فصل 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I AM PROTECTED

You’ve Been Framed

We’ve all heard the phrase, you’ve been framed. Most of the time we think of it as a bad thing. We’ve been set up, made to look as though we did something that we didn’t do. But the Scripture talks about a different type of frame. It says, “The worlds were framed by the Word of God.” It’s not just talking about the physical worlds. The word in the original language is eons, meaning “ages” or “times.” It’s saying that God has a frame around your times. He has put a fence, a boundary, around your life. Nothing can penetrate your frame that God doesn’t allow. Trouble, sickness, accidents—they can’t just randomly happen. The frame is set.

You don’t have to worry about your future. There’s a frame around your health, a frame around your children, and a frame around your finances. It’s a boundary set by the Creator of the universe. Not only can nothing get in without God’s permission, but even better news, you can’t get out. You can’t make a mistake big enough to break out of that frame. You can’t get too addicted, too discouraged, too angry. It’s a destiny frame. God won’t let you get so far off course that you can’t still fulfill your purpose. You may come right up to the edge and be about to do something to get yourself in trouble, but you’ll bump into the frame. God will push you right back.

I had a man tell me how he was so fed up with his boss. He had worked at the company for many years. His boss was always condescending, making sarcastic remarks, and this man had had all he could take. He was about to give his boss a piece of his mind. He knew he’d get fired, but at this point he didn’t care. As he lay in bed the night before, he had his speech all lined up and was steaming over it, thinking, I’m going to tell him, “I don’t like you. I don’t need you. You’re a lousy boss.” On and on. He was going to let it all hang out.

The first thing the next morning, he marched into his boss’s office without knocking, all fired up. Then the strangest thing happened. He got flustered. He couldn’t remember what he was going to say. His mind totally went blank. He looked at the boss and said, “Uh… uh… uh… would you like a cup of coffee?” He told me later, “Joel, I tried to tell him off. I tried to be mean. I just couldn’t do it.” What happened? He bumped into the frame. God knows how to protect you, not only from accidents, not only from the wrong people. God will protect you from yourself. Sometimes we’re the most dangerous thing we face.

At the family reunion, you’re about to tell your relative off. Somehow you feel a peace come over you. Or they walk out of the room at just the right time. That’s not a coincidence. You’d better thank God for your frame.

Out on the freeway, that person who cut you off, you’re about to give them a signal with your hand. And I’m not talking about, “One Way Jesus.” You pull up next to them so aggravated, throw your hand up, but instead of doing what you thought, you just smile and give them a big friendly wave.

What happened? You bumped into your frame. This frame has kept us out of more trouble than we realize. You’d better thank God for your frame or you might not still have a job. If it had not been for the frame, you might not still be married. How many times were we going to tell our spouse exactly what we thought, and exactly what they should do, and we hear the still, small voice saying, “Don’t do it. Bite your tongue. Walk away.” We take the advice. That’s the frame.

The Right Person at the Right Time

In the Scripture, David experienced this frame. He and his men had been protecting a wealthy man by the name of Nabal who had thousands of sheep. They were camped next door. Just to do him a favor, they made sure that no bandits bothered him or his property. One day David asked his men to go ask Nabal for some food. Nabal was very rude and an evil man. He told those men, “I don’t owe you anything. I didn’t ask you to do this. Get off my property!” When David heard what Nabal had said, he was furious. He told his men, “Pack up. We’re going to go wipe out Nabal and anyone that’s halfway associated with him.” This set David off. As he headed toward Nabal’s house, angry, offended, and ready to take vengeance, God sent a young lady named Abigail, who was Nabal’s wife, to intercept David before he struck. She met David on the road with gifts and food.

Abigail said, “David, you are called to be our next king. You are destined to do great things. My husband, Nabal, is a fool. Why are you going to waste your time fighting with him? You could miss your destiny.” She spoke sense into him.

David replied, “You’re exactly right,” turned around, and went back home.

You know what Abigail was? She was a part of the frame. God ordained her to be there at the right time, to know exactly the right thing to say. Had David gotten distracted, killed Nabal and all his men, caused a big stir by shedding innocent blood, that mistake could have kept him from taking the throne. David went right up to the edge, but he bumped into his frame.

God is so good. He will always send the right person to say the right thing to keep you from missing your destiny. David said, “Where would I be without the goodness of God?” He could have said, “Where would I be without this frame?”

Even When We Run the Opposite Way

Jonah experienced the frame. God told him to go to the city of Nineveh, but he didn’t want to go there. He said, “God, that’s what You want me to do. I want to go my own way.” He went in the opposite direction. God will always let you do your own thing. He’ll let you go your own way, but He is so merciful—at some point, you’re going to bump into your frame. He let Jonah go the wrong direction. Jonah ended up on a ship out at sea in the middle of a huge storm. He finally told the crew that he was the problem. This crew had no mercy. They said, “Jonah, you’re the problem. Good riddance. You’re out of here.” They threw him overboard.

