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THE MYSTERY OF DIVINE INTERVENTION-Conversation IV: I Will Carry You · PAMOJA PODCAST | PAMOJA MINISTRY, A LIFE OF CHRIST INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

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  Welcome to Pomoja Ministry. In our previous conversation,
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  we discovered something extraordinary about divine
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  intervention. Sometimes God changes the situation.
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  Sometimes God moves the enemy. Sometimes God
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  opens the sea. Sometimes God closes the mouth
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  of the lion. Sometimes God enters the furnace.
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  And sometimes, when our strength has reached
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  its limit and the journey becomes greater than
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  our ability to continue, God does something much
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  more intimate. He carries us. But there is something
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  about that revelation that I have not been able
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  to leave alone. Because after discovering that
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  Moses described Israel's journey through the
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  wilderness by saying, the Lord your God carried
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  you as a father carries his son. I began to wonder
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  whether being carried by God is actually much
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  bigger than what happens during our most difficult
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  moments. And then I came to Isaiah 46 and suddenly
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  the revelation became much larger. Because listen
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  to what God says, listen to me, you whom I have
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  upheld since your birth and have carried since
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  you were born. Even to your old age and gray
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  hairs I am he. I am He who will sustain you.
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  I have made you, and I will carry you. I will
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  sustain you, and I will rescue you. There are
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  passages of scripture that you can read quickly,
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  and then there are passages where you need to
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  stop. This is one of them. Listen again to the
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  progression. I have upheld you. I have carried
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  you. I will sustain you. I will carry you. I
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  will rescue you. past, present, future. God is
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  not describing one emergency. He is describing
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  a relationship. He does not say, when you become
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  weak enough, perhaps I will carry you. He says,
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  essentially, I have been carrying you longer
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  than you realized. And perhaps that changes the
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  entire way we understand divine intervention.
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  Because maybe divine intervention is not simply
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  what God does when something goes wrong. Maybe
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  our entire lives are being sustained by interventions
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  we never see. Maybe there are things God prevented
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  that you will never know He prevented. Maybe
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  there are doors He closed that frustrated you
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  at the time but protected you from something
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  you could not see. Maybe there are relationships
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  that ended because God knew where they were taking
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  you. Maybe there are delays you interpreted as
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  rejection. that were actually protection. Maybe
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  there are moments when God redirected your steps
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  without ever explaining what was waiting on the
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  road you wanted to take. And maybe there are
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  prayers you thought God ignored because His answer
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  did not look like what you requested. What if
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  some of the greatest interventions of your life
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  are interventions you will never know happened?
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  That is the mystery. We celebrate the accident
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  God delivered us from. But how do you celebrate
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  the accident that never happened? Because God
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  redirected you five minutes earlier. We celebrate
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  the sickness God healed. But what about the danger
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  from which He protected you without ever allowing
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  you to know it was approaching? We celebrate
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  the enemy God defeated in front of us. But what
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  about the battles God fought that never reached
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  our door? We thank God for the doors He opened.
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  But perhaps eternity will reveal that we should
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  thank Him just as much for the doors He refused
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  to open, because divine intervention is not limited
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  to what we can recognize. And Isaiah 46 introduces
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  us to a God whose sustaining activity begins
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  long before we become conscious of it. I have
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  carried you since you were born. Think about
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  that. Before you understood faith, He carried
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  you. Before you understood prayer, he carried
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  you. Before you understood purpose, he carried
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  you. Before you knew what your life would become,
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  he carried you. Before you understood the battles
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  ahead, he carried you. And God says, even to
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  your old age and gray hairs, I will still be
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  there. There's no expiration date on his faithfulness.
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  There's no stage of your journey where God suddenly
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  says, you have come far enough, now continue
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  by yourself. The same God who carried you yesterday
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  says, I will carry you. Part one, the difference
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  between the gods you carry and the God who carries
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  you. But Isaiah 46 becomes even more powerful
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  when we understand why God said those words.
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  Because God was drawing a contrast. Babylon had
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  gods, bel -nabo, idols fashioned by human hands.
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  People considered them powerful. They decorated
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  them, honored them, bowed before them, trusted
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  them. But there was a problem. Those gods could
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  not move. If their worshippers wanted them somewhere
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  else, someone had to pick them up. Someone had
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  to place them on an animal. Someone had to transport
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  them. Someone had to protect them. Someone had
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  to carry the very god they were asking to carry
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  their burdens. And Isaiah paints an almost tragic
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  picture. The idols are loaded onto animals. The
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  animals become exhausted carrying the weight.
