221. I SHALL NOT DIE BUT LIVE!

(The Faith Forum Series – Batch 5)

On 22nd November, 2022, I was meditating on the Word of God when something came to mind. Instead of running for my laptop as I usually do, to write it all down, maybe because of laziness, I decided to record my thoughts verbally. I therefore pressed the recording icon on my cellphone and voiced what was on my mind.

Apart from a few tweaks here and there, to exclude incomplete phrases and expressions like ‘ahhmm’ which I tend to use from time to time while thinking, this is what I said to myself and recorded:

I’ve been thinking: HANNAH was at a point in her life not being able to have children for so very long, where she was SUPPOSED, in Peninnah’s mind, to remain childless for the rest of her life, so much so that Peninnah made it a point to tease her about the issue. She was supposed to remain childless and never to conceive nor to bear but God intervened and changed the outcome. What was SUPPOSED to happen did not happen. Hannah conceived and she bare, not just once but more than once.

Similarly, JOSEPH. Joseph’s brothers, when he was approaching them, they said, let us kill him and we will see what will become of his dreams. The plan that they initially thought of to kill him did not pan out, as one of the siblings would have intervened. Instead, they threw him in a pit initially and then they took him out of that and then they sold him to someone, an Ishmaelite, who was going to Egypt, that far away land.

And what they did with Joseph, they thought that he was SUPPOSED to wilt away and die in Egypt because who would be able to survive that land, as an Hebrew, a practical nobody? So he was SUPPOSED to wilt away, SUPPOSED to die, so much so, that years later, when they went to Egypt to get food, in a famine, when they were questioned, they stated that they had a brother and he had died. Because they thought Joseph going to Egypt was like signing a death warrant. He was SUPPOSED to wilt away and SUPPOSED to die but what was supposed to happen, did not happen because God intervened.

The Word of God says that God was with Joseph. He was in Egypt yes but God was with him. It wasn’t easy, yes but God was with him. He went through a lot of pain and trials but at the end of the day, the common denominator was that God was with him. So he did not wilt away and die as was SUPPOSED to happen because God changed the outcome.

We saw a similar thing happen with PAUL when he and some other persons went to an island called Melita, I think. And they had escaped. I think there was some sort of shipwreck or something and they had escaped and they ended up on an island called Melita where there were barbarian people.

He gathered some sticks to throw into the fire and no sooner had he done that, thrown the sticks into the fire, than a serpent arose out of the fire, most likely having come from the wood and bit his hand, held on to his hand with its mouth. And it was described as a venomous beast, meaning it was one full of poison. You were SUPPOSED to die. Your hand was SUPPOSED to be swollen and you were SUPPOSED to die and he was SUPPOSED to die.

Evidently, the persons who were used to that, who knew about these serpents and so on on that island, they came to the conclusion that it had to be that this man was a murderer and so vengeance suffereth him not to live, so it had to be that was why he was going to die, despite the fact that he had escaped the shipwreck and the seas.

So they looked to see if he would die. He was SUPPOSED to die because surely, this poisonous beast bit him. But then they looked for the swelling, they did not see that. They looked to see him die and they did not see that. He was SUPPOSED to die but God intervened and changed the outcome and Paul, his hand did not swell, he did not die.

A similar thing happened with PETER. I think it was James that was killed by Herod and Herod thought to do it again and so he took Peter and he was in the prison there between soldiers in the deep depths of the prison and Herod had purposed to have him killed the very next day. And so the very next day, everybody thought, expected that he was SUPPOSED to be killed. He was SUPPOSED to die, similar to James. But yet God intervened. He sent his angel, removed his chains, whatever it is that had him in bondage and took him out miraculously, supernaturally, out of that prison and out into the streets, a free man.

And we learned that the very next day there was no small stir as to what would have become of Peter. He was SUPPOSED, to die the next day but God intervened to changed the outcome so much so, that the Word of God says that it defeated the expectations of all of the people round about. They expected that surely, he was SUPPOSED to die the next day in a similar manner to James BUT GOD! God intervened to change what was SUPPOSED to happen and something else took place.

