5/31/13 Is your situation hopeless?

undefined
preachalways!
Discussions about Healing index
Is your situation hopeless?

If it is, good! You won't be the first person to be delivered from a

totally hopeless situation! God has delivered his people from so
many hopeless situations, it would be hard to count them all. You
may fit right into the pattern. First, the hopeless situation, then the
supernatural deliverance that was impossible through natural
means.

Of course, I won't kid myself into thinking that you necessarily

enjoy being in a hopeless situation, such as a report that you have
an incurable disease that will slowly destroy your body, hurting
and embarrassing you, making you an increasing burden to your
family's time and money. But at least a report like that defines the
situation clearly. You must either believe God or die. Either you
put his Word to work in your life, or your life on earth will end. In
a way, that is a better situation than one where the doctors think
that trying eleven different treatments might cure you or delay the
progression of your illness. In the case where they might be able to
help you, you can lean on the arm of flesh and waver in your walk
with God more easily. When it's God or an early exit, the choice is
easy. You have no choice but to hear God's Word and act on it.

It's funny how we get so down on the spies with the bad report
who could not enter Canaan, and the grumblers who predicted
that the Egyptian army would "terminate" them at the Red Sea, but
then when we face a situation that pales in comparison, we don't
want to walk the walk of faith that Moses did. We admire Moses
for his courage and trust in God, but we want to run away from
the situation rather than be taken through it. We get an electric bill
in the mail that we can't pay and we panic. Let me tell you, God
can deliver you from things much bigger than electric bills!

The Israelites were not just being sued at the Red Sea. They were
not just going to be inconvenienced. They were going to die. There
was no way out. They were surrounded. They followed God's
instructions, and it looked like God had let them down and given Trust Rating
them up to die. Some even said so. Picture what they must have
feared. No life to enjoy a spouse and children, no chance to ever
59%
preachalways.tripod.com
fulfill your dreams and make something of your talents. Just a sure,
ugly death at the hands of the merciless Egyptians. Just watching
the enemy butcher your family and friends, knowing that you're
next. It was over; there was no way out. This is not a fairy tale.
This happened to around two million real flesh-and-blood people
like you! Death was certain and everything was hopeless -- except
for one thing. These people had obeyed God's Word, and God
was not going to let them fail. God had promised them something -
- the land of Canaan. God's promise meant more than all the
Egyptian chariots put together.

God's promise was the only thing these people had, but it was all
they needed. When God's promise is the only thing you have, rest
assured that it is all you need, too. And God has provided healing
for your body even if the doctors have given up hope. God parted
preachalways.tripod.com/template27.htm
the Red Sea for the Israelites. That was impossible -- there was 1/4
5/31/13 Is your situation hopeless?
the Red Sea for the Israelites. That was impossible -- there was
just no way it could happen. God can heal whatever is wrong with
your body even when seems to be no way that it could happen.

Later, God told Israel to conquer Jericho. Talk about "Mission:

Impossible!" The shout of victory out of their mouths caused
Jericho's walls to fall flat. The shout of victory out of your mouth
can flatten the walls that stand before you, no matter how
impenetrable they seem. God is well able to give you the victory
when you can't possibly figure out a way to get it.

How about Daniel? Wouldn't you consider being thrown into a

den of lions to be a hopeless situation? It was certain death. We
get religious about it because we know the outcome, but Daniel
was going to be executed as a criminal. They just happened to use
lions instead of gas chambers, electric chairs, firing squads or lethal
injections back then. He would have made a good subject for one
of those "death row" movies. All appeals have failed. They throw a
switch or pull their triggers. But the gas that is supposed to end his
life somehow doesn't do it. The electricity in the chair doesn't hurt
him. The bullets all miss. He's not dead. This is a fairly good
illustration of what it must have felt like to be Daniel. He was a
regular person like you, not some comic book hero. I'm sure he
had some disagreeable feelings before he got thrown to the lions.
How would you feel if you were about to be executed using the
standard procedure where you're from? All Daniel had was God,
and God was all he needed.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were also supposed to be

executed for their stand for God. Their situation was hopeless,
too. You just don't survive being thrown into a furnace. The
people who threw them in didn't even survive! Don't you suppose
they might have had some tense moments, even though they knew
that God would deliver them? It was God or nothing, and God
was all they needed.

