You’ve often heard the saying, “Bad things happen to good people”. Well, bad things happen to everyone.  The Lord Jesus said in John 10:10, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. You see, friends, the devil is an equal-opportunity destroyer; and he doesn’t discriminate, his favorite thing is to destroy EVERYONE and EVERYTHING.  So, that means if you’re here on the earth, guess what?  He is out to destroy you.  Whether or not he gets away with it is up to YOU! “Really?  I thought that was God’s decision!” No.  God has put in place a protection plan for His kids, but again, they must USE it, and God won’t make them.  Let’s explore this today.

Psalm 91 is one of my favorite Psalms, and once you read it, I mean REALLY read it, you will see why.  If I had to choose one passage out of the Bible to live by, this would be it.

Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psa 91:2  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psa 91:3  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
Psa 91:4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Psa 91:5  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Psa 91:6  Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Psa 91:7  A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Psa 91:8  Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Psa 91:9  Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
Psa 91:10  There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Psa 91:11  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psa 91:12  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Psa 91:13  Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Psa 91:14  Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Psa 91:15  He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Psa 91:16  With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

The first thing you will notice here is the “qualifier”; that is, to whom this insurance policy is issued: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. You see, if you are not “abiding”, that is “permanently living there”, then you aren’t “covered”.  Your “abiding” is you paying your insurance premium, so to speak.  Visitors are not covered, only those “abiding”.  I want to cover this part real well.  Many people pop into church a couple times a year and call themselves a “Christian”, that is, “one living as Christ would live”.  Most of you know, if you go into a barn, it does not make you a mule, and if you own a box of tools, it does not make you a mechanic.  A Christian is one who lives, eats and sleeps in Christ Jesus.  He or she thinks, speaks and acts like Christ Jesus did when He was here on earth. Pleasing God is not a two hour church visit.  Truthfully,  going to church is more for YOUR benefit than God’s, because you should be worshipping and obeying God in all you do, every day, not just on church day.

I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. When do I trust the LORD?  Every minute of every day, not just when trouble comes; and believe me, trouble comes to everyone. But you already know that. We must trust God in the good times as well as the bad.  Everyone can “trust God” in the good times, but actually, the good times tend to get people’s eyes off of God, because they think, Hey, things are going good, what do I need God for? But let them ignore God for a while, then the devil picks that time as the perfect opportunity to pay them a visit, and they run to God, and guess what? Their policy is not paid up: they let it lapse because they weren’t ABIDING!  And BAM, their goose is cooked.  Is that God’s fault?  NO!  It’s theirs.  The protection of Psalm 91 is for those who ABIDE IN HIM.  When trouble comes, “Who ya gonna call?” I’m going to call upon the LORD, because my policy is paid up and in force.

Well, I’m not going to explain each clause of this policy verse by verse, you can go back and review it yourself.  I would recommend you MEMORIZE it, then, when trouble comes, you can go to the LORD and remind Him of what His policy says, and what you need coverage for.
The last three verses are the icing on the cake, so to speak.  It is the guarantee of the policy.
Psa 91:14  Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Psa 91:15  He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Psa 91:16  With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Wow!  Get this:  God will deliver you because WHY?  Because he hath set his love upon me. You see, when trouble comes, GOD HIMSELF WILL BE WITH YOU.  And if God be for you, who can be against you?  Who CARES who’s against you?  God wins every time, and if you’re abiding in Him, that means YOU win.

With all these hurricanes and “natural disasters” happening all over, you really need to be abiding in the LORD every minute of every day.  Just a couple weeks ago a terrible windstorm went through my neighborhood.  Roofs were damaged, trees were blown down, stuff was torn up.  But at MY house?  A few twigs were blown out of our huge sycamore trees, but no damage to anything we own.  It wasn’t “luck”, it was the LORD enforcing the terms of my policy.

When stuff like this is headed toward my brothers and sisters in Christ, I call them and pray with them, and we take dominion over the evil plans of the enemy.  Christ Jesus gave us authority over all the earth in Genesis 1:26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Long story short, God gave mankind authority over the works of the devil in Genesis 3:14 way before sin ever took place upon the earth.  Here: see for yourself:   And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

When the Lord Jesus taught His disciples (and that’s US today if we are truly His followers), He specifically gave them (and all believers) authority over the devil, and when this gets down inside you, your life will be changed forever.
Luk 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
Luk 10:17  And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Luk 10:18  And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

So there you have it, a short version of how and why you can walk in the authority that one has who ABIDES in the LORD.  You need not fear hurricanes and the like, you can demand they hurt you not, in the name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth, Y’shua Messiah.  When tornadoes and the like come my way, I speak to them and say “Not HERE, devil, get out of here in the name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth, Y’shua Messiah!”  And he leaves.  I don’t give him a choice, and God backs me up.  Oh, and another thing, they aren’t “acts of God”; they’re “acts of the devil”.  God is not the thief, the devil is, you might want to point that out to your insurance company sometime.  I can teach for hours on this subject, but the bottom line is, if YOU are not presently ABIDING in the LORD, you better get started right now.

You can’t change what you’ve already let the devil destroy in your life, but you can sure prevent future losses.  Remember, it isn’t God’s job to make you abide in Him, it’s YOURS!  So what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?  OK, here it is, John 3:16-17:
Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Why live in uncertainty and fear like the rest of the world does, when you can triumph over evil every single time?  What do you say?  I pray you will say, “From now on I will abide in the LORD!”