WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.919 Welcome to Pomoja Ministry. In our previous conversation, 00:00:04.139 --> 00:00:06.700 we discovered something extraordinary about divine 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:10.720 intervention. Sometimes God changes the situation. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.039 Sometimes God moves the enemy. Sometimes God 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.579 opens the sea. Sometimes God closes the mouth 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:22.000 of the lion. Sometimes God enters the furnace. 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:24.820 And sometimes, when our strength has reached 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:27.600 its limit and the journey becomes greater than 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.859 our ability to continue, God does something much 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:35.060 more intimate. He carries us. But there is something 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:38.159 about that revelation that I have not been able 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:42.159 to leave alone. Because after discovering that 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:45.259 Moses described Israel's journey through the 00:00:45.259 --> 00:00:49.219 wilderness by saying, the Lord your God carried 00:00:49.219 --> 00:00:53.609 you as a father carries his son. I began to wonder 00:00:53.609 --> 00:00:56.429 whether being carried by God is actually much 00:00:56.429 --> 00:00:59.409 bigger than what happens during our most difficult 00:00:59.409 --> 00:01:04.030 moments. And then I came to Isaiah 46 and suddenly 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:07.849 the revelation became much larger. Because listen 00:01:07.849 --> 00:01:12.049 to what God says, listen to me, you whom I have 00:01:12.049 --> 00:01:15.409 upheld since your birth and have carried since 00:01:15.409 --> 00:01:19.049 you were born. Even to your old age and gray 00:01:19.049 --> 00:01:23.329 hairs I am he. I am He who will sustain you. 00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:27.310 I have made you, and I will carry you. I will 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:31.390 sustain you, and I will rescue you. There are 00:01:31.390 --> 00:01:34.370 passages of scripture that you can read quickly, 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:37.230 and then there are passages where you need to 00:01:37.230 --> 00:01:41.010 stop. This is one of them. Listen again to the 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:44.750 progression. I have upheld you. I have carried 00:01:44.750 --> 00:01:48.450 you. I will sustain you. I will carry you. I 00:01:48.450 --> 00:01:53.650 will rescue you. past, present, future. God is 00:01:53.650 --> 00:01:56.989 not describing one emergency. He is describing 00:01:56.989 --> 00:02:00.489 a relationship. He does not say, when you become 00:02:00.489 --> 00:02:04.310 weak enough, perhaps I will carry you. He says, 00:02:04.670 --> 00:02:07.109 essentially, I have been carrying you longer 00:02:07.109 --> 00:02:10.610 than you realized. And perhaps that changes the 00:02:10.610 --> 00:02:13.430 entire way we understand divine intervention. 00:02:13.729 --> 00:02:16.490 Because maybe divine intervention is not simply 00:02:16.490 --> 00:02:19.930 what God does when something goes wrong. Maybe 00:02:19.930 --> 00:02:23.789 our entire lives are being sustained by interventions 00:02:23.789 --> 00:02:27.590 we never see. Maybe there are things God prevented 00:02:27.590 --> 00:02:31.110 that you will never know He prevented. Maybe 00:02:31.110 --> 00:02:34.349 there are doors He closed that frustrated you 00:02:34.349 --> 00:02:36.669 at the time but protected you from something 00:02:36.669 --> 00:02:40.110 you could not see. Maybe there are relationships 00:02:40.110 --> 00:02:43.050 that ended because God knew where they were taking 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:46.550 you. Maybe there are delays you interpreted as 00:02:46.550 --> 00:02:50.259 rejection. that were actually protection. Maybe 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:53.360 there are moments when God redirected your steps 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:56.719 without ever explaining what was waiting on the 00:02:56.719 --> 00:02:59.560 road you wanted to take. And maybe there are 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:02.819 prayers you thought God ignored because His answer 00:03:02.819 --> 00:03:06.120 did not look like what you requested. What if 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:08.639 some of the greatest interventions of your life 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:11.460 are interventions you will never know happened? 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:15.099 That is the mystery. We celebrate the accident 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:18.639 God delivered us from. But how do you celebrate 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.500 the accident that never happened? Because God 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:25.620 redirected you five minutes earlier. We celebrate 00:03:25.620 --> 00:03:29.479 the sickness God healed. But what about the danger 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:32.159 from which He protected you without ever allowing 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:35.479 you to know it was approaching? We celebrate 00:03:35.479 --> 00:03:38.879 the enemy God defeated in front of us. But what 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:41.539 about the battles God fought that never reached 00:03:41.539 --> 00:03:45.080 our door? We thank God for the doors He opened. 