Surely God Will Do Me Good

© Copyright 2010 Mark D. Spencer.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Cover design and photo by Jesse Spencer and The Design Aesthetic at

www.thedesignaesthetic.com

Author’s photograph by Paige Fagre

The King James Bible is the translation used throughout this book unless noted. (The author has chosen to capitalize nouns and pronouns pertaining to the divine Name.)

Other Scripture quotations are taken from the following:

NLT – Scripture quotations marked by NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

NIV – Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible,

New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

NASB – Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

NKJV – Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson,

   Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Amplified Bible – Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

ISBN: 978-1-4269-2268-8 (Soft)

ISBN: 978-1-4269-2269-5 (Hard)

ISBN: 978-1-4269-2270-1 (e-book)

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Contents

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1   Surely God Will Do Me Good!

Chapter 2   The Jordan, the Flood, and the Promised Land

Chapter 3   The Nations are Raging

Chapter 4   Israel – the Divine Plumb Line

Chapter 5   Of Tsunamis, God and Men…

Chapter 6   Tender Mercies Speedily Come to Meet Us

Chapter 7   Grand Slamming the 14ers

Prayers of Salvation and the Holy Spirit Baptism

End Notes

About the Author

Also by Mark D. Spencer

A Portrait of Intercession

The Cry for Spiritual Reality

Dedication

To the House of Spencer – Surely God will do us good!

To the House of Inner Court Ministries – "Surely God will do us good!

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13

Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men! Psalm 31:19

He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. Psalm 33:5

Preface

Though pursued by trouble, the believer may boldly and confidently declare, Surely God will do me good! God is not the author of this world’s present evils and troubles. Listening to anything contrary to the revealed character of God in Christ is to ignore the truth and reality of God’s eternal Word. Such religious misinformation has turned many away from the very God who so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Surely God Will Do Me Good will offer you a new paradigm into the goodness and blessing of the LORD. The goodness of God’s character has yet to be plumbed and we have only begun to scratch the surface of that Goodness.

Surely God Will Do Me Good is a collection of articles written with the intention of encouraging the believer to know the goodness of God on a personal level as well as help answer some of those nagging questions that keep a vital faith held hostage to the circumstances and realities we face on a daily basis.

From God’s goodness in dealing with the individual believer to His judgments upon the nations, you will be blessed and challenged, motivated and called higher in the life of overcoming faith. Surely God Will Do Me Good will cause your faith to soar in expectation of God answering your prayers, not only quickly, but at times in dramatic fashion.

Surely God Will Do Me Good will give you a clearer understanding of God’s goodness and provide you the motivation to press on and upward to know Him who is Goodness! For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever. Read on with both a confident expectation and a joyful anticipation of experiencing far more of God’s goodness than you have ever imagined.

He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

ROMANS 8:32

The Essence – God is a good God! Jesus said, If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. It is not enough to intellectually know that the Lord is a good God. We must know this truth deep within our hearts so that when the trials and tests of life would overwhelm us, we can with boldness and confidence declare, Surely God will do me good!

one

SURELY GOD WILL DO ME GOOD!

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which said unto me, Return unto your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which You have showed unto Your servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and kill me, and the mother with the children. And You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’

GENESIS 32:9-12

THOUGH DISHONEST, JACOB always had a heart to know God. This is evidenced in God’s summation of Jacob and Esau by His foreknowledge when He said,

Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

ROMANS 9: 13, 11 – 16

Jacob was so desirous of the blessing of the Covenant his father Isaac, and his grandfather Abraham had with Yahweh, that he resorted to extreme and underhanded methods to achieve the blessing of God upon his life – He would use manipulation in taking his brother’s birthright and he used deception on his father to obtain his brother’s blessing (Genesis 27)!

Natural men don’t understand spiritual laws nor do they typically care about them. Seeing the manifest approval of the Blessing upon a godly person, they may resort as Jacob did, to extreme measures in laying hold of what they perceive to be a purely natural blessing.

And when Simon the Sorcerer saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.’

ACTS 8:18 – 19

The value of the Blessing is incalculable and, Jacob risked losing everything to obtain it! He calculated the risk of losing the respect of his father and brother, not to mention his own rightful inheritance if he was found out! The blessing of God, once uttered by Isaac, would lift even a thief to the place of a prince with God! What power! What authority! What destiny awaits the man with the Blessing upon his life! This Blessing is the blessing due Jesus but received by us through faith in Christ’s redemptive exploit.

