LORD, BY WHOSE HAND HAVE YOU ORDAINED TO DELIVER OUR SALVATION?
WE really need to ask ourselves this question. We need to ask in deep longing and prayer saying, "Lord, in whose hand have you kept our salvation? By whose hand have you ordained that something should happen for us?"
If you have no answer, you'll be stranded. If you cannot find he or those in whose hands your salvation is left of God, you cannot flower. You'll be alone like a corn of wheat that unless it falls to the ground doesn't bring forth let alone multiply.
Therefore, we must trust, pray and hope that at every time of need, God will appear and project to us men in whose hands he has kept what we desperately need which can only be fittingly described as our salvation or breakthrough for that time being. Without this, man made in God's image will suffer!
Jesus would have been embarrassed successfully if He didn't know in whose hands God kept His salvation. They came, bearing tales about tax. They asked Peter, "Doesn't your own master pay tax." As to give no room for offence, Jesus as One with revelation immediately instructs Peter to go, cast the hook and pay with the coin that he'll fetch from the fish's mouth.
Matthew 17:27, KJV
"Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee."
Jesus knew where his salvation was to come from. He could see the sea. He could see the fish. He so knew which fish held His help that he specified it would be the first fish Peter would pick up. Therefore, every beating around the bush was eliminated. When you know by whose hand God has ordained your salvation/provision, you'll stop every guess work. You'll walk facing front, going straightforward to where God has ordained. You'll mind your business and let alone what you've not been commanded about.
You can then go like a programmed bot and make demands that don't make sense at times. You can then say to the commanded person, "bring me the morsel of bread in your hand" without feeling guilty, ashamed or beggarly (I Kings 17:11).
It'll look like you're casting or binding people with a spell yet you're only professing God's Word to you to them.
It would look like play but it'll be effective because you have marked He who you are sent to.
At this time, this particular need of Jesus was not to come from any human being. It was not to come from Lazarus, Mary, Martha or any human for that matter.
To the glory of God who's never stranded and can never be stranded, it was held for the time being in the mouth of a fish - hidden and well banked until He who owned it asked for it. Has God not spoken that He will speak for your sake also?
Hosea 2:21-22, KJV
"21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel."
Your salvation is quartered somewhere. Jesus' was sheltered in the fish's mouth. Who would have believed that?
This is why ministers and Christians must trust God for provision and their salvation per time. Your ministration will not always be given and custodied with a particular individual at all times. God has sons and daughters everywhere. He has people everywhere. He has vessels, instruments, agents and willing and obedient men everywhere to use. God could have used A yesterday but He sure can move to Z for your next need. No one man can hold God to ransom. It is God who chooses which instrument He wants to use. Anyone who knows understands what honour it is to be used or demanded from by God.
The God who used the ravens and the brook today for Elijah soon moved to the widow of Zarephath another day, after the brook had dried.
He used the raven for Elijah. For Jesus, it was a fish. For Balaam, it was a donkey that aided him. What can God not use to bring a man's need for the moment to him? Where can God not leverage? Who can God not command? Who can God not collect from to give to you if it's that critical and important?
Research has found that ravens are very resourceful birds who cache foods for the future. But when God issued His commands to them, they immediately released what they had saved up and planned for use in the future to Elijah. Somebody might have been keeping a savings in one hole from January that you're the one God will instruct they give it to. The contribution might have been monthly but at the end of the day if God sees your needs, He can instruct this disciple that his or her own needs will be met some other way by Him and that he/she should release his present resource to you.
God will tell him/her, "criticality is on the scene. It's a matter of importance and pressing needs. Release it now son/daughter." And immediately, it'll be released into your lap: good measure, shaken together, running over that somebody had secretly rejoiced over and planned to send on one errand or the other.
But such a person that such type of instruction will go to must be someone with ears to hear God. To such, God will also do much more.
Shocking the ravens parted with their most cherished bread for Elijah? Who binds them with a spell? Is this how effective God's Word is once spoken?
Aaah!
People, you must meet your men. At this time, I'm hearing God's Word. I'm hearing what God said He would do. He's saying, "Things shall hear you! You'll command their hearing and they shall be given to you just like we read earlier from Hosea."
Brethren, have you settled the matter of who you can collect from? They can't be everybody. God won't use every person for you. He won't send all men to you. He however has certain men in reserve for you. What He does is to give you your own men as your own allocation. What He does is to send you a certain sum that'll be in agreement with you. You cannot have the ears of all men but you can have yours. They'll be your reserve or go to persons.