00:03:45.389 --> 00:03:48.509 But perhaps eternity will reveal that we should 00:03:48.509 --> 00:03:51.610 thank Him just as much for the doors He refused 00:03:51.610 --> 00:03:55.449 to open, because divine intervention is not limited 00:03:55.449 --> 00:03:59.909 to what we can recognize. And Isaiah 46 introduces 00:03:59.909 --> 00:04:03.469 us to a God whose sustaining activity begins 00:04:03.469 --> 00:04:07.469 long before we become conscious of it. I have 00:04:07.469 --> 00:04:10.330 carried you since you were born. Think about 00:04:10.330 --> 00:04:14.250 that. Before you understood faith, He carried 00:04:14.250 --> 00:04:18.560 you. Before you understood prayer, he carried 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:22.660 you. Before you understood purpose, he carried 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:25.720 you. Before you knew what your life would become, 00:04:26.459 --> 00:04:29.480 he carried you. Before you understood the battles 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:34.879 ahead, he carried you. And God says, even to 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:38.699 your old age and gray hairs, I will still be 00:04:38.699 --> 00:04:42.680 there. There's no expiration date on his faithfulness. 00:04:42.939 --> 00:04:45.839 There's no stage of your journey where God suddenly 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:49.620 says, you have come far enough, now continue 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:53.079 by yourself. The same God who carried you yesterday 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:58.639 says, I will carry you. Part one, the difference 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:01.779 between the gods you carry and the God who carries 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:06.079 you. But Isaiah 46 becomes even more powerful 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:09.040 when we understand why God said those words. 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:13.279 Because God was drawing a contrast. Babylon had 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:18.199 gods, bel -nabo, idols fashioned by human hands. 00:05:18.779 --> 00:05:21.759 People considered them powerful. They decorated 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:25.879 them, honored them, bowed before them, trusted 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:29.379 them. But there was a problem. Those gods could 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:32.540 not move. If their worshippers wanted them somewhere 00:05:32.540 --> 00:05:35.709 else, someone had to pick them up. Someone had 00:05:35.709 --> 00:05:38.930 to place them on an animal. Someone had to transport 00:05:38.930 --> 00:05:42.129 them. Someone had to protect them. Someone had 00:05:42.129 --> 00:05:44.829 to carry the very god they were asking to carry 00:05:44.829 --> 00:05:48.709 their burdens. And Isaiah paints an almost tragic 00:05:48.709 --> 00:05:52.569 picture. The idols are loaded onto animals. The 00:05:52.569 --> 00:05:55.290 animals become exhausted carrying the weight. 00:05:55.750 --> 00:05:58.670 The people are tired. The animals are tired. 00:05:59.029 --> 00:06:01.790 And the gods cannot help anyone, because the 00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:04.959 gods themselves must be carried. Then the God 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:08.800 of Israel speaks, and essentially he says, I 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:12.839 am not like them. You do not carry me. I carry 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:16.920 you. What a distinction. False gods become burdens. 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:21.300 The living God carries burdens. False gods require 00:06:21.300 --> 00:06:24.660 human strength to sustain them. The living God 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:28.139 becomes the strength sustaining humanity. False 00:06:28.139 --> 00:06:31.879 gods must be protected. The living God protects. 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:35.620 False gods must be transported. The living god 00:06:35.620 --> 00:06:38.920 says, I have carried you since birth, and even 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:41.839 when your hair becomes gray, I will still carry 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:45.079 you. And perhaps this is where this conversation 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:48.199 becomes uncomfortable, because we may not bow 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:51.600 before statues called Belle or Nebo today, but 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.540 humanity still creates things that we expect 00:06:54.540 --> 00:06:59.740 to carry us. Money, positions, careers, relationships, 00:07:00.459 --> 00:07:04.889 influence. connections, reputation, success, 