Today's episode is going to be all about not going back to Egypt. While I'm going over everything with this episode, I want you to ask yourself one question. If you don't already know, I want you to really think and reflect on what your Egypt is. By the end of this episode, you should know what your Egypt is and then hopefully I'll be able to help you to not go back to your Egypt.
First I want to say a quick prayer: "LORD, thank you so much for every single thing that you've done. Please use me as a vessel for your work and help me to make an impact in other people's lives. LORD, I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this episode, that they receive it and they implement it in their daily lives. I pray that you reveal their Egypt to them and give them the wisdom to never go back. Thank you so much for all the things that you've delivered me from and all the things you've delivered each person reading this from. LORD, please just give us wisdom and discernment to not go back to Egypt and to be able to see the truth. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."
All right, so I'm going to get straight into it. You may have heard me talk in other episodes about Egypt and not going back to Egypt You also may have seen other podcasts and sermons about it because I have seen a few, and I thought about making an episode about this before. At the time I was in my Egypt, so I was like, "well, I really can't make an episode about this because I'm still in my Egypt." So now here we are.
If you are confused about what I'm talking about, like "What does she even mean, don't go back to Egypt? Why does she keep referring to something as Egypt?" Basically what I mean when I say "don't go back to Egypt" or "I was in my Egypt," is I'm talking about whatever is keeping you from doing what God has called you to do or the thing that you're struggling with. Maybe it is addiction, maybe it's a relationship, a toxic relationship that you know that you shouldn't be in. Maybe it is a situation or an environment that is just not good for you. Maybe you feel like you're a slave, just like the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, which I'm going to go into the Book of Exodus and go a little bit further into this.
So God had freed the Israelites from 400 years of slavery and there were 10 different plagues that God had put on the Egyptians to wear Pharaoh's heart down to make him finally decide to let the Israelites go. If you want to read about the plagues, it's specifically in Exodus chapters 7-12. I highly recommend if you have time to just read all of the Book of Exodus. I'm going to specifically go into Exodus chapter 12 and then mainly Exodus chapter 14.
So let's get into some scripture:
"During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.” The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians."
-Exodus 12:31-36
So that is when the Israelites and Moses first were heading out of Egypt and God had delivered them from Egypt. Then if we go to Exodus chapter 14, Pharaoh's heart was hardened again.
"And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this." -Exodus 14:4
Now I want to skip down to verses 10-12 because as the Egyptians were approaching the Israelites, the Israelites cried out to God and they said to Moses, "Why didn't you just leave us in Egypt?"
"As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” -Exodus 14:10-12
So the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, they were on their way to the Promised Land, and then they saw Pharaoh and the Egyptians coming after them. They were so afraid. They were terrified because they thought that they were gonna be killed by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. So they were thinking, "We should have just stayed in Egypt. Now we're gonna die here in the desert."
Before we read a few more verses, I just wanted to stop and talk about this for a second. God may have delivered you from your Egypt. Whatever your Egypt is. Maybe that is a toxic relationship. Maybe that is an addiction. Maybe it's a toxic environment that you were in. Maybe you felt like you were enslaved in a place even though you weren't physically a slave, you had been delivered from that environment. I don't know what your Egypt is. I know what my Egypt was and God had delivered me from my Egypt. People also may have multiple Egypts. You may have had multiple Egypts throughout your life and you may have continued to just keep going back to the same Egypt or a different one.
If you are in Egypt right now, God can and will deliver you from Egypt. But you have to seek him with all of your hearts. Cry out to the Lord. If you are so tired of being stuck in addiction, in a relationship that you know is not good for you, and you just keep going back in an environment that you know is not good for you. If you just keep feeling stuck where you're at and you feel like there's no other option, God can deliver you and He will deliver you. You just have to cry out to Him and seek Him with all of your heart. Open up your heart to Him, surrender all to Him, and ask him for that deliverance. I went over in one of my last episodes, I talked about my struggles with addiction and different things like that, so definitely check that video out if you haven't already. That will help a lot with breaking strongholds, breaking chains, and getting delivered from addictions.
Let's say you've been delivered from your Egypt, okay? You've already been delivered from that relationship. You've been delivered from that addiction, that environment, whatever your Egypt is, you've been delivered. Now you're at a point where things feel really hard, things are getting really bad. Everything is different for each person. So maybe right now you're getting very tempted. Maybe you are missing whatever your Egypt is and you're just thinking, "Oh, let me reach out to him and see how he's doing or her," or "Let me just take one sip. It's okay, it won't hurt anything just to take one sip." Or "Let me just go back to that place one time. I think I left some clothes there" or whatever the case is. You may be missing Egypt right now. Maybe things are really hard and you thought once you got out of your Egypt that things would get a lot better so you're like, "Okay, well if things are already going to be hard, like I'm already super uncomfortable because all these changes that are happening and things the Lord's wanting me to do, or you know my situation isn't any better right now, then it was back in that place. So let me just go back there because that's what I'm comfortable with. That's what I know at least even though, even though that was a toxic environment, or even though that was a really bad thing that I was doing, at least I knew what I was getting myself into. I don't know what I'm getting myself into now." So you're thinking about going back to Egypt. I want to tell you the same thing that Moses said to the Israelites.
"Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” -Exodus 14:13-14
I know, trust me when I tell you, I know how it feels to be delivered from something and be so confused about why you're feeling the way that you're feeling. Maybe you're just so overwhelmed because God has blessed you with so many things and He's changing so many aspects of your life, but it's a lot because all you've ever known is toxicity. All you've ever known is the bad and your brain has almost been wired to crave that toxic environment, crave that toxic person, or whatever you were addicted to. So now that you've been delivered from it, you're like, "I have no idea what to do." Or maybe things are just getting worse. Maybe it seems like it is way worse than it was because something bad has happened or you know, whatever the case is for you.
I did want to mention that sometimes things that we are facing are real, they're hard, and they're scary. You may have had a tragedy happen or you know, things are just really tough right now. Sometimes it's our mind and things that we've made up in our head that haven't even happened. Just things that we think could happen because of all of the uncomfortable feelings that we're feeling, how much change we're going through right now, that God has been calling us to something higher, he's been doing these things in our lives and we're so afraid, we just keep thinking of all the bad things that can happen in the future because we're just so used to things going wrong. We're so used to being disappointed and we're used to people letting us down. We're just afraid that if we are still and we trust in the Lord and let him fight for us, something horrible is going to happen. I want to let you know that the God of Israel, the Almighty, the all-powerful, most wonderful, most high is on our side. We are His children and He would not deliver you from something to put you in a situation that is going to be even worse than where He delivered you. He wants you to go to the promised land. He wants you to do what He's called you to do, what he's been placing on your heart.
Our true home is in heaven. In this world, we will face troubles and we will face hardships, but we have to take heart because Jesus Christ has overcome the world. God is going to fight for us and He's already fighting for us. We just have to be still. We have to trust Him and know that we are right where we need to be. He delivered us from that place for a reason. We cannot go back to Egypt. I'm telling you, I know you want to go back to Egypt, because honestly here lately, there's been a couple of times where I've thought about going back to Egypt. I've thought about it. I'm not going to get too much into that. That's a whole different story that I probably will never even mention about my Egypt because it involves another person and I don't want to get into all of that. But I've thought about it a couple of times and I know that the Lord has me. I know that I have been delivered for a reason. It took a long time for me to finally be delivered from that because I kept going back. I kept going back to the same thing that I knew was not good for me. I have finally and truly been delivered. I just ask every day for wisdom to not go back. You have to make sure once you're delivered, you have to continue to ask for wisdom to not go back because things are going to be uncomfortable.
God never said that we were going to have a comfortable life and that everything was going to be okay. Things are going to get uncomfortable and we're going to face some hardships, but we have to stand firm. We have to wait on the Lord. We have to be still and know and trust that He is fighting for us and that we will enter the promised land, whatever our promised land is from God, whatever he is placed in our hearts. Maybe you don't even know the calling that He has for you, but you know that he's gotten you out of the environment, or the addiction, or the relationship, He's gotten you out of your Egypt for a reason. You just have to be still and know the Lord's fighting for you.
If you're missing Egypt, you want to go back, you're scared, you're afraid, and you don't know what to do, pray. Pray to God. Pray for discernment to see the truth. Pray that He will give you wisdom to not go back. Read your Bible, study your Bible, ask God for knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that you're reading, and wisdom to implement it in your daily life. Read all of Exodus. I'm telling you, if you go through and you read about Exodus, you read these chapters and you just sit on them and meditate on the book of Exodus and you go through how the Lord delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and all of the amazing things that happen and the very hard things that happened in here, you'll be able to see that the Lord always makes good on his promises. We have to stand firm and we have to trust in Him. We can't make it harder on ourselves if we are constantly going back to the thing that's not good for us, that is just going to delay our promised land. That's just going to delay whatever God has in store for us. We have to be still, trust in the Lord, and know that He is fighting for us.
Let's go over one last scripture from Exodus 14:
"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left." -Exodus 14:21-22
Okay, so I'm just going to paint a picture real quick. These Israelites looked back and saw Pharaoh and the Egyptians all coming after them with horses and chariots and they were so terrified. Then they look in front of them and it's just a big sea. So they feel like there's nowhere to turn. They're literally either gonna be killed by the Egyptians or they're gonna be killed in the sea. Either way