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What happens when life takes an unexpected turn, leaving you feeling lost and questioning how you got there? On the Jamie Luce podcast, we explore these moments through the lens of the book of Jeremiah, particularly focusing on Jeremiah 29:11 and its deeper implications for our lives. Join us as we reflect on the story of the Israelites’ exile due to their disobedience and discuss how aligning with God’s guidance can transform our circumstances into ones filled with joy, purpose, and abundance. Drawing inspiration from the steadfast faith of prophets like Daniel, we delve into how maintaining faith during challenging times can reveal God’s profound promises.

Our conversation takes a closer look at the concept of exile, both in its historical context and its metaphorical applications today. By examining the trials faced by Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Babylon, we uncover parallels with modern-day involuntary displacements, as well as voluntary situations like addiction or debt. This introspective discussion prompts us to consider the role of our choices in shaping our current situations. We encourage responsible introspection and challenge listeners to reflect on whether their circumstances are self-created or part of a divine plan, ultimately urging alignment with God’s intentions to overcome frustration and entrapment.

Navigating life’s challenges with faith is at the heart of our discussion, emphasizing how choosing God’s path can lead to unexpected blessings and hope even amidst adversity. Through Jeremiah 29, we highlight the call to build, grow, and seek welfare in times of exile, promising a hopeful future rooted in divine wisdom. This episode invites listeners to trust in God’s plan and guidance, assuring that even in moments of captivity, prosperity and joy are attainable. Join us for a heartfelt episode, enriched with shared prayer and community engagement, focusing on how aligning with God’s wisdom can transform your life amidst unexpected circumstances.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:01) – Navigating Unexpected Circumstances and Exile (9 Minutes)

This chapter addresses the feelings of being lost and questioning how one ended up in their current circumstances, using the book of Jeremiah as a foundation for encouragement and guidance. By examining the context around Jeremiah 29:11, we explore the significance of understanding God’s plans, particularly during challenging times. We reflect on the story of the Israelites’ exile due to disobedience, emphasizing the importance of following God’s guidance to achieve a blessed life. Through the examples of prophets like Daniel, who remained steadfast in their faith and obedience, we find inspiration to trust in God’s wisdom and promises, leading to a life of joy, purpose, and abundance. The discussion encourages listeners to align with the Creator’s intentions to overcome feelings of entrapment and frustration.

(0:09:23) – Navigating Unplanned Circumstances (14 Minutes)

This chapter examines the concept of exile, exploring both its historical and metaphorical meanings. We discuss the forced displacement of people during biblical times, such as the Babylonian exile of figures like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and how they had to navigate life in a foreign culture while maintaining their faith. The discussion also draws parallels between ancient exiles and modern situations, such as the involuntary displacement caused by natural disasters, like the fires in Los Angeles. Furthermore, we consider the idea of voluntary exile, where individuals might find themselves in situations of captivity, such as addiction or debt, due to their own choices. This chapter encourages introspection about our circumstances and the role our decisions play in where we find ourselves, urging us to take responsibility for voluntary situations of exile.

(0:23:39) – Thriving in Exile Through God’s Wisdom (7 Minutes)

This chapter addresses the feeling of exile that many of us experience in various aspects of life, such as finances, relationships, and careers. I emphasize that despite these challenges, we can choose to face them with God’s wisdom and live a blessed life, even in difficult circumstances. Drawing from Jeremiah 29, we explore how God encourages those in exile to build, grow, and seek the welfare of their surroundings, promising that He has plans for their welfare and a hopeful future. The chapter underscores the importance of relying on God’s guidance and promises, assuring that even in times of captivity, we can find prosperity and hope by following His path.

