Go When You're Ready

"With long life will I satisfy [you], and shew [you] my salvation." (Psalm 91:16)

Did you know that it's not God's will for you or anyone to die young? His will for you is to live the full number of your days. You ought to live 70 or 80 years, and if you are not satisfied, live a while longer! The Bible says that when Abraham died, he died at a good old age, full of years. That's the way it ought to be with all of us.

Some believers don't realize that and they've gotten themselves in a mess. When they get sick instead of just believing for healing, they start wondering if it's God's will for them to die. "Maybe He's ready to call me home," they think.

Don't ever entertain thoughts like that. If God has His way, He won't call you home until you're good and ready to come. The Apostle Paul understood that. In 2 Timothy 4:6-7, he said, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Paul didn't die until he and Jesus were ready for him to go.

Regardless of your age, if the devil is telling you God isn't going to heal you because it's time for you to go home, he is lying to you. God promises in Psalm 91:16 that if you are living under the shadow of the most High, He will satisfy you with long life. (That means that you are abiding in Him as Jesus taught in John 15.)

If you're not satisfied that you have finished your course yet on this earth, it's not time for you to die. So ignore the devil and keep right on living. Resist sickness and disease in the Name of Jesus. Stand on God's promise!

Then, when you're ready to go on to heaven, go! But go satisfied, healed, and ready! Go in victory shouting the words of that old joy-filled song--"Heaven is near and I can't stay here. Good-bye world, good-bye."

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 34

Run Him Out of Town

"Stand therefore...having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace." (Ephesians 6:14-15, The Amplified Bible)

Preparation. When it comes to fighting spiritual battles, that's a word you'd do well to remember. Most believers don't pay much attention to it. They don't prepare themselves in advance. They fiddle around until the devil makes his move, then they jump up and try to fight him with the Word... and they usually lose.

I used to do the same thing until the Lord taught me differently. I used to wait until my meetings began to pray for their success. As Satan would come against them from one direction, I'd fight him there. Then he'd move around and attack them in another area, and I'd fight him there.

One day the Lord showed me that by waiting until the last minute to take my stand, I was giving Satan time to build up his forces against me. And consequently, I was losing many of my battles. Then the Lord said something to me I'll never forget. He said, "If they had kicked Al Capone out of Chicago when he was just a small-time operator, he wouldn't have been so hard to handle; but they waited until he became a first-class criminal with his forces built up around him. Then it took an army to bring him down."

When I heard that, I made up my mind never to be caught unprepared again. I started praying about those meetings weeks in advance, getting the stage set spiritually before they ever began. Instead of letting Satan get his forces entrenched, I started throwing him out before he got a single foothold. When I did, I saw more victories than I ever had before.

Don't let the devil catch you off guard. Be prepared! Start praying and speaking the Word of faith now over your family, your business, your church. Get your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Then if Satan causes trouble, you'll be well equipped to run him out of town.

Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 17:12-51