GOSPEL CORNER : WHEN IT’S A GOD-GIVEN DESIRE, YOU WON’T BE MOVED BY OPPOSITION, BY HOW IMPOSSIBLE IT LOOKS, BY WHAT PEOPLE ARE TELLING YOU. 

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”
1 Samuel 17:36, NIV

WHAT GOD PUTS IN YOUR HEART
When David heard Goliath taunt the Israelites on the battlefield, daring them to fight, he watched thousands of strong, skilled Israeli soldiers run away and hide in fear. Something rose up in David, and he said, “Who is this who defies the armies of the living God?” David was just a teenager, a shepherd, with no military training or experience, yet he had this immediate desire to fight Goliath. One thing we know about David is that he had a heart after God. He had committed his ways into God’s hands. In turn, God put this desire in his heart. If it wasn’t a God-given desire, David would have talked himself out of it. But when God puts the desire in you, He’ll make it stronger than all the negative voices, all the doubts that try to talk you out of it. When it’s a God-given desire, you won’t be moved by opposition, by how impossible it looks, by what people are telling you. There will be a boldness, a confidence, to do what you know God put in your heart.

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A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You that the challenges and negative voices of opposition that I will face are no match for the strong desires that You put in my heart. Thank You that You are the living God who sees and hears the enemy taunts. I declare that I will walk in boldness and confidence. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

SECTION TWO

The Lord has put a now word in my heart for the times we are living in, and that word is “protection.” I want to show you from the Bible what Jesus died to give you in the area of protection.

Even as I write this devotional, the Lord is commissioning me to preach strongly from Psalm 91 so that you can walk in His divine protection in these last days. Psalm 91 has just sixteen verses, but is loaded with many potent promises that we can stand upon.

Unfortunately, when we are faced with problems, whether it is a sickness, an accident, or any kind of trouble, many of us don’t lay hold of and claim the Lord’s deliverance found in His Word. Yet, when you do hold on to God’s Word for deliverance, the devil is so afraid that the Word will become firmly rooted in your heart.

That is why he will come immediately to try to steal the Word from your heart. He will point to your outward circumstances and taunt you with thoughts such as, “Look, your child is still sick—where is God now? Where is the reality of Psalm 91?”

At that very moment, you are presented with a choice. You can either back away from God’s Word and agree with the enemy, or you can stand in faith and continue to believe His promises.

Even as the Lord put it on my heart to write this devotional on divine protection, He told me that there are people reading this who might think, I have claimed the promises in Psalm 91 before and it didn’t work. My dear friend, I want to encourage you to hold on to His Word.

Whatever your experience has been, the Word of God stands eternal and unshakable. If you have not experienced full protection in the past, I believe that as you hold on to His Word and persevere in faith, you will walk more and more in the Lord’s total protection.