We read in Act 11:21, “The hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” (ISV)
As long as we live on this earth, we will encounter numerous hindrances, but we have a God who can overcome every obstacle, and so every hurdle that comes along our way becomes a stepping stone to victory.
The early church had just begun to put their faith in the Lord Jesus, and as they began their faith journey, they were faced with myriads of hardships. It is therefore a fact, that for those who desire to follow Jesus, that we are not assured of a life of ease, but are instead guaranteed that the Lord will bring us out victorious out of all of these trials.
We exemplify Daniel for his deliverance from the mouth of hungry lions, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for their mighty deliverance from the fiery furnace, but often in our personal lives we shun the very thought of encountering any such adversities.
It is only when we are hard pressed on every side, and overcome these difficulties, will we experience increase from the Lord, so that He will receive all the glory that is due to Him alone. We are all called by the Lord, and it is His will that we should be blessed, but it is also a reality that we will encounter various trials as we plod along on this journey of faith. In the midst of these trying situations, the Lord intervenes to do extraordinary deeds of deliverance way beyond our thinking and understanding, simply to prove beyond doubt that He is right beside us.
The Lord promised to bless and increase those whom He called, but that does not exempt us from adversity. Here are a few examples from the Bible.
1. Abraham received the promise but he faced hardships
We read in Genesis 12:2, “I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.” (GNB)
This was God’s vehement promise to Abraham, to give him many descendants, to make a great nation from him, to bless him, make his name great so that he would be a blessing. However, Abraham too had to encounter many problems. On his journey through Egypt, Pharaoh took Abraham’s wife Sarah to his palace, but God who is faithful to His promise, intervened and delivered Sarah with His mighty arm, from the hands of Pharaoh.
2. Isaac received the promise but he faced hardships
In Genesis 26:24, we read, “That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid; I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants because of my promise to my servant Abraham." (GNB)
The same blessing of Abraham was confirmed by God to his son Isaac. God is a God who specialized in supernatural increase. As Isaac prospered and increased in wealth in the land of the Philistines, the Philistines became envious of Isaac, and Abimelech the king of the Philistines ordered Isaac to move out of his territory.
3. Jacob also received the promise but faced hardships
In Genesis 28:14, we read, They will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. They will extend their territory in all directions, and through you and your descendants I will bless all the nations. (GNB)
The promise of God to Abraham and Isaac was now reiterated to Jacob, that his descendants would be like the dust of the earth, and that his territory will extend in all directions, and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him and his descendants. But, Jacob too was challenged with numerous trials, and in the midst of it all the faithful promise of God remained unchanging.
The patriarchs remind us that to all of us who are called by God, our Christian life is not a cakewalk, and that we will encounter hardships that sometimes seem insurmountable, but we need not fear, for we have with us a faithful God who is far bigger than all the challenges we face. We too may be met with situations where we feel pursued, hated or forgotten, but the Lord has promised to be with us till the very end. We have the assurance that the Lord will give us victory over every trial, and we can certainly receive the increase that God has in store for us if we are willing to receive it by faith. The Lord specializes in taking those overpowering situations, and performing what seems impossible to us.
The believers in the early church were another great example, for amidst all the persecutions and hardships that engulfed them, the hand of the Lord was with them, and therefore multitudes were daily added to the church.
The journey of the Israelites to the promise land
The journey of the people of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, through the wilderness was an arduous one. The Lord promised them that He would bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. Pharaoh the king of Egypt was a hard man, and the Israelites were helpless, but the Lord in His own way, and by His powerful hand, brought about a mighty deliverance.
Like the Israelites who were in bondage to the Egyptians, all of us were once held in bondage to sin and Satan. We were bound in traditions, ignorance and were helpless. That is the reason why God the Father sent His son Jesus to be the sinless lamb, to die on our behalf, to redeem us from every sin and bondage. It is good for us to keep in mind that like the Israelites, we too are on this wilderness journey while here on earth, moving towards the promise of our eternal home in heaven. Therefore as we travel through this wilderness, it is inevitable that we will be confronted with innumerable problems.
