the antidote to fear. Did not the Lord say that he has not given us a spirit of fear? If we are to walk in power, we must walk in love, in the love of the Lord Jesus, only then will we have a sound mind. This peace that passes all understanding, is only released by exercising our faith.
When we walk in fear, then this is an obstacle that has come between us and Jesus, so we are no longer walking in the power of His love, and remember, this is the power of the universe, Satan will absolutely make it his priority, to disrupt this power flow.
Brothers and sisters, the future does not belong to us, it belongs to Jesus. Have you taken control of your future? By that I mean, have you looked ahead, into the future and determined what the outcome is by using your worldly wisdom? This is the breeding ground of fear. Only in this world can Satan rob you of your peace. Then you compound the problem by creating self fulfilling prophecies about yourself, now your shaping and creating yourself and your future, isn't that the Lords job? And the worse thing is that now we go fishing into our past failures and we use that as a criteria, as a measuring stick for how we will perform in the future.
In all of this the present is lost. Jesus and the present are one and the same. The only reality is Him, and what He has done for us. If you want to go fishing in the past, go fishing for what He has done for you, what He has brought you through. If you want to project the future, think about eternity, where you are going, what you have been created for.
Well, guys, this was pretty much my conversation tonight, it all sounds pretty good, right?
Just before my conversation ended, the Holy Spirit gave me this. I saw my friend in the fire, and I told Him, very quietly, (I wont use his name) "my friend, look, Jesus is with you in the fire." "Look, He is their in the midst of the flames and I know you will not burn." "When you come out of this fire, your testimony and your peace will touch many lives."
Listen guys, maybe youre in the fire today. I have no answers as to why or how long, but this I know,...............look............Jesus is in the fire with you. This fire is not for your destruction, even although the enemy would like you to think otherwise. Take your eyes of the circumstances, take your eyes of the flames, allow the doubts and fears to melt away in the flames. Let the flames, that were meant for your destruction by the enemy, burn up the fears and the doubts as you turn towards Jesus.
Look full into the face of Christ the King, reach out to Him, do not hold back, take His outstretched hand and He will lead you through the fires of hell itself if that is what it takes. For He promised that even if we make our bed in hell, even there we cannot be separated from His presence. His is a love that will peruse us to the ends of the earth and beyond. There are no circumstances to large, to overwhelming for Jesus. Listen to what Proverbs 29:25 says....................
"The fear of a man bringeth a snare, but whosoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe."
I prefer the Hebrew translation for "safe," which is "set on high." No matter how low we are, when we look to Jesus, even when we have made our bed in hell, He will lift us out of the bottomless pit of despair and set us on high, higher than the eagles, higher than the heavens, we will find ourselves in the throne room of heaven itself, surrounded by the Glory of the almighty God our Father and the radiant light of all reality, Jesus our Lord.
Look into His face this day brothers and sisters............the demons will flee!!!!!
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