00:07:05.509 --> 00:07:10.930 education, titles, human approval. We place enormous 00:07:10.930 --> 00:07:14.810 expectations upon these things. We say, perhaps 00:07:14.810 --> 00:07:18.290 without words, if I can just reach this level, 00:07:18.290 --> 00:07:22.089 I will be secure. If I can just earn this amount, 00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:25.750 I will have peace. If this person stays in my 00:07:25.750 --> 00:07:29.550 life, I will be okay. If I can maintain this 00:07:29.550 --> 00:07:33.480 position, I will be safe. If people continue 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:38.000 respecting me, I will know who I am. And slowly, 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:41.860 without realizing it, we begin carrying things 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:45.699 that were never designed to carry us. We exhaust 00:07:45.699 --> 00:07:49.560 ourselves maintaining an image. We exhaust ourselves 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:53.439 protecting a position. We exhaust ourselves trying 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:57.240 to control relationships. We exhaust ourselves 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:00.759 preserving people's opinions of us. We exhaust 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:04.240 ourselves carrying the very things we hoped would 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:08.879 eventually carry us. And then God says, put it 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:12.639 down. Because whatever you must constantly carry 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:15.759 in order for it to save you cannot be your savior. 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:20.079 There's only one who says, you do not have to 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:24.120 carry me, I will carry you. And perhaps this 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.399 explains why God sometimes allows the things 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:31.459 we leaned upon. to become unstable, not because 00:08:31.459 --> 00:08:34.919 he wants to destroy us, but because he wants 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:38.159 to reveal what has actually been holding us. 00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:42.259 Sometimes divine intervention looks like God 00:08:42.259 --> 00:08:45.080 removing something you thought you needed so 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:47.919 that you can discover you are never being sustained 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:52.539 by it. The job changed, but somehow you survived. 00:08:53.320 --> 00:08:57.639 The relationship ended, but somehow God sustained 00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:01.610 you. The door closed, but another path appeared. 00:09:02.370 --> 00:09:04.929 The people you expected to remain beside you 00:09:04.929 --> 00:09:09.529 disappeared, but somehow you kept moving. The 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:13.350 resources became smaller, but somehow there was 00:09:13.350 --> 00:09:17.309 still enough. And eventually you begin to understand 00:09:17.309 --> 00:09:22.190 that thing was never carrying me. God was, and 00:09:22.190 --> 00:09:25.529 this is why there are moments when God allows 00:09:25.529 --> 00:09:29.269 our supports to shake. Because Hebrews tells 00:09:29.269 --> 00:09:31.889 us that there are things that can be shaken, 00:09:32.409 --> 00:09:35.750 and there are things that cannot be shaken. Sometimes 00:09:35.750 --> 00:09:39.029 we have built our sense of security upon things 00:09:39.029 --> 00:09:43.090 that can move, and God loves us too much to allow 00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:46.330 temporary things to convince us that they are 00:09:46.330 --> 00:09:50.850 permanent. So He brings us back to Himself, not 00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:54.909 always comfortably, not always quickly, not always 00:09:54.909 --> 00:09:58.940 with an explanation. but faithfully and eventually 00:09:58.940 --> 00:10:01.899 we discover that underneath everything we thought 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:06.460 was holding us were the everlasting arms of God. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:12.340 Part 2 As a father carries his son. Now go back 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:16.399 with me to Deuteronomy because Moses does not 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:19.559 merely say that God carried Israel. He tells 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:23.600 us how he carried them. As a father carries his 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.480 son. That changes everything. This is not the 00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:30.299 picture of someone transporting an object. This 00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:33.799 is relationship. This is affection. This is belonging. 