Impatience will always bring trouble as we try and force the hand of God to act before His appointed time. Jesus said,

In your patience you possess your souls.

LUKE 21:19

Faith alone is not enough to possess the Blessing. Faith is in need of patience’s strength of character and force of determination if the prized possession is to be obtained.

You have need of patience after that you have done the will of God you might receive the promise.

HEBREWS 10:36

Faith takes its rest in God, for

Our times are in His hands!

PSALM 31:15

Faith may confidently take its stand when patience is mounting guard over the promises of God!

Sadly, faith and patience are many times forfeited for the quick fix, the way of the flesh, the strength and cunning of man. Jacob was found out to be a thief and deceiver. His poor choice forced him to flee from his beloved parents and homeland to escape the revenge and anger of his brother Esau.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

GALATIANS 6:7 – 8A

Just yesterday Jacob woke up in his own bed, but today; today he is waking up in a strange place, surrounded by distant relatives. Jacob – the deceiver – the one who cheated his brother Esau and lied to his father Isaac – is now facing the harvest of his deceitfulness. In matters of trickery Jacob now finds himself bettered by his own uncle. He finds himself swindled out of the love of his life for whom he has worked for seven years according to the agreement that he made with this dishonest relative. At the wedding, Laban replaces Rachael with his oldest daughter Leah, and it isn’t until the next morning that Jacob discovers the deception. His love for Rachael must go unrequited for another seven years as he is forced by Laban to work yet again for the bride of his longing.

Now, through all of these self-produced ill harvests in his life, Jacob (and Laban as well) recognize the Blessing working in and upon his life! Everything Jacob touches is blessed. All that Jacob does for Laban is blessed and even though Laban continues to con Jacob, the Blessing enlarges and prospers him. And there came a moment, that within a year’s time, Laban and his family find themselves completely impoverished and all of their wealth and abundance flowing into Jacob’s hand! With this transfer of wealth Jacob begins to hear the grumblings of his extended family.

Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he gotten all this glory.

GENESIS 31:1

Yes, the Blessing will prosper, heal, deliver, and promote you, but it will also bring you into the very real possibility of trouble.

And Jesus answered and said, ‘Verily I say unto you, There is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundred times now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.’

MARK 10:29 – 31

Jacob grew wildly successful and prospered beyond his dreams. (Or do you suppose he had indeed seen what the blessing of Israel would do for him if he could only obtain it somehow from his brother? Could this be the reason Jacob went to such extremes to steal it from Esau?) He married again, and again, and his family became quite large. His flocks and herds are increasing. In fact, he was so blessed that his extended family, his cousins and even his uncle became jealous of his prosperity. Jacob was then blamed for their lack of prosperity. In reality, Laban sowed for this harvest of poverty himself (Genesis 31:1-2).

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

GALATIANS 6:7 – 8

And Jacob’s blessing is in truth not the result of his own cleverness or hard work. What he is experiencing is the manifestation of the covenant blessing that was upon his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and He adds no sorrow with it.

PROVERBS 10:22

Today, we too must remember this, that the blessing of the Lord, His covenant blessings are extended, not because we may be so upright or so righteous, but they are bestowed because of Someone else’s work and right to the Covenant! Yes, Jesus – our Redeemer Kinsman has thus made a way for us to receive all the good due to Him! And in like manner, He took all the punishment due us!¹ It is the New Covenant in His blood; based upon better promises and a better sacrifice!

But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

HEBREWS 8:6

We too may now expect this blessing to manifest around us by virtue of our being in covenant with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jacob has experienced the Blessing with all of its increase even while he was living as an indentured servant to his uncle! The Blessing of God, the goodness of God knows no boundaries. It will work in the most desolate of climates or in the hardest of inner cities. It will work in prisons or under totalitarian governments. It is designed to lift men up and out of the living death that most live in. Jesus said,

…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance – to the full, till it overflows.

JOHN 10:10 AMPLIFIED

As the pitch of family trouble began to mount, the Lord speaks to Jacob. It was now time to return to his home land. While it may have seemed convenient to leave this present trouble, an even greater and more offended party is waiting his return. Jacob’s brother Esau, the cheated and offended brother from whom