God Goes Before You

God Goes Before You

0:07 SPEAKER_01: For more ministry podcasts, visit our website and subscribe to doncarpenter.ca.

0:13 SPEAKER_00: The Lord goes before you. That's quite a thing when we get ready to do something and whatever it is. See, any time that God asks us to do something, any time that God calls us to come up higher, whatever it is in Him, He has already made the way and prepared the way so that you can make that transition without any resistance. You just think about that. When He calls you, you may not even know the Lord, you may not even walk with God. Oh, I'm not saying you don't believe in a God, but you've never had a relationship with the Lord.

0:57 SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're sensing it so strongly that I need to give my life to Christ. I don't know what to do. Can I share with you today and tell you this? He has already made the way. And you will find that it's that way in every part of your Christian life.

David’s Promotion Triggers Resistance

1:21 SPEAKER_00: Today I'm going to read to you from the Book of the Chronicles, back in the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles, chapter 14, and verse 8. David has entered now into his destiny. It wasn't easy getting there. He fought some battles. He had resistance. He had people that spoke against him, family and friends. And telling him, who do you think you are? But David made it, and he got to be king. You may be struggling with things as a believer. Maybe you've had some battles that maybe you've been fighting a long time.

2:05 SPEAKER_00: And now you are king of that. You are now on top of it, you've got the victory. Hallelujah. And you are celebrating and people are rejoicing with you. This is what happened when David became king of Israel. Verse 8, and when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David. And David heard of it and went out against them. The Philistines heard, when the enemy hears that you are speaking victory, you are talking about, I have attained, I have reached.

3:09 SPEAKER_00: And when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king, anointed by the Lord, and that's what's happened to you. You have been anointed with victory. You have been anointed with walking as an overcomer. You were anointed as a child of God. And when the enemy hears about it, he is quite displeased. And he turns his firepower on you, and he thinks, I'm going to take them out. I am not going to permit this to happen. And we have what's called struggles, battles. When we first come to the Lord, we're still vessels of flesh.

3:58 SPEAKER_00: We still have our earthly mind, and we still have our way of doing things. But when we become a believer and we walk in the Lord, we seek the will of God for our life. We ask God to help us. And the Philistines went up to seek David. That reminds me of a passage where it says that the devil walketh about to and fro throughout the earth, seeking whom he may devour. And don't think for one moment that you're going to be exempt from this. And you're going to say, What am I going to do when the things come against me?

4:43 SPEAKER_00: Remember, you are no longer living as a servant of the devil. You're no longer walking in that carnal, fleshly way where every victory ends up being a disappointment. That's not the case. You are now walking with the Lord. And the Lord is with you, and the Lord is guiding you, and the Lord will protect you. Let's read on and see what it says here. And David heard of it.

5:14 SPEAKER_00: He heard that the enemy was coming after him. He heard that. And so the enemy thinks, okay, I'm going to make him give up, and we won't have any battle to do at all. That's the typical mentality of these demons. And David heard of it, and David took a faith step. He went out against them.

5:45 SPEAKER_00: The Lord has gone before you.

A Deliverance Story From Haiti

6:00 SPEAKER_00: It's in the West Indies, Caribbean area. And back in those days, we would hire a vehicle and a driver, and we'd go way up in the mountains. We had to go through military arm checkpoints, and the list goes on. And on our journey, we'd left Port-au-Prince and we were moving out and up and through the country, and I preached one night, and they brought a little girl to me in the meeting. She could have been no more than 10, 11 years old. And her parents stood there with me, and the girl was there beside them, and I said, What is the issue?

6:43 SPEAKER_00: And they said, Our daughter is tormented by spirits, demons, every night. Every night before she goes to sleep, she will see the demons hiding in the corner of the room, and these demons come and bite her on her hands every night. A spiritual leaving a physical mark. I have seen that a few times over my 60-some years of ministry and deliverance. I have seen it. I've even seen when demons were being cast out, and I've seen marks come from the inside. We're talking about in a land where voodoo reigns.

7:23 SPEAKER_00: It is unbelievable. I ministered to her that night, and I went up into the mountains, and I was gone a few days. And when we came back down through, and we stopped at this same village to pick up some refreshments. And so while we were buying, they said, just a minute, somebody wants to see you. And they came to me, the parents with the little girl, and they said, When you prayed, that demon has not appeared since that time. And they said, Look, the hands, there's no marks, there's nothing. Imagine the relief to that child.

8:03 SPEAKER_00: Now I've told you that story for this reason. No matter how bizarre you think your situation is, no matter how dark you may find yourself in, as a believer, the Lord goes before you, and he makes a way for you. And David is newly anointed king of Israel, and Israel's enemy is camped in the valley waiting to test this new king. Think it not strange, the Bible says, when fiery trials are about to try you. As though some strange thing is happening unto you. Don't think that's strange. Remember, the Lord goes before you.

