Seeing the Reward of the Wicked

In this message, I walk through Psalm 91 to show why Satan himself fears this passage — and what happens when God's people truly believe it. I explore how God promises to protect us from hidden traps, perverseness, and the storms of an uncertain world. If your foundation is in Christ, your house will stand.

Show Notes

Psalm 91: A Truth Satan Fears

Psalm 91: He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him I will trust. Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler — that means the secret traps that you don't see coming your way — and from the perilous pestilence. In the original translation, the way that reads is: from the perversion that comes into a society when the restraining hand of God is lifted off of it. He will deliver you from secret traps and from the perversions that are going to be prevalent in this and other societies in the last days. He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge. His truth will be your shield and your buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day. Whether there are acts of terrorism in various countries throughout the world, or threats even of nuclear war, the Bible says you will not be afraid. There will be a confidence that God puts in your heart that is born of the Spirit of God. It is born of a trust in the keeping power of God. No matter what happens, no matter what difficulty comes our way, you will not be afraid. Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. 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. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. This psalm — Psalm 91 — contains a truth about God that Satan himself fears. He fears that if it's believed, it would instill a barrier of promise in the hearts of those who believe in it that no power of hell can get through and breach. That's why he is afraid of Psalm 91.

How Satan Used Psalm 91 to Tempt Jesus

It was this psalm that Satan quoted when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4. Actually, in the temptation of Christ — after he was baptized in the Jordan and went into the wilderness, led of the Spirit to be tempted by Satan — this was the only scripture that Satan did not fully quote. He quoted a part of it, but not the whole scripture. He came to the Son of God. Now, he knew who he was fighting with. He was contesting with the Son of God. I don't know how he knew it, but Satan knew who Jesus Christ was, and he had a sense of what his mission was on the earth. The first temptation he brought to him was essentially this: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. In other words, if you are the Son of God, why are you not being fed? Why are you hungry? If you are the Son of God, there must be a resident power within you — use it for yourself, use it for your own benefit. Turn these stones to bread. Of course, that's what the devil did — that's why he fell from heaven. He was not content with the ways, the will, and the word of God. He wanted something higher than he was assigned by God. He was tempting Christ to change his situation by his own power and his own influence. Then he took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said again: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Here's the more insidious temptation as I see this. In effect, what I think the devil was saying — and this is my opinion, my conjecture — he was basically saying: I'm going to throw you down. And what makes you think that when your feet hit the stone that somehow there are going to be angels there to help you? What makes you think that God will preserve you? What makes you think that God will protect you? What makes you think that God will raise you up? What makes you think he will send angels to be part of the process of bringing you to the conclusion of what your life is supposed to be? If you do believe this, throw yourself down. But I want to remind you — that is not the whole scripture. He left a line out. Psalm 91 says: He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. It didn't say it's just for one specific event. God is going to assign angels to you to keep you in all of the journey of your life — the good times, the bad times, the easy times, the hard times, the times you understand, the times you don't, the times when it looks prosperous and the times when it looks hopeless. God is not going to fail you. God is going to keep you. And there will be a heavenly presence to assist you this whole time, lest you should be overthrown or overcome by the temptations or the testings that are all around you. And lastly, seeing he could not turn Jesus from the truth of the word of God, he said to him: All the kingdoms of the world and all their glory belong to me. If you will fall down and worship me, you don't have to go to the cross. Basically, that's what he was saying. Then you don't have to die. You can have it all if you'll just bow down and worship me. And Jesus said, Away with you, Satan. It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Matthew 4:11 says: Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. Praise be to God. That's exactly what the scripture says. He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