(0:30:25) – Choosing God’s Way for Prosperity (7 Minutes)

This chapter focuses on the importance of aligning one’s life with God’s will to experience prosperity and blessings, even amidst challenging circumstances. We explore the idea that following God’s guidance, much like Isaac did during a famine, can lead to extraordinary outcomes that defy human logic. By living a life of obedience and seeking divine direction, individuals can avoid the pitfalls of relying solely on their own understanding or fleshly desires. This path of spiritual alignment offers a way to navigate life’s difficulties, promising not only survival but thriving through God’s provision and promises. The choice is emphasized: to pursue the flesh leads to its own consequences, but to sow into the spirit reaps spiritual rewards. Listeners are urged to self-reflect and seek God’s wisdom to ensure they are on the right path, asking if their current situation is self-created or a part of God’s plan for them.

(0:37:03) – Trusting God Through Unexpected Circumstances (3 Minutes)

This chapter focuses on navigating life’s challenges with faith and trust in God’s plan. We discuss how, despite facing situations beyond our control, choosing to follow God’s way can lead to blessings and deliverance. By trusting in God’s promise that our trials are temporary, we can find hope and strength. Emphasizing the importance of submitting to God’s guidance, we explore the idea that God’s plans are meant for our good, providing us with a future and hope. A prayer is shared, asking for God’s guidance, protection, and provision, and inviting listeners to connect through comments and prayer requests.

About your host: Jaime Luce’s testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!

Free chapter of Jaime’s new book: You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God: https://jaimeluce.com/book/

Connect:

– Website: https://jaimeluce.com

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– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-luce-00395691/

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:01 – Jaime Luce
Hey everyone, welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. It is really good to be with you today and I’m wanting to bring some encouragement to you. I just really felt in my heart that there were many who kind of are asking themselves the question of how did I get here? How did I get here? You know, sometimes we can end up in circumstances and situations and we’re thinking this was not what I planned, this is not what I had in mind, and how? How did I get here?

And I want us to go to the book of Jeremiah. We’re all so familiar with the verse Jeremiah 29, 11. I know the plans I have for you, but we really only take that snippet of that verse and we don’t recognize what’s happening, why God said that when he said that, and the power and impact of what he was really saying and what we need to know. Just to some background, because this, might you know, I want you to take whatever you hear, whatever we read in scripture and whatever’s going on. And of course, my heart’s desire is that you will take it and find yourself in scripture and find God’s way through, find a way out, find a way over. We are overcomers because of what Christ has done for us. So that’s my goal is to help us, so that if you’re sitting today in discouragement, if you are sitting in frustration, if you’re sitting in a place of I don’t know why I’m here, I don’t know how I got here and I don’t know how to get out, if you feel trapped, I know that today will be a blessing to you. So go get your Bibles. Let’s get them to open to Jeremiah, chapter 29. And I’m going to give you the background of what’s happening here.

Jeremiah is one of the prophets. There were three of them that were contemporaries during the general, same amount of time, and that would be Ezekiel, jeremiah and Daniel. And they were. There was the children of Israel. After many, many years of disobedience and not listening to the prophets of God, when God would try to send a message never to put burdens on the people, never to make life hard for the people, god always would say if you’ll just do what I’m telling you to do, every possible blessing is yours. The whole book.

Go through Deuteronomy. It’s shocking, and I believe it’s Deuteronomy, chapter eight. We hear the promise of God If you’ll do this, then I’m going to do this, this, this and this and this for you. It’s all good, wonderful, powerful promises for them, for their entire lives. It is the blessing of God. But on the same token, he says now, if you disobey and you don’t do it the way I tell you, all of these curses are going to come on you. And they’re not coming on you because I’m cursing you. They’re coming on you because you didn’t do it the way I told you to do it.

Why is that important? Makes sense. I mean, isn’t it truly logical to understand that the one who created everything, created the seasons, the actual seasons, created the days, the night, the day, the one who instituted how this whole thing works, would tell you how it works, that he would be the one to share with you the brilliance of his wisdom, to lead you into every good thing. That, to me, is like that’s like saying, okay, if I walk around and I don’t know how to use my phone, but I, my best friend is Steve Jobs, when he was living, and he could tell me everything that I need to know, every little possible thing that this phone does. Because the creator of the phone, the one who who imagined it all and put it all together, is the one who’s telling me how to operate it. I will get the most function out of it by listening to the one who created it. So it makes complete sense.

