Notes From The Journal Of Nee-Kay Ministries
"He Should Pay for Our Delay"
Deuteronomy 6: 10-11 (New Living Translation)
"The LORD your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land filled with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant…"
Even though the Children of Israel were walking around in the wilderness because of their hard hearts, their decision to dis-believe the Lord's willingness to take them in and fulfill His promises to their father, the Lord was still planning a great celebration for them.
The Lord sees ahead of us and knows that He has a wonderful plan for us. The enemy can't stop God's plan for us. If the enemy gets in the way or interferes in any way, he'll be used to increase the "celebration party" for us. He gets the privilege of "paying for our party gifts".
The Lord was using the current inhabitants, the enemy to:
The enemy was busy working, building, planning and planting for his future. When all the while in truth, he was doing it all for the children of Israel's benefit - and he didn't even know it. He thought he (the enemy, the oppressor, and the source of humiliation of God's people) would "eat, drink and be merry". The Lord made the enemy use it's resources, time, labor, energy, and finances to put things in to place for the day when the Lord's people would show up. He didn't let His people use their resources in order to have to establish their lives from scratch. They didn't have to plant trees, wait for them to grow and produce fruit, and then harvest the fruit. The planting and growing time was taken care of while they were still rummaging around in the wilderness. God had a big celebration planned at the enemy's expense.
Sometimes when we're in a place of "delay" from enjoying God's promises and we're not living in disobedience, we should rest assured that the Lord is piling up stuff for us to enjoy. And that He is probably doing this at the enemy's expense. Don't misunderstand, God and the devil are NOT on the same side. The devil is out for himself and for his pleasure. He is stealing for his own pleasure. He is killing for his own pleasure. He is withholding and hindering for his own pleasure. But sometimes the stuff he is gathering up for what he thinks is his pleasure; he is in essence gathering it for the pleasure of God's people.
God doesn't use the devil in any way to do His work, but He won't pass up a good opportunity to take what the enemy has done and use it for the benefit of His own people. We can win when all seems to point to us failing. We can benefit in a great way, when our situations are screaming at us that we're falling apart. God will take what we've allowed the enemy to place in our lives, and turn it to great benefit for us and also for the Kingdom of God.
We're on the winning team.
Additional Scripture References:
Luke 12: 16-20; Acts 14:22; Romans 8:32; 37-39; James 5:1-8