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  The people are tired. The animals are tired.
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  And the gods cannot help anyone, because the
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  gods themselves must be carried. Then the God
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  of Israel speaks, and essentially he says, I
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  am not like them. You do not carry me. I carry
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  you. What a distinction. False gods become burdens.
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  The living God carries burdens. False gods require
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  human strength to sustain them. The living God
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  becomes the strength sustaining humanity. False
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  gods must be protected. The living God protects.
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  False gods must be transported. The living god
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  says, I have carried you since birth, and even
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  when your hair becomes gray, I will still carry
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  you. And perhaps this is where this conversation
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  becomes uncomfortable, because we may not bow
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  before statues called Belle or Nebo today, but
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  humanity still creates things that we expect
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  to carry us. Money, positions, careers, relationships,
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  influence. connections, reputation, success,
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  education, titles, human approval. We place enormous
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  expectations upon these things. We say, perhaps
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  without words, if I can just reach this level,
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  I will be secure. If I can just earn this amount,
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  I will have peace. If this person stays in my
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  life, I will be okay. If I can maintain this
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  position, I will be safe. If people continue
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  respecting me, I will know who I am. And slowly,
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  without realizing it, we begin carrying things
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  that were never designed to carry us. We exhaust
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  ourselves maintaining an image. We exhaust ourselves
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  protecting a position. We exhaust ourselves trying
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  to control relationships. We exhaust ourselves
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  preserving people's opinions of us. We exhaust
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  ourselves carrying the very things we hoped would
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  eventually carry us. And then God says, put it
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  down. Because whatever you must constantly carry
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  in order for it to save you cannot be your savior.
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  There's only one who says, you do not have to
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  carry me, I will carry you. And perhaps this
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  explains why God sometimes allows the things
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  we leaned upon. to become unstable, not because
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  he wants to destroy us, but because he wants
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  to reveal what has actually been holding us.
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  Sometimes divine intervention looks like God
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  removing something you thought you needed so
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  that you can discover you are never being sustained
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  by it. The job changed, but somehow you survived.
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  The relationship ended, but somehow God sustained
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  you. The door closed, but another path appeared.
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  The people you expected to remain beside you
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  disappeared, but somehow you kept moving. The
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  resources became smaller, but somehow there was
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  still enough. And eventually you begin to understand
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  that thing was never carrying me. God was, and
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  this is why there are moments when God allows
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  our supports to shake. Because Hebrews tells
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  us that there are things that can be shaken,
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  and there are things that cannot be shaken. Sometimes
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  we have built our sense of security upon things
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  that can move, and God loves us too much to allow
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  temporary things to convince us that they are
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  permanent. So He brings us back to Himself, not
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  always comfortably, not always quickly, not always
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  with an explanation. but faithfully and eventually
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  we discover that underneath everything we thought
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  was holding us were the everlasting arms of God.
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  Part 2 As a father carries his son. Now go back
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  with me to Deuteronomy because Moses does not
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  merely say that God carried Israel. He tells
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  us how he carried them. As a father carries his
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  son. That changes everything. This is not the
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  picture of someone transporting an object. This
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  is relationship. This is affection. This is belonging.
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  A father does not carry his exhausted child because
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  the child has earned transportation. He carries
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  him because that is his son. And maybe this is
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  the revelation we were approaching in our previous
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  conversation. God does not carry you only because
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  you are weak. God carries you because you belong
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  to Him. Weakness may be the moment when you become
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  conscious of His arms, but relationship is the
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  reason those arms were available in the first
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  place. Israel was not perfect in the wilderness.
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  They complained. They doubted. They became afraid.
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  They questioned Moses. They questioned God. There
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  were moments when they wanted to return to Egypt.
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  There were moments of rebellion. And yet when
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  Moses looks backward over the journey, he says,
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  God carried you. That does not excuse rebellion.
