I will never forget the look on my teacher’s face that evening. I was taking a class at my local church on prophecy. That particular night, the teacher felt led by the Holy Spirit to prophecy over each of his students. There were not many of us, perhaps 7 or 8, so it was a small class and did not take too long. He had each one of us sit in a chair in the middle of the group, and then he would speak to them what He felt the Holy Spirit was telling him. When it was my turn, I sat in the chair and closed my eyes, waiting patiently for the teacher to speak. What I heard changed my life. I heard the following: “You have never had a safe man in your life. Not your husband, your father or your brothers. But I am safe and I am your husband, your father and your brother and I will always protect what is yours.”
After a few moments, I opened my eyes and looked at the man standing in front of me, and I heard him apologize. His honesty was refreshing. He told me he had heard absolutely nothing for me. I told him it was all right and I repeated what I had heard the Holy Spirit say to me. The surprise on his face was priceless. I have no idea why the Lord chose to bypass him and speak to me directly, but He did. What I didn’t know that evening, was that the word I had heard would be tested over and over again in the years to come.
Only months later, the following Summer, my son was in a hospital bed several thousand miles away, so sick, that he was afraid he would die. He’d had an operation and things did not go well. He kept calling me that weekend, because he feared he would not make it. God was silent that weekend. Finally, on Sunday evening, I became angry and I said to the Lord, why are you being silent? Have you nothing to say to me? What I heard, humbled me. “I have already promised you that I would always protect what is yours! Do I need to repeat that promise?” I answered, no. My son lived.
That weekend, waiting for my son to recover, as hard as it was, taught me many things. I began to look for things “that were mine” and ask for protection over them. Obviously, the first ones that came to my mind were my other children, and my brothers. I realized that that promise had actually been activated long before it was spoken to me. I had another son who almost died in a skiing accident. He also walked out of the hospital just hours after the accident. Another skier, jumping the same hill a week later was not so fortunate. He died, breaking every bone in his body. One of my daughters became so sick with a ruptured appendix that she developed sepsis and had to spend weeks on powerful antibiotics. She too lived to tell the tale. It seemed that the enemy had it out for my children. There were other situations, other circumstances where God protected my kids from certain death. He had already kept His promise to me, long before He spoke it to me that night.
Several years after this word came to me, my husband and I moved to an area that could potentially see hurricane activity. We were assured when we moved here that there had not been a hurricane for decades. We were told not to worry. But not too long after we moved, we had two hurricanes come extremely close to us, within one year, just 11 months apart. They came so close that we were ordered to evacuate. God’s promise came to mind during those times, and each time, He reminded me that He would always protect what is mine. This time it was about my property and my house. The first hurricane was so powerful that the neighborhood behind us suffered enough wind damage that it took months for the city to clean up all the downed trees. They were lined up on the street edge and huge trucks had to come in and remove them. Our house, even our street, suffered nothing. The next hurricane again brought terrible flooding as the tide came in. I remember standing on my front porch, we had not evacuated for this one, even though we were told to, and I saw the water come up from the canal, edging closer and closer to our driveway. I heard the Lord speak to me very clearly at that moment: “rebuke it”. I did and almost instantly it began to recede. The neighbors commented on how fast it came and how fast it left! The neighborhood behind us suffered terrible flooding in many of the homes. Why did God choose to protect us? I have no idea. But I learned that His promises are “yes and amen”. 2 Corinthians 1:20
I could go on with how God tested His word to me, but instead I will share a story from the Bible, where the Lord tested a promise He gave to a certain man. In Genesis 15 we are told the story of a man named Abram (only later was his named changed to Abraham). God told Abram that the land of Canaan would be given to his offspring, the land that is now called Israel. God told Abram the following after Abram reminded God that he had no offspring and that a servant would be his heir:
“And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Genesis 15:4
As Genesis chapter 15 unfolds, God makes a covenant with Abram, telling him that his offspring, coming from his own body, would inherit the promised land. Abram and Sarai, his wife, not fully understanding the promise, took matters into their own hands and Abram ends up with a son called Ishmael, born to his Egyptian maid. But Ishmael was not the promised son. Fourteen more years would pass before God once again speaks to Abram in chapter 17 and this time the Lord renames them Abraham and Sarah. And, He tells them that they would have a son, born the following year. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. That son, named Isaac was indeed born a year later. If you read the whole story however, it becomes very obvious that this “promise” of a son born to both of them, would be tested for many years. They waited 14 years for Isaac to be born!
The final test of this promised son, was still to come, however. Years later, God again speaks to Abraham and this time the test seems too hard to imagine. But Abraham knew the Lord enough by now that he trusted Him enough to obey Him. Here’s what the Lord tells him:
“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Genesis 22:1-2
No, God does not want us to sacrifice our children. Absolutely not. This was never about killing Isaac. This was about Abraham’s heart. At the last moment, the Lord calls to him from heaven and says stop. Don’t do it. Why did the Lord ask him to do it then? He tells us in the next verses.
“But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Genesis 22:11-12
This has always been a hard story for me. It seems almost cruel. We live in a society where Jesus is considered meek and mild, kind and loving and would never do such a horrible thing as to ask that we give Him our children. Or would He?
In Luke, Jesus tells His disciples the following: “”If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:26-27
These seem like harsh words. Obviously, He’s not asking us to hate our family. He’s asking us to choose Him over our family. We must love Him more than our own families. And that is exactly what Abraham did. He chose to obey God, rather than protect his own son.
The promise that Abraham received all those years earlier, would affect the whole world. That promised land, given to Abraham and his children, would eventually become the land of Israel. And that land would bring forth our Messiah, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
But my story is not finished yet. I too had that promised word of protection tested. On January 1 of this year, I heard the Lord say to me that His promise, given to me all those years ago, did not just mean physical protection. It also meant spiritual protection. He would always protect my kids spiritually. From what you might ask? From hell. Two weeks later, to the day, perhaps even the hour, my oldest daughter died at age 35. It came very suddenly. She was in every sense of the word, a prodigal. She had repented of her sins and been born again as a teenager, but as she grew into adulthood, she ran away from the Lord. Her life was a series of bad choices.
But the morning I received the news of her death, He spoke to me very clearly. As I sat there in shock, He told me that in her final moments of life, knowing she was going to die, she called out to Him because she remembered the God of her youth. Like the father in the story of the prodigal in Luke chapter 15, when she called to Him, He ran to her and He took her home. What the enemy meant for evil, God turned into good. It was not the ending I had hoped for, prayed for or expected. Do I fully understand why her life ended so young? No, I don’t. It would have been very easy for me to become angry and offended with the Lord. But I chose not to be angry. I chose to trust Him instead. Was it easy? No.
But like Abraham, I have come to know my Lord well enough to know that He is worthy of my trust. And that is all that matters. How about you?
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