2016....Hand of Deliverance or The Finger of God

It's been a while! First off let me start by saying Happy New Year! Better late than never right? We're now in the second month of the year, and God gave me a word concerning 2016 that I've been sitting on. First off let's praise God for what He did in 2015. In the previous post New Year, New Places, God gave us a word concerning 2015. He promised to take us to new and higher places. He told us there would be 2 kinds of people: people who will be given more, and people who will be given things but it will be taken away. I seen this come to pass in my life and in the lives of people around me. How about you? Some of us may have felt bitter because we were taken to higher places but experienced warfare. More warfare comes with the territory of elevation. Be that as it may, when you look back at some of the warfare you experienced you'll see even then you were blessed. There were some of you in the bunch that had things taken away in 2015. Even that is a blessing, for a person who is corrected is a person who is loved. If a parent allows their child to do whatever they want and if they let their child play in dangerous areas without protection or correction, we would look at that parent and say they don't care about their child. God cares about you. He is not fighting you, He is fighting those demons surrounding you that are trying to overcome you. He doesn't hate the sinner, God hates the sin.

So wherever you found yourself in 2015, rejoice because you made it to a new year and a new season. I asked God for a word concerning 2016 and I didn't hear anything until sometime in the middle of the night. I heard a gentle voice tell me in 2016 people will either experience God's "hand of deliverance, or the finger of God." I immediately begin to think of how this word related to the word for 2015. It seemed almost identical, at least on the surface. But when God begin to breakdown His word, I was shown 2016 will be vastly different than 2015.

Hand of Deliverance

In 2015 God promised to give some people elevation, and now in 2016 He is promising deliverance. This isn't the same thing. For example Saul experienced elevation but he didn't have full deliverance of some things. Saul started off a humble man. However he suffered from a disconnection with God due to his lack of seeking Him directly. Even with this flaw God still gave him elevation. On a quick side note, we have to be mindful that elevation has nothing to do with perfection. God doesn't bless us according to our greatness because we have none. God blesses us according to His greatness because His greatness is true and everlasting. Going back to Saul, after Samuel anointed him to be king God elevated Saul's heart.

1 Samuel 10:9-11 As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day. When he and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying. When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Through the Spirit of God, Saul was anointed and elevated. However Saul needed deliverance in an area of his life and didn't receive it. This lead to his disobedience later down the line. In the beginning of Saul's elevation God did mighty things through him. He gave Saul victory in war, and through this the people of Israel came to respect him as king. One particular battle against the Amalekites, God commanded Saul,

1 Samuel 15:2-3 I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

However after defeating the Amalekites, Saul looked at their possessions and thought it looked too good to destroy, so he didn't. For this reason God regretted making him king. Through His servant Samuel God rejected Saul as king. So in this scenario Saul received elevation without deliverance, and this caused him to lose it all. So some of you are probably wondering, "why didn't God deliver him? He was setting Saul up for failure." The answer to that question lies in Saul's flaw. He didn't have a true connection with God. Instead he turned to men like Samuel for guidance instead of God. Later in his life he turned to mediums. There's nothing wrong with reaching out to a pastor for help. We must double team the devil so reach out to your family in Christ as much as you can. However you and God must have a relationship, as well. That happens by seeking Him and allowing Him to continually transform you, and this brings about deliverance. Saul wasn't delivered because he never seeked God. He started off as a humble person, but it didn't end that way. God tested him with a little elevation and his pride and failure to know the God who blessed him led to his disobedience and rejection as king. 

This leads me to my first point. This year will be a year of deliverance for many. Last year many of you were elevated but still fell to sin. Satan uses your falls to justify why you are undeserving of more. However our ways are not God's ways. God elevated us last year and He watched our response to see if we can handle the abundance that is set to come this year. However God didn't judge us based on our falls. He judged us based on our hearts. Many of you have been elevated but may still struggle with addictions, distractions, you name it. Your heart will determine whether or not you will experience God's delivering hand or the finger of God. Opening yourself up to God's deliverance requires a heart after Him. Even after a fall. It requires humility and these were actions Saul didn't display. Know the God who elevated you in 2015. Know the God who loves you, who gives you breath in your nostrils. Know the God who forgives, who looks at you and smiles every time you seek Him. God doesn't care how filthy you are when you come in His presence. We care though. We look at the disgusting horrible things we've done in God's sight and we want to hide. However God looks at us in our filth and smiles because He admires us for having the strength to come to Him in repentance despite our dirt. 