And I just thought of another, similarly. SHADRACH, MESHACH AND ABEDNEGO. When they defied respectfully (I don’t know if ‘defied’ is the word but they) respectfully I should say declined the king’s command to bow down, every time you hear the sound… bow down and worship him. And they refused to do that because that would be to go against their beliefs in God, to go against what would please God because we have to worship God and God alone and not man. They respectfully told the king, Oh king, you know, we would not bow down. Respectfully, we would not bow down, even if it means that God does not deliver us.

So, as a result of that, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were put into the fire. They were thrown into the fire and the fire was so hot when they were thrown into the fire, that the persons who threw them into it, they themselves died. And the fire was that hot because the king in his vengeance, he was so upset, that he said heat it even hotter. I so want them to suffer.

But yet they were in that fire and the Lord Jesus Christ sustained them in that fire, so much so that the king was in shock. They were in the fire, being sustained and kept because the Lord Jesus Christ is greater than whatever fires we face in life. And he took them out, when the king told them to come forth because he saw a forth one like the Son of God, I think he said.

When he told them to come forth, he examined them, they were not smelling of smoke. You were not seeing anything on their clothes. Nobody could tell that they had been in such intense fire. Wow!

It just reminds me of a verse where God told the Israelites, though you walk through the fire I am going to be there with you. Right. And this was a practical example of that. They came forth. Surely everybody was looking or heard of what transpired with them and how they had refused to abide by what the king said they were supposed to do. Surely, they were SUPPOSED to die. They were SUPPOSED to be destroyed in the fire but God intervened to change the outcome. God intervened, so that what was SUPPOSED to happen, did not happen.

And even if you look similarly at another situation, with MORDECAI, mischief-makers recognized that due to Mordecai’s beliefs or his stand, he refused to bow to Haman and they went and they stirred up trouble. Apparently, Haman was not aware that he was not doing that but somebody went and they tried to stir up trouble, knowing he was a Jew and they did it thinking, hey, surely Mordecai, he is going to meet his demise. Mordecai is going to be destroyed as a result of this stand that he has taken.

So Mordecai was SUPPOSED to be destroyed. Mordecai was SUPPOSED to lose. Mordecai was SUPPOSED to suffer as a result of him not bowing to Haman BUT GOD. God intervened in this situation to change the outcome.

Every time there is something that is SUPPOSED to happen, there are onlookers. So, he was SUPPOSED to not survive. He was SUPPOSED to not emerge victorious when Haman, this great man was done with him. But God intervened to change the outcome and what was SUPPOSED to happen, did not happen.

And then you could think of ELIZABETH AND ZACHARIAS. Is that applicable? Yeah. At their age, the conclusion would have been that they were SUPPOSED to no longer have children and just remain childless. They were old and well stricken in years but yet, although they were SUPPOSED to remain childless at that age, God intervened to change the outcome and what was SUPPOSED to happen, did not happen.

And I’m sure there are other scriptures in the Bible that we can think of, that we can contemplate on, where, what was SUPPOSED to happen, according to our humanistic thinking, according to the natural course of things, did not happen. Why? Because God intervened to bring about the difference. Jesus really is the one that makes the difference in our lives so that sometimes you know (I got a bit emotional in my voice at this point), what is SUPPOSED to happen, it doesn’t and what we don’t expect to happen is what happens because the Lord Jesus Christ has intervened to change the outcome. So our defence in this life to what is SUPPOSED to happen is BUT GOD. BUT GOD can intervene to make the difference. Right.

When Lazarus got sick and he died, he was SUPPOSED to just keep on rotting. Four days had passed already before Jesus Christ arrived on the scene and he was already rotting, so that I think that either Mary or Martha said, by now he stinketh. He was SUPPOSED to continue rotting. Right. That was what normally transpired when a person died, especially after four days of being dead. He was SUPPOSED to continue rotting, right, to a state of decomposition. But Jesus intervened and changed the outcome so that what was SUPPOSED to happen, did not happen.

And I think similarly, some of us may be at a point in our lives, at an age in our lives where onlookers, people looking on, think that we are SUPPOSED to not have anything happen in our lives. We are SUPPOSED to remain single. At that age? Or after all of that or with that past?

You know, we are SUPPOSED to remain single for the rest of our lives or we are SUPPOSED to remain childless, no husband, no child. At that age, we are SUPPOSED to be write-offs by society’s standards and according to society’s timing BUT GOD. God is able to intervene and sometimes he does intervene on our behalf and for HIS glory, you know. Because it is all about his glory really.