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  It reveals mercy. Because if God's faithfulness
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  depended entirely upon Israel's emotional consistency,
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  Israel would never have reached the promised
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  land. And if we are truthful, There are seasons
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  when our own emotional consistency is not very
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  impressive either. There are mornings when faith
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  feels strong. There are nights when questions
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  become loud. There are moments when we declare
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  God's promises boldly. And there are moments
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  when all we can say is, Lord, help me. There
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  are seasons when prayer flows naturally. And
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  there are seasons when prayer feels like lifting
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  something heavier than ourselves. But the beauty
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  of the father's arms is that his strength is
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  not determined by the strength of the child he
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  is carrying. The child may be exhausted. The
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  father is not. The child may not know the road.
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  The father does. The child may not know how far
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  remains. The father knows. The child may fall
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  asleep in his arms. The father continues walking.
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  And somebody listening to me needs to hear this.
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  You have been afraid that because you are tired,
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  God must be tired of you. Those are two completely
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  different things. Your exhaustion does not exhaust
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  God. Your inability to understand does not confuse
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  God. Your weakness does not weaken God. and your
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  inability to see tomorrow does not mean God has
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  lost the road. Sometimes faith is not having
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  enough strength to run. Sometimes faith is simply
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  allowing yourself to be carried. And perhaps
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  that is why surrender is so difficult for strong
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  people. We are accustomed to walking. We are
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  accustomed to solving. We are accustomed to carrying
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  responsibilities. We are accustomed to being
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  the person others depend upon. We know how to
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  fight. We know how to work. We know how to endure.
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  But eventually, God may allow us to reach a place
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  where our greatest act of faith is no longer
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  doing something for Him. It is allowing Him to
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  do something for us. To sustain us. To hold us.
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  To lead us. To carry us. Because there are places
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  in the journey where your strength cannot take
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  you. But his arms can. And once you understand
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  that, divine intervention becomes much larger
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  than the miracle you are waiting to see. You
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  begin to recognize that perhaps the miracle has
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  already begun. Because you woke up this morning.
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  You are still believing. You are still praying.
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  You are still standing. You are still moving.
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  You still have a desire for God. Something inside
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  you still believes there is another chapter.
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  And after everything that tried to convince you
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  otherwise, you are still here. Maybe you have
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  been waiting for divine intervention to arrive,
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  but perhaps divine intervention has been underneath
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  you the entire time. Perhaps the reason you have
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  not fallen as far as you could have fallen is
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  because there were arms beneath you. And perhaps
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  the reason you have not been destroyed by everything
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  you have walked through is because the one carrying
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  you has already declared, I have made you. I
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  will sustain you. I will carry you. And I will
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  rescue you. And that raises another question.
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  If God carries us as a father carries his child,
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  where is he carrying us? Because God does not
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  carry his children without purpose. Israel was
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  being carried through a wilderness, yes. But
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  the wilderness was not the destination. There
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  was somewhere God was taking them. And maybe
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  that is the next mystery we need to explore.
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  Because divine intervention is not only about
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  what God is carrying you through. Sometimes the
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  greater revelation is what God is carrying you
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  toward. Maybe you thought God was carrying you
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  simply because you could no longer walk. But
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  what if there is another reason? What if God
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  is carrying you because there is somewhere you
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  still have to go? The wilderness was never Israel's
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  destination. The pit was never Joseph's destination.
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  The broom tree was never Elijah's destination.
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  And the shepherd does not find the sheep merely
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  to hold it in the place where he found it. He
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  places it upon his shoulders and carries it home.
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  So perhaps the question is no longer simply,
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  God, why are you carrying me through this? Perhaps
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  the question becomes, God, where are you carrying
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  me? Because divine intervention is not only about
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  what God is bringing you through. Sometimes divine
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  intervention is about what God is bringing you
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  toward. And that is where we will continue our
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  conversation next time. We are going to follow
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  Israel beyond the wilderness. We are going to
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  follow Joseph beyond the prison. We are going
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  to look at Elijah beyond the broom tree, and
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  we are going to discover that when God sustains
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  a life, there is often still an assignment, a
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  destination, a purpose or a promise ahead. So
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  until next time, stay encouraged, stay in faith,
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  and even when you cannot understand the road
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  beneath you, trust the arms that are carrying
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  you. Stay tuned as we continue our conversation.
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  in the mystery of divine intervention. Because
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  perhaps God is not simply carrying you through
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  something. Perhaps He is carrying you towards
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  something. Until next time, this is Pamoja Ministry.
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  One conversation, one story, one revelation at
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  a time. God bless you.