Deliverance

Revisiting the last few years of my life with you over the last few months has been rewarding and therapeutic for me on a number of levels. One such reward is that I now have a deeper understand Paul’s message surrounding suffering. Now before you @ me on this, I understand completely that Paul’s suffering was related to his ministry for the Gospel while my suffering was related to the fallen nature of my body not being able to fight infection. However, though the likeness between Paul’s suffering and my own (and most likely yours) isn’t a direct correlation, the comparison is not completely an “apples to oranges” situation.

As a pastor I have often visited people facing difficult illnesses.  I have stood beside countless hospital beds and prayed with untold numbers of folks as they prepared to go under anesthesia for one procedure or another.  Whenever the person in the bed was a believer, I would share with them the words that had once been shared with me as I faced one of my many operations.  

When a Christian goes under anesthesia for a surgery, there are only two ways that they can wake up.  One is groggy and with their family, and the other is in the presence of their savior.  Each option is incredible! 

You’ve heard the story before: In March of 2021 I found myself in a Maryland hospital, my wife by my side and two of the most brilliant doctors in the country standing at the foot of my bed.  The choice in front of me was not one that I would wish upon anyone.  By this point, my body had been ravaged for over a year by fungal meningitis ranging up my spine and throughout my brain.  My body was failing me.  No longer was I able to do much of my own care and my motor and mental function was declining rapidly.  As the doctors laid out my choices, neither seemed good.  Option one involved moving forward with a bone marrow transplant, with the hopes that my newly repaired immune system would be able to help the medicines fight off the infection.  My chances of surviving the transplant were slim.  There was a chance that the transplant could fail.  There was a risk that even with my new stem cells the infection was too far gone to be cured.  Under option one, my dying 800 miles away from my home and my daughters was a very real possibility.  

Option two involved me accepting my fate, flying home as soon as possible, and living out the remainder of my life in the comfort of my home next to my friends and family.  Under option two, my dying was not just a probability, but a certainty.

As I ponder the decision that Jodi and I made together now 3 years ago, I am reminded of that wisdom spoken to me and shared by me so many times, and I would like to now amend it a bit.  

There is but one outcome for a believer facing life insurmountable circumstances: Deliverance.
The location of your body is the only thing in question, and both options are incredible!

The emendation of my previous adage comes as a result of Paul’s words to the church in Phillipi:

… I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 

Philippians 1:19-24

By this point in Paul’s life he has been imprisoned, flogged multiple times (5 times receiving the Jewish 39 lashes, 3 times with rods, and once stoned); shipwrecked 3 times, once spending a day and a night in the open sea, snake bitten, hungry, thirsty, cold and naked (See 2 Corinthians 11:23-29).  Now he finds himself once again in prison, probably in Rome and likely within the last few years of his life on earth.

Facing such an uncertain future, he thanks the Philippian church for their prayers because he knows that they will bring him deliverance.  As he continues, he makes clear that the deliverance will take one of two outcomes.  Life or death.  If the outcome is life, then he gets to hang out some more and serve God along side of them, spreading the gospel all over the world.  If the outcome is death, then he gets to go be with Jesus.  Paul’s confidence comes because he knows that either way, he will be delivered.  The only question is where his body will be—And either option is pretty stinkin’ good!

This is why Paul was able to say “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  When you live your life for God, no matter what circumstances you face, you can have but one outcome: deliverance.  The only thing in question is the location of your body!

There is no way for me to know all that you are going through right now, or what obstacles loom like mountains towering high above you.  I don’t know what the doctor has said or not said.  I don’t know what the number in your bank account is.  I don’t know what they have said about you or what vindictive garbage is going down in your workplace or school.  I don’t know who has turned their back on you, or what helpless circumstance is weighing you down.

But I do know, that if you are a follower of Jesus, there is but one outcome to your current struggle:  deliverance.  If the circumstances remain then be encouraged: just like He promised Joshua,  He will never leave you or forsake you (Deut 31:6); He promised He will be with us always (Matthew 28:20);  and I am convinced, He can use your suffering to advance His kingdom, just like he did for Paul (Philippians 1:12-14), and just like He is currently doing for me.

Don’t let your current struggle go to waste.  It as an opportunity to show the power of Christ to deliver His children, one way or another.  Look how Paul continues his letter:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.  Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.  This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and by God.

Philippians 1:27-28

The mountain that is in front of you will one day become a field as you step into the deliverance that God has prepared for you.  Because deliverance is coming, one way or another!