Welcome to Pomoja Ministry. There is a phrase
hidden throughout scripture that reveals another
dimension of divine intervention. It is not always
spoken with the exact same words. Sometimes it
appears as a command, sometimes as a limitation,
sometimes as a boundary, sometimes as protection.
But the message is the same. You may come this
far, but no farther. And perhaps this is one
of the most comforting truths we can discover
about the sovereignty of God. Because there are
moments when God does not prevent the battle
from approaching. He does not always stop the
fire before it is lit. He does not always prevent
the lions from being around you. He does not
always stop the storm from forming. He does not
always prevent the enemy from pursuing. He does
not always prevent the trial from entering the
story. But scripture repeatedly shows us something
extraordinary. What God permits to approach does
not automatically receive unlimited permission
to destroy. There can be a boundary. There can
be a limit. There can be a line established by
divine authority. And when heaven says, no farther,
nothing crosses that line without permission.
One of the most powerful pictures of this is
found in the book of Job. God speaks about the
sea and asks, who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb? And then God
says, this far you may come and no farther. Here
is where your proud waves halt. Think about that
image. The sea is powerful. The waves are violent.
The water moves with enormous force, but God
tells the sea where to stop. The ocean does not
decide its own boundary. The waves do not determine
how far they are allowed to travel. God establishes
the line, and perhaps creation itself is preaching.
The waves can rise, but there is a limit. The
storm can rage, but there is a boundary. The
water can move. But heaven has already said,
this far and no farther. And perhaps some of
us need to hear that in our own lives. There
are things that have already come farther than
we wanted. A problem came farther than we expected.
A betrayal went deeper than we imagined. A trial
lasted longer than we hoped. A battle reached
areas of our lives we thought were protected.
And because it came that far, we became afraid
that it could go anywhere. But that is not necessarily
true. The fact that something reached you does
not mean it owns you. The fact that something
wounded you does not mean it will finish you.
The fact that something entered the story does
not mean it controls the ending. Because there
is still a God who can say, no farther. This
becomes even clearer in Job's story. Satan appears
before God and speaks about Job, and God allows
Job to be tested. But notice carefully what happens.
The testing is not unlimited. God establishes
boundaries. At one point, Satan is permitted
to touch what belongs to Job, but not Job himself.
Later, Satan is permitted to afflict Job physically,
but God says, you must spare his life. There
is a boundary. Satan has desire, but desire is
not authority. Satan wants destruction, but destruction
is not automatically permission. Satan pushes,
but heaven establishes the limit. And this is
important because sometimes we imagine spiritual
warfare as though God and the enemy are equal
powers fighting for control. They are not. God
is not struggling to remain sovereign. God is
sovereign. The enemy operates as a creature.
God reigns as creator. And even in Job's darkest
season, Satan never became sovereign over Job's
life. The boundaries remained in God's hands.
Job lost things. Job suffered. Job questioned.
Job grieved. But Satan could not simply decide,
I will take everything, including his life. There
was a line he could not cross. And maybe there
are moments when we need to stop magnifying what
is attacking us and remember who still holds
authority over the boundary. The enemy may be
loud, but God is sovereign. The trial may be
severe, but God is still God. The storm may be
violent, but the storm does not become Lord.
Now go with me to Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. are thrown into the fiery
furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is furious. The furnace
is heated seven times hotter. The soldiers who
throw them in are killed by the heat. Everything
about the environment says destruction. And yet,
when the king looks inside the furnace, he sees
something impossible. The three men are walking
around, unbound, unharmed, and there is a fourth
figure with them. Think about what the fire was
allowed to do. The fire burned the ropes, but
not the men. The fire touched what had bound
them, but could not consume what God was preserving.
There is a mystery here. The same fire that killed
the soldiers outside the furnace became powerless
against the lives God had decided to preserve
inside it. And perhaps this is one of the clearest
pictures of divine boundaries. The fire could
surround them. The fire could heat the atmosphere.
The fire could destroy the ropes. But there was
a line it could not cross. It could not consume
them. And perhaps somebody listening needs to
hear this. There are fires that may burn things
around you without being permitted to burn what
God has placed his hand upon. There are seasons
that may strip away what bound you. while leaving
your purpose intact. There are trials that may
change your environment, without changing God's
intention concerning you. And when Nebuchadnezzar
calls the men out of the furnace, scripture says,
the fire had not harmed their bodies, not a hair
of their heads was singed, their robes were not
scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.
