God in Tough Places

If you have had an experience of deep darkness, terror or despair, you may have experienced the miraculous intervention of God. His presence has come into your experience.

It was like you were a child terrified of the dark and then your mother came into the room and turned on the light. Your mother spoke words of comfort and reassurance, and suddenly the darkness was like a distant memory. Let us recall to our minds the times when God turned on the light.

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. Gen 1:3-4 (ESV)  

He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Ps 107:20 (ESV)  

When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,  
"Lord, my servant is lying paralysed at home, suffering terribly."  

And he said to him, "I will come and heal him."  
But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. Mt 8:5-8 (ESV)  

A pastor’s wife was desperately ill. No prayer for healing made any difference. The pastor read aloud the 91st psalm every hour until she was completely healed.
 
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High  Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
   My God, in Him I will trust." Ps 91:1-2 (NKJV)

Corrie ten Boom spent terrible years in a Nazi concentration camp in WW2. She was released before the end of the war due to a clerical error. This apparently ordinary middle-aged single Dutch woman became one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century.

Her message to the world was simple but profound. There is no dark hole so deep, but that God is deeper still. She wrote a famous book about how God brought her through her terrible experiences. The title of the English edition is “The Hiding Place”.

You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble;
   You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Ps 32:7 (NKJV)  

To the Chief Musician. Set to 'Do Not Destroy.' A Michtam of David when he fled from Saul into the cave.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!  For my soul trusts in You;    
   And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,            
   Until these calamities have passed by.
 I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me.
He shall send from heaven and save me;
He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.

  God shall send forth His mercy and His truth. Ps 57:1-3 (NKJV)  

When my first marriage broke up, I was a part-time single father. I was deeply distressed and intensely concerned for my baby daughter, who was 18 months old when her parents separated. I received powerful reassurance from this Bible text.        
 
He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.
Isa 40:11 (NKJV)

End Time Battles

 Moses was a man with a high calling. He was to lead his enslaved people out of the land of their oppression and through the desert. Then he was to take them into a beautiful country and conquer the land for God.

God's plans are always good, but when we walk in God's ways, we always encounter adversaries and obstacles.

The first problem for Moses came when he was born. Pharaoh wanted to kill all the male babies of the Hebrews, but God saved his life. Pharaoh's daughter found Moses and took pity on him. She adopted Moses and gave him back to his mother. What a miracle of God!

In these end times, we Christians have a great calling. Do you want to be part of a mighty end-time revival? Then you have an adversary who wants to stop you. God's kingdom is coming, but the devil wants to nip the end-time revival in the bud.

One of the enemy's tactics is to spread the negative teaching that we should only expect decay before the return of the Lord Jesus, that God is supposedly not planning a great revival.

But in the Bible I find God's prophetic promise that we should expect both darkness and glory.

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Is 60:1–2 NRSV

Does this only apply to the Jews? No.

Jesus commanded the apostles to set in motion a mission that is to increase until his return.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ... Mt 28:19 NRSV

We have not yet reached all nations. The Great Commission still applies. Just as with Moses, God's great plan will face terrible opposition.

Moses needed amazing supernatural miracles to overcome Pharaoh's resistance. Likewise, we need amazing miracles to overcome the devil's opposition in our time.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;  

they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mk 16:17–18 NRSV