What about David at Ziglag, where the enemy had torched the
city, carried off the women and children captive (including David's
two wives), and his own army started to commit treason against
him by speaking of stoning him? How would you like to be David
that day? This really happened to a real person. David did not
have the advantage of reading 1 Samuel 30 to see the outcome.
David was probably about ready to die! He was "greatly
distressed." I suppose that if bandits kidnapped your family and
burned down your house, you would be greatly distressed, too.
Don't get religious about it; you know full well that you would not
consider it a good day. David "encouraged himself in the Lord his
God," prayed and got instructions from God, and got everything
back! If David had quit, he would not have gotten anything other
than a fatal stoning. He chose to encourage himself in the Lord
despite impossible circumstances. If David can do it and get the
victory, so can you! David didn't have your new and better
covenant!

Consider Hezekiah's dilemma. He had at least 185,000 men

coming at his city, intent on conquering it. How would you like to
have 185,000 people heading toward your town, intent to take it
over? Not only that, but they've hired a good PR man who has
preachalways.tripod.com/template27.htm 2/4
5/31/13 Is your situation hopeless?
over? Not only that, but they've hired a good PR man who has
managed to put fear into the people in your town so that they feel
defeated before the battle even starts. You can see why Hezekiah
rent his clothes. (Rent means tore; it does not mean that Hezekiah
visited the local tux shop.) When he cried out to God, God sent an
angel and killed 185,000 people in one night. (Side note covered
elsewhere in this book: God can and will remove you from the
picture if you actively set yourself against his works. You won't
stop his plans. God reserves wrath for his enemies. The idea is not
to make yourself one of his enemies.)

Now on the other hand, King Asa had a hopeless situation -- an

exceedingly great disease. King Asa did not encourage himself in
the Lord his God. He did not seek God at all. He looked only to

doctors who could not cure him. He died. Asa served the same
God that David, Daniel, Hezekiah and the others did. In times
past, his trust in God delivered Israel in battle. But when he
stopped trusting God, God stopped coming through for him.

Backslidden Israel got into some really hopeless situations, and the
people died!

From this, we see that being in a hopeless situation is by itself no

guarantee that you will be delivered. If you stay true to God and to
his Word, you will be, but if you doubt him or trust in man, he will
not necessarily come through for you. God does the impossible
stuff but it is up to you to trust him and take him at his word.

Now suppose that you took the religious world's approach to a

deadly illness. You just accept it as the will of God. You pray to
die as painlessly as possible and to have peace while so doing.
There won't be any deliverance for you if you do that -- you'll just
die! The greats of faith listed above were actively trusting God to
deliver them. Their deliverance did not just happen. Hezekiah got
no help until he asked for it. Just because you are a Christian does
not mean that God will just swoop down from heaven and heal
you, any more than he would just swoop down and save sinners
irrespective of his Word.

The woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 got no help until she
reached out and received it from God. I don't mind stating that
God can and does use doctors, but he didn't use the doctors who
worked on this woman. She lost everything paying their bills and
still only got worse. She had an incurable disease, but her faith got
her healed of it. (That's not being arrogant; Jesus himself said that
her faith had made her well. Argue with him if you don't like that.)

Think of all the blind and deaf people Jesus healed. Their situations
were incurable. No one else was going around healing those
people. Yet nothing was impossible when men came to the Savior.
He is the same Miracle-Worker today.

Your illness is curable, even if your doctor says it isn't. The Great
Physician stands ready and able to heal you. He will be more than
happy to heal you of your hopeless terminal illness!
| | | | | | |

preachalways.tripod.com/template27.htm 3/4
5/31/13 Is your situation hopeless?

preachalways.tripod.com/template27.htm 4/4