The challenge to cross over the Jordan
One of the challenges the people of Israel encountered is recorded in Joshua 3:15a, (Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the harvest season.) When the priests who were carrying the ark came to the edge of the Jordan River and set foot in … (GW)
As the people of Israel came to the banks of the river Jordan to cross over to the Promised Land, they were met with the challenge of the river which overflowed its banks. It is interesting that the time that the Lord had appointed for them to cross over was a time of harvest, during which season the waters overflowed the banks of the river. The Lord chose this time specifically as He wanted to reveal to the Israelites His amazing power and might was able to overcome any situation, no matter how overwhelming it may seem.
The reason God performed the mighty miracle of parting the Jordan is reiterated by Joshua in Joshua 4:23-24, The Lord your God dried up the Jordan ahead of you until you had crossed, as he did to the Red Sea until we had crossed. The Lord did this so that everyone in the world would know his mighty power and that you would fear the Lord your God every day of your life.” (GW)
God performed mighty wonders for the Israelites with the intention that the people of the world would know the Lord, fear Him, and comprehend the power of His mighty arm. It was the same for Daniel when he was thrown into the lion’s den or when Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego were cast into the fiery furnace, the outcome of their deliverance was that the kings and the people of the land recognized that God was the only true God.
The Lord does not wish to do simple things in our lives, but extraordinary things, and so everything that happens in our lives, does so with His permission. If we are sometimes wondering as to why we are challenged with untold troubles, let us be reminded that these trials are God’s ways to perform wonders, if we can simply stand firm in our faith.
Every problem is a stepping stone to help us move higher
Our problems are not hindrances to our faith, but stepping stones to take us swiftly to the land of promise that God has prepared for us. Let us look at some examples from the Bible.
Joseph was the favorite son of his father, and he would have never agreed to leave the comfort of his father’s house to go to Egypt. But, the envy and hatred of Joseph’s brothers sent him to Egypt, so that he became the ruler of Egypt, who saved his entire family in a time of severe famine.
Mordecai was an ordinary man seated at the entrance of the king’s palace. His enemy Haman who plotted Mordecai’s death was the right hand man to the king. But, the Lord turned it around and not only was Mordecai spared, he was also raised up to be honored by Haman himself. The outcome was that all the Jews in that nation were also saved from death and destruction.
David was a shepherd boy who was just taking food for his brothers, but when he encountered Goliath the giant, the Lord turned things around so that a shepherd boy became the king of Israel who brought back glory to the people of Israel, which would have otherwise been lost to the Philistines.
God used Moses to part the Red Sea, and saved the Israelites from Pharaoh’s fierce army. If there was no Red Sea, Pharaoh would have never known that there was a living God who could part the sea, and also cause it to come back to its place. God also proved to the people of Israel that Moses was indeed the leader whom God had chosen.
The next time we face those difficulties, insults, false allegations, let us be reminded that these are God’s tools to take us to the higher level.
The way across the Jordan
Joshua 3:15a, (Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the harvest season.) When the priests who were carrying the ark came to the edge of the Jordan River and set foot in … (GW)
All that the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had to do was to set their foot in the edge of the river, to experience the mighty miracle that the Lord was about to perform.
There are many who feel overwhelmed with their hardships, and get the sense that these difficulties are over and above their heads. Their mind is confused and wearied, but the Lord encourages such that all they don’t need to let their minds be troubled as the Lord is able to subdue all of these troubles right under their feet. Whoever believes on the Lord Jesus must rest assured that irrespective of the kind of problems we encounter, we can be confident that all of it God is able to bring in submission under our feet.
God will crush Satan under our feet
We read in Romans 16:20, And before long, God the giver of peace will crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! (WNT)
Here’s Paul word of exhortation to the church at Rome, that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet. Read the verse carefully to note that God is going to trample Satan not under His feet, but under ours. This calls for a right understanding of all the problems that challenge us, that instead of choosing to avoid, and be rid of all sorts of trials, to rather be reminded that these are meant not to overcome us, but to be subdued under our feet, so that we can know who God is, and allow Him to raise us up to the next level. We have Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace with us when we face those tumultuous times, and when challenged with insurmountable situations our God is Jehovah Nissi who has assured us victory. No matter what kind of circumstance we are in, we can always call on the Lord who is close at hand.