That is extraordinary. They had been inside the
fire, but the fire did not have the final authority
to define them. And perhaps one of the greatest
testimonies of divine intervention is not always
that you avoided the fire. Sometimes it is that
you came out and the fire could not take what
it wanted. Then there is Daniel. Daniel is thrown
into a den of lions. The lions are real. The
danger is real. The sentence is real. But Daniel
survives the night. And when the king asks whether
Daniel's god was able to rescue him, Daniel answers,
my god sent his angel. And he shut the mouths
of the lions. Notice what God did not do. He
did not remove the lions. He did not make the
den disappear. He did not prevent Daniel from
being thrown inside. Instead, he placed a limit
on what the lions were allowed to do. They could
be present. They could surround Daniel, but they
could not consume him. There it is again. No
farther. You may enter the den, but the lions
cannot eat you. You may enter the furnace, but
the fire cannot consume you. You may be sifted,
but your faith will not be surrendered to destruction.
The sea may stand before you, but God can open
a path. through it. The enemy may pursue you,
but there can come a moment when God says, enough.
We touched Peter in our previous conversation.
Jesus tells him, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked
to sift all of you as wheat. The sifting is coming.
Jesus does not say Peter will avoid it. But then
Jesus says, but I have prayed for you, Simon,
that your faith may not fail. Peter still fails
publicly. He still denies Jesus. He still weeps
bitterly. But the failure is not permitted to
become final destruction. Why? Because Jesus
had already prayed for the preservation of Peter's
faith. This is another kind of boundary. The
shaking will come, but it will not take everything.
The failure will hurt, but it will not erase
the calling. The night will be dark, but it will
not become permanent. And perhaps there are seasons
when God does not prevent us from being shaken
because there are things that need to fall away.
Pride, self -confidence, dependence on our own
strength, false ideas about ourselves. Peter
told Jesus, even if everyone else falls away,
I will not. Peter was confident in Peter. Then
the night revealed Peter to Peter, but the sifting
was not the end. Because after resurrection,
Jesus restores him. And later, Peter becomes
a pillar of the early church. The enemy touched
Peter's confidence, but did not take Peter's
calling. He touched Peter's emotions, but did
not own Peter's future. He touched a chapter,
but did not get the book. And perhaps it is the
revelation. The enemy may touch a chapter without
owning the story. Paul gives language to this
mystery. He says, we are hard pressed on every
side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in
despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck
down, but not destroyed. Listen to the structure,
pressed, but not crushed, perplexed, but not
despairing, persecuted, but not abandoned. struck
down, but not destroyed. There is pressure, but
there is a limit. There is pain, but there is
a boundary. There is attack, but there is still
preservation. There is falling, but there is
not final destruction. Paul is describing the
difference between what happened and what God
did not allow it to become. That is divine intervention.
The pressure was real. But it could not crush.
The persecution was real. But it could not produce
abandonment. The strike was real. But it could
not become destruction. And maybe that is how
you need to reinterpret some things in your own
life. Yes, it hurt. But you are still here. Yes,
you were pressed. But you were not crushed. Yes,
you became confused. But you did not lose your
entire hope. Yes, something knocked you down,
but something else kept calling you back to your
feet. Maybe you have been focusing on what touched
you, and not enough on what was unable to finish
you. Now go back to the Red Sea. Israel has Egypt
behind them. The sea is in front of them. There
is nowhere to go. Moses tells the people, do
not be afraid. Stand firm. and you will see the
deliverance the Lord will bring you today." And
then he says, the Egyptians you see today you
will never see again. What a declaration. Israel
had seen Egypt for generations. Egypt had defined
their environment. Egypt had defined their labor.
Egypt had defined their suffering. Egypt had
defined their oppression. But God was establishing
a boundary. Egypt had come far enough. Slavery
had come far enough. Pharaoh had come far enough.
The pursuit had come far enough. There came a
moment when history changed because God said,
no farther. The same waters that opened for Israel
closed over Egypt. And suddenly, the thing that
had pursued them no longer had access to the
next chapter. Maybe that is another form of divine
intervention. Sometimes God carries you while
something pursues you. But there are moments
when God refuses to allow what followed you out
of one season to follow you into the next. The
wilderness ahead belonged to Israel's journey
with God. Pharaoh could not come with them. And
maybe there are things that God will not permit
to accompany you into. where he is taking you.
Not every relationship belongs in the next season.
