by Gloria Copeland
“There is a place in Christ Jesus where we abide in the secret place of God’s protection. The world knows nothing about this secret place, nor can they live there…. It is a place revealed by the Holy Spirit. It is for the obedient. Our life is hid with Christ in God.”
That’s a word the Lord gave me several years ago and I’m so thankful we can abide in that secret place of God’s protection. We can go to a place most people know nothing about!
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you we are living in dangerous days. Televisions and social media blare the news of wars, terrorist attacks, record-breaking disasters and drug-related crime. There is more violence now than there has ever been in my lifetime, and it continues to escalate. It’s a sobering day.
But believers have nothing to fear!
When we look at things in the natural realm, it may seem like a scary time to live. But in the supernatural realm, it’s the most powerful time to live. We have a place of protection in God that will keep us completely safe, regardless of what is happening in the world around us.
It’s Him we must depend upon. And to have confidence—to have faith—in His ability to keep us, we must know what His Word says about our safety and protection well enough to act on it.
I believe these are the last days and Jesus could come at anytime. Until then, we can abide “under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). Instead of caving in to fear, we can stand confidently on the Word and walk boldly in our covenant of protection.
End-Time Instructions
In Matthew 24, Jesus told His disciples what to expect just before the end. The signs He spoke of—wars, famine, earthquakes, unbridled sin—are echoed in today’s headlines. When the disciples asked Jesus what would signal His return and the end of the world, He said:
“Don’t let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will lead many astray. And wars will break out near and far, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must come, but the end won’t follow immediately. The nations and kingdoms will proclaim war against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.… Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But those who endure to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then, finally, the end will come” (verses 4-14, New Living Translation).
Don’t panic because of these things, Jesus said! And don’t join people who are flocking toward sin either. Second Timothy 3:13 says that “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.” That accurately describes this generation. The closer we get to the catching away of the Church, the worse it becomes in the natural realm.
Thank God, He warned us about these things. And Thank God He assured us, “The Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world.” That’s being done now on a scale never before seen! God desires for “All men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). It is never His will for anyone to be left outside His blessing and protection. That’s why He sent Jesus.
Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us…that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.”
To walk in the blessing and protection of God, we first must choose Jesus as Savior. But He won’t force us to make that decision. The Lord won’t force us to get under His protective shadow either. We choose the blessing over the curse. The first step to the blessing is to receive Jesus as Lord over our lives. This decision translates you out of darkness into light—from one kingdom into another. “[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13, The Amplified Bible).
Now, I want to take a moment and say this: If you haven’t yet given your heart to Jesus, you can make that decision right now. Say, “Jesus, I make You Lord of my life. Take my life and do something with it. Teach me how to live and how to be free.”
Once you make Jesus your Savior and Lord, you are redeemed from the curse (Galatians 3:13). You’ve been made free from every evil thing. Jesus bore it for you. When you receive salvation you receive “deliverance, preservation, material and temporal deliverance from danger and apprehension, pardon, protection, liberty, health, restoration, soundness and wholeness.” Protection belongs to you if you are born again. In Christ Jesus, you have a covenant of divine protection with God. But it’s not automatic. Any covenant has two sides, so, you have a part to play.
Our Secret Refuge
God’s Word reveals your part and His part. Psalm 91:1-2 begins with your part: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”
Verses 3-4 reveal God’s part: “Surely he shall deliver thee. He shall cover thee….”
God will protect you when you make Jesus Lord of your life, follow Him, walk in the light you have, and take Him as your refuge. You receive the Lord as your refuge the same way you receive Jesus as Savior, and that is, you release your faith for Him to protect you and say it. Speak words in agreement with God’s Word. If you abide under the shadow of the Almighty and speak words of faith, it gives Him place in your life. It positions you for His protection.
It’s true no one knows what could happen next in this world. But believers don’t need to be afraid. In Christ Jesus, we can abide “in the secret place of the Most High…Whose power no foe can withstand” (Psalm 91:1, The Amplified Bible). We must get in and stay in that place through faith.
We can’t expect God to move heaven and earth to protect us if we’re full of fear. If we’re full of fear, we’re not full of faith—and we’ve stepped out of our place of refuge. According to the Bible, the thing we fear will come upon us (Job 3:25).
Over and over the Bible commands us to “Fear not!” It is the opposite of faith. Fear opens the door to the devil. But faith shuts the door to the devil and everything bad that’s under the curse. Wickedness and danger are in the earth, but they don’t have to affect us. Believers have a safe place in God, but we must lay hold of, and believe for it.
If you are living in fear—get delivered! Refuse to let fear dominate your thoughts, your heart or your mouth. Rebuke fear in the Name of Jesus. Read and meditate the scriptures that promise God’s protection continually until there is no fear. God has given you the power to overcome fear by His Word.