What Satan Fears We Will Discover

Now, what was the devil so afraid of in Psalm 91 — that if you and I laid hold of it, his power over us would be broken? His power causes us to think that somehow God won't provide for us in the midst of our hunger or our hardship or whatever it is that you and I have to face in the days ahead. The promise of God is that we will have provision. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. First of all, he was afraid that we would find this hidden place of God where our confidence in his keeping power can no longer be broken. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High — Psalm 91:1 — shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him I will trust. I will trust on the good days. I will trust on the bad days. I will trust when I hit the notes in the song. I will trust when my voice cracks and I can't hit them. I will trust when there's money in the bank, and I will trust when I have to trust God to pay my bills. I will trust in God. This has to be our prayer in this generation: God, take me to this place. Take me to this place of trust in you. Oh, Jesus Christ, Son of God, don't let me trust in my own reasonings, my own resources, my own thinking, my own abilities, my own strength. God Almighty, give me the ability to trust in your word — that the things you say to me are true. They cannot be contravened. They cannot be thrown away. God Almighty, you cannot be tested. Satan said to Jesus, throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple and see if God will fulfill the scripture he promised you. And he said, You will not test the Lord your God. In other words, you don't have to test God. He's not a man that can lie. When he speaks, he speaks the truth. What he says, he means. He doesn't have to say anything twice. He said it once: Let there be light. And light was. And the darkness had to give way to light. He has all power. He has all authority. He commands everything in heaven and everything on the earth. And when he promises you and I something, he is good to keep his promise. When he promises that he will keep our families, he will keep our families. When he promises that our houses won't fall in the midst of the storm, they will not fall in the midst of the storm. When God promises he will keep us, he will keep us.

Protected from Hidden Traps and Perverseness

Satan fears that we will be protected. In verse 3, it says: Surely he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the perilous pestilence. He knows that trust in God means protection from hidden traps. I have to honestly tell you that I have had so many traps set before me over the years, and only after I got through them did I realize they were a trap. I can honestly stand here and say this is absolutely true. I have had traps set for me as a Christian person from the day of my conversion, but not one of them has ever succeeded. Not one. As a matter of fact, everybody who set a trap for me ended up with egg on their face when it was all over. Every time a trap was set, God Almighty made a way through it. And I didn't even know it was a trap until I got through to the other side and looked back and said, hey, that was a trap. But the protective hand of God was on my life. And protected from the perverseness that destroys. It's defined in the original text as the perversity that destroys when God removes his hand of protection. Pray for this nation. God Almighty, don't take your hand away from this nation. Because we have had a season of seeing what perverseness looks like — when evil becomes good and good becomes evil. The sexualizing of our children. The gender confusing of young adults. The mutilation of young bodies. The redefining of marriage. We've seen what perverseness looks like. But the promise is this: if God has to lift his hand, if the society completely rejects him, you will not be touched by this evil as it touches the nation. God says, I will protect you. I will keep you from hidden traps. The perverseness of a world without God will not touch you. Will not touch your home. Will not touch your family. Will not steal your children. God says, I will fight for your house. I will fight for your family. I will open the prison doors, give sight to the blind, and set the captives free. That's who Jesus Christ is, and that's what Jesus Christ does. It's time to have confidence in God. It's time to trust in God. It's time to stand up and say: God will not fail me. God will not forsake me. The enemy will not triumph over me. Satan will not have my life. Satan will not destroy my family. Satan will not take away the ministry God has entrusted to my hand. The song that God has planted in my heart — the devil can't take from me. It's a song of trust given to me by God, and it cannot be taken out of my life. Satan fears that when we find this place of refuge, none of the calamity he unleashes in this world will take away our confidence in God. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings shall you take refuge. David speaks of it in Psalm 23: Thou hast prepared a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. You and I can have enemies all around us, but God has given us a table. He's given us things to eat that this world knows nothing about. He's given us confidence. He's given us strength. All our enemies can do is take out their sword and butter our bread for us — that's all they can do as we sit at the table of God.

Your House Will Stand in the Storm

Satan fears and knows that as the foundations of those without God wash away in the coming days, your place of dwelling will stand. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Only with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked. We shall look not with judgment. We shall look not with glee. We shall look with sorrow most of the time and say, God, I wish they had trusted in you — as we see the houses and the foundations of people all around us beginning to collapse in these last days. Listen to what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:24: Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. You and I will have to go through the same storms as everybody else in our generation. And I know you feel it in your heart that we are in a very unstable time right now worldwide. We're in a difficult moment worldwide. We don't know what's going to break out. We don't know if the economies of the world will survive the coming days. We don't know if war will increase in our time. We just know we're living in an extremely uncertain time. But the one thing I do know is that I have built my house on a solid foundation. I might stand in the same storm and look, and my neighbor on the right — his foundation goes and his house falls. On the other side — his foundation goes and his house falls. I might see it. I'll see the reward, put it that way, of those who have chosen to live without God. They've chosen to deny truth. They've chosen to reject God's Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. They've chosen to stand on their own reasonings, just like the devil did. They've chosen to believe there's no consequence to their behavior and their rejection of God. But in the coming days of storm, when their houses begin to collapse, your house will not collapse. Your house will stand. You will be standing in a solid place. A thousand may fall at one hand and ten thousand on the other side, but it will not come near you. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ — if you have a heart that longs for truth, if you want to walk with God — you will stand in the coming days. The storm will not take you down. Just like the Apostle Paul in Acts 27, you will stand on the deck of a perishing ship and be able to say to the people around you: don't be afraid. God has given me a word, and if you will listen, if you will listen to the word of God, you'll be brought to a place of safety.