God speaking to Gideon brought up the need for his men to him. God looks on Gideon and sees a man seeking to fight the Lord's battle with his own scheme and wisdom. He has called and they have answered. However, these are nothing but a mixed multitude. They must be purged, divorced of every harm and sieved to solidly remain God's right men. Therefore, God called for a test. He puts them to a test.
Please, don't fear to lose men. Don't fear to lose church members. Don't fear to lose fake friends. God is actually preparing yours for you in the process. You might have gathered or brought them by your friendliness or mistake. You might have gathered them by your strength and it may be painful that the stones you have gathered are now being scattered. However, this scattering is to your advantage. That's because God is only trying to keep with you your 300 men. When Gideon's men were reduced to 300, it looked disappointing. Disillusionment might have filled the horizon but God has a point to drive home.
God made His point when He said...
Judges 7:7, KJV
"...by the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place."
Imagine that - "By the 300 men that lapped will I save you..."
Affirmative! Of a surety!
God has declared what He would do. God has guaranteed him salvation and victory even before the battle. It takes an attentive ear to hear what God was saying there.
He was actually swearing by Himself when He said, "By the 300 men that lapped will I save you."
We too must ask and pray saying, "Lord, by what men and by whose hand have you planned to save me?"
Is it even through my own child?
Salvation is of the Lord and He gives it to whom He wants. But there's a way it is wrought. Salvation (deliverance) doesn't just fall. It has to be caused by the doings of men but who are the men? Who are those men who'll become your men in all loyalty and obedience?
Who are the choice men? Who are the appointed men? For Gideon, God trimmed down his men in order to give him men. God divorced him of fake people. He divorced him of those without Christlikeness. He purged him of those who could have claimed glory with their bow and swords. He only reserved for him silent labourers on whom God's strength was made perfect. He gave him disciples. He gave him those who will obey in fear and trembling. He gave him his men - those he could have least regarded but that God highly esteemed.
He gave him only 300 men and vowed that by their hands He'll give him salvation.
"Lord, who have you ordained and in whose hands have you chosen to save me? Who's harbouring my salvation? Who has the cure for my needs? Who's to meet this peaked need? Who's to give himself for this? Who have you called to do ministry with me? Where are my ministry financiers who have their own part to play? Who have you raised for us?"
Look, God has not left us without a witness. He is not a wicked God. He has our provision at hand. It is somewhere that you have to discern. It is with someone that we must mark.
Lamech speaking after identifying through whom God will bring them comfort concerning the works of their hands says:
Genesis 5:28-29, KJV
"28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed."
That's having a heart and eyes for he with your remedy. Despite Noah just being a baby, yet Lamech, his father could see what destiny he is carrying and that he'll be their salvation and respite someday.
You must see with whom God has hidden your salvation or deliverance?
One time in Jesus' ministry when he desired to meet the physical needs of the people, it was a young boy's meal that God used to save the day. Thousands ate!
John 6:5-10, KJV
"5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.
7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him,
9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?
10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."
Have you discerned who holds the key to your locked gates? Have you seen he in whom the Lord hid your need? Don't say he or she isn't significant. Don't question, "what can he accomplish amidst the multitude of needs on ground?" Don't despise the widow of Zarephath if she's the commanded widow but yet doesn't look commanded. Don't say, he is just a lad! That's what David was when God used him to save Israel from a national disgrace. If he's the one like Andrew rightly sees when he says, "there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes...", please, receive him. Welcome him! Be open to him. Let him give his ministry and ministration. Let him contribute to the body of Christ.
Don't mind what the media might say. If it were today, the headline would read, "A Popular Evangelist Entertained His Guests With A Fella's Lunch."
But that boy was well tutored. He was there to save the day. As a matter of fact, that's why he hadn't eaten his food. There'll always be a way of escape. God will create it.
This is a critical issue that we can't trivialize. If you do, you're toiling with your cure, salvation and the remedy God may want to apply to you handily.
You must not miss "this God's help."
"Lord, in whose hand have you chosen to save me? I open and receive such. No pride! No rejection of same! Just openness!
Is it a small child? Is it a Moses, Joseph, Deborah, Esther or Jesus? Is it even a certain boy with five loaves of bread and two fishes? You might have hidden our salvation in a woman or a child, open our eyes and give us humility to collect what they're bringing. Who have you ordained to save the day so that our years and living may not be a mockery?
