REMEMBER YOUR DELIVERANCE
How quickly we forget God's great deliverances in our lives. How easily we take
for granted the miracles he performed in our past. Yet the Bible tells us over
and over, "remember your deliverances". We're so like the disciples, they didn't
understand Christ's miracles when he supernaturally fed thousands with just a
few loaves and fishes. Jesus performed this miracle twice, feeding 5,000 people
one time and a crowd of 4,000 the next. Yet, just a few days later, the
disciples had dropped these events from memory. (Mark 6:30-44)
In 1 Corinthians 2:9 it says, no eye has seen, no ear has heard.
According to Mark, Christ was overwhelmed by how quickly his disciples had
forgotten his incredible works. What do these passages tell us? It's clear that
none of the disciples stopped to consider what was happening as those miraculous
feedings took place. Try to picture these men walking among the crowds carrying
their baskets, passing out loaves of bread and fish that multiplied miraculously
before their eyes. You'd think those disciples would have fallen on their knees,
crying, "How is this possible?"
It's simply awesome. It's totally beyond human explanation. "Oh, Jesus, you
truly are Lord". I imagine them urging the people they served, "Here, feast on
miracle food, sent from glory. Jesus has provided it. Behold our God, and
worship Him.
For by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt (Ex. 13:16).
The disciples saw these wondrous works with their own eyes. Yet, somehow, the
miracles' significance didn't register with them. And now, just a short time
later, they were filled with doubts and questions about having no bread. Jesus
had to point out to them, "how quickly you've forgotten the miracles God had
wrought for you". You didn't understand your deliverances.
Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what
is not bread, and your labor on what does not satifisy? (Isa. 54:1-2)
I wonder also, why didn't those crowds, who'd been fed so miraculously, rise up
to worship Jesus? Why didn't they praise God with upraised voices and
outstretched arms? I believe, they didn't understand their miracles. And it is
for the same reason that you and I quickly forget God's miracles in our own
lives.
Yesterday's deliverances are quickly forgotten and the crisis of today. (Ex.
13:3, 14, 16).
"Moses said unto the people, remember this day, which ye came out of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage", for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of
this place. (14)"so it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying,
what is this? that you shall say to him, by strength of hand the Lord brought us
out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (16)"it shall be as a sign on your
hand as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us
out of Egypt."
Moses was telling them "guard these memories and keep them close at hand, make
them always fresh in your mind". Every time you face a crisis, every time you
face a giant, every time you face the lions den, you're to remember all the
miracles I've provided you. Don't ever forget the deliverances you've
experienced. Keep a diary of them. Written on your hearts 2 Cor 3:2, and
remember each detail. "Then be sure to tell them all to your children. Keep
talking about your miracles, from generation to generation, it will build your
faith, and the faith of every generation to follow.
Dear Friends,
No one saw greater miracles of deliverance than Moses' generation. It started
with the awesome ten plagues that fell on Egypt. Swarms of locusts and frogs,
rivers turning to blood, darkness so pitch black it was. These things all
brought confusion upon the Egyptians. How many know your God well bring
confusion upon your enemy? Yet, all the while, Israel sat securely in their
camp, protected from it all.
The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth (2 Chronicles 16:9)
And the next day, Israel saw Pharaoh's army supernaturally destroyed, as these
same walls of water came crashing down, wiping them out. What great deliverances
Israel experienced! Yet, they didn't understand any of them, in fact, they soon
forgot them all.
How do we know this? it's written down, "our fathers understood not the wonders
in Egypt, they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at
the sea, even at the Red Sea" (Psa. 106:7)
How you may ask did Israel provoke God at the Red Sea? Just three days after
their miraculous deliverance, they accused God of leading them into the desert
to let them die of thirst.
Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His
testimonies, but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers (Psa.
78:56-57).
I see the same thing happening today in the church of Jesus Christ. We are
commanded by God's Word to wear our "deliverances". We're to put them on every
morning, the way we put on our clothes. We're to keep them at hand, to ever hold
them up before our eyes. Yet, I ask you, how many miraculous past deliverances
are you wearing right now? How vividly do you keep in mind God's miracles for
you? Are they so close at hand that you could stand up right now and testify of
every glorious detail?
When the Holy Spirit asked me this question, I was overwhelmed.
How many of you have taken for granted God's deliverances in your life? Worse, I
hadn't remembered them at my most important times, when I faced other crises.
The memory of my deliverances could have fed my faith during those trials. My
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. (James 1:2-4)
Amen!
God literally took Job through a power course, revealing his past creation.
Through it all, Job was being told, you forgot who I am. You accuse me of
neglect, you doubt my concern for you and my power to deliver you. Yet, I've
shown you how I care for all vast creation. ( Job 38-40).
The Lord went on, until finally Job was overwhelmed. Now Job looked at his
problems and said, I've been foolish. I've had my eyes in the wrong place, on my
pain, instead of you, Oh Lord, I've forgotten all these things about you. I know
you can do everything and I know that no thoughy can be withheld from you (Job
42-2-3).
It is for our own benefit that God tells us to remember. The memory of our past
deliverances helps increase our faith for what we're going through right now.
Are you facing a crisis? do you have a giant at home, at work, or in your
family? The only way to face a giant is to do as David did, remember the lion
and the bear, that's how David could go up against Goliath without fear, by
remembering God's faithfulness to him in his past crisis.
When David volunteered to fight Goliath, Saul said to David, "thou art not able
to go against this Philistine to fight with him" and David said unto Saul, "thy
servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear and took a
lamb out of the flock" . And I went out after him, and smite him, and delivered
it out of his mouth (1 Samuel 17:33-36). Most likely, David testified to Saul, I
remember the size of the bear that came at me, I wrapped each of my hands in a
cloth, struck them in his mouth and ripped his jaw apart. Then I took the bear's
fur and gave it to my father as a testimony of God's power to deliver me.
Moses' dying words to God's people were, be strong and of a good courage, fear
not, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with
you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Saints do you recall the miracle, the change that took place, the deliverance
that brought you out of the pit you were in? Or in your way? do you remember how
you were delivered from the traps that the devil had set before you? Did you
almost cast everything aside? Did you get so discouraged, so overwhelmed you
thought it was useless to go in with the Lord?
I came to tell you this day, "no weapon formed against you shall prosper"
(Isaiah 54:17). Brethren, don't you know your testimony is a weapon of power
against your enemy 2 Cor. 10:4, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds."
God Bless!
Rev. Millie M. Colon