The Israelites experienced the victory over the Canaanites at Tabor because they followed God and remained steady despite the circumstances that were surrounding them.

Deborah told Barak that God had promised to give him victory over their enemies. Barak initially responded faithfully by saying, “I will go.…” However, he fell short when he faithlessly added, “BUT ONLY if you (Deborah) go with me”. He had received a command from the Almighty God – the Lord God Jehovah. And he responded with “Yes, BUT ONLY.…” He had chosen to underestimate what God would do and as a result, he settled for less.

We live in a day of seemingly limitless choices – from the food we eat to the clothes we wear, and from the causes we rally to support to the allegiances we make. In most instances, our ability to exercise those choices is accomplished instantaneously through a few swipes of our finger on a screen. And we pride ourselves on our ability to change our choice at any given moment should we decide to do so. In many respects, we value our right and ability to choose over the rightness of the choices we make.

We read in the book of Joshua, “Not a single one of all the good promises the LORD had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything He had spoken came true.” The psalmist David writes that every one of God’s promises is backed by all the honor of His Name. With God, it is an all or nothing deal. Either He is worthy of all honor, or He is worthy of none. Either every promise He makes is trustworthy and true, or not one of them is. God is not a man that He should lie and therefore there is no promise He can make that He cannot – and will not – fulfill.

We often make the mistake of seeing what we perceive to be “bad” timing, impenetrable barriers and overwhelming obstacles as reasonable excuses for not doing what God has told us to do. But the reality is that “bad” timing from a human perspective and impossible obstacles are exactly what God uses to magnify His power.

Seeing and hearing that the man born lame was now walking, leaping and praising God, the people in the Temple were “absolutely astounded,” and they “rushed out in amazement” to where the man was “holding tightly” to Peter and John. “Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd.”(7) He wasted no time in asking the crowd two questions to get their focus on the right Person: “what is so surprising about this?” and “why stare at us as though we made this man walk by our own power or godliness?”

It would have been easy for the group to get carried away by the sight of the miracle and totally miss the Miracle Worker. i am mindful that’s still true today.

The early church looked radically different from the world around them . . . to the point others were drawn to ask, “How can this be?”  In the Book of Acts, Luke records, “On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,  as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages!”

Do you find yourself in a situation where you are waiting on God? Has He given you a promise that hasn’t yet come to fruition and you feel like you are sitting in the waiting room? If so, there is an important lesson to remember – waiting is not inactivity! As a matter of fact, it is a lesson the early disciples modeled well.

This past Sunday, we celebrated the greatest moment in history – the day Jesus defeated sin, death and Satan by rising from the dead. The day eclipses all others. Even the advent of Jesus as the baby in the manger takes a subordinate place in history. If His resurrection had not occurred, His birth would have only been on par with that of other great men and women who have lived and died. The four Gospel writers recorded their accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection from different vantage points.

This Sunday we will celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the grave. Sin and death were conquered. The victory that the religious leaders and Satan thought they had achieved on Friday was overturned once and for all. Jesus revealed that He had been the One who was victorious on the cross, and the empty tomb was His proof, just as He had told His disciples. And yet, somehow, they had forgotten. Somehow, they were not looking for Him to arise from the dead. Somehow His return had been unexpected. If it was true of those who walked with Him physically for three years, what can the rest of us learn from them?