I mean total sense, total logic that in order to be blessed in this life, to live on planet earth, to be able to live the promises of God and to to attain and retain all that he has for me in this life, whatever that is, because it’s all for his glory I’m not talking about a crazy selfish mentality that that everything is for me and I’m going to get mine and all of that. That’s not what I’m, that’s not what I’m saying, but what I am saying is a blessed life full of accomplishment and joy and purpose and relationship and abundance in all that God has. That comes from doing it the way that the creator, creator said do it. That makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is that me, a created being turns to the creator and says I think there’s a better way and I do it my way. And I wonder why all the curses come about. I wonder how it’s possible for me to end up in a situation that is unthinkable to me, that goes against everything I believe about God, about life, about relationships, about we can end up in circumstances that are shocking to us. How did I get here? How in the world did I get here? And I don’t want to stay here. I don’t like this.

Well, we’ve got these prophets, daniel, jeremiah and Ezekiel, who were all involved in something that they didn’t want to have to be involved in. It’s called the exile to be involved in. It’s called the exile. And even though because this is this will help you, because we know Daniel, oh my gosh, daniel, daniel in the lion’s den.

Daniel’s the one who was the raised to the top of the kingdom and was fought against because he did everything right, prayed three times a day, refused any kind of order that stood against God, but did it all in peace, didn’t become violent and negative and crazy. He did, he followed God regardless Whatever God said. That’s what he did, and God raised him to prominence and position and influence because he refused to do anything but what God said. And yet this same Daniel is the one who was continually fought against, the one who was thrown into the den of lions. You know, it’s amazing to me how he was lied about, how he was tricked, how he was. You know, they set a trap for him. He just didn’t. He didn’t fall for the trick. He just didn’t play along and it still was against him. It was still in order to hurt him and yet God blessed him, even though he was part of an exile. He was one of the three Hebrew boys taken by King Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon.

Now, the exile happened in waves. It happened. Not everybody went all at the same time. It happened in waves. It really is like a picture of life. Everybody goes through things and it happens in different times, different seasons, in different ways for different people. But we can all relate. We end up in that same place, right.

And for Ezekiel, he’s part of basically the crew who’s digging up ditches down by the river and he sees his revelations that we get in Ezekiel when he’s serving and basically in a slave labor type situation down by the river. And his reach, his ministry, only really reached locally until it was recorded in scripture for all of us, but it only reached the people who were down there by the river with him. And for Daniel, his reach had to do with governmental reach and how that affected the people. And then we have Jeremiah he’s coming and he’s trying to bring a word to the king when it’s his time to go and he only has influence really over the group and the province that he is living in. But they were all familiar with and lived under this time of exile.

What does the word exile mean? So exile means to be carried away, captive, removed. So they felt carried away. They were actually physically carried away, literally like slaves. But some of them were told if you’ll come and go, nebuchadnezzar would come in and say if you’ll just come, I’ll let you have land, I’ll let you serve your God Like he. He he didn’t have, he didn’t always have these crazy rules, and there were more than just King Nebuchadnezzar, so he was just the first. The exile began with him. Okay, and so you have him coming in. And some of the people were literally drug away. They were taken by force or they were told you need to come. They’re still under force, but it’s not like they were in chains. They had to go and leave their land. They were led captive. Okay, so they were carried away.

Have you ever felt carried away by a situation, a circumstance? You felt carried away. It just carried you away. You felt you had no control. It was forced on away. You felt you had no control. It was forced on you. You don’t have a choice in the matter. You’re having to go this way and you didn’t choose this. You didn’t want this.

