Deliverance

In a day in age where anything and everything can be delivered to your front door in an instant, why is it so difficult for us to have the same delivery service from our fears, sins and shortcomings? 
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What would it feel like to pull up an app, make a selection and tap “place your order” and send it into the heavens and soon experience a delivery service like never before? 

There it is in your cart… Free from addiction. Free from anger. Free from jealousy. Free from insecurity. Free from sickness. Free from fear of the unknown. Completely free from whatever ails you and delivered to your door in an instant!

Wow!  Sign me up! 

Wouldn't it be amazing if it were that simple?  Believe it or not, it can be.  But the truth of the matter is, that there is work to be done first.  Now, before you sigh a big, huge “ugh”, let me reassure you that this work doesn’t fall on you as much as it does Jesus.

All throughout the scriptures, we see men, women and children being delivered from some form of bondage in their lives.  Whether that was the issue of blood, or from demons, or even years of being paralyzed.  There is nothing Jesus doesn’t wish to deliver us from. I love the definition in Webster's Dictionary. DELIVERANCE: the act of delivering someone or something. {Especially: LIBERATION, RESCUE}

Who doesn’t want to be rescued or liberated from those things in life that hold you hostage? I know for myself, I wanted to be delivered because I have been held captive for far too long. It wasn’t until I found myself “out of options”. At the “end of my rope” and desperate for God to rescue me, I began to desire deliverance like never before.

I had heard about it, read about it, sang about it, and even hoped for it, but had I ever believed for it?  The greater question was not that God could deliver, but WOULD He deliver me? Why is it that we know God can and will do for everyone else, but why do we feel as though we don’t deserve it to have the same working miracle for our own life that He has done for so many others before?

Friend, if you are standing at this same place I was, can I encourage you to take the outstretched hand of Jesus and allow Him to set you free from it all. I know it's scary but that is who He is. He is Deliverance! That is what he came to earth for.  That is His mission.  To deliver us from it all. No matter what it is, and I mean no matter what, He wishes that you would be completely and unconditionally healed and set free.

David says it best in Psalm 3:8, “From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessings be on your people.” Our friend David knows what it’s like to be bound so tightly he can hardly breathe. His enemies were breathing down his neck.  He has blown it so badly, he’s not sure if God will ever use him again.  He has made mistake after mistake, yet he knows that he knows that God is the only one to deliver him.  As a matter of fact, you have to read what he says in verse 7.  Now I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to demand anything from God, especially when I don’t deserve it.  But listen to David in verse 7, Arise O LORD! O my God…

You have to know something about the word LORD here.  This is Yahweh.  The Almighty.  His name means the Great I Am.  When you see all the letters capitalized in His name, this is all being, all knowing, all authority.  This THE LORD!
But it also means Adonai which translates to “my Lord”.  And David knew just that.  That the Lord was his Lord.  It was personal, despite all he had done wrong.  For most of us, we would condemn David for being so bold. For David he had the nerve, bravery, courage to call on the name of the LORD and tell Him to Rise Up!  I need delivered right here and right now!

 I don’t know about you, but I am not sure if I have ever demanded something from THE LORD like this ever. 
I may have cried, begged, bargained and manipulated. But never demanded for Him to deliver me from anywhere. Kind of scares me to talk to God like this.  

However, this is also why we read that David was a friend to God and the apple of His eye.  David had murdered, committed adultery, lied and every other retched sin in his life, but he knew that if he ever had a chance of getting out of this situation alive, it was going to take God Almighty to do it.  

So, where does that leave you and me today?  Afraid to come to the Throne Room boldly? Sheepish in our conversation with the Lord Almighty? Alone feeling as though you have gotten what you deserved?  I know, me too.
However, I do want to live free.  Free from everything and anything that binds me.  I do need rescued and I do need to be delivered, not only from the things of this world, but from myself.

So, I think I will start there.  With these simple words that you are free to say too, LORD deliver me!  And that my friend is where you will see the LORD like you have never seen Him before.  As the song goes, He is for you, not against you! You’re welcome to sing along. But first, I think I just heard a ding on your phone… you have a delivery!  Go and be free! ​