God goes Before US
God goes before us • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Lord is the one who will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
Preached Wednesday night about God always being with us never leaving us never forsaking us and this verse and others that I was studying continued to show me that not only was God with us not only would he not leave us not only would he not forsake us but he also was going out before us he was going out in front of us taking care of things just like this verse says the Lord is the one who will go before you and also he guards behind us.
So, if you're like me, your first thought was how is He with us and before us at the same time? Our God is omnipresent meaning He's not held by space and time. He's everywhere at once.
So, part of the promise that God is always with us means that He's also going before us and that also means that He covers behind us.
God is with us helping us every second of every minute of every hour of every day guiding us and His guidance is amazing because He's the only one who has already gone before us into our future, so God is guiding me through today's problems with information about what I'm going to be facing tomorrow, all the time defending us from past problems.
So all it says is God is with you; He'll never leave you but it means our God loves us so much that He guides us through the present with information from the future and protection from the past.
So when the scripture tells us not to fear, not to worry, don't be discouraged, to hold our heads up high, it's because our omnipresent God is walking with us and He's gone before us and He's telling us to trust in Him and let Him fight our battles because He's the only one who's been in my future!
So, when God is giving me guidance that seems weird or strange, I must understand that God's advice is based on His knowledge of my tomorrow; it's based on His knowledge of my future!
God's guidance is perfect not only because He loves me unconditionally and wants the best for me, and not only because He is sovereign and trustworthy, but because He has already gone before me and knows what I'm facing!
So let's look at some scripture from the Old Testament about a man named Jehoshaphat who was the King of Judah. You can find the story in 2nd Chronicles chapter 20.
People came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast number from beyond the Dead Sea and from Edom has come to fight against you; they are already in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, En-gedi).
Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he resolved to seek the Lord. Then he proclaimed a fast for all Judah,
who gathered to seek the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek him.
A couple of Messengers come to King Jehoshaphat and tell him that the Moabites and the Amorites have joined with another army and is well on its way to attack King Jehoshaphat and Judah.
King Jehoshaphat had just narrowly escaped a war with his life and now he's got three armies who have joined forces against him and he is scared, and I would say he doesn't know what to do because apart from seeking God, he doesn't know.
But King Jehoshaphat has an up-to-date, on time, 24/7, white hot relationship with God. So, he proclaimed and/or declared a fast and a prayer for all of Judah.
Scripture says that they came from all the cities that made up Judah to seek God. Church, There Is Power in corporate worship; there is Power in fasting; there is Power in prayer, and when God's people come together in faith and earnestly seek God, God shows his dedication and love for His people, and He tells them do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number of soldiers coming against you for the battle is not yours but the battle is God's![ Read scripture
2 chron. 20:12
Our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless before this vast number that comes to fight against us. We do not know what to do, but we look to you.
God told them it wasn't their battle to worry about or win,[ Read #2 Chron 20:15
but it was God's battle. God tells them that He would win the battle, but he also told them to go to the Battlegrounds, and position themselves and to stand still and to watch the salvation of the Lord. [ #3 Read 2 Chron 20:17]
and he said, “Listen carefully, all Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
It's one thing to claim that we believe, or to claim that we have faith in the Lord. It's another thing to risk our lives knowing if God doesn't follow through with what he told us He would do, then we were going to be slaughtered.
God is not just with us; He goes before us. God doesn't just use the here and now to help us, He also uses our past to show His hand and who He has refined us to be.
When they started singing and praising God, He set ambushes to defeat the enemy. Scripture says the moment they began to shout Praises to The Lord, He set the ambush.
2 chron 20.22
The moment they began their shouts and praises, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir who came to fight against Judah, and they were defeated.
So King Jehoshaphat and the entire Kingdom of Judah came together to see God in what they knew that apart from a supernatural, divine, intervention from God, they had no chance.
God told them to go to the Battleground to position themselves on the battlefield and to stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord. So they sought the Lord in prayer, fasting, praise and worship and God LED them to a position of victory.
Church when you seek God and His will for your life, He will not only go before you and fight your battles, but He will also position you for victory. And once you are in a position of victory, all you must do is standstill and praise the Lord as you watch the salvation of the Lord in your life!
We have to jump into action when the enemy is approaching and seek God, and we have to have faith and trust in God to go out to the battlefield so that God can put us in a position for victory, and then we have to get out of the way - we have to move out of God's way and praise His name as we watch the salvation of the Lord.
Their praise was evidence of their faith. Their faith LED them to the battlefield, but their praise was evidence of their faith. When we truly believe the word and the promises of God, we can't help but praise Him. And when we praise Him standing on the battlefield where Faith brought us, and we're standing in a victory position aligned with God's will and purpose for our life, we can't help but praise Him.
We see this in what Jesus did for us. He fought the Battle for our salvation, and He rescued us from the Judgment of God that we deserve. We are Overcomers…We are conquerors in Christ because He fights the battle and defeats our foe and then shares the spoils with us.
You see God is going out in front of us. He's going out in front of us in preparation for what He has for us but without the seeking of God Jehoshaphat would have had no idea what to do! That's why we seek God on a daily basis because he's not only equipping us for the battles that he calls us to fight but he's going out in front of us and when the battles are impossible for us to win he tells us to seek his face to praise his name and position ourselves on the battlefield in faith that he's got it and then we see the promise that he'll never leave us he'll never forsake us he goes out in front of us and protects us and equips us !
God went out in front and fought the Battle. The fight was God's fight not man's fight. God won the battle before the enemy even arrived at the battlefield. The scripture said the moment they praised God, He set an ambush and the armies that had joined together to come against Judah turned on each other and completely wiped each other out.
When we position ourselves and align ourselves in God's will, we stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord God wipe out our enemies and then hand us the spoils of War.
When we spend time seeking God's counsel for our lives, a part of the promise that He's always with us also means that he goes out before us. God is already out in front of us fighting the battles that are coming our way.
They won this battle on their faces in prayer before God. So many times, we try to fix the problem, so many times we try to fight the battle that we're not equipped or expected to fight, when all the time God is wanting us to fall on our face before Him and seek Him in fasting and prayer, because He's got this, because it's not our fight, it's God's fight.
Our fight is not against flesh and blood so we're needed on the front line with our face to the floor in prayer. Prayer is our only access into the future! God goes before us, and we have a direct line of communication with God, so our prayers are capable of affecting the future.
So we know that God is with us that He'll never leave us, and now we know that God goes out before us and He'll fight the battle and He'll hand us The Spoils of War, but God is also behind us!
When Moses was leading the children of Israel to the Red Sea and Pharaoh was chasing them, the children of Israel had the ocean on one side and Pharaoh's Army behind them. God put a wall of fire between the children of Israel and Pharaohs army to protect them until the next day when God was going to do one of the greatest miracles and split the Red Sea!
The point is that God is with us, walking us through each moment of our day with knowledge and guidance and direction based on His understanding of what we're going to face in our future. God put a wall of fire between us and our enemies from the past to keep us under His protection, to keep the past from creeping up on us!
So I don't know about you, but the promise that God will always be with us is way more deep and complex than we ever thought it would be. But the promise that He's with us means that He's before us, means that He's behind us, means that he has a hedge of protection all the way around us as long as we continue to walk in the light as He is in the light.