00:10:34.179 --> 00:10:37.500 A father does not carry his exhausted child because 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:40.480 the child has earned transportation. He carries 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:43.720 him because that is his son. And maybe this is 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.899 the revelation we were approaching in our previous 00:10:46.899 --> 00:10:50.620 conversation. God does not carry you only because 00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:54.009 you are weak. God carries you because you belong 00:10:54.009 --> 00:10:57.549 to Him. Weakness may be the moment when you become 00:10:57.549 --> 00:11:01.190 conscious of His arms, but relationship is the 00:11:01.190 --> 00:11:04.649 reason those arms were available in the first 00:11:04.649 --> 00:11:08.269 place. Israel was not perfect in the wilderness. 00:11:08.529 --> 00:11:12.169 They complained. They doubted. They became afraid. 00:11:12.450 --> 00:11:16.220 They questioned Moses. They questioned God. There 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:19.500 were moments when they wanted to return to Egypt. 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:22.740 There were moments of rebellion. And yet when 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:25.779 Moses looks backward over the journey, he says, 00:11:26.059 --> 00:11:29.580 God carried you. That does not excuse rebellion. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:33.980 It reveals mercy. Because if God's faithfulness 00:11:33.980 --> 00:11:38.980 depended entirely upon Israel's emotional consistency, 00:11:39.460 --> 00:11:42.500 Israel would never have reached the promised 00:11:42.500 --> 00:11:45.879 land. And if we are truthful, There are seasons 00:11:45.879 --> 00:11:49.960 when our own emotional consistency is not very 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:52.840 impressive either. There are mornings when faith 00:11:52.840 --> 00:11:56.279 feels strong. There are nights when questions 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:59.759 become loud. There are moments when we declare 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:03.179 God's promises boldly. And there are moments 00:12:03.179 --> 00:12:08.539 when all we can say is, Lord, help me. There 00:12:08.539 --> 00:12:12.220 are seasons when prayer flows naturally. And 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:16.120 there are seasons when prayer feels like lifting 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:19.860 something heavier than ourselves. But the beauty 00:12:19.860 --> 00:12:23.159 of the father's arms is that his strength is 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:25.960 not determined by the strength of the child he 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:29.659 is carrying. The child may be exhausted. The 00:12:29.659 --> 00:12:33.240 father is not. The child may not know the road. 00:12:33.620 --> 00:12:37.559 The father does. The child may not know how far 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:41.600 remains. The father knows. The child may fall 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:45.580 asleep in his arms. The father continues walking. 00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:49.039 And somebody listening to me needs to hear this. 00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:52.759 You have been afraid that because you are tired, 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:56.559 God must be tired of you. Those are two completely 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:00.419 different things. Your exhaustion does not exhaust 00:13:00.419 --> 00:13:04.919 God. Your inability to understand does not confuse 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:09.460 God. Your weakness does not weaken God. and your 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:13.320 inability to see tomorrow does not mean God has 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:16.580 lost the road. Sometimes faith is not having 00:13:16.580 --> 00:13:20.320 enough strength to run. Sometimes faith is simply 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.179 allowing yourself to be carried. And perhaps 00:13:24.179 --> 00:13:27.919 that is why surrender is so difficult for strong 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:31.580 people. We are accustomed to walking. We are 00:13:31.580 --> 00:13:34.919 accustomed to solving. We are accustomed to carrying 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:38.500 responsibilities. We are accustomed to being 00:13:38.500 --> 00:13:42.259 the person others depend upon. We know how to 00:13:42.259 --> 00:13:46.360 fight. We know how to work. We know how to endure. 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:50.340 But eventually, God may allow us to reach a place 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:53.639 where our greatest act of faith is no longer 00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:57.419 doing something for Him. It is allowing Him to 00:13:57.419 --> 00:14:02.820 do something for us. To sustain us. To hold us. 00:14:03.179 --> 00:14:07.710 To lead us. To carry us. Because there are places 00:14:07.710 --> 00:14:09.950 in the journey where your strength cannot take 00:14:09.950 --> 00:14:14.230 you. But his arms can. And once you understand 00:14:14.230 --> 00:14:17.389 that, divine intervention becomes much larger 00:14:17.389 --> 00:14:20.730 than the miracle you are waiting to see. You 00:14:20.730 --> 00:14:23.850 begin to recognize that perhaps the miracle has 00:14:23.850 --> 00:14:27.169 already begun. Because you woke up this morning. 