Can you imagine how Jeremiah, daniel and Ezekiel felt they had to go into exile for a disobedience of a people, though they themselves were not the ones disobeying and they themselves were not the ones responsible, and yet it was affecting them and they had to be carried away as well? So many times we can get into such a pity party and think this isn’t fair. God, it wasn’t me, I didn’t do it. I shouldn’t be in this situation. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be dealing with this. I didn’t choose this. I didn’t be here. I shouldn’t be dealing with this. I didn’t choose this, I didn’t want this, I didn’t make this, I didn’t do this. And the truth is that could be very, very much the truth that you didn’t, that you didn’t cause it, but you’ve been carried away exile. You’ve been carried away by the circumstance.

Can you imagine how the people in Los Angeles right now feel about the fires? They didn’t choose it, they didn’t want it, they didn’t ask for it, and yet their lives have been carried away by the destruction of fire, literally. They don’t have homes, they have to find out where to go, they have to deal with insurance and deal with lack of finances, and if there is even insurance, I mean rebuilding and all of that. It’s an exile, it’s a form of exile. That word exile is a verb, it’s to live, it’s a way of living, especially under adverse conditions. If it’s used as a noun, it means the state of being barred from one’s native country, like, literally, like if you know something that’s familiar and it’s yours and it’s how you function, it’s how you think, it’s how you know, it’s your culture, and you’re barred from it, you’re cut off from it.

Well, this is what the three Hebrew boys we know them by their Babylonian names mostly Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, and Daniel, who was Belteshazzar, I believe they had these. They were given new names. They weren’t. Even if you read the book of Daniel, when it first starts off, it says they literally were taken away. They were put into a training to live a completely different life. That was not the life they intended to live To eat different food, to speak a different language, to serve people and a government that serves a God that they do not serve, and their trick was to find out how to stay committed to God and live for God and yet do the jobs that they were forced into doing. It’s not easy. It’s like being a complete Christian and working in an industry that fights Christianity. That’s a tricky thing to do. That takes a lot of wisdom. You need regularly to be hearing from the Lord and the strength of his Holy Spirit to help you navigate those kinds of things.

But how did we get here? How did we get in exile? In Webster’s dictionary, exile is defined as A the state or a period of forced absence from one’s country or home, and be the state or a period of? Um, what did I put there? I’m not sure what I wrote there, oh goodness, anyway, being at it’s the same thing. State of period, oh, a voluntary sorry, a voluntary absence. So you could be, you could be exiled. And he’s saying that, in one sense, it’s forced on you and you have no choice. It’s forced on you and you have no choice. Here’s the crazy thing you can be in exile and you could voluntarily have put yourself there. You can voluntarily be in exile. Now, how is that possible? Well, think about the trappings of addiction. How, on one sense, you are trapped in addiction and yet you do have the power over choice to participate and stay in an addiction. So, in an essence, you are voluntarily exiled, you are voluntarily exiled, you are voluntarily exiled.

And many times we would do ourselves a favor if we sat down and truly thought about our circumstance and the thing that is holding us in that captivity thing that is holding us in that captivity, and deduce and really be honest and truthful with ourselves and say is there anything I’m doing that I voluntarily put myself here, people who are in debt put themselves there. You put yourself in that position. You buy things you really can’t afford. You extend credit and kind of count your chickens before they’re hatched. You know well, this is coming or this is. I’m expecting this to happen. So I’m going to do this and I’m not telling you how to do or not do something. I’m simply saying that the choice is ours. The choice is ours.

