When You Encounter Your Red Sea Experience, Don’t Allow It to Turn You Around

⁵ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (Gal. 5:1).

Beginning in the 12^th chapter of the Book of Exodus, we see that the children of Israel were delivered out of the hands of the Pharaoh in Egypt by the mighty arm of God.  They were on their way to the Promised Land.  After walking in the wilderness for only about twenty miles, they encountered their first major trial, and they found themselves between a rock and a hard place.  Ahead of them stood the raging Red Sea, and behind them came Pharaoh’s raging army, fully intending to kill them or take them back into bondage.  What were they to do?  They had a mind to go forward, but it looked as though they had no choice but to go back.  But God let them know they never had to return to slavery if they wanted to move forward.  God provided them with an earth-shattering, mind-blowing experience in that He parted the Red Sea.  He told Moses, their leader, what should be done.  Moses obeyed God, the Red Sea opened, he pressed the people forward, and the children of Israel crossed over their Red Sea on dry ground.  That took care of the rock.  Then God took care of the hard place by drowning the enemies of His people.  His people never had to go back into bondage because God took care of both the rock and the hard place.  The Red Sea did not cause them to turn around.

But how many of you know that God would never have any of us return to the bondage that He delivered us from?  The enemy fights the established saints as well as the new saints in an attempt to turn them around and have them return to a world of sin.  He tries to make us all think that we can’t make it when living God’s way and that we must return to our old lifestyles. Yes, the enemy still tries to convince even the more senior Saints who have a  “locked-in” grip on God to turn around and return to a world of sin.  But the devil is a liar!  We can make it.  Look at the cloud of determined Saints that surround us.  We all must decide whether or not we will go on with God or turn back into a world of sin.

Sometimes it won’t be easy on this Road of Righteousness, but God will create a way for us to escape every negative situation.  You may open your refrigerator one day and only see cold air and a bottle of iced water.  But God will feed you.  I heard the testimony of a sister abandoned by her husband and left with several small children to feed.  She had NO food.  But she prayed, praised God for the food that was coming, and set her table as though the food was already there.  Within a short while, she heard a knock at the door, and a neighbor had bags of food for her and her children.  The neighbor testified that God had laid her and her children on the neighbor’s heart, and she brought just what they needed.

It’s also times like this that God will show us that we have resilience or the ability to adapt to a situation that we may not be aware that we have.  Once while raising my son as a single parent, we had one medium-sized white potato, some flour, a little baking powder and oil, a little syrup, and a smidgeon of ketchup.  I made what we called “survival bread” with flour, baking powder, and water, and we had a giant “pancake” and French fries.  I was able to even “spank” the syrup bottle and get enough syrup to go on our “pancake.”  When we finished eating, we were full.  My son even thought we had an exotic treat and even later asked for “survival bread” when we were not in “survival” mode.

After eating our manor-from-Heaven meal, I went into the closet to pray.  I felt what I thought was the soft belt from my robe fall on my head.  Thinking of just replacing the belt after I finished, I kept praying.  After the prayer ended, I looked for the belt to replace it on the hanger, but nothing had fallen.  The Lord spoke to me and told me to look into the back of the drawer of my night stand.  I obeyed Him, and there was a Savings bond for $75.00.  I knew I had redeemed all of my Savings Bonds, yet there it was.  I had just enough money to buy food until payday.  Instead of a soft belt from my robe that dropped upon my head, it was the Savings Bond from Heaven.  Hallelujah!  Psalms 37:26 says:

²⁵ I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

The above testimonies represent two women who were abandoned by men who vowed to love them and never leave them.  But without our experiences, how would we have learned that even when men walk away, God will never abandon us?  How would we be able to testify that He will feed us?   We both realized, along with our children, that He would meet our every need.  God will comfort you in a way that no human being can.  Though man may walk away from you, God will never leave or forsake you.  Deuteronomy 31:8 says:

And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Your suffering for Christ always has a purpose.  1 Peter 5:10 says:

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Besides, your suffering in Christ will only last for a limited time, and the outcome is excellent on your behalf.  Psalms 30:5 says:

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

No matter how challenging your situation may be, you must press forward in God because joy will come in the morning.

Never even think about turning around and returning to your former bondage.  Remembering what made you run to God from the situation you were in should be enough to keep you from returning.  Some of you might have been in an abusive situation.  Abuse comes from both men and women, you know.  Do you really want to go back to getting your eyes blackened again?  Do you want your money stolen or belongings hocked by someone who says they love you but refuses to work?  Stay free.

Some of you were bound by illicit drugs that ate away at your bodies, minds, and souls, killing every system in your bodies, including your brains.  It was eating away at you worse than cancer.  Don’t go back to that.

Some of you were in sexual sin against your bodies.  You were bound whether it was premarital sex, adultery, or viewing porn.  But the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20:

¹⁸ Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

And for those very few who claim that you didn’t have a hard time in your past before you came to Christ, it doesn’t matter if you were living in a palace and eating Bon-Bons every day, giving up the world for a life in Christ is worth it all.  The enemy may try to convince you that your old life was better than your life in God, but if that lying thought comes up, stomp it down.  Don’t allow that crazy devil to persuade you with his lie.  He may be slow, but you are not.  You were there.  You know what it was like. There was no peace in that lifestyle.  How do I know that?  Because I know that only God alone can give you peace.   John 14:27 says

²⁷ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

We will all experience hard trials in life, whether saved or unsaved.   We will all have Red Sea experiences.  But our lives are infinitely better when the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost help us through it.  Each of us will experience a time when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.  But oh, the joy we experience when God splits our personal Red Sea and destroys our unique enemies before us.   Our Red Sea Experiences are meant to build and prepare us for the Kingdom of God and eternal life in Christ Jesus.  Saints of God, stay with God, and don’t allow your Red Sea experiences to turn you around.