The Spiritual Authority God Promises You

Satan also fears — in verse 13 — that you will discover the spiritual authority that God promises to you. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra. The young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot. I want the spiritual authority that God promises to the children of God. Devil, you can't have my family. You can't have my children. You're not taking my neighbor. You're not touching that which belongs to God. I stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I stand against every weapon you form against the righteous. As a matter of fact, I condemn every lying word you speak about me, about my life, my home, my family. And lastly, that you will pray knowing that God will answer. Verse 15 says: He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I need to believe and trust that I am living under the shadow of the Almighty. He will hold me up. He will give his angels charge over our lives.

Angels at the Tomb — and in Your Life

God, thank you for all the times he has protected us over the years. You know, when you and I get to heaven, there are some angels who are going to go on vacation — because they've been following you around. They're the ones that pushed you out of the way of that bus. They're the ones that said, don't go in that bar. They're the ones that said, just walk away from that thing, whatever it is you were considering. They're the ones that caused your boss to change his or her mind in the workplace. And lastly — this is where it gets very interesting to me. When Satan would say, when I cast down your Messiah onto the cold stone slab of a grave, where were the angels that God had promised would be with him? Because he did. And when Jesus Christ was laid into that tomb carved out of a rock, his feet did hit the stone, just as the scripture said. And it looked like he was triumphed over. It looked, in one sense, to the one who didn't understand the ways of God, that somehow the word of God was not true. But John 20:11-12 says: Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. He will give his angels charge over you, lest you dash your feet against the stone. In other words, lest there be a permanent defeat of your life at the bottom — in a sense — of trusting where God is leading you. I don't know what the angels were doing there. I don't know if they helped him get up. When the Spirit of God raised him from the dead, did the angels say, here, let me help you up? Did they unwrap him? Did they unwind him from all the gravecloth? I don't know what they did. All I know is they were there because God said they would be there. God said his Son would not be triumphed over. God said, I will send angels, and they will hold you up, lest you suffer defeat when you are cast down.

A Testimony of Angels

Have you ever met an angel? I know people who have. I know credible people who have. I know a man one time who was running away from God. He was a minister, and he decided he was running away from God. He walked down this long road and said, I've had it. I've had it with ministry. I'm not serving God anymore. I'm finished. I'm done. And suddenly a pickup truck drives by and the driver says, get in. He says, no, I'm not getting in the truck with you — I don't even know you. The driver said, get in the truck. He said, no. The driver said, I'm telling you, get in. And he said, I felt compelled — so I got in the truck. And the driver said, what you're considering doing is a mistake. You are called of God. God has called you. It's a mistake. You need to go back and surrender yourself to God and carry on in ministry. Then the truck turns around, takes him back to his hotel, and drops him off. And when he gets out of the truck, he suddenly realizes — I never told this man what hotel I'm staying in. And he turned around to try to wave at the truck, and he looked, and there's no truck either way on the road. There's no truck. He told me. This man is credible — you actually know him. He said, I've met an angel. Turned me away from what I was thinking of doing and brought me back to the calling of God. And this same man has preached the gospel to millions of people since that day. Praise be to God.

A Prayer to Dwell Under the Shadow of the Almighty

I guess the point of what God has given me to say is this: God, help me to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Help me, God, to stop stepping in and out — believe, not believe, believe, not believe. God, I don't want to live that way anymore. I want to walk. I want to dwell under the shadow of the Most High. I want the spiritual authority you speak about. I want to be delivered from the traps that are set for me. I don't want to be concerned when I read the news and there's terror by night and arrows flying by day and pestilence walking in darkness and destruction that lays waste at noonday. When the storms come, I want my house to stand. And I want to be able to call out to my neighbors and maybe help them get on a solid foundation. I want to live in a place, God, of confidence that even when it looks like I'm overthrown, I'm not. Bring me, Almighty God, under the shadow of the Almighty.

What is Carter Conlon | A Call to the Nation?