So if we end up in certain situations, we might have voluntarily put ourselves there. We may not have realized it, but we could be like the children of Israel who lived in disobedience in one way or another, Didn’t do it God’s way, did it our own way, didn’t follow God’s direction and plans, didn’t ask him. We just kind of ran off and did it ourselves, ran off and did it ourselves. You know, in our last podcast we talked about the necessity of following the leading of the Holy Spirit and knowing and living in the presence of God, and that was evidenced to us by the children of Israel having to follow the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and they only went if the cloud went and they stayed if the cloud stayed and they never were to go on their own and venture out in the timing that they thought would be convenient for them. And we love to live a life of convenience. We love to do things that we think this is the way I want to do it and this is why I want to do it and this will work best for me, without ever asking the Lord God, is this what you want? Is this your timing? Will this be good for us? Will this even produce what I think it will produce? Or will I end up in exile? Will I voluntarily take myself into a place that I never really wanted to go, not realizing that’s where I’d end up and this is how it would be?

So what do we do when we find ourselves in exile. What do we do? How do we deal with the feelings of exile, possibly feeling banished, feeling expelled, removed from what is comfortable or normal or safe? What do we do when we feel we are being held captive, someone who feels they are a prisoner? We are living right now in a time where there are literal prisoners of war People, israeli people, who were captive. They were led captive into prison to be tortured and starved and their families murdered, and we’re now seeing some of them released. Thank God, these hostages. They’ve been held hostage, they’ve been mistreated, but what do you do? Okay, so there’s two kinds.

Then let’s think about this. There are two kinds of captivity. There’s the kind that is forced on us, that we didn’t choose. That is forced on us that we didn’t choose and we’re trying to follow God in it. But this wasn’t our choice. Something else, someone else, got us here without our choice, or we led a life and made decisions that led us voluntarily into a captivity. So there’s two different kind of camps here in this exile.

But regardless of how you got here, you’re now saying Lord, what do I do? I’m in exile, I’m in exile. What do I do? Exile, I’m in exile. What do I do. You can still. This is my encouragement to you today. Even while you are in exile, even while you are in a situation that you are bound to for a time, you can still live blessed, and you can still be used by God, just like Jeremiah, just like Ezekiel, just like Daniel. Let’s look at what the scripture says. At what the scripture says, because these people had a choice and, believe it or not, you have a choice.

You might be forced right now into a situation that you’re not comfortable with. It may not totally feel like exile. That might seem dramatic to you. It might be that you’re having to deal with something that’s uncomfortable. Maybe there are conversations you need to have and you’re not sure about them, and and they make you nervous and anxious. Um, maybe there’s a decision in front of you and you’re not sure if this is the right thing for you.

And and you’re feeling, um, you’re feeling the captivity of the unknown. You’re you’re feeling the, the captivity of the unknown. You’re feeling the captivity of the unknown as far as time timing in your life, when the children of Israel I’m sorry, I’m getting over being sick, so please forgive me the children of Israel, when they had to go into exile, to exile, were given a choice on whether to stay behind in Jerusalem or leave and go to Babylon, and for many they thought, well, if I stay and I stay here and hunker down and I don’t go, I refuse to go then that will be better for me because this is my home, this is what I’m comfortable in, this is what, this is what feels right, this is what feels good to me, this is what I know and and this is right, and I’m and I’m going to stay here. And many times it can feel that way. It can feel like Lord, you’re calling me into something and it’s. You can feel like Lord, you’re calling me into something, and it feels like a captivity to me, it feels uncomfortable to me, it’s the unknown for me, it’s not what I would have chosen, this isn’t the way that I would go, but you hear the call coming from the prophet that you have to go this way. You have to go this way. Jeremiah brings a word to the people and he’s letting them know yeah, you can choose yourself and keep living your life your way, or you can face the captivity and let God lead you through the captivity and see what God will do. Okay. So there’s our option. There’s our option right there. You can fight this captivity in your flesh or you can live it after the spirit. There’s only one of two choices.

