Mensa Otabil - A Great Deliverance
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And so we go back to our readings from the Book of Joel, chapter 2, verse 20. But I’ll remove far from you the northern army and will drive it away into a barren and desolate land, with its face toward the Eastern Sea and its back toward the Western Sea; its stench will come up and its foul odor will rise because it has done monstrous things.
Now, if you remember, yesterday we talked about God’s promise to give grain to the people when they sought His face in prayer and fasting. So He says, «I will provide. I will provide. I will give you grain,» because the locusts had eaten the grain. But today, the Lord is saying something different. He says, «I will remove the northern army.»
So the same God the people are praying to, and waiting on, does two different things: He gives some things and takes some things away. The Lord who provides is also the same Lord who removes. In other words, some things that God does for you in a time of prayer and consecration He adds to you, and then, in another sense, God also takes some things away. So, in this season, expect God to put some things into your life and take some things out of your life. He speaks about the security and safety of the nation; it’s not just enough to have grain, but you need to have safety and security. And so, God talks about the northern army.
Now, what had happened in those days was that they had faced a catastrophe with locusts, and now they hear that an army is coming against their land. The land is already languished, and now there is a military conquest coming against them. So God says, «Listen, I will solve the first problem: I’ll give you grain. And this second problem, you’re looking at this enemy coming-I’m going to remove him.» I believe that God is saying to each of us, «There are some things I’ve done for you, and there are some things I’m going to do for you, and the enemy you see today will be seen no more.»
So, what is God going to remove from us? First, He’s going to remove those who oppress you. Anything that presses you down, whether it’s a system, a person, or a structure that is sitting upon you, God will dethrone it from your life, and that which has sat upon you for years will be removed from your life. There is liberty from oppression coming to God’s people. Secondly, God will remove those who stole from you. In the case of Joel, that which stole from them took away their grains. But God says, «I’m going to remove this new threat that wants to take away from you.» It could be an individual or a system, but anything that has robbed you and siphoned your resources away, God says, «I’m going to take them out of your life.» And don’t be surprised when God moves some people and some things out of your life because there are some things that must go so that the resources of God will stay in your life.
So God says, «I’m going to remove.» And thirdly, God will remove those who fight against you. The northern army was coming against Israel, and God says, «They are better armed; they are better equipped. You are a hungry people; you don’t even know how to fight back. But I will remove them, and I’ll take them so far.» And God says, «When I do it, I will do it in such a marvelous way that their stench will be all over; people will smell their disgrace and their dishonor.» May the Lord God, who gives us grain, also remove every army that has come against us in Jesus' name.
Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, remove every thief and destroyer from our lives and properties. I declare victory in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»