He intervenes when everybody thinks she is SUPPOSED to stay single. She is SUPPOSED to never have children. At that age? With that past?

And sometimes God intervenes so that what is SUPPOSED to happen, does not happen. She is SUPPOSED to be a failure but it does not happen. God intervenes. BUT GOD. God changes the outcome, so that what is SUPPOSED to happen, does not happen. Praise God for that.

Thank you Lord Jesus that you are the one that makes the difference in our lives. I pray almighty God that even in my own life, that you will defeat the expectations. There are so many areas in my life where people think because of my past, because of my age, because of so many different things, they have concluded that this is SUPPOSED to be the outcome that I am SUPPOSED to have: One of failure. One of singleness. Perpetual singleness. One of childlessness. I pray almighty God, in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would intervene, almighty God, on my behalf and for your glory because my situation is ripe, Father in in heaven, for your glory Lord.

People have spoken much. You have heard all that they have said almighty God and they have come to the conclusion that nothing is SUPPOSED to happen to me that is good. So God, I pray that despite all of that, that you will intervene in my situation, in my circumstance. I pray that you will bring healing within and miracles without. Help me in my situation Lord. I pray that you will intervene Lord, that you will get the glory out of it Lord, so that what people think is SUPPOSED to happen, will not happen.

They have put a timing Lord, when you have not, almighty God, a time cap on which things are to happen and on which things are written-off but Father in heaven, in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you will intervene to help me, to bring about what seems to be impossible and that you will change the outcome even as you did for all of the persons that I’ve mentioned Lord, as written in your Word. Because your power remains the same, the same power almighty God wherein you brought about deliverance and healing and you changed what was SUPPOSED to happen, to the shock of those looking on.

Father in heaven, by your might and your power alone, you are the same God back then as today with the same power. And so Lord I pray that you will intervene Lord, even through that same power, to bring about deliverance in my life, in all the areas that I need. For those who have written me off, I pray that you will write me back on Lord and let them see it almighty God. Let them remember that you are on your throne and it is only when you say that something is finished, it is finished. Not man. Intervene almighty God and help me in all of my issues and in my situations, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

End of Audio Recording Clip

CONCLUSION

Tonight, in listening to my voice recording from my phone and typing the words into an Article here, I additionally wrote:

When I look at my life, my past, my childhood especially, I was not supposed to be in the land of the living today. I was not supposed to make it or supposed to be successful spiritually. I was supposed to wilt, supposed to probably go out of my mind, supposed to sit in a corner depressed and without hope BUT GOD! I was supposed to remain unmarried. In fact, the enemy tried to hammer this into my mind from since childhood, sending people from a young age to tell me this lie but I STILL BELIEVE THAT GOD WILL MAKE ME TO KEEP A HOUSE, THAT HE WILL PLACE ME INTO A FAMILY OF MY OWN AND MAKE ME A JOYFUL MOTHER OF CHILDREN, ONCE HE HAS WILLED AND PURPOSED THAT IT SHALL BE SO!

There isn’t a thing that the enemy can say to stop it. He has tried relentlessly for years, to DERAIL and DISTRACT and DELAY but he cannot DENY. He cannot stop what the Lord has purposed to do. I wasn’t supposed to make it but by the grace of God, I will! For, as David stated in Psalm 118:16-17, “The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

(Written on 5th February, 2022 – based on my audio recording on 22nd November, 2021)

Dear Reader, if you found the above Article to be interesting, informative, edifying or beneficial, you may also be interested in reading the following:

Note 47 – ‘Silencing The Naysayers’
Note 68 – ‘Lessons I Learned From The Lazarus Story’
Note 71 – ‘…But God!’
Note 74 – ‘Whose Report Will You Believe?’
Note 80 – ‘We Serve A ‘Let There Be’ God’
Note 79 – ‘The Woman Who Wanted A Baby – Key Points From Hannah’s Story’
Note 86 – ‘They Say I Can’t But By God’s Grace I Will’
Note 104 – ‘If That Tree Could Talk’
Note 125 – ‘When God Promises To Write-on A Write-off’
Note 126 – ‘A Hopeless End Or An Endless Hope?’
Note 165 – ‘Peter’s Imprisonment – Points I Gleaned From My Study Of Acts 12:1-19’