00:14:27.830 --> 00:14:30.789 You are still believing. You are still praying. 00:14:31.509 --> 00:14:34.509 You are still standing. You are still moving. 00:14:35.210 --> 00:14:39.529 You still have a desire for God. Something inside 00:14:39.529 --> 00:14:42.490 you still believes there is another chapter. 00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:45.750 And after everything that tried to convince you 00:14:45.750 --> 00:14:49.269 otherwise, you are still here. Maybe you have 00:14:49.269 --> 00:14:52.129 been waiting for divine intervention to arrive, 00:14:52.490 --> 00:14:55.330 but perhaps divine intervention has been underneath 00:14:55.330 --> 00:14:59.549 you the entire time. Perhaps the reason you have 00:14:59.549 --> 00:15:03.299 not fallen as far as you could have fallen is 00:15:03.299 --> 00:15:07.000 because there were arms beneath you. And perhaps 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:09.960 the reason you have not been destroyed by everything 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:13.899 you have walked through is because the one carrying 00:15:13.899 --> 00:15:18.179 you has already declared, I have made you. I 00:15:18.179 --> 00:15:22.620 will sustain you. I will carry you. And I will 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:25.899 rescue you. And that raises another question. 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:29.379 If God carries us as a father carries his child, 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:33.740 where is he carrying us? Because God does not 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:37.139 carry his children without purpose. Israel was 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:41.000 being carried through a wilderness, yes. But 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.379 the wilderness was not the destination. There 00:15:44.379 --> 00:15:47.879 was somewhere God was taking them. And maybe 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:50.620 that is the next mystery we need to explore. 00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:54.080 Because divine intervention is not only about 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:57.659 what God is carrying you through. Sometimes the 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:00.580 greater revelation is what God is carrying you 00:16:00.580 --> 00:16:04.110 toward. Maybe you thought God was carrying you 00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:06.350 simply because you could no longer walk. But 00:16:06.350 --> 00:16:08.610 what if there is another reason? What if God 00:16:08.610 --> 00:16:10.570 is carrying you because there is somewhere you 00:16:10.570 --> 00:16:13.490 still have to go? The wilderness was never Israel's 00:16:13.490 --> 00:16:16.590 destination. The pit was never Joseph's destination. 00:16:16.809 --> 00:16:20.070 The broom tree was never Elijah's destination. 00:16:20.289 --> 00:16:22.830 And the shepherd does not find the sheep merely 00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:25.289 to hold it in the place where he found it. He 00:16:25.289 --> 00:16:28.409 places it upon his shoulders and carries it home. 00:16:28.570 --> 00:16:31.610 So perhaps the question is no longer simply, 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:35.340 God, why are you carrying me through this? Perhaps 00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:39.019 the question becomes, God, where are you carrying 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:42.039 me? Because divine intervention is not only about 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:45.419 what God is bringing you through. Sometimes divine 00:16:45.419 --> 00:16:48.500 intervention is about what God is bringing you 00:16:48.500 --> 00:16:51.659 toward. And that is where we will continue our 00:16:51.659 --> 00:16:54.440 conversation next time. We are going to follow 00:16:54.440 --> 00:16:57.539 Israel beyond the wilderness. We are going to 00:16:57.539 --> 00:17:00.519 follow Joseph beyond the prison. We are going 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:04.119 to look at Elijah beyond the broom tree, and 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:07.059 we are going to discover that when God sustains 00:17:07.059 --> 00:17:10.500 a life, there is often still an assignment, a 00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:14.039 destination, a purpose or a promise ahead. So 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:18.940 until next time, stay encouraged, stay in faith, 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:21.640 and even when you cannot understand the road 00:17:21.640 --> 00:17:24.839 beneath you, trust the arms that are carrying 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:28.759 you. Stay tuned as we continue our conversation. 00:17:28.890 --> 00:17:32.609 in the mystery of divine intervention. Because 00:17:32.609 --> 00:17:36.170 perhaps God is not simply carrying you through 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:40.430 something. Perhaps He is carrying you towards 00:17:40.430 --> 00:17:45.190 something. Until next time, this is Pamoja Ministry. 00:17:45.509 --> 00:17:49.509 One conversation, one story, one revelation at 00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:51.549 a time. God bless you.