Go After the Word, Not the World
Continue a steady diet of God’s promises of protection. Joshua 1:8 says to think about God’s Word day and night. That’s the way you renew your mind (Romans 12:2). God’s promises will become more real to you. Then you will be able to stand in faith on God’s promises of protection for your life. You’ll be able to speak the Word boldly and fear will have no place—you’ll have absolute confidence in the fact that God is taking care of you.
That’s important because the devil’s mission is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Every day he is working hard to get a foothold in our lives. Every day we have to work to keep him out. The Bible word for this is RESIST. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Our protection depends on our choices, too. Believers must choose not to think or act like the crazy, mixed-up world.
You can’t say, “I didn’t know what the Word said about that, so I’m not responsible.” Not true. You’re responsible to find out what the Bible says about you, your future and what you are to do.
It’s up to each of us to spend time in the Word every day. If you think you’re too busy, then you probably are. Consider watching less television. Get up earlier or stay up later. Do whatever it takes to keep your faith strong. These are dangerous days. But not for you and me if we live every day with the Word of God—and we choose to abide there.
Attach Yourself to God
Here’s something else you need to know: You can’t just believe God for protection, then disregard what He tells you about other things in your life. If you’re not obeying Him, you’re not abiding in Him. When you abide, you keep yourself in the Word of God, you keep yourself obedient, and you keep your words in line with God’s words. Obeying is abiding—dwelling under the shadow of Almighty God. That’s what keeps you safe.
That’s how you’ll be able to hear the Lord in a dangerous situation. If you’re accustomed to hearing and obeying Him, you’ll be able to hear His direction clearly. But if you are not in the habit of listening, you probably wouldn’t hear Him, and even if you did—you probably wouldn’t do what He said.
The truth is, if you don’t hear God in the little things, you won’t hear Him in the big things. So be listening and be quick to change. If you get an uneasy, scratchy feeling in your spirit letting you know something is not right, yield to that. Listening to God and following Him is part of your protection.
Listening to God in the written Word and obeying it is a major part of protection.
The Word will always be correcting us. I don’t know anyone so perfect that they’re not corrected when they spend time in the Word. So, when we read the Word, we must make a decision to obey what we read. For instance, when we read 1 Corinthians 13 and are reminded to walk in love, we must make an effort to do just that!
Cultivating a lifestyle of listening and obeying God is the major part of our protection.
God is always trying to get people to come to a place of safety. In the Bible we read how He has always wanted to bless and protect His people. He instructed the children of Israel to live in such a way that He could do that. But often, they chose to go a different direction.
We hear His heart in scriptures like Matthew 23:37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”
That is God saying, “I wanted to do you good and protect you, but you wouldn’t let Me.” The result of their disobedience is told in verse 38: “And now look, your house is left to you, empty and desolate” (New Living Translation).
In Deuteronomy 28, God was explicit about what brings blessing. He was also explicit about what happens to those who don’t do what He says. The Bible tells us what happened when the children of Israel didn’t keep His Word. When they didn’t follow Him, they were out from under His protection—out from under His wings—and they were exposed to the curse.
The same thing is true today: The disobedient and the ignorant aren’t under God’s protection. But when you attach yourself to God—when you abide in Him—you’re in the safest place on earth.
Get on the things of God and stay there. Don’t let any thing, any situation, any condition talk you out of it. Cling to Him, attach yourself to Him, “for He is your life and the length of your days,” as Deuteronomy 30 says:
I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live and may love the Lord your God, obey His voice, and cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers… (verses 19-20, The Amplified Bible).
Who chooses how we live? We do. We make that choice when we decide if we are going to obey the Lord.
If things aren’t going well in your life, it’s not God’s fault. There could be something you just don’t know. And that’s called ignorance. The answer for that condition is to find out the will of God from His Word and obey it.
Or maybe you know what you should do, but you aren’t doing it. That was true of the children of Israel and the result was never good. They knew what to do, but they decided not to obey God. That’s called disobedience.
Either way, you have a choice. Will you live according to the will of God and do what He says? Or will you live like the world?
Your protection depends on the choices you make.
So open up your heart and say, “Lord, if I’m missing it somewhere, please correct me. Teach me. Show me what I need to know.” You may not enjoy finding out that you’ve been missing it, but you will enjoy the results. I am so grateful every time God corrects me.
God is always trying to get protection to you and me. He’s trying to help us stay in a safe place, so we can get our job done before Jesus comes.
So stand on your covenant of protection. Be quick to hear and quick to repent. Your obedience will keep you in that secret place mentioned in Psalm 91…safe under God’s wing!
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