Here are the words of Solomon in 1 Kings 5:3, “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.(ESV)
In the above mentioned verse Solomon gives testimony of how the Lord subdued all of his father King David’s enemies under his feet. God’s plan from the beginning was to subject Satan under our feet, so that we can live a life of triumph, and not one of defeat. We as children of God have God’s word of assurance, that no weapon that is formed against us will prosper.
Like Daniel we may be challenged with false accusations, opposition and envy but, if like Daniel we remain faithful the Lord will deliver us. The king was helpless as these false accusations were brought against Daniel, and he had to throw him in the lion’s den, but the deliverance proved to everyone who the true and living God was. It is only when we pass through those lion’s den experiences, will the people around us know who we are, and comprehend who is this God we believe in.
When the feet of the priests touched the waters of Jordan
We read in Joshua 3:16, the water stopped flowing from upstream. The water rose up like a dam as far away as the city of Adam near Zarethan. The water flowing down toward the Sea of the Plains (the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. Then the people crossed from the east side of the Jordan River directly opposite Jericho. (GW)
The Lord commanded the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant to step onto the water’s edge. As they did so the flow of water in the river Jordan stopped on all sides, and the river went dry making a way for the multitudes of Israelites to cross over to the other side.
Someone may be skeptical as to how this could be possible, but if today we have man-made dams that can obstruct the flow of huge rivers, how much more able is the God of the universe to stop the flow of the mighty Jordan. Irrespective of what the problem is, instead of allowing it to trouble our minds, let us remember that God is with us, and therefore we have the ability to keep all of it under our feet, and conquer every hardship.
It is indeed true that the Lord will subdue every difficulty we encounter, but there is an important prerequisite in order for this to become a reality in our lives.
We are called to be priests
• The priest who intercedes for the people
God calls us to be the priests who carries the Ark of the Covenant. The word of God reminds us that God has called us to be kings and priests. To be a priest simply means that we become those who will stand in the gap between God and man, to intercede with God on behalf of those who are far away from Him. If you are wondering if you are a priest or not, a good check would be to compare the time you spend on personal requests, and the time you spend to intercede to the Lord on behalf of others. A priest is someone for whom, the welfare and spiritual growth of others takes greater priority over their own.
• Be a priest who carries the Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant signified the very presence of God, and in it were three important things; the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the golden pot with Manna. The three signify three important aspects of our Christian life and walk with the Lord. The Ten Commandments represent implicit obedience to the word of God, Aaron’s rod refers to the submission to authority that the Lord has place over us and the manna in the golden pot which refers to humility, as the manna always fell on the ground and the people had to bend over to pick it up every single day.
Let us be those obedient, submissive and humble priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant in our day to day lives. If this is so we are guaranteed, that Satan will be crushed under our feet.
Jesus Christ is our greatest example
We read in Philippians 2:8, Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. (MSG)
The above mentioned verse portrays most beautifully how Jesus had all of these qualities in Him which made Him the perfect high priest. Having become a man, he was obedient, submissive to the Father, and was completely humble, even to the point of death. That is why, the Father enabled Jesus to crush Satan’s head, when He died on the cross of Calvary. We are only left with the remnant of the enemy’s evil schemes that we are required to handle.
We read in Philippians 2:11, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (LEB)
There were those who falsely accused Jesus, He was betrayed by His own disciple, He faced enmity, and was challenged by every evil work of the enemy, but He came forth victorious over all of them. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place, that at the name of Jesus every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.
As we journey through this earth, let us rest assured that with the Lord on our side, we too can overcome and triumph over every hardship and trial, for we are called to be the priests of God and all of the works of the evil one no matter how indomitable they may seem will all be subdued under our feet.
Rev. F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by: Sis. Esther Collins