Not every fear belongs in the next season. Not
every habit belongs in the next season. Not every
wound is supposed to continue controlling you.
Not every voice that defined you in Egypt receives
permission to speak in Canaan. There comes a
moment when heaven says, that went far enough.
But there is something we need to understand.
We do not always get to choose where the boundary
is. We would prefer the boundary to be before
the battle, before the furnace, before the den,
before the sifting, before the betrayal, before
the valley. But sometimes God draws the line
farther into the story than we would have chosen.
The Hebrews were not protected from entering
the furnace, They were protected in the furnace.
Daniel was not protected from the den. He was
protected in the den. Peter was not protected
from failure. He was preserved through failure.
Paul was not protected from pressure. He was
preserved under pressure. And this requires a
deeper kind of faith, because sometimes we pray,
God, don't let this happen. And when something
happens anyway, we assume God has lost control.
But perhaps God is still sovereign even when
the boundary is not where we wanted it. Maybe
we wanted God to say, it cannot approach. And
God said, it may approach, but it cannot destroy.
We wanted no furnace. God said no burning. We
wanted no lions. God said no devouring. We wanted
No sifting. Jesus said, Your faith will not fail.
That does not mean suffering is insignificant.
It does not mean pain should be romanticized.
It means God's preserving power is not limited
to preventing difficulty. He can also establish
limits inside difficulty. And that is one of
the great mysteries of divine intervention. Isaiah
declares, No weapon forged against you will prevail.
Notice something, the promise does not say no
weapon will ever be formed. Weapons may be formed,
plans may be made, opposition may arise, but
formation and success are not the same thing.
Something can be formed against you and still
fail to accomplish its ultimate intention. That
does not mean believers never experience pain
or loss. Scripture itself gives us too many examples
for us to say that, but it does mean opposition
does not possess sovereign authority over God's
purposes. A weapon can be real and still not
be final. A plan can be serious and still not
prevail. A battle can be intense and still encounter
a boundary it cannot cross. So perhaps the question
is not always. Has something been formed against
me? Maybe the better question is, who has final
authority? And for the believer, the answer is
not the weapon, not the enemy, not the circumstance,
not the diagnosis, not the opposition, not the
accusation, not the valley, God. And perhaps
this is where faith rises. There may be things
in your life right now that have come farther
than you wanted. Maybe the fire is already hot.
Maybe the lions are already around you. Maybe
the pressure is already real. Maybe the trial
is already in motion. Maybe the thing you prayed
would never happen has already happened. But
do not assume that because it came this far,
it can go wherever it wants. There is still a
God who establishes boundaries. The sea may rise,
but God has a line. The fire may burn. but God
has a line. The lion may roar, but God has a
line. The enemy may pursue, but God has a line.
And when his sovereign purpose says, no father,
no force in heaven, earth, or hell can overturn
his authority. So today, I refuse to surrender
to fear simply because the battle has approached.
I refuse to assume that proximity means victory.
I refuse to believe that because something touched
my life, it now owns my life. No, the God who
carried me, the God who went before me, the God
who fought battles I never saw, is also the God
who establishes boundaries, and perhaps there
are things that will discover something about
my God before the season is finished. They cannot
go as far as they intended. The fire cannot take
everything. The lions cannot consume everything.
The pressure cannot crush everything. The sifting
cannot destroy everything. The enemy cannot follow
me everywhere. There is a boundary, and perhaps
the very reason I am still standing is because
somewhere along the way. God already said, no
farther. But there is another question. What
happens after God establishes the boundary? What
happens when the enemy has gone as far as God
will permit? What happens when the sea has reached
its limit? What happens when the night has gone
as far as it can go? Because scripture reveals
something else. There are moments when God does
more than stop what is coming against you. Sometimes
he reverses the direction of the battle. The
pursuer becomes pursued. The accuser is exposed.
The prison door opens. The stone is rolled away.
The enemy that expected victory discovers that
God has changed the outcome. And perhaps that
is the next dimension of this mystery. Not only,
no farther, but sometimes. Now watch what I do.
That is where we will continue next time as we
keep exploring the mystery of divine intervention.
Until then, stay in faith. Stay anchored. Do
not measure God's sovereignty by how close the
battle came. Remember, what approached you may
still have encountered a boundary you cannot
see, and what looks unrestricted to you may already
have heard a command from heaven. This far, and
no farther. This is Pomoja Ministry. One conversation,
one story, one revelation at a time. Until next
time, God bless you.