9:06 SPEAKER_00: And the Philistines came and they spread themselves in the valley of Rephim. They make themselves appear, we are so large and we are so grand, and you are unimportant. You're just a puny little expendable human. They don't understand. Greater is he that is in you, and that is Christ. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. David didn't say, Oh, I don't know what I'm going to do. There's so many of them and so few of us. The Philistines heard that David was king.

9:56 SPEAKER_00: But David heard from another level. He heard from the Lord. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will be with you when you slay the giant. I will be with you when armies come against you. That's what David was listening to. That's what David was hearing. Even your own thoughts and your own voice will speak and think things, and you're thinking, I don't know if I can ever overcome this. Yes, you can. It's been years. Yes, you can. Your battle's been longer, maybe, in some areas, but overcome you shall.

10:46 SPEAKER_00: And I believe that you have to think that way. Isaiah 57, 19.

Speak Victory Over Your Battle

10:50 SPEAKER_00: God said, I create the fruit of your lips. The fruit of the lips, I create that. If you speak and say, Greater is he that's in me than he that is in the world. God said, I create that. And when you speak it, I make it happen. When you have to fight battles and you're all alone, go to the mirror sometime and look in the mirror and point at that person in the mirror and tell them, Don't you be afraid. Don't you doubt. Allow the Lord to come forth in your life. Then verse 10.

Inquire Of God And Wait

11:26 SPEAKER_00: David inquired of God.

11:32 SPEAKER_00: And he said, Shall I go up against the Philistines? That's a good question, really. Because sometimes we might think it would be a lot easier not to bother trying to get a victory in this area. It might be easier just to leave it alone. See what the Lord would have you say. God, will you deliver them into my hands? Just think about this for a moment. It's just like us saying to God, will I ever get victory? Will this issue ever be settled? Will this torment, will these attacks, will this, whatever I suffer, will I ever be free from that?

12:21 SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something. Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. When you are a believer filled with the Holy Spirit, and you enter these realms of walking in God, it's not like when you walked out there in the world all alone. That's the beauty of coming together. There no doubt will be people watching me today who don't darken a church door. They just say and they say, I get all my preaching from TV preachers or internet or whatever. I'm going to tell you, that's fine in what it does.

13:01 SPEAKER_00: Nothing compares to what it is when we gather together as a body of believers. Inquiring of God is not an immature thing. The prophets of the Old Testament did it, not just kings. We can read scriptures where people sought the Lord. You can inquire of the Lord about your sickness. You can inquire of the Lord about your emergencies that happen. When you're in the Spirit, logic no longer rules and reigns. You have a legitimate way to walk and to live. And victory is yours in the name of Jesus. Whenever we get in a doomed message, maybe a situation that we know is way beyond our ability and power, inquire of the Lord, how are we going to get the victory here?

13:58 SPEAKER_00: What is it you want me to do? Guide me. Because quite often you will find that the last battle, the technique or whatever it was you did, it may not be the same for what you're facing today. And David was there, and the Lord said to him, this is in verse 10, you're going to say, Well, I talk to the Lord, but he doesn't say anything to me. That is not true. Maybe you don't understand what he's saying. Maybe you might not like what he's saying, or you may even think that it's your own thought. But when you are praying and you seek the Lord about something, don't just say, give me, I want, take your time, meditate upon the word, read some scripture, pray and just wait.

14:52 SPEAKER_00: Just wait and meditate. And when you're waiting, the Lord is going to speak to you. He's going to give you thoughts. Why you could even have an audible voice speak to you. Or he may just appear in a vision in front of you. Or it could be whatever the thing is you're seeking, there would be a knock on the door as soon as you pray. But when you pray and you seek the Lord on something, God does not turn away and hide his face. God does not block his ear. God listens to you. And the Lord said to him, spoke specifically.

15:29 SPEAKER_00: Go up. Don't go down. Don't sink down to the base elements of what's attacking you. Go up. Rise above it. Rise above what you feel, what you're being told. Rise above that. Remember, when the enemy attacks you, always go up. Go up until what the Lord says about the matter. Every time you have a choice to read in your Bible and you read there and you get the word of the Lord. Go up into what He says.

16:11 SPEAKER_00: You might hear a lot of things and you have no way of proving them. You don't know if they're true. Some of the bizarre things that we see and hear. I'm going to tell you there's something that is true. The Bible is given to us, believers. And what he's done for others, he will do for you. Remember that song? It's no secret what God can do. What he's done for others, he'll do for you. When we read that in the Bible, that is a word to us. That's why the Holy Spirit has it written there. Because like King David, when we start off and we're believing we're broken free, and now for the first time in our lives, we feel absolutely free.

17:00 SPEAKER_00: We don't feel worthless anymore. We feel like we are somebody and that we are in God's kingdom. The enemy will come to you and try to tear you down. He'll try to hold you back. The Holy Spirit wants you to know today that He'll never leave you nor forsake you, and that He is with you. And I can verify that by the Word of God, the written word of God. We have spoken words of God, such as what I'm doing today. And the reason I preach to you today, and the reason that you are listening, it's because this word is a life word.

17:50 SPEAKER_00: It is not guessing, it's not something that somebody says, it's what God says. The one that spoke you into being.