If you had not saved the day with David on the battlefield, Goliath would have gone away with the forty days and nights taunting of God's army and the Lord Himself? But you raised a horn for yourself! You moved your man of the match to the battlefield so that he could put a goal in the Philistines' net.
I Samuel 17:16-17, KJV
"16 And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.
17 And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren."
The rest was history. That "running to the camp" of David rested Goliath in the grave.
For forty days and nights, Israel endured the demoralization of Goliath until God raised for Israel a stock.
May God raise you to put an end to nonsense ravaging our world! May God lead you to say, "I can't take it anymore."
Lord, raise up salvation and raise for us a horn!
Raise salvation for us and raise us too as a cure for men as you have solely appointed!
Those who are proud will say, "they need no men." But we who know the work of the Lord will cry saying, "Lord, in whose hand have you put my cure?"
We are willing and obedient! We are not proud at heart as to despise or neglect the provision of the Lord. If it's what He has prepared for us, we'll take it. We won't shirk away from what the Lord has prepared and furnished for us. If we know it, we shall take it.
God is not just giving us men. He's giving us, "men that have lapped with their tongues." He's giving us men of uncommon and extreme obedience. He has sieved our men from men and He's only presenting to us, "the prepared!" Our very own! The one we can confidently say, "the Lord gave us." The ones with whom we can do life and fight the battle of the Lord together.
Don't force relationships. Let God give you men that have lapped with their tongues. Those are the men after God's heart. Men that lapped are such that have passion and motivation after God's heart. They only live out God's standards. God told Gideon, "By the 300 that lapped will I save you..."
God Himself could swear on them! God Himself could bank on them! God Himself could recommend them without shame or any consequence of reproach!
Imagine their faithfulness and sure standing. They are men standing at attention and uprightness as the army of the Lord! They won't shiver or turn back. They are steadfast and established in what God has called them to do.
At day's end, God found Gideon's 300 men because 300 actually lapped and met the set requirements of God.
God will not use bastards for you in ministry. All pastors should relax. God can command birds, animals, all elements of nature and even humans for you. But even at that, He still chooses who or what He uses. God is choosy, picky and diligently careful on who touches His work. He won't choose those who will bring reproach to His work. He chooses those with pure hearts and clean hands. The prepared!
Those He chooses are those men who could do the "hardest", "go the extra mile", "do the unthinkable " "defy the odds", "meet the requirements."
God will use willing and obedient people. He'll raise for you disciples.
Your men are your men. Don't claim more than He gives to you. God gives us men and resources according to the expanse and demands of His assignment in our hands. God knew Gideon only needed 300 men. That's why he purged him of others. That's why He said, "and let all the other people go every man unto his home."
If you need #500,000, God won't send you #1,000,000.
God funds and fathers His needs and tasks.
Don't be emotional to collect from those God is not collecting from. Don't be pushed or pressured to ask those God is not asking. Don't ask the untested. Only ask he who has been tested, passed and approved of God.
God's endorsement which is first invisible can be visible. You'll see it in the crucified Christ life of people.
God is saying, "don't gather chaff with wheat." Separate between the men with you. Forgo this mixed multitude. Let these people you're struggling to keep as members go. They have not been given you from heaven. Don't let them begin to cause you injuries.
Let them go. Only go with God's 300 men. Take the recommendation of God and it will save the day. They are okay for every cause. They have the certification and recommendation of God. Only those could be trusted. Those are the people who'll give and look away, deserving nothing in return but rather regarding themselves as unworthy servants.
Parents should ask, "What the Lord want to do, who does He want to do it through?" Who's the channel through which He seeks to pass?
That's what God told David. He said, "your son Solomon will build me the temple." Yet, that son had not been born when that came to him.
I Chronicles 22:8-10, KJV
"8 But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
9 Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.
10 He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever."
God's assignment cannot be done by anyone. It's rather by those He handpick. He must choose His men. If they are not smooth stones fetched from the brook, they can do no business with Goliath. They'll slip off and fall. Sloppy men they'll be - not fit for battle.
Raise a cry to God saying, "where are my 300 men? With whom have you ordained that I should fight the battle of the Lord? With whom have you kept my cure? In whose custody reside my salvation?"
Give me my 300 men by which I will be saved! Give me men from men!
Amen!!!
Olusola ADEJUMO,
M'Wings.
Morning Wings Ministry,
Nigeria.
+234 81 3704 6812
morningwingsministryplus@gmail.com
31/10/2025