Carter Conlon presents a weekly 24:55 program, encouraging and equipping a generation willing to pray, willing in God’s power to rise up and plead for mercy on behalf of others. Carter says: “As God’s people we have a responsibility to believe God for the power to find the full purpose that He has for our life!”

Psalm 91: A Truth Satan Fears

Psalm 91:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him I will trust. Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler — that means the secret traps that you don't see coming your way — and from the perilous pestilence.

In the original translation, the way that reads is: from the perversion that comes into a society when the restraining hand of God is lifted off of it. He will deliver you from secret traps and from the perversions that are going to be prevalent in this and other societies in the last days.

He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge. His truth will be your shield and your buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.

Whether there are acts of terrorism in various countries throughout the world, or threats even of nuclear war, the Bible says you will not be afraid. There will be a confidence that God puts in your heart that is born of the Spirit of God. It is born of a trust in the keeping power of God. No matter what happens, no matter what difficulty comes our way, you will not be afraid.

Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. 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. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.

This psalm — Psalm 91 — contains a truth about God that Satan himself fears. He fears that if it's believed, it would instill a barrier of promise in the hearts of those who believe in it that no power of hell can get through and breach. That's why he is afraid of Psalm 91.

How Satan Used Psalm 91 to Tempt Jesus

It was this psalm that Satan quoted when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4. Actually, in the temptation of Christ — after he was baptized in the Jordan and went into the wilderness, led of the Spirit to be tempted by Satan — this was the only scripture that Satan did not fully quote. He quoted a part of it, but not the whole scripture.

He came to the Son of God. Now, he knew who he was fighting with. He was contesting with the Son of God. I don't know how he knew it, but Satan knew who Jesus Christ was, and he had a sense of what his mission was on the earth.

The first temptation he brought to him was essentially this: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. In other words, if you are the Son of God, why are you not being fed? Why are you hungry? If you are the Son of God, there must be a resident power within you — use it for yourself, use it for your own benefit. Turn these stones to bread.

Of course, that's what the devil did — that's why he fell from heaven. He was not content with the ways, the will, and the word of God. He wanted something higher than he was assigned by God. He was tempting Christ to change his situation by his own power and his own influence.

Then he took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said again: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Here's the more insidious temptation as I see this. In effect, what I think the devil was saying — and this is my opinion, my conjecture — he was basically saying: I'm going to throw you down. And what makes you think that when your feet hit the stone that somehow there are going to be angels there to help you? What makes you think that God will preserve you? What makes you think that God will protect you? What makes you think that God will raise you up? What makes you think he will send angels to be part of the process of bringing you to the conclusion of what your life is supposed to be? If you do believe this, throw yourself down.

But I want to remind you — that is not the whole scripture. He left a line out. Psalm 91 says: He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

It didn't say it's just for one specific event. God is going to assign angels to you to keep you in all of the journey of your life — the good times, the bad times, the easy times, the hard times, the times you understand, the times you don't, the times when it looks prosperous and the times when it looks hopeless. God is not going to fail you. God is going to keep you. And there will be a heavenly presence to assist you this whole time, lest you should be overthrown or overcome by the temptations or the testings that are all around you.

And lastly, seeing he could not turn Jesus from the truth of the word of God, he said to him: All the kingdoms of the world and all their glory belong to me. If you will fall down and worship me, you don't have to go to the cross. Basically, that's what he was saying. Then you don't have to die. You can have it all if you'll just bow down and worship me.

And Jesus said, Away with you, Satan. It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

Matthew 4:11 says: Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Praise be to God. That's exactly what the scripture says. He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

What Satan Fears We Will Discover

Now, what was the devil so afraid of in Psalm 91 — that if you and I laid hold of it, his power over us would be broken?

His power causes us to think that somehow God won't provide for us in the midst of our hunger or our hardship or whatever it is that you and I have to face in the days ahead. The promise of God is that we will have provision. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

First of all, he was afraid that we would find this hidden place of God where our confidence in his keeping power can no longer be broken. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High — Psalm 91:1 — shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him I will trust.

I will trust on the good days. I will trust on the bad days. I will trust when I hit the notes in the song. I will trust when my voice cracks and I can't hit them. I will trust when there's money in the bank, and I will trust when I have to trust God to pay my bills. I will trust in God.