18:47 SPEAKER_00: God's given you the victory, and you tell the enemy what the outcome is going to be. And I myself personally, if I was being tormented by something, and now God suddenly says, you tell them what you want done with them, I'm going to say, get out of my life. Have no more. Don't even enter, don't even entertain the thought of attacking me. You decide. Because you have been given the power. Hallelujah. Now the choice is yours. God always gives us a choice. He gives us a choice on whether we want to give our lives to Christ.

19:26 SPEAKER_00: That's what this life's all about, anyway. This physical life that's here. And we think that it's the greatest there ever will be. No, no. This life is filled with heartaches and burdens and woes and disappointments. Thank God we've got a Savior to help carry us through. But there's a higher plane. This is what God said. I will deliver them into your hands. In other words, you're going to overcome them, but I believe it's up to us. So let's go down into verse 11. Then David said, God hath broken in upon my enemies by my hand.

20:06 SPEAKER_00: Like the breaking forth of waters. You have broken the enemy's defense, and when the enemy comes, it's it subsides, it goes. You're going to say, Man, they're in my hands. Remember, it wasn't just one or two Philistine cities. The Philistines have been entrenched in this region of the world for a number of years. They were a warring, seafaring people who never settled anywhere. And these Philistines made great cities. And they knew how to do warfare. And then all of them, the Bible doesn't say one city.

20:50 SPEAKER_00: All of them came unto David, and they were trying to crush the man of God. All the enemy. You may have days where you feel like all the enemy is coming in at you. All the power. It seems like you don't know where to turn. God goes before you and he has delivered the enemy into your hands. Hallelujah. Just remember that today. And the Philistines ran. They brought their gods with them. And they couldn't even carry their gods. They ran because their gods failed them anyway. They're idols. And it says in verse 12, they gathered up all the gods of the Philistines.

21:33 SPEAKER_00: They gathered up all the things that they put their trust in, the Philistines. And they burned them, removed them from the face of the earth. Our God is the King of kings. He is the God of all gods. He is the only living God. And that is the God that goes before you. Let's look at verse 13.

The Second Attack Needs New Guidance

22:00 SPEAKER_00: 1 Chronicles chapter 14, verse 13. The first waves come in, dropped their gods as they were running, couldn't carry them, had all their gods destroyed, and look at this. And yet again, verse 13. Philistines yet again spread themselves abroad in the valley. They came again and they stood and they said, You might think you're big and strong, but look at us, we're here again. How many of you have experienced that one? You felt strong, you've gone ahead, it's gone good. You thought the prophet said you're victorious, you've got it, you're free, and suddenly the thing starts to show its ugly head again.

22:45 SPEAKER_00: You see it coming on the horizon. You say, I know what's going to happen. This thing's coming to me again. David did what David does, and you're going to do what you do. Once again, you are going to inquire of the Lord. This is in verse 14. You're going to inquire again. Just because you did it once. You're going to do it again. You're going to tell the enemy once and for all that my God, you are godless, you people that come against us. Just remember that. The enemy that comes against you is godless.

23:24 SPEAKER_00: They have burnt their gods. They have no gods to trust in. You, the believer, you still trust in the one true and the living God. Hallelujah. That's where your faith is.

23:41 SPEAKER_00: That's powerful. Why do you keep doing it? Because you know that the Lord your God goes before you. You are confident of that. You are sure of that. There's no doubt in your mind about that. And once again, it says in verse 14, God said unto him, you can seek God more than once in your lifetime. He likes you to talk to him 24 hours a day if you'd stay awake. God said to him, Go not up after them. What? No, let them sit there and brew. Don't go after them. Turn away from them and come upon them over against the mulberry tree.

24:37 SPEAKER_00: And it shall be when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry tree. Then thou shalt go out to battle. Are you ready for this statement? Then go for battle. You and your men, but listen to me. You go because when you hear the sound, you just try to keep up with me. Because God said, I'm on the move. I'm on the move against your enemy. And here's what God says. For God is gone forth before thee to smite the hosts of the Philistines. David went, they smote the host, and I can see the host of the Philistines trying to pick up their swords or whatever they've got.

25:26 SPEAKER_00: And I can see it all in like really slow motion, and I can see their swords bending and melting and falling over, and all you've got to do is just come and do a cleanup. Because they have no defense left. When God goes before you, your enemy has no defense left.

God Ambushes Enemies And Closes

25:50 SPEAKER_00: I fight battles every day. So do you. We fight battles every day. Every one of them is already won. And we have what it takes to do it, and that is faith in God. You inquire of God, and I'm going to tell you right now, God's going to ambush your enemies for you. You're not going to need to worry about it. God's going to ambush them for you. In Jeremiah 51, 12, the latter part of the verse. For the Lord hath both devised and done. He knows how to look after what's attacking you. Things that you battle.

26:34 SPEAKER_00: Be victorious. The Lord goes before you.

26:38 SPEAKER_01: For more ministry podcasts, visit our website and subscribe to Don Carpenter.