You would think this would be the end of Jonah’s life. He brought the trouble on himself. He knew the right thing, but he did the opposite. He had nobody to blame except himself. I’m sure Jonah felt that he was finished. He said his good-byes, made his peace, and down he went. But what Jonah didn’t realize was the frame God had put around his life. Yes, he made a mistake, but it wasn’t outside the frame. Yes, he was in trouble, but that trouble wasn’t a surprise to God. God allowed the difficulty into Jonah’s frame not to harm him but to push him toward his divine destiny. When things looked hopeless to Jonah, when he was out in the sea treading water with no chance to survive, along comes a big fish and swallows him. You know what the fish was? As Abigail was to David’s frame, the fish was part of Jonah’s frame. Three days later that fish spit him out onto dry ground. Jonah said, “You know what? I think I’ll go to Nineveh after all.” As Jonah did, you can run as much as you want, but the good news is you’ll never run out of your frame. You’ll keep bumping up against it again and again. It will always push you back toward your divine destiny. In other words, you can go out and party, live it up, not give God the time of day. But while your friends are partying, while they’re enjoying life, deep down you’ll be miserable, thinking, Why can’t I enjoy this? Why am I so unsatisfied? It’s because of the frame God has put on your life. You are ruined for living a defeated, mediocre, compromising life. God’s calling is on you. You can go your own way, but God has a way of getting you back on course.

God has built a frame that you can’t penetrate. The enemy can’t penetrate. Drugs can’t penetrate. The wrong people can’t penetrate. The Most High God has fenced you in. He has put boundaries around your life so strong that all the forces of darkness cannot get in and you cannot get out. And yes, you can make mistakes. You can run from the call. You can try to ignore it. But the frame around your life was put in place before the foundation of time. When God breathed His life into you, He framed your world.

Even When Our Children Make Bad Choices

That’s why, parents, we don’t have to worry about our children. They’ve been framed. They may get off course, but sooner or later they’ll bump into the frame. They may run with the wrong crowd, but the frame is up. They can’t go too far to miss their destiny. They’re going to bump into it again, again, and again, until they finally say, “I’m tired of fighting. God, I’m going to let You have Your way. I’m going to honor You with my life.” Some of you, because you had a praying mother, or a praying grandmother, or you had relatives who honored God, you might as well give up. You don’t have a chance. Your frame is so set. You’re going to keep bumping into it until God gets you to where you’re supposed to be.

I know a mother who was so concerned about her son. He was making very poor choices. She tried to convince him to quit running with the wrong crowd and to come to church. He just wouldn’t do it. He ended up in jail. One Sunday morning he was watching television in the common area. Another inmate came in and wanted to watch something different. They started arguing and ended up in a struggle for the remote control, trying to get it out of each other’s hands.

About that time a huge inmate, who looked like a professional football player, walked in. Six foot six, with muscles bulging out of his shirt, he grabbed the remote control and said, “Give me that thing. I’ll decide what we’re going to watch.” He started flipping through the channels and came across our program. He said, “We’re going to watch Joel today.” The other two inmates got up to leave, but he grabbed the one young man by the shirt and pulled him back down and said, “Sit down. You’re going to watch with me.” What happened? He bumped into the frame. A really big frame, I might add.

Parents, God has the right people not only lined up for you, but also for your children, for your grandchildren. Quit worrying about them and start thanking God for the frame. Don’t ever go around telling your friends how your children are so off course, and they’re never going to do what’s right. No, zip that up and get in agreement with God. “Lord, I want to thank You that my children have been framed. I’ve committed them into Your hands. And Lord, You said the seed of the righteous will be mighty in the land.” As the inmate was watching the program with this six-foot-six inmate making sure he watched, he began to feel God’s presence. He started weeping. Right there in the jail, that big inmate led him to Christ. Now I see this young man at our services all the time sitting next to his mother.

You may not see how it can happen. That’s not your job. Your job is to stay in peace, knowing that your children have been framed. Your prayers are activating God’s power. When you pray, just imagine the frame is getting smaller, the boundaries are getting tighter. God won’t let them go as far as they used to. He will make them uncomfortable in compromising situations. He won’t let them enjoy doing wrong as they did before. God knows how to tighten the frame.

When I was nineteen years old, I was driving home from a ball game very late at night. There was nobody on the freeway. I had a sports car. The fastest I had driven it was about seventy-five miles an hour. I thought, This would be a great time to see how fast this car will really go. It was one o’clock in the morning, five lanes of freeway in front of me. I was on the top of a big bridge and could see about two miles down the road. There was hardly anybody on the road, just a car or two here and there, so I put the pedal to the floor and my car took off going very fast. I’m not going to tell you how fast, because my mother will read this!