This has to be our prayer in this generation: God, take me to this place. Take me to this place of trust in you. Oh, Jesus Christ, Son of God, don't let me trust in my own reasonings, my own resources, my own thinking, my own abilities, my own strength. God Almighty, give me the ability to trust in your word — that the things you say to me are true. They cannot be contravened. They cannot be thrown away.

God Almighty, you cannot be tested. Satan said to Jesus, throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple and see if God will fulfill the scripture he promised you. And he said, You will not test the Lord your God. In other words, you don't have to test God. He's not a man that can lie. When he speaks, he speaks the truth. What he says, he means. He doesn't have to say anything twice. He said it once: Let there be light. And light was. And the darkness had to give way to light. He has all power. He has all authority. He commands everything in heaven and everything on the earth. And when he promises you and I something, he is good to keep his promise.

When he promises that he will keep our families, he will keep our families. When he promises that our houses won't fall in the midst of the storm, they will not fall in the midst of the storm. When God promises he will keep us, he will keep us.

Protected from Hidden Traps and Perverseness

Satan fears that we will be protected. In verse 3, it says: Surely he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the perilous pestilence. He knows that trust in God means protection from hidden traps.

I have to honestly tell you that I have had so many traps set before me over the years, and only after I got through them did I realize they were a trap. I can honestly stand here and say this is absolutely true. I have had traps set for me as a Christian person from the day of my conversion, but not one of them has ever succeeded. Not one. As a matter of fact, everybody who set a trap for me ended up with egg on their face when it was all over. Every time a trap was set, God Almighty made a way through it. And I didn't even know it was a trap until I got through to the other side and looked back and said, hey, that was a trap. But the protective hand of God was on my life.

And protected from the perverseness that destroys. It's defined in the original text as the perversity that destroys when God removes his hand of protection.

Pray for this nation. God Almighty, don't take your hand away from this nation. Because we have had a season of seeing what perverseness looks like — when evil becomes good and good becomes evil. The sexualizing of our children. The gender confusing of young adults. The mutilation of young bodies. The redefining of marriage. We've seen what perverseness looks like.

But the promise is this: if God has to lift his hand, if the society completely rejects him, you will not be touched by this evil as it touches the nation. God says, I will protect you. I will keep you from hidden traps. The perverseness of a world without God will not touch you. Will not touch your home. Will not touch your family. Will not steal your children. God says, I will fight for your house. I will fight for your family. I will open the prison doors, give sight to the blind, and set the captives free. That's who Jesus Christ is, and that's what Jesus Christ does.

It's time to have confidence in God. It's time to trust in God. It's time to stand up and say: God will not fail me. God will not forsake me. The enemy will not triumph over me. Satan will not have my life. Satan will not destroy my family. Satan will not take away the ministry God has entrusted to my hand. The song that God has planted in my heart — the devil can't take from me. It's a song of trust given to me by God, and it cannot be taken out of my life.

Satan fears that when we find this place of refuge, none of the calamity he unleashes in this world will take away our confidence in God. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings shall you take refuge.

David speaks of it in Psalm 23: Thou hast prepared a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. You and I can have enemies all around us, but God has given us a table. He's given us things to eat that this world knows nothing about. He's given us confidence. He's given us strength. All our enemies can do is take out their sword and butter our bread for us — that's all they can do as we sit at the table of God.

Your House Will Stand in the Storm

Satan fears and knows that as the foundations of those without God wash away in the coming days, your place of dwelling will stand. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Only with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked.

We shall look not with judgment. We shall look not with glee. We shall look with sorrow most of the time and say, God, I wish they had trusted in you — as we see the houses and the foundations of people all around us beginning to collapse in these last days.

Listen to what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:24: Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

You and I will have to go through the same storms as everybody else in our generation. And I know you feel it in your heart that we are in a very unstable time right now worldwide. We're in a difficult moment worldwide. We don't know what's going to break out. We don't know if the economies of the world will survive the coming days. We don't know if war will increase in our time. We just know we're living in an extremely uncertain time.

But the one thing I do know is that I have built my house on a solid foundation. I might stand in the same storm and look, and my neighbor on the right — his foundation goes and his house falls. On the other side — his foundation goes and his house falls. I might see it. I'll see the reward, put it that way, of those who have chosen to live without God. They've chosen to deny truth. They've chosen to reject God's Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. They've chosen to stand on their own reasonings, just like the devil did. They've chosen to believe there's no consequence to their behavior and their rejection of God.