No matter how you got here, no matter how you got here, no matter what got you you here, exile is here. There are things that we deal with in life that feel like exile. We could feel like we’re in exile in our finances. We can feel like we are in exile in our relationships. We can feel like we are in exile in our country that we live. We can in your, in your job, in your schooling, whatever you’re doing. You can with raising children and and once they are of an age to make decisions on their own um, or they’re not under your eye as much and there’s the fear of that, or or you know, there’s so many things. You can choose to face it with your own strength and with your own wisdom, or you can choose to face it and live it by God’s wisdom and what God says. And if you are a child of God, if you have made the decision to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, I have really good news for you. I have really good news for you.

No matter what you feel exiled to, no matter what, um, what captivity you feel like you’re in, if you belong to Jesus Christ, there is a way to live blessed, even in a time of captivity and exile. You can live blessed when you’re trying to climb out of financial distress. You can live a life of God’s goodness and blessing even if you’re learning how to navigate bad relationships and to restore marriages and family units. You can live in blessing even when your children are not listening to what you’re saying and they’re fighting against you and it seems like this will never end, or there won’t be a resolution, or what will happen to my child. Folks, I can promise you you can feel stuck in a job and you can say but God, I give this job to you, I’m here, I want to live blessed in this while I’m here. Show me how.

And this is what Jeremiah is bringing a word of encouragement to those in exile. So let’s read this, starting in verse 4, jeremiah 29, verse 4. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

That’s pretty powerful. What is he saying? He’s saying if you will determine to do this my way while you’re here, you can be fruitful. You can multiply, you can expand and have influence. You can take over, you can do everything you dreamed right here. If I’m the one that you’re doing it according to, if I’m the one you’re following, if I’m the one you’re obeying, all of this blessing is possible, even in exile, even in captivity, even in exile, even in captivity.

Let’s go down to verse 10. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for evil, for evil, to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you in to exile.

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Folks, the Lord is making a promise to his people and he’s saying there is a time frame. You’re going to be in this for a time, for a time, but when that time is over, if you have done it my way, even while you’re here, you will prosper. Even while you’re in this, you’re going to see my goodness. Even while you’re in this, you’re going to live in a freedom that I will provide for you. If you will do it my way, and when it’s all said and done, you’re going to be so delivered from all this, you’re going to have every promise and every blessing. Every plan that I had for you is going to come to pass. You do not have to be afraid. It is not going to be like this forever. You will not always live like this. You will not always feel like this. You will not always deal with these same situations.

I have a plan for you and I will prosper. You Just do it my way. Just do what I’ve called you to do the way I’ve called you to do it. If you will live a life of obedience and do what I’m asking you to do. You have my promise. I will make a way for you. I will help you to flourish. I will help you multiply. I will be your beginning and your end. I will be the one who is your provision, in every place, every way. I will be your beginning and your end. I will be the one who is your provision, in every place, every way. I will take care of it for you.

But it takes our willingness to say yes. Lord, you know, there was another option. There were those who could choose to stay and not do it the way that God wanted them to do it. Let me see if I can find this for you real quick. That’s more promise. That’s real good. I’m not seeing it real quick.

I should have wrote it down for you, but it basically was this If you choose to stay and do it your way and not follow me where I’m taking you and not be willing to deal with the things that I need you to deal with, you can stay. But I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. You’re going to end up being carried away to Egypt. You’re going to end up being um, oh, did he says? You’ll die by the sword. You’ll die by famine. All of the curses that you think you’re going to outrun and not have to deal with having to go into exile, those are going to come on you because you chose to do it your way. It’s basically it’s basically a play out of what I mentioned in Deuteronomy that if you’ll do it my way you get all these blessings and if you don’t, then you get all these curses. It’s basically the same thing. Either. You listen to what I’m saying because I’m the one who created it. I’m the one who knows the way. I know how to prosper, even when it seems like it’s impossible to prosper. I know how. He’s the one who gave um Isaac the plan. He told them in a famine don’t go to Egypt, stay right here and in this land, plant your crop here. And in that year he produced a hundred fold crop in one year. What should have taken years to do, he did in one year, during a famine. During a famine, he told him plant during a famine.