But as I was flying down the highway, feeling so cool, I looked over and there was a car right next to me. I thought, I can’t believe it. He wants to race. He can’t race me. He’s got a piece of junk. So I pushed the gas pedal down even farther, took off, and shot ahead. When I looked over, there he was again, but this time when I looked, he was holding up his badge. I nearly went to Heaven right then and there. My heart stopped. I looked back over, and he mouthed the words, “Slow down!” I drove thirty miles an hour the rest of the way home.

Parents, God has a frame around your children. Even when they do dumb things, they can’t get out of the frame. God will always have the right person, whether it’s Abigail, a six-foot-six inmate, or an off-duty police officer going down the freeway at one in the morning. We can’t get out of the frame.

Even When We Kick Against the Frame

In the Scripture there was a man named Saul. He was the biggest enemy of the church. He hated believers. He was having them put in prison, doing more harm to God’s people than any person of that time. One day he was on the road traveling to Damascus and a bright light shone down on him, so bright that he fell to the ground and became blind. The voice said, “Saul, why do you persecute Me? Don’t you know it’s hard to kick against the pricks?” God was saying, “Saul, I have you in My frame. You’re trying to kick, trying to run, trying to ignore it. But Saul, you have to understand that I set the frame. I have a destiny for you to fulfill, and it’s not to stop My work. It’s to advance My work.” Lying on the ground, not able to see, Saul asked, “Who are you?” The voice boomed out, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute.” Notice, when people persecute you, give you a hard time for honoring God, or make fun of you for going to church, don’t let that bother you. They’re not really doing it to you. They’re doing it unto God. Saul was harming believers, yet God said, “You’re persecuting Me.” God took it personally. The voice told Saul to go to the city and see Ananias, who prayed for Saul. He got his sight back. Saul became the Apostle Paul, who went on to write over half of the books of the New Testament.

You may think that you’re too far gone and have made too many mistakes. People tell me often, “Joel, I’m just not a religious person.” But none of that matters. All that matters is that the Creator of the universe has put a frame around your life. You can kick, run, and try to ignore it. That’s just going to make you more miserable. As God said to Saul, it’s hard to keep kicking against the frame. The frame is not going to move. There is a calling on your life, a destiny for you to fulfill. It has been set there by the Most High God. The Scripture talks about how God’s calling is irrevocable. God is not going to remove the frame. It’s wise if you just surrender and say, “God, my life is in Your hands. I’m going to live for You. I’m going to get rid of these friends who are pulling me down. I’m going to get help with these bad habits. I’m going to get in church and serve and grow. I’m going to pursue the dreams You have placed in my heart.” The sooner you do that, the happier and the more fulfilling your life will be.

You may have family members or friends like Saul. You’ve been praying for them a long time. It doesn’t look like they’ll ever get on course. In fact, the more you pray, the worse they get. Don’t get discouraged. Stay in peace. Just as Saul was, they’ve been framed.

A Hedge of Protection

A part of this frame is a hedge of protection. God has a boundary around your life that the enemy cannot cross. A friend of mine was driving home from work the other day and stopped at a light. When it changed to green, he cautiously looked to the left and to the right. As he was about to go forward, something said to him very strongly, “Look again!” He looked back to the right a second time. A car was coming full speed, never attempted to stop, and ran right through the red light. If he had not looked that second time, he would have gotten broadsided. There’s no telling what would have happened.

What was that? The frame. If it’s not your time to go, the enemy cannot take you out. The frame that’s placed around your life was put there by the most powerful force in the universe. That’s why the psalmist said, “A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand. I’m not worried. It can’t come near me. I know there’s a frame around my life. Nothing can happen without God’s permission.” I had somebody complaining to me once about how they were hit on the freeway. It totaled their car. They were upset and discouraged. They didn’t know if the insurance was going to cover it. It was a brand-new car. The feeling I got from them was that God had let them down. They said, “If I have this frame, how come I had an accident?” Keep the right perspective. You may have lost your car, but because of the frame, you didn’t lose your life. Because of the frame, you’re not paralyzed. Because of the frame, you can still see and talk and hear. I’m convinced, God protects us from so many things that we don’t even realize. We think sometimes, I didn’t have anything good happen to me. Just an average week. You can thank God for what didn’t happen. Because of the frame, you didn’t have an accident. Because of the frame, you’re not in the hospital. Because of the frame, you didn’t get laid off. Because of the frame, your children are still healthy and whole.

