It is a wonderful truth that our God delights to take what the enemy has meant for evil and turn it for the good.
How frustrating it must be for the devil when he finds that the very traps he lays for our destruction turn out to be the springboard of fruitfulness.
Yet sadly most of God's children never come to the realization that this is true and therefore are relentlessly besieged by Satan in an endless array of attacks.
Let me illustrate what I mean.
When I was a very young Christian just a few weeks old in The Lord, I would prepare to attend our Sunday night services at church.
About the time I was getting ready, I noticed I would get a severe headache.
What was unusual about this is that I rarely if ever had headaches.
By the grace of God I was able to discern that this was an attack of the devil who did not want me to grow in Christ.
What did I do? Well I spoke out loud these words, "Devil, you have tipped your hand, and I know where this headache is coming from.
I am going to church tonight, and I am going to sit on the front pew and begin to praise the Lord with all of my heart from the opening song.
I am going to raise my hands and worship more fervently than ever.
" Do you know what happened? I never got another headache.
The devil left me alone, and went to some other Christian who would not take what the devil meant for evil and turn it for good.
I shudder to think of what might have happened if I would have given in to those headaches.
First, I believe I would have suffered from them the rest of my life.
Second, I doubt if I would have understood the call into ministry because I would have not received the word of God at my local church.
Thirdly, I believe my family would have been plagued with illnesses and sickness.
Indeed, it is the small foxes that destroy the vine.
I was once given a vision in which I was standing with some top military leaders dressed in their uniforms with their rank insignia and medals on their jackets.
There were generals and admirals and they spoke these words to me, "You have been trained in every kind of covert operations there is.
No expense has been spared in your preparation.
You have also been trained to use the latest weapons available.
You are now an expert with these weapons.
" I then asked them why I had been trained so thoroughly.
They said, "You are to go behind the enemy lines and set the prisoners of war free.
" The scene changed and I was immediately behind enemy lines in a prisoner of war camp.
There was row after row of concrete jails about eight feet by eight feet.
As I looked inside I saw a single prisoner in each jail.
He was sitting on the edge of a steel fold-down bunk with no mattress.
Just the steel wire and springs.
He held his head in his hands looking down at the floor.
What shocked me however was that there were no bars on the windows and no door on the jail! They could have gotten up and walked out at any time! What held them there? Deception.
Jesus warned us that one of the marks of the end-time would be great deception.
How about you? Is there some prison that the enemy has put you in? Is there some deception you are bound by? How would I know if I am in deception? Dear one, our wonderful Lord is so wise, loving, and powerful that He is able to take whatever terrible negative circumstance you have experienced in life and transform it to a redemptive miracle.
Yet He does need our trust and faith to accomplish this.
Have you ever heard the term a two-edged sword? Of course you and I know that it comes from the Bible and yet the world also uses that term to speak of various circumstances.
Those terribly hurtful things that we experience in life can either make us bitter or better.
That is the chance that the Lord takes with us when He allows the enemy to sift us, as He did Job.
Sadly most Christians lose the ability to trust when they are faced with mounting life problems.
One of my favorite verses is: Prov 3:5-6 5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
KJV Did you notice that one of the key ingredients for the Lord to direct us is that we must be filled with a trust so deep our heart is absolutely certain of the Lord's goodness and willingness to turn all of life's problems into redemptive glory? When the word of God says He will direct our paths, it means to "straighten things out, to make pleasant and prosperous.
" Wow - you mean God can straighten this mess out? Yes, if we will but trust with all of our heart! For one who has been wronged, cheated, raped, beaten, and broken that is hard to believe.
Nevertheless, that is what God's word promises us.
When you and I can come to the place that Joseph did, we are well on our way to defeating every device that Satan throws against us.
What was it that Joseph was able to do that caused his life circumstances to be turned into redemptive grace? As you know Joseph was so wounded by life's circumstances, he could have easily become a bitter and broken man.
Yet in every disappointment he met, he was able to turn it into a great blessing.
When he was betrayed by his brothers, when they wanted to murder him, when they sold him as a slave, when his reputation was ruined by a lie, and he was thrown into a filthy prison.
His heart somehow clung to this truth Gen 50:20 20 but as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
NKJV Somehow Joseph had come to the place that he believed that no matter what happened to him in life his God was able to turn it around and make something very good come out of it.
You cannot defeat a man or woman who believes that.
They are indestructible.
What an awesome way to live.
How do I live such a life? It begins with our words, our speech.
With what we say! Our words become the tools God can use to make every event of life into a blessing, or the devil can use them to make our life a living hell.
Prov 15:4 4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Prov 18:21 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
NKJV While waiting on the Lord I heard Him say, "Tell them I am coming to clean up their mess, but I need both their permission and their co-operation.
Tell them that they will not like what I am about to do at first, but will be eternally grateful when the process is fully accomplished.
I will first come and uncover those issues that are hurting so bad they cannot fulfill what I have called them to do.
" What does that mean? It starts with you and I recognizing that we have wounds so deep and hurtful that no matter how much we desire to do things for the Lord, those wounds keep us from being able to do what we desire.
If the bones in your hand have been broken in many places, no matter how much you desire to reach out and assist someone, as soon as that hand touches them it will either draw back instantly or strike whatever is causing you the pain.
The thing I hate most about physical sickness is that it causes you and me to focus on ourselves.
No matter how much we desire to help others our physical illness limits what we can do for others.
Even more so our emotional wounds have the power to keep us locked in a prison of focusing on our own problems, needs, hurts, and wounds.
