Missing the Time of Our Visitation

14 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Luke, Our Spiritual Process

Tags

dealing with demonic attacks, deliverance, discerning God's will, focusing only on circumstances, He stills the storms within me, Jesus, Kingdom of God to manifest, learning to rebuke, Luke 17:20-21, Luke 19:44, praying wrong, Prince of Peace, relieve, spiritual battle, visitation, wanting our own brand of deliverance

…because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:44

The word for visitation is an interesting word. It literally means “to relieve“. The Episcopalian denomination derives its name from this word. Jesus employed this word to indicate how the Father sent Him to bring relief and deliverance to the dark nation at a time when they needed it most. If you took a poll of the inhabitants of Jerusalem… I am sure everyone would have espoused in no uncertain terms how much they wanted heaven’s relief. Yet these same folks who wanted the Kingdom of God to manifest totally and absolutely missed it when relief came strolling down the street. In fact, they not only rejected their relief, they crucified Him. It is ironic how most people want relief until it looks like Jesus!

Why Do We Miss God’s Visitations?

Jesus was not implying that people are unaware of God’s purposes. Everybody was watching and waiting for a move of God. They still do. Jesus told people on several occasions the Kingdom was already in their presence. (Luke 17:20-21) They were aware of Jesus’ claims and were witnesses to His miracle-working power. So, why did they miss God’s visitation? The same reason we miss God’s movements today. We fail to discern God’s purposes ahead of our own needs. The people of Jesus’ day could not detect Jesus’ purpose because they had their eyes solely on their immediate circumstances. God’s higher purposes simply made no sense.

We are no different today. When you personally experience a trial or hardship, your eyes focus squarely on your circumstances… all you can detect is what is wrong. Your prayers revolve around obtaining God’s deliverance from your circumstance…. anything differing other than direct deliverance is obviously not from God. This is why we have a tendency to call some things “bad”, which are actually God’s good and vice-a-versa. When we examine our circumstances without the knowledge of God, we will miss God’s will and plan. The folks in Jesus’ day were looking for the purposes and plans of God. Their problem and our problem is we interpret God’s will in light of our present circumstances and problems. The people of Jesus missed their visitation and so will we.

I happens like this… You are going through a hardship and you begin to pray. As you pray it becomes, “Lord, deliver me. Lord, get me out of this place. Lord, move. Lord, fight for me.” Your prayer is never, “Lord, mold me. Lord change me. Lord, grow me. Lord help me to grow bigger than my problem. Lord, allow me to suffer more that You might be glorified through my life.” Bottom-line, our desire is for God to change our circumstances, instead of discerning God’s purposes and asking God to change us.

A few years back I was in a spiritual battle. The demons were tearing me up. Prayer about this attack brought no success. I finally wised up and asked God why He wasn’t doing anything about the demonic attacks. He said plainly, “I am not going to do anything about them. You do something about it.” I was floored. I reaffirmed to the Lord that they were winning and He needed to help. He said, “I am not going to do anything about demons. They are your problem and you have to handle it, yourself.” It was like He was telling me to shut-up and stop praying about demonic activity. I was now mad at God and the demons. I could have spit nails. What a fine situation. God was leaving me alone to fight demons all by myself. Does all this sound mean to you? It sounded mean to me.

I finally got my eyes off myself and started thinking about what God said. He said, “I had to handle the situation myself.” I turned to the Word. The Word states over and over again that all believers have power over demons. I had never rebuked demons before, but I was in such desperate shape. As soon as I took authority over the demons they fled with lightening speed. I felt like a spiritual Hercules! It was only later that the Lord spoke further. He said. “Don’t pray about things I have given you authority over. I have left the devil and His demons around for you to beat up and take authority over. Take your authority.”

I am sure it was hard for the Lord to watch me suffer… but I needed to know the truth. I first had to get my eyes off my circumstances and look to the truth. I would have missed my visitation had I kept my eyes on myself and what I was going through.

The people of Jesus’ day desired deliverance from oppression. Jesus came to deliver them from oppression and the bigger problem of sin. In their desire to escape their immediate circumstances, to have their own brand of peace, they missed the fact they were in the very presence of the Prince of Peace. When we desire our own “brand of deliverance” we will miss God’s visitation. If you are waiting for God to provide your own personal brand of deliverance, you will be waiting a long time. The Lord wants to give us Himself… He is the Prince of Peace. He is all you need.

Blessing – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

Our Journey Into The Promised Land: Leaving Egypt

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Our Journey Into The Promised Land

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, coming out of Egypt, deliverance, Exodus, Flying Fortress, lost at sea, Paul Harvey, seagull, startvation

Most of us can identify with the Children of Israel as they came out of the bondage of Egypt to inherit the Promised Land of God. We identify with their struggles, failures, attempts, and successes. In fact, we may identify with them too much. If we identify with them too much, it may well mean we are somewhere lost between bondage and deliverance! Just because we make the decision to leave Egypt, doesn’t mean Egypt is gone from within us. The Bible is forever talking about “coming out of Egypt.” The point is that once you finally are delivered (come out) from Egypt… you cannot easily forget it. It becomes your testimony of God’s miraculous deliverance. We will talk about the various meanings and holds Egypt can have on each of us in the next few days. But for now can you recount the providential ways God moved to secure your deliverance from Egypt?

Paul Harvey once shared the story of an old man who fed the sea gulls every Friday evening.

        “It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.

        Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark…ten feet long!

        But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, “Cherry,” that was the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, “read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off.”

         Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea-gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food…if I could catch it.”

Paul Harvey concludes:

       “And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea-gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know…that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset…on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast…you could see an old man walking…white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls…to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle…like manna in the wilderness.

This is story is not so much about leaving Egypt, but it is about not forgetting about God’s miraculous deliverance. Take a few moments today and thank the Lord for your deliverance.

Blessings,

Pastor