I Will Take You Places Where Only I Can Deliver You

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As I was praying one day within the first year of my salvation, the Lord led me to look at a map of the state where we then lived, California. He drew my eyes to a valley in the center of the state, and a road running through the length of it. “On your next day off together”, the Lord said, “take your wife and drive that valley."

Well, the starting point was nearly 2 hours from our house, and I realized that this trip would take up the better part of a day. But I was learning that the Lord knew best, and I was learning to trust Him in everything.

Taking that “road trip” that day opened up a whole new part of life to my wife and me. By the time the Lord had called us to minister in another state, we had driven nearly every county, state and federal road from San Francisco down to the Mexican border.

There were days when we would leave at 7 or 8 am, returning at 9 or 10 pm, having traveled 1000 miles. That might sound odd, but you must understand that it wasn’t the destination that mattered. On every journey, we spent that time talking and praying and listening to Bible teaching tapes and holding hands and silently gazing at the splendor of God’s creation. It was a most wonderful revelation of God’s love for us, and between us.

On one specific journey, we traveled to Northern California, aiming to visit a very remote state beach that could only be accessed by driving a steep dirt road over a ring of high hills surrounding the beach.

As we reached Central California, it began to rain rather heavily, but it had subsided by the time we’d reached Northern California and neared the road to beach.

In the last 30 minutes or so before we reached the road, we were spending time in prayer and the Lord kept saying to us, “I will take you places where only I can deliver you." Over and over He said it; “I will take you places where only I can deliver you."

It was comforting, while at the same time a bit unsettling, as you might understand. :-)

We finished praying, and shortly thereafter reached the base of the first hill surrounding the beach. A very steep dirt road proceeded almost straight up the hill. The road looked a bit damp but very drivable and so we proceeded.

About halfway up the first hill, however, the tires of our car instantaneously went into a wild spin. The top 6 - 12 inches of the dirt road, though it looked safe, was actually begin to mudslide because of the heavy rains.

Our car began to slide backward down the hill with no ability to control its direction. After about 30 feet we stopped, thankfully, about 10 feet short of a perilous drop off a steep, unrailed cliff.

We sat for a moment and I looked out of my drivers-side window to see that our tires were caked with about six inches of mud all the way around, and were traction-less as a result.

I surveyed the situation, asked the Lord what to do, and then proceeded to try to drive forward to get farther away from the cliff. It worked, but too well. Unable to stop in time, our front wheels became engulfed in mud on the inside edge of the road next to the upward cliff face on our left.

When I looked out my window again, I saw that the front left tire of our front-wheel drive vehicle was about 75% submerged in the mud. At that point I uttered the words that I immediately regretted saying. “Well, honey, I don’t know........”.

You see, I should have been the bastion of faith, letting my wife know that everything would be alright no matter what. I should have been assuring her that God was watching over us. But as I gazed at the submerged tire instead of gazing into His face, I spoke what I saw. I could have done it and spoken it the other way, and immediately wished that I had.

I recovered just as quickly, however. I asked the Lord what to do, and He told me to turn my wheels so that I would back up right next to the edge of the cliff. I told my wife that we were driving out of there, and not to worry, because the Lord was with us.

I applied the gas and the tires just spun. I quickly realized that I would have to gun the engine to get the tire speed necessary to dislodge the tires from the mud. It that also meant that we would be coming out of that ditch at a higher rate of speed, and we had already stopped just short the cliff when we were trying to stop. :-)

I was aware of those concerns, but at the same time all of those "facts" really didn't matter, you know? You see, the Lord said to do it, and - with my confidence restored by His grace and mercy - I did what He said. I gunned the engine of the car. The tires came out and we lurched backward toward the cliff, stopping - again - 10 feet short of the edge. I was able to then turn the wheels downward on the road and slowly, gingerly, sliding all the way on our mud-caked tires, we drove down to the asphalt road at the base of the hill.

After we had reached the asphalt road, I spun the tires a few times to remove the sticky mud from them, and then we just stopped in the middle of that remote road, put the car in park, closed our eyes, and prayed.

As we thanked Him with all of our hearts for saving our lives, He said it again.

“I will take you places where only I can deliver you."

And it all made sense.

Sure, most of us would never sign up for most of the “harrowing” adventures we’ll have on the journey of ministering in this life for Christ. But we rarely know they’re coming. Sometimes, like this time, they happen when you’re doing exactly what the Lord called you to do.

So the important thing is not so much "what happens to us," but rather the fact that God has planted deep within our hearts the understanding that “I will take you places where only I can deliver you."

Then, imperceptibly and sometimes unbeknownst to us, that understanding comes forth from our Spirits and leads us to listen to God as He brings us out of the lion’s den, out of the fiery furnace, out of the prison house, and even down from a slippery, muddy hill to safety.

“Oh, if this were only a one-time experience, a lesson learned in full in one sitting," our flesh cries out. But our Spirit knows better.

Pure trust, pure faith and pure intimacy only happens in lions’ dens, in fiery furnaces, in prison houses, and on slippery hills. The opportunities to experience Him in this way will be presented to us again and again, and we will experience it if we can only turn our eyes from our own mud-caked tires to His glorious face.

Pure trust, pure faith and pure intimacy only happens “in places where only I can deliver you."

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