If you want to know how to navigate these difficult circumstances, it is truly found in simply walking a life of obedience and submitting yourself to God’s will. Do it God’s way, don’t resist, don’t do it. You know we have such strong personalities and natures and our we want to do it our way. Our flesh wants to do it its way, but the flesh will never produce the spirit. Only flesh can give birth to flesh, I mean, and only spirit can give birth to flesh. I mean, and only spirit can give birth to spirit. So you can’t produce the spiritual outcome and the blessing of God by living out every decision in the flesh. You have to make the choice. If I choose the flesh, I will reap the flesh, but if I choose, and so to the spirit, I will reap from the spirit. The choice is yours, folks. We have a choice to make. There is a way that seems right to a man and in the end it’s death. But, folks, we have to recognize that. We have to realize that. What is the Lord saying? Ask him. If you’re not sure, ask him.

Don’t just run off with the information that you have based off of your personal experience in life. You could be in a situation like Isaac and God could say I know that this sounds completely crazy, but this is what I want you to do and it will work. What God says to do will work is what I want you to do and it will work. What God says to do will work. We have to rely on the spirit of God, the leading of the spirit, the one who knows, the one who created and sustains it all. He’s your answer, he’s your blessing, he’s the provision you need. If you look for it from man, if you look for it from the ways of the flesh, you will not find what you’re looking for. You will find a worse than captive. It will be worse than captivity because, instead of going into captivity and thriving and living a blessed life, you go in this other way and end up dying by famine and by sword and every other kind of thing, other kind of thing.

We have a choice and how we live that choice out matters. Today, I’m urging you. I’m urging you look at the situation and ask the Lord first of all did I get myself here? Was this my doing? Are there things I need to change? Is there freedom coming when I am willing to do your way and correct some things I got wrong? Or am I doing what’s right and yet I need to go this way? My family situation is taking me this way. I don’t want to go this way, but I have to go this way.

Something has happened and it’s happened to me and this wasn’t my choice, and now I have to go this way. Something has happened and it’s happened to me and this wasn’t my choice, and now I have to go this way, regardless of how we get there, if we will do it God’s way, if we belong to him and we choose him and we do it his way, we will have every blessing that he has wanted to give to us, even while we’re dealing with it. And he promises this is just for a time. It’s just for a time. Follow me in this, let me lead you through this and when it’s all said and done, you’re coming out. You’re not always going to be here. It won’t always be like this. You’re coming out and my blessing will be with you. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are not for evil, they are not to harm you. They are for your good. I want you to have a future and a hope, but that’s in me, that is established in me, your creator. Let God lead you through this circumstance with the promise and the hope. It’s not always going to be like this and you are coming out. I hope this was a blessing to you.

Today, let me pray for you, father. We thank you that, no matter what situation we find ourself in, no matter what captivity we may find ourself in, or whatever exile that we are dealing with, god, you have a plan for our blessing and we just submit ourselves into your mighty hand. Today, we’re asking for your guidance, your leading, your protection, your provision. We’re asking for your blessing even in this, that we see your favor on our lives, and it is evident to those around us, the way it was evident over Daniel’s life, that, even though we face many trials and many temptations, god, that you are with us and if we will do it your way, we will be delivered every time, that you are our help and our strength. No matter what we face, you are what we have need of and you have a good plan for our lives. Help us, lord, today, to take courage and live according to your plan so that we can walk in the freedom that you have purchased for us, and we will be careful, lord, to give you all the glory and all the praise that is due your precious name. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen, amen.

Thank you for taking time to dig into our word today. I hope this was an encouragement to you. I’d love to hear from you, leave me a comment like share, subscribe, all the things and I’d love to be able to take some time pray over the things that matter to you. If you’d like to send a prayer request in, you can do that by emailing me at mail at Jaimelucecom. You could also get there by visiting my website, Jaimelucecom. J-a-i-m-e-l-u-c-ei.