BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Obviously, our adversary is Satan, not the Egyptians or the Philistines. His works, his operations, his assignment against us cannot stand nor succeed when the hand of God is manifest. When Moses faced an impossible situation in the natural, God asked, “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short?” (Numbers 11:23). He wanted Moses to remember that nothing is impossible when the hand of the Lord is in manifestation. There are many other examples of the hand of the Lord expressing God’s power in judgment against the enemies of Israel. Joshua, Samuel and David all saw the hand of God against their adversaries. Psalm 78:42 says, “They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.” One of the ways Israel limited God in their lives was that they forgot the power of the demonstrated hand of the Lord. Isaiah 45:11 is a scripture that has bugged me for a long time: “Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.” Personally, I have a problem with commanding God to do anything. But then the Lord said to me, 'You’ll never get into overflow without it, nor the fullness of it.' "Strong’s Concordance" says the word command used in Isaiah means “to appoint.” The word appoint means “to assign, or to commission.” God is asking us to release Him to command, appoint or assign to do something. He’s saying when you appoint Him to do something on your behalf, the manifestation of power by the hand of God will bring blessing on you and judgment on your adversary. I decided to check the New Testament to see if anyone else had commanded the work of God’s hand. In Acts 4:29-30, the followers of Christ prayed and said: “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand….” The New Testament Church believed in commanding the work of God’s hands. I’ve never done that in the more than 40 years I’ve been walking with the Lord. But, apparently it’s still a New Testament principle. When believers commanded the work of God’s hand, it brought blessing on the Church. How? More people were added to the Church daily, and it brought judgment on their adversaries. The Lord said to me, 'Tell My people, don’t just pray for deliverance when the enemy has attacked you. Commission Me to bring judgment on him by declaring, “Now, God, stretch forth Your hand against him.” He went on to say, 'Appoint Me to punish and penalize him for what he has put you through, and I will force him to compensate you for damages caused.' I believe if we will exercise this principle of commanding the work of God’s hand, God will not only cause our adversary to cease his attacks against us, but we will collect for damages he has caused! It’s called retribution, or payback, for the evil that has been done. Isaiah 66:6 says, “A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to his enemies.” When God’s vengeance is carried out against our adversary, the devil, we’ll have perfect recompense as a result. As the Scripture says in Deuteronomy 28:7, “They shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.” That’s God’s kind of vengeance. We won’t get back what we think we should have. We’ll get back what God thinks we should have—overflow! V 20 : BVOV

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