I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters (Isaiah 43:15-16).
This is how the Lord describes Himself. To be the redeemer of the people of Israel, His specially chosen people, the Lord had a way for them right through the sea. He showed that Pharaoh of Egypt was no longer their king. When Pharaoh was their king, they had to bear a great burden. They were under hard taskmasters. They wanted deliverance.
The devil knows the areas in which he can oppress us with the maximum pain. He does not normally inflict pain which is easy to bear. He creates pain and oppression in that area where you are most pained, thereby inflicting huge loss and damage.
Who is a redeemer? One who delivers you in that area where you are a captive. Certain thoughts are very strong. Oh, you put them out of your mind but they come back again. They chase you. They persist in pursuing you. You cannot run away from them. You may cross the oceans but the thoughts are still there. The devil oppresses many people with wrong thoughts. They are weakened. So there is no rest for them. That is not the work of God. God's thoughts are strengthening, ennobling and freeing.
Very often we do not see the difference between our thoughts and God's thoughts, because of the spirit of perversity. That is why the Bible says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man (Proverbs 14:12). You say, My thought is right!, My plan is right!, My ways are right! No! No! You must know how to go to God, who searches your heart and weighs your spirit, to know whether this is a perverse spirit or the spirit of God. This perverse spirit can be a very strong spirit. It can afflict the whole family. It seems to afflict father, mother, sons and daughters. It makes it impossible to see what is right and what is wrong. The spirit of perversity is always to be found wherever there is idolatry. This perverse spirit is also found where Christians make an idol of something. I can detect this spirit very well.
The Word of God tells us that the Lord delivered them from all their oppressions. But Israels nature of grumbling was still persisting for forty years. There remained in Israel the spirit of unbelief in the face of daily miracles for forty long years.
But the Lord was trying to make a way for them. Right from the start, it was a way in the wilderness. When they came out of Egypt, they came against the sea. When you come against a forest, you ask somebody, Is there a path through this? But when you stand by the shore of a mighty sea, you never ask such a question. But God says, I am the Lord . . . ' and He makes a path in the mighty waters. When you see the mighty waters before you, you tend to get fearful. I do not think that in the Christian life there is ever a person who does not confront mighty waters at some time or other.
I look to the One who alone can make this path. To many of you in your personal lives there may be the desire for sanctification. But somehow, it is slipping away. Somehow you seem to fail. Some evil thoughts still prevail. Some anger, some wicked and covetous desire, some bitterness or some lust is lurking somewhere in the heart. The mighty waters are before you. But what does God say to you? I am the Lord, the One who maketh . . . a path in the mighty waters. Maybe you are despairing about your condition. No, these mighty waters are going to divide by a clear path of victory.
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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
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