"Call to me and I will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. " Jeremiah 33:3

Monday, December 12, 2011

"All right then, the Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')." Isaiah 7:14 NLT

Immanuel, God is with us. This little four word phrase is easily over-looked but if we dig deeper we discover that 'God is with us' brings with it all of the power of the Trinity, to have God with us or to have his favor upon us is very special indeed!

Noah who as far as we know had never even seen rain was told by God that He was going to destroy the earth with a flood! It makes me smile thinking of all that was probably going through Noah's mind when God told Him that. Remember Noah had never seen the ocean, God is going to make it rain,(what is rain?) and He tells Noah to build an ark (what is an ark?) And Noah did exactly as God commanded him. How does that happen? The answer is found in Genesis 6:8; "Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."

Joseph remember him? He was Jacob's favorite son and everybody knew it including all of Josephs brothers. Joseph had a dream and the dream made his brothers hate him even more because in the dream they were bowing down to Joseph. His brothers plotted to kill Joseph but God had other plans for this teenage boy and he was sold into slavery instead and he ended up in Egypt precisely where God wanted him. Joseph had no experience other than being a spoiled rich kid, the favored son of his father. But here we go, listen for the phrase in Genesis 39:2-3; "The LORD was with Joseph and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands." God gave Joseph favor not only with Himself but with others everywhere he went. Joseph is wrongfully accused of a crime he didn't commit and he is put in prison. But Genesis 39:21; "But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison." Joseph who had no penal training ended up running the prison! To make a wonderful long story short, Joseph gets out of prison and becomes second only to Pharaoh in ruling the nation of Egypt!

Moses resisted God telling Him that he would lead God's people out of slavery in Egypt to which God replied to Moses in Exodus 3:12; "But I will be with you..." Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt just as God had commanded and Moses parted the Red Sea, spent 40 day and 40 nights with God on Mount Sinai without anything to eat or drink (Exodus 34:28) all this and so much more because God told him, "I will be with you."

We can't leave out David because God was with him in a big way. David knew first hand what it was like to have the favor of God on your life. David also saw first hand what it was like for King Saul when God rejected him from being king and removed His Holy Spirit from him. (1 Samuel 16:13-14). Listen to David's words in Psalm 5:12; "For You bless the righteous O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield." And again in Psalm 90:17; "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands; yes, establish the work of our hands!"

If you are a born again child of God, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ then God is with you, you are surrounded with His favor!! And whatever God has called you to do in your life He is with you to help you fulfill His purpose for your life. He didn't leave us as orphans, He promised to never fail us or forsake us!

Begin today viewing your life through the lens of the truth that God is with you!
It will change the way you look at everything in your life.

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