TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
GOD DOES HIS BEST WORK IN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATIONS
Part 1
August 9, 2020
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1 JOH 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
This time of the pandemic (Covid-19) has been an extremely difficult one. It seems that there is possibly not a life on earth that it has not somehow touched. It is prevented you from going to church, to school, hanging out with your friends and going on vacation. If you watch the news, and your faith is not strong, it can be a very frightening time…until you remind yourself that God does His Best Work in impossible situations! In fact, it is His Specialty!! Believers tend to forget this.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes we expect Him to handle something immediately, but He waits, and it seems to take Him forever to respond? Then other times we expect to wait a long time and almost overnight, He has solved what appeared to be an impossible situation. You should always remember that God loves to do the things that we have absolutely no power to do. That is the way He’s planned our lives. What we see as impossible, God sees as easy as pie!
Look at What Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said to His disciples in MAT 19:26: And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Now imagine the worst problem you ever had or the worst situation in which you could find yourself and replace Our Lord’s Word “this” with your problem or situation. “With people getting through the pandemic is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” “With people getting along with a needy sisters or brothers is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” “With people being able to tolerate the bullies at school is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” “With people getting over your boyfriend or girlfriend breaking up with you is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
“Nothing,” not even the most overwhelming situation or obstacle, is too much for God to get you through. Now, it is particularly important to remember that these seemingly impossible situations take place in our lives exactly as God planned them to. In Eternity Passed, God planned everything that would take place in your life on earth – from choosing your parents to where you would live – to your career path. And everything else in-between!
At this point in our study, we need to understand a somewhat challenging subject. It is called Predestination. Predestination is what God provided for us in Eternity Past through His Sovereignty. His Sovereignty is the characteristic that describes His Supreme Authority and Rule over all He creates. Under Predestination, God provided everything believers would ever need to execute His Plan, Purpose, and Will for their lives. However, the most important factor in all of this is that this does not mean that God ever violates our free will. He has predestined a Plan for us that we can accept by faith or reject by negative volition. God leaves the choice up to us.
As we have learned, there are ten individual qualities or characteristics that make up God’s Attributes. Each one is essential to God’s Essence. God’s Essence is both permanent and unchangeable. Essence refers to the qualities or attributes of God that are Perfect and Eternal and include His Love, Justice, Righteousness, Veracity (Truthfulness), Eternal Life, Immutability, Sovereignty, Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence. Based on His Essence, God’s solutions are obviously better than what we could ever come up with when faced with impossible situations. Remembering God’s attributes will allow you to hang in there! Throughout our lives on earth, we have got to bear in mind that God’s Plan for our lives includes a series of great opportunities that are brilliantly disguised as “impossible situations.” These opportunities allow us to glorify God and to mature as Christians. The key is to remember who God is – to focus on His Essence. And to learn and apply His Word during these times.
Often, believers are convinced that there is no way even God could fix the impossible situations in their lives. This is one of the strategies Satan uses – to lead believers to a point at which they have no faith in what God can do. Because of this, they miss out on some of God’s Best Work!! You know what? God prefers to work in those situations that you consider “impossible.” When you throw up your hands and say, “There is no way to get through this” – God loves to prove to you that there is!
A great example of this is found in LUKE 1. The New American Standard Bible’s introduction to The Book of Luke, tells us that the apostle Luke was probably a Gentile by birth. He was well educated in Greek culture, a physician and the apostle Paul’s companion at various times. Luke himself tells us that he wrote his Gospel to give the true, complete story of Jesus Christ’s life and his Gospel is considered to be the fullest and most orderly account.
Look at how Luke starts his Gospel: Many people have attempted to write about the things that have taken place among us. Reports of these things were handed down to us. There were people who saw these things for themselves from the beginning. They saw them and then passed the word on. With this in mind, I myself have carefully looked into everything from the beginning. So, I also decided to write down an orderly report of exactly what happened. I am doing this for you, most excellent Theophilus. I want you to know that the things you have been taught are true. (LUK 1:1-4 New International Reader’s Version) These lines of scripture teach us that Luke was not an eyewitness of the events from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. His account was based on diligent research and a perfect understanding of the events.
As LUK 1:3 states, Luke wrote his Gospel to a man named Theophilus (but it’s obvious that it was also written with a wider audience in mind). By using the title “most excellent” to address Theophilus, we can presume that he was probably a Roman government official. Whoever Theophilus was, he had already had some instruction in the faith because Luke includes a reference to it in LUK 1:4: “the things you have been taught.” LUKE 1 continues like this: Herod was king of Judea. During the time he was ruling, there was a priest named Zechariah. He belonged to a group of priests named after Abijah. His wife Elizabeth also came from the family line of Aaron. Both of them did what was right in the sight of God. They obeyed all the Lord’s commands and rules faithfully. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was not able to have any. And they were both very old. LUK 1:5-7 (New International Reader’s Version) So, the impossible situation for Zechariah and Elizabeth was her inability to conceive children, coupled with their ages. The Bible does not tell us exactly how old Zacharias and Elizabeth were; but they might have been in their eighties. The most important thing is that they were well past the age of being able to conceive. But as we are going to find out, they would receive some of God’s Best Work in their very impossible situation.
Do you know what happened?? They eventually did have a baby and that baby grew up to be John The Baptist! Some of God’s Best Gifts come in the form of “tiny infant” surprises and unexpected arrivals. Sometimes, these surprises can turn an entire family around and completely change lives in the process.
The story of Zacharias and Elizabeth is first mentioned in the Old Testament with the words of the prophet Malachi: “I [God] will send the prophet Elijah to you. He will come before the day of the Lord arrives. It will be a great and terrifying day. Elijah will bring peace between parents and their children. He will also bring peace between children and their parents. If that does not happen, I will come. And I will completely destroy the land.” (MAL 4:5-6 New International Reader’s Version) This is the last time God’s voice is heard for the next four centuries. Israel will have to wait for the arrival of John the Baptist. God remained silent. There were no signs. No angels. No prophets. No messages. The last prophet Israel had was the Prophet Malachi. When you look at the Bible, the prophecies of Malachi and the stories of Jesus Christ in the Gospels are side by side. However, chronologically speaking, there is a gap of about four hundred years’ time between them.
{to be continued}