Date of message: 24 February 2004 Issue
128
Subject: Perfectly Protected Under His Wings
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
Ever wondered where the world is heading these days? The number of man-made tragedies as well as natural disasters has been rising steadily over the past year or two. It will indeed be rare to turn the newspapers in the morning without chancing on a single tragedy or disaster. Murders, terrorist bombings, violent protests and even riots, wars, gangland fights and the like have become common everyday occurrences instead of the rare incidents that were reported back in the 60’s and even the 70’s.
And still on the subject of food, I was shocked to hear that cats are now being infected by the bird flu after their owners fed them with diseased chicken and the medical and health services are keeping an ever greater watch over the spread of the deadly H5N1 virus.
Is there any way of protecting ourselves from these occurrences? The simple answer to that would be, “Yes”. Indeed, when we understand where we stand, we would be able to proclaim supernatural protection over our bodies and our spirits. Let us examine Psalm 91 again.
1. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
3. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
4. He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6. Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.
8. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
9. Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11. For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13. You shall thread on the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14. “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
16. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”
Last week, I introduced this psalm and wrote briefly about the type of protection we can have. This week, I want to go further and examine the basis on which we can indeed anchor or claim.
The psalm may be divided into three sections –
? in verses 1 – 8, God the Holy Spirit declares the privileges for those who hide under the shadow of the Almighty God;
? in verses 9 – 13, God the Son declares the special position for those who take refuge in Him;
? in verses 14 – 16, the Father promises those who set their love on Him that He will hear them and deliver them from their troubles.
The Father’s heart for His children is that we all know for a certainty our positions in Him. Those who have received Jesus into their hearts as their Lord and Savior will be able to enjoy His perfect protection from all the evil that may take place all around us but not able to come near us. We need to remember that we have the Holy Spirit on the inside of us and because of Him, we receive whatever Jesus our Lord has.
No wonder the Holy Spirit declares in verse 3 that He will deliver us from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He will cover us with His feathers and under His wings we shall take refuge. In Matthew 23: 37-38, we have an account of Jesus weeping over the City of Jerusalem as He looked from the Mount of Olives.
37. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
38. See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Jesus saw into the future and prophetically saw the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the Holocaust from 1938 till 1945 and He wept at the hardness of their hearts. Notice Jesus used the phrase ‘under her wings’ to describe how a mother hen protects her young chicks and it is the most secured of places for them. In Psalm 91:4, the Holy Spirit describes the security that we can enjoy from under His wings.
Another picture of ‘under His wings’ come to us from the spread wings of the two cherubim that stood over the mercy seat found on the Ark of the Covenant. When the Holy Spirit describes us as “dwelling under the secret place of the Most High” He is referring to the most secure place that we can find – right between the two cherubim and on the mercy seat. You see, when we have the Holy Spirit on the inside of us, we are in that favored position in the Lord completely surrounded by Him.
No wonder the rest of the psalm go on to describe all the blessings that follow us. This is most powerful, knowing who we are and where we stand; that gives us plenty of room to boast in the Lord from where we receive His blessings. The devil certainly does not want us to know the privileges we have in the Lord. As long as we are ignorant of our rights, we cannot enjoy the blessings. Too bad, devil, now we know and he cannot take away our joy and our enjoyment.
Once we know we are secure, we can literally stare troubles in the eye. Many times I had been delivered from danger supernaturally.
? In March 2000, I was scheduled to fly home after a tiring week on a particular Saturday from the Chap Lup Kok Airport in Hong Kong. However, the Lord arranged for me to depart one day early on a Friday evening instead and the next day, a super typhoon hit Hong Kong and one China Airlines aircraft was actually blown onto its side when it tried landing but hit some crosswinds on its side.
? In September 2000, I was on board a Delta Airlines domestic flight from Orlando to Los Angeles and because of some strong winds, many aircrafts were not permitted to land but were instructed to continue circling the LA Airport until further notice. The captain came over the air and made the announcement that we would be delayed by at least twenty minutes and that we were to be patient. I recall going to the aircraft toilet and once inside, I started to reject what the pilot said and prayed that this storm would blow over and that all aircrafts would be able to land immediately and guess what – in less than five minutes, we were actually at the terminal building. I hung on to my position of a child of God the Father and threw my problem to Him and He immediately took care of the situation.
? Twice my family and I went to Israel amidst terrorist bombings (in February 2002 and again in December 2003) and we had wonderful time in the land of the Bible. Whilst we were there not a single bomb exploded for I believed that the Lord held back those bombs so that we could have a wonderful time. But as soon as all the teams returned home, the worst bombings took place in end March/ early April 2002 and the reprisal actions of the Israeli Defence Forces on the refugee camp of Jenin on the West Bank.
? My tour group was on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the morning of December 21. The whole place was so serene and peaceful that we even took the opportunity of toying with the riot shields of the Israel Police stationed at the gates. Little did we know that the next day, the same serene Temple Mount turned into a ‘battlefield’ when the visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister was mobbed and lynched when he paid a visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Arabs there accused him of being a traitor when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel back in the 1980s and they hit him with their sandals so badly that he was rushed to the military hospital and had at least five stitches sewn on his forehead.
I could recount many more instances of divine protection and favor but the important fact remains – you know who you are and to whom you belong. Once you appreciate the special place you have in God’s heart, you can then begin to enjoy the blessings for yourself.
This divine favor that the Lord grants is only for His children and you too can enjoy His divine protection. Have you received the Lord Jesus into your life? I encourage you to do so without further delay - invite Him into your heart and He will immediately come into your life and make it His throne. It is not a difficult thing to do; all that is needed is that you believe and receive Him and immediately you will become a child of God the Father.
Jesus died for us so that we can have His eternal life as an exchange. Because He died and took away the punishment for our sins, we need not be punished for them again; otherwise that would tantamount to a double jeopardy, a grave miscarriage of law. Our Father is a Righteous God and He will honor His Covenant with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus loves us so much that He already demonstrated His love for us on the cross. He died that we may have life in abundance.
Pray this simple prayer to invite Jesus into your heart and immediately you will experience His peace coming your way.
Our Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Your only Beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, two thousand years ago to die for all our sins and for raising Him from the dead so that we can be forgiven of all our sin and now we are set free.
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into my heart and making it Your home. Thank you for loving me and giving me the Holy Spirit to be my Friend and my Guide and for the constant reminder that I am a very special child of God the Father. Thank you that as Your child, I can now start enjoying all Your blessings for my life - Divine Healing, Divine Health and Divine Life in You. Thank you also for the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit brings along with Him and for imparting those gifts into my life.
Thank you Lord Jesus for all that You had accomplished for us on the cross and because of our faith in You, our Father does not see us as who we are but in Your righteousness we can now stand before Him, eternally forgiven of all my sin, greatly blessed among all men, a highly favored child of God, deeply loved by the Father and completely protected in the Lord and in the most precious name of Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha’ Mashiah, I pray. Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important that you are not alone facing your personal challenges but that you can obtain good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith. It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these blessings right now; you do not need to wait until you reach heaven and there is more from where they come from.
And, my friend, continue to exercise the gift of praying in tongues and with the usage, more gifts of the Holy Spirit will be imparted to you.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace. Numbers 6: 24–26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee

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