How frustrating it must be for the devil when he finds that the very traps he lays for our destruction turn out to be the springboard of fruitfulness.
Yet sadly most of God's children never come to the realization that this is true and therefore are relentlessly besieged by Satan in an endless array of attacks.
Let me illustrate what I mean.
When I was a very young Christian just a few weeks old in The Lord, I would prepare to attend our Sunday night services at church.
About the time I was getting ready, I noticed I would get a severe headache.
What was unusual about this is that I rarely if ever had headaches.
By the grace of God I was able to discern that this was an attack of the devil who did not want me to grow in Christ.
What did I do? Well I spoke out loud these words, "Devil, you have tipped your hand, and I know where this headache is coming from.
I am going to church tonight, and I am going to sit on the front pew and begin to praise the Lord with all of my heart from the opening song.
I am going to raise my hands and worship more fervently than ever.
" Do you know what happened? I never got another headache.
The devil left me alone, and went to some other Christian who would not take what the devil meant for evil and turn it for good.
I shudder to think of what might have happened if I would have given in to those headaches.
First, I believe I would have suffered from them the rest of my life.
Second, I doubt if I would have understood the call into ministry because I would have not received the word of God at my local church.
Thirdly, I believe my family would have been plagued with illnesses and sickness.
Indeed, it is the small foxes that destroy the vine.
I was once given a vision in which I was standing with some top military leaders dressed in their uniforms with their rank insignia and medals on their jackets.
There were generals and admirals and they spoke these words to me, "You have been trained in every kind of covert operations there is.
No expense has been spared in your preparation.
You have also been trained to use the latest weapons available.
You are now an expert with these weapons.
" I then asked them why I had been trained so thoroughly.
They said, "You are to go behind the enemy lines and set the prisoners of war free.
" The scene changed and I was immediately behind enemy lines in a prisoner of war camp.
There was row after row of concrete jails about eight feet by eight feet.
As I looked inside I saw a single prisoner in each jail.
He was sitting on the edge of a steel fold-down bunk with no mattress.
Just the steel wire and springs.
He held his head in his hands looking down at the floor.
What shocked me however was that there were no bars on the windows and no door on the jail! They could have gotten up and walked out at any time! What held them there? Deception.
Jesus warned us that one of the marks of the end-time would be great deception.
How about you? Is there some prison that the enemy has put you in? Is there some deception you are bound by? How would I know if I am in deception? Dear one, our wonderful Lord is so wise, loving, and powerful that He is able to take whatever terrible negative circumstance you have experienced in life and transform it to a redemptive miracle.
Yet He does need our trust and faith to accomplish this.
Have you ever heard the term a two-edged sword? Of course you and I know that it comes from the Bible and yet the world also uses that term to speak of various circumstances.
Those terribly hurtful things that we experience in life can either make us bitter or better.
That is the chance that the Lord takes with us when He allows the enemy to sift us, as He did Job.
Sadly most Christians lose the ability to trust when they are faced with mounting life problems.
One of my favorite verses is: Prov 3:5-6 5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
KJV Did you notice that one of the key ingredients for the Lord to direct us is that we must be filled with a trust so deep our heart is absolutely certain of the Lord's goodness and willingness to turn all of life's problems into redemptive glory? When the word of God says He will direct our paths, it means to "straighten things out, to make pleasant and prosperous.
" Wow - you mean God can straighten this mess out? Yes, if we will but trust with all of our heart! For one who has been wronged, cheated, raped, beaten, and broken that is hard to believe.
Nevertheless, that is what God's word promises us.
When you and I can come to the place that Joseph did, we are well on our way to defeating every device that Satan throws against us.
What was it that Joseph was able to do that caused his life circumstances to be turned into redemptive grace? As you know Joseph was so wounded by life's circumstances, he could have easily become a bitter and broken man.
Yet in every disappointment he met, he was able to turn it into a great blessing.
When he was betrayed by his brothers, when they wanted to murder him, when they sold him as a slave, when his reputation was ruined by a lie, and he was thrown into a filthy prison.
His heart somehow clung to this truth Gen 50:20 20 but as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
NKJV Somehow Joseph had come to the place that he believed that no matter what happened to him in life his God was able to turn it around and make something very good come out of it.
You cannot defeat a man or woman who believes that.
They are indestructible.
What an awesome way to live.
How do I live such a life? It begins with our words, our speech.
With what we say! Our words become the tools God can use to make every event of life into a blessing, or the devil can use them to make our life a living hell.
Prov 15:4 4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Prov 18:21 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
NKJV While waiting on the Lord I heard Him say, "Tell them I am coming to clean up their mess, but I need both their permission and their co-operation.
Tell them that they will not like what I am about to do at first, but will be eternally grateful when the process is fully accomplished.
I will first come and uncover those issues that are hurting so bad they cannot fulfill what I have called them to do.
" What does that mean? It starts with you and I recognizing that we have wounds so deep and hurtful that no matter how much we desire to do things for the Lord, those wounds keep us from being able to do what we desire.
If the bones in your hand have been broken in many places, no matter how much you desire to reach out and assist someone, as soon as that hand touches them it will either draw back instantly or strike whatever is causing you the pain.
The thing I hate most about physical sickness is that it causes you and me to focus on ourselves.
No matter how much we desire to help others our physical illness limits what we can do for others.
Even more so our emotional wounds have the power to keep us locked in a prison of focusing on our own problems, needs, hurts, and wounds.
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