My Times Are In Your Hand…

My Times Are In Your Hand

by Olga Hermans

 

There are two choices right in front of you here: … I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live.

Deut.30:19 The Power of Choice is is given to each one of us.

You have two choices!

1. You can thrive or
2. You can survive.

To survive means to barely get along and merely exist.
To thrive means to flourish, succeed, advance and prosper no matter what the times are like.

John 17 establishes the fact that we may be in this world, but we certainly are not of this world. We are separated from this world’s failing system. In the prayer of Jesus to the Father, He asked to “sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17 The word sanctify means “to separate or cut out away from.” Through the prayer of Jesus, we have been cut out away from the world’s failing economic system. We are not subject to the economy. We thrive and flourish in spite of what is happening around us.

I have been reading in Exodus lately and it came really strong to me that God wanted to make sure that Farao and the Egyptians would know that Israel was His chosen people. That he treated them differently as them. He had set them apart from everything that was going in during all the plagues that came upon Egypt. God told them what to do to be in His protection and he was always faithful to His people. God made a clear distinction between Egypt and Israel, because God kept watch over all the Israelites.

The Israelites didn’t understand everything what was going at that moment when they were in a tight spot between slavery and freedom, they were complaining and murmuring, but Moses told them “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and watch God do His work of salvation for you today. Take a good look at the Egyptians today for you are never going to see them again. God will fight the battle for you. And you? You keep your mouths shut!” Ex.14:13-14 Message

How does this apply to us now?
Gal.3:13-14 tells us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. We have been redeemed, separated and cut out away from the curse of fear, sickness, lack and debt. Jesus paid in full for you and me to live above whatever is happening in the world’s system. He keeps watch over us.

Because of Him, we prosper. “Take a good look at your debts TODAY for you are never going to see them again”, do you believe that? Because of Him, we are separated from the evil in this world! Jer.17:5-8 says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.”

Here is the redemptive part: “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.”

3 Characteristics of a cursed man:

• Trust in man
• Makes flesh his arm (power of trust)
• His heart departs from God

3 Results if you put your trust in man:

• He is like the heath in the desert Jer.17:6
• He does not see when good comes.
• He will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness

2 Characteristics of a blessed man:

• He trusts in the Lord Jer. 17:7
• His hope is in the Lord

6 Results If you put your trust in Jehovah:

• He is like a tree planted by waters Jer.17:9
• He spreads his roots by the river
• He shall not see when heat comes
• His leaves will be green
• Not careful in the year of drought
• He never ceases to bear fruit

The person who “makes flesh his arm and whose heart departed from the Lord” did not produce anything. The person who trusted in the Lord did not “cease from yielding fruit.” When it says his leaf was green that word in Hebrew means, “to enter into a state of prosperity and become extremely successful.” One man failed, the other succeeded.
All that because of the Redemption. We are set apart, we are separated from the world’s system and live in prosperity of God’s Kingdom of heaven right here on earth.

I just want to let you know that you have two choices that are set before you; the choice is up to you. What do you believe? Do you believe that you are going to survive or do you believe that you are going to thrive? God choose you and he paid the price for you to be redeemed; so, that is settled! Now, you have the power of choice before you.