Psalms 91:9-10, "Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."
I have an apology to make for those who were reading the Psalm 91 articles as I was writing them. The plain truth is that I got stuck on these two verses and it has taken the better part of a year or so to get "unstuck." It is not easy for me to say that. Everything in me says...your a preacher. How can you teach and get stuck on something as big as scripture? Well, the way that happens is that I get mired down in something I think we all do at times. I was not living this particular scripture like I should be and did not feel that I could write about something that I had not experienced myself. Well now. How arrogant can one actually be? Hmmm? So, I do apologise to all of you who have patiently waited for the next verse to be explained as I have understood it myself. I had better also explain that only when I hear the Word of God coming from God do I actually write anyway. My ears must have been stuck with spiritual peanut butter.
However, now I am ready to go on. Are you? Let's GO!
God has consistently told us that He and only He is our refuge and our house to live in. In the first verse (Ps 91:1), we are told that those who dwell (live) in the secret place will have the refuge we desire. So, now He tells us that BECAUSE we have made God our Lord, Who is the safety place we seek, THEN and only then, are we protected from the evil and the plagues that could come upon us and our dwelling place.
Now, you say that you have illness in the house. There are evil things that happen to the family. Yep, that was where I got hung up too. It's quite difficult to see how God could protect us if all these things are coming upon us, right? But, the verse is quite clear that it is BECAUSE you have made God your Lord and you choose to dwell in that secret place of the Most High. The question now is...have you done that? If not, that is probably the biggest problem to getting the answer to that one matter. It had been the problem that I had. We had illness and evil things going on within our family at our home and with our extended family as well. How can these things be happening when we do all we know to do?
That would be because we are not actually doing all we can, only all we KNOW to do. What has caused the difference here? In each case, you must look to your own walk with the Lord to see what is going on. Is it possible that you do not spend enough time with the Lord each day? Is it possible that you have something against someone that has not been forgiven? Is it likely that you are hung up with some type of legal problem in regard to scripture? For example, do you believe that in order to get to the place of being in the safety net of God that you had to attain some level of spirituality first?
I praise God that He puts us into the place where we are protected by Him in all that we do if ONLY we will get to know Him. It does take spending time with the Lord to find yourself in that secret place for it is only when you seek the Lord Himself do you find what you are looking for.
An example of someone who was walking the way the Lord wanted was Noah. He found favor in the eyes of the Lord. How? Because he chose to do what God told him to do, no matter what the cost. He chose to walk the way the Lord said to walk. God said. Noah obeyed. Ouch! That WORD is a tough one. OBEY.
When Noah obeyed God by building the ark that he, his wife, sons and sons' wives went into when the rain began, the Lord protected him from all of the wrath that God was putting on the earth. The rain came down for 40 days and nights. The earth was flooded to the point that no land showed at all. It was covered in water. Noah and family were totally sheltered from all of that because he obeyed God. That is what God is telling us to do too. Obey Him.
Today, rather than use 'that word' in marriage ceremonies, some folks choose to write their own vows that do not contain that part. Most of us shudder to think we have to actually DO that...you know, the OOOO word. OBEY. Obey your husband. Obey the boss. Obey your parents. Obey God. It follows that if we are resisting doing that with one, it's highly likely that we are doing the same with the other.
That's where I got stuck last year. I was choosing, I said CHOOSING, to disobey God when I could not write this article. The whole of Psalm 91 is wrapped up in how much you are willing to obey God. If not, then those things He has promised are missed by US because we did not walk in line with His Word. It is as simple as that.
God has promised us heaven on earth if only we will listen to Him and do as He has commanded us to do. If only we would obey the Father, we could have the desires of our heart. Um, like what? Back to the verses we are studying. Because we have made the Lord God our refuge and dwelling place, there shall NO EVIL befall us or plagues come into our dwelling place. We must make God our Master and Lord. We must listen to Him and obey what He says to do. At that point, the Lord gives us what this verse says we can have.
Uh, how come I can't have it anyway? The reason that God cannot give the gift of refuge to you if you are not in God's will is because you will not be able to accept it. It will sound foolish to your ears. You will have stepped out of the shadow, out of the refuge He has already provided. God cannot be in the same place with sin. It will be fried. So, how can we be there with God, in that secret place or refuge, if we are sinning. The truth is that you can't be there. Only when you are obeying God's will can you have that safety place.
Jesus is calling you right now to come to that place of safety and security. All you need do is ask Him. If you have not asked the Lord Jesus into your heart, please consider doing so today. If, for whatever reason, you have strayed from the path God has given to you, please run back to Him, not away from Him. You can never earn the worthiness to be near Him. He gives that to you as a gift when you ask Jesus, God's Son, into your heart. Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for you to pay for your sins so that you do not have to do that. You must only ask forgiveness and He will give it to you, no matter what you have done! What an awesome thing that is. He is an awesome God! I pray that God blesses each reader of this article!
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