Satan thought he had you last year. Even in your elevation he used your weaknesses like puppet strings to pull you back into the mess God delivered you from. This brought about an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. Some of you probably think there are addictions and weaknesses you suffer from that you will always deal with. That's not true! This is your year of deliverance. God will close doors this year that you thought would never close. And because of that deliverance you will have no strings holding you back from the high places God wants to take you to. Now I feel the need to be specific because there are many deceivers out there. When I speak on elevation and higher places, I am not just talking about financial and career increases. I do see God unleashing these gifts on His people in 2016, but I want to specify that I am referring to blessings of the supernatural and in this world as well. 

I know these are words, but hear me on this. The only one who can stop your deliverance this year is you. Satan can't take it from you. Satan won't be allowed to come into your camp and take your blessings as plunder anymore. However what Satan can do is convince you to forfeit those blessings, and believe me he will use this tactic more than ever in 2016. Prepare to have your mistakes thrown in your face. Remember, satan is an accuser. This is what he is going to do. Thanks to Jesus Christ it isn't the sin itself that pulls you away from God. It's what the sin does to you. In other words, when we come to God in true repentance we will be forgiven. By His stripes we are healed. But sin does something to us and this is why God wants us to stay away from it. Sin opens us up to satan's lies and closes us from God's love through our guilt, and self-condemnation. If we fall we must resist the urge to want to distance ourselves more from God. If we come to God immediately after we fall with a true desire to change, the sin is wiped clean and forgotten about. Saul certainly didn't receive deliverance because God didn't want to deliver him. Saul didn't receive deliverance because he didn't seek God and he didn't allow himself to be transformed by His love. This takes me to my second point. Unfortunately there will be some who will experience the finger of God instead of deliverance due to pride and other factors blocking them from humbling themselves and seeking God. 

The Finger of God

Let me be frank--there will be judgement in 2016. Fortunately for us God's judgement comes after many warnings. Let this be a warning. If you have even a slight feeling you may be in this group repent. Better to play it safe and repent than to turn your back to God and walk right into judgement. God's heart will soften to any heart filled with true repentance no matter what you've done. He will immediately begin His plans to deliver you. God judgement will go hand-in-hand with God's deliverance. This means many who will fall into this group are people who took something from you. It will be those who hurt you, and those who have plotted against you behind your back. We are to pray for these people. The bible talks about the fingers of a human hand God used to speak judgement on a group of people who stole and enslaved the people of God. Here's how it begins:

Daniel 5:1-4 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

One thing to point out before I move on. These people were celebrating while God's people were enslaved. This seems to always be the case! How many times have you felt like doing the right thing has gotten you a first class seat at the bottom of the barrel? Meanwhile as you suffer you have to sit there and watch friends on social media who have the slightest care about God, live like kings and queens. On the surface it seems like we can't win. It causes us to grow weary in doing good. God promises us many times in the bible that those who rebel will not prosper. Their day will come just like your day will come when God will wipe the tears from your eyes so you may never cry again. We just need to trust God and avoid comparing ourselves to others.

Going back to Daniel 5, in the middle of their celebrating,

Daniel 5:5-6 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

Can you imagine? I would be terrified as well. None of the new age diviners and enchanters could figure out what the writing said. King Belshazzar then turned to Daniel to interpret the message. Daniel informed him,

Daniel 5:18-26

“Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.
“But you, Belshazzar, his son,have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.
“This is the inscription that was written:
                                   mene, mene, tekel, parsin
“Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Notice God's reasoning for bringing about His judgement. It was pridefulness. King Belshazzar didn't have a heart for God. He trusted in his position and he didn't trust in God. He allowed his heart to be filled with pride instead of God's love. Similar to Saul's mistake right? The night Daniel gave King Belshazzar this word he was killed and thus stripped of his seat. I am not speaking death on anyone, but there will be people stripped of the greatness they claimed to have. Those who think their greatness comes from social positions, jobs, income, and other meaningless things will be in this group. A humble heart, meaning a heart that recognizes greatness only comes from God will be rewarded this year. The deliverance group will be given the blessings this group will lose.

Now zooming out, America will experience judgement this year. We as a country have been in rebellion with God for a long time and this year God will begin His judgement in louder ways. However His people will be protected through His Holy Spirit. So we must be in tune with the Spirit. We also need to continuously pray for this country. We need to pray for this world. There are world leaders with prideful hearts who think they are higher than the Almighty God. God will show Himself to be great and mighty. The question is will you be the object of His wrath or will you be on His team?

It's not too Late

The key here is in the heart. We must renew our hearts. We need hearts after God. We need humble hearts. Sin and good deeds won't determine it. It will be how humble the heart is, and how much that heart wants God. Invest in a relationship with Him. Anyone with a true urge to turn away from sin, pride, and their harmful ways will receive deliverance. None of us are perfect, but a heart after a perfect God will cover our flaws and give us another chance. Make it a priority as we enter month 2. I wish you blesses this year and I look forward to another year with you!

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