But in the coming days of storm, when their houses begin to collapse, your house will not collapse. Your house will stand. You will be standing in a solid place. A thousand may fall at one hand and ten thousand on the other side, but it will not come near you. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ — if you have a heart that longs for truth, if you want to walk with God — you will stand in the coming days. The storm will not take you down.

Just like the Apostle Paul in Acts 27, you will stand on the deck of a perishing ship and be able to say to the people around you: don't be afraid. God has given me a word, and if you will listen, if you will listen to the word of God, you'll be brought to a place of safety.

The Spiritual Authority God Promises You

Satan also fears — in verse 13 — that you will discover the spiritual authority that God promises to you. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra. The young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.

I want the spiritual authority that God promises to the children of God. Devil, you can't have my family. You can't have my children. You're not taking my neighbor. You're not touching that which belongs to God. I stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I stand against every weapon you form against the righteous. As a matter of fact, I condemn every lying word you speak about me, about my life, my home, my family.

And lastly, that you will pray knowing that God will answer. Verse 15 says: He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I need to believe and trust that I am living under the shadow of the Almighty. He will hold me up. He will give his angels charge over our lives.

Angels at the Tomb — and in Your Life

God, thank you for all the times he has protected us over the years. You know, when you and I get to heaven, there are some angels who are going to go on vacation — because they've been following you around. They're the ones that pushed you out of the way of that bus. They're the ones that said, don't go in that bar. They're the ones that said, just walk away from that thing, whatever it is you were considering. They're the ones that caused your boss to change his or her mind in the workplace.

And lastly — this is where it gets very interesting to me. When Satan would say, when I cast down your Messiah onto the cold stone slab of a grave, where were the angels that God had promised would be with him? Because he did. And when Jesus Christ was laid into that tomb carved out of a rock, his feet did hit the stone, just as the scripture said. And it looked like he was triumphed over. It looked, in one sense, to the one who didn't understand the ways of God, that somehow the word of God was not true.

But John 20:11-12 says: Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

He will give his angels charge over you, lest you dash your feet against the stone. In other words, lest there be a permanent defeat of your life at the bottom — in a sense — of trusting where God is leading you.

I don't know what the angels were doing there. I don't know if they helped him get up. When the Spirit of God raised him from the dead, did the angels say, here, let me help you up? Did they unwrap him? Did they unwind him from all the gravecloth? I don't know what they did. All I know is they were there because God said they would be there. God said his Son would not be triumphed over. God said, I will send angels, and they will hold you up, lest you suffer defeat when you are cast down.

A Testimony of Angels

Have you ever met an angel? I know people who have. I know credible people who have.

I know a man one time who was running away from God. He was a minister, and he decided he was running away from God. He walked down this long road and said, I've had it. I've had it with ministry. I'm not serving God anymore. I'm finished. I'm done. And suddenly a pickup truck drives by and the driver says, get in. He says, no, I'm not getting in the truck with you — I don't even know you. The driver said, get in the truck. He said, no. The driver said, I'm telling you, get in. And he said, I felt compelled — so I got in the truck.

And the driver said, what you're considering doing is a mistake. You are called of God. God has called you. It's a mistake. You need to go back and surrender yourself to God and carry on in ministry.

Then the truck turns around, takes him back to his hotel, and drops him off. And when he gets out of the truck, he suddenly realizes — I never told this man what hotel I'm staying in. And he turned around to try to wave at the truck, and he looked, and there's no truck either way on the road. There's no truck.

He told me. This man is credible — you actually know him. He said, I've met an angel. Turned me away from what I was thinking of doing and brought me back to the calling of God. And this same man has preached the gospel to millions of people since that day. Praise be to God.

A Prayer to Dwell Under the Shadow of the Almighty

I guess the point of what God has given me to say is this: God, help me to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Help me, God, to stop stepping in and out — believe, not believe, believe, not believe. God, I don't want to live that way anymore. I want to walk. I want to dwell under the shadow of the Most High. I want the spiritual authority you speak about. I want to be delivered from the traps that are set for me. I don't want to be concerned when I read the news and there's terror by night and arrows flying by day and pestilence walking in darkness and destruction that lays waste at noonday.

When the storms come, I want my house to stand. And I want to be able to call out to my neighbors and maybe help them get on a solid foundation. I want to live in a place, God, of confidence that even when it looks like I'm overthrown, I'm not. Bring me, Almighty God, under the shadow of the Almighty.