A few years ago I was in San Antonio at Brooke Army Medical Center, praying for some of our soldiers. This hospital specializes in treating people who have burns. I left one room, and a couple stopped me and asked me to go in and pray for their son who had been badly burned when he was a soldier in Iraq. In the middle of the night, he had been on the army base refueling the large tanks of gas. He was all alone about a mile from the main area when something caused the tanks to ignite. When he woke up, he was twenty yards away, flat on his back, on fire, unable to move. He was wearing ammunition that could explode at any moment. Out of nowhere two Iraqi civilian men showed up and started rolling him in the dirt to stop the fire. Without those two men, he certainly would have burned to death. What’s interesting is that those men were not allowed on the base. They were in a secure area at three o’clock in the morning. The parents said, “Those men had to have been put there by God to save our son.” What was that? The frame. It wasn’t his time to go. The enemy doesn’t determine your destiny. God does. God is bigger than an explosion, bigger than an accident, bigger than a car running a red light. God has you in a frame.

Even Death Cannot Penetrate Our Frame

When I was ten years old, our family went to Hawaii. We arrived about three o’clock in the afternoon and were so excited. After our parents checked us into the hotel, all five of us children ran down to the beach to go swimming. My brother, Paul, and sister Lisa were in their late teens, and they were supposed to watch over us. We rented some floats and took off into the waves. But in the excitement of playing in the big waves and having so much fun, we looked up and couldn’t find my eight-year-old sister, April. We searched and searched frantically—five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. I had never felt such a sick feeling in all my life. We were sure April had drowned. The waves were huge. We searched for forty-five minutes, then an hour; still nothing. An hour and fifteen minutes later, we saw April way, way down the beach, walking toward us, carrying her float. We had never been so happy and so mad at her at the same time.

April had fallen asleep on that float. It was six hours later at home, about eleven o’clock at night, and she was tired. She drifted nearly two miles down the shore. She could have drifted out to sea. She could have woken up in deep water and not been able to swim in it. A thousand things could have happened, but God had her in a frame. There was a boundary set around her.

Let me assure you, death can’t penetrate your frame. God has to allow it. The number of your days, He will fulfill. That’s why I always tell people who have lost a loved one, especially if they went home at an early age, while we may not understand it, know this: The enemy didn’t take your loved one. He doesn’t have that power. God called them home. God received them into His presence. The angels carried them into the Heavenly Father’s arms.

When Jesus rose from the grave, He said, “You don’t have to worry anymore. I hold the keys of death.” He was saying, “Nobody determines your time except Me.”

Death can’t penetrate your frame. An accident can’t penetrate your frame. Sickness can’t penetrate your frame. God has to give it permission. He controls the whole universe. When you understand this, you can say with the Apostle Paul, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? I’m not afraid of you. You can’t defeat me. I know there is a frame around my life. I’m not worried about my health. I’ve been framed. I’m not afraid to drive on the freeway. A thousand may fall at my side. That’s okay. I have a frame. Ten thousand at my right hand. No problem. I’ve been framed. It’s a hedge of protection, a bloodline that the enemy cannot cross.” We see this principle in Job’s life. Satan was looking for somebody to test. God said to Satan, “Have you seen my servant, Job? There’s none like him in all the land.”

Satan answered back something interesting. He said, “Yes, God, I’ve seen Job, but You know I can’t touch him. You’ve put a hedge around him. You’ve got a frame around his life.” He went on to say, “If You will remove the frame and let me get to him, he’ll curse You.” What I want you to see is the enemy can’t just do whatever he wants. He has to ask God for permission. God has to allow him to do it. Job went through a time of testing. He fought the good fight. And in the end, not only did he not curse God, but he came out with double what he had before.

When you go through tough times, if you have a bad break, if you’re facing a sickness, don’t get discouraged. Remember, the frame is still up. You keep moving forward, and you’ll not only come out, but as Job did, God will bring you out better off than you were before.

You Will Fulfill Your Destiny

Friend, don’t worry about your future. You’ve been framed. There are boundaries around your life put in place by the most powerful force in the universe. Not only can nothing get in without God’s permission, you can’t get out. You may run as Jonah did, but there’ll be a fish waiting for you. You may kick, as Saul did, but before long you’ll be the Apostle Paul. You may be about to take vengeance on somebody, as David was. Don’t worry. Abigail is going to show up. That’s the frame.

Now, all through the day, instead of worrying, instead of being stressed out, under your breath, say, “Lord, thank You that my life has been framed. Thank You that my children are framed. Lord, thank You that my health, my finances, my dreams, and my future are in Your frame. I am protected.” If you’ll do that, you’ll not only be happier, you’ll not only have more peace, but God promises the number of your days He will fulfill. You will see His protection, His mercy, and His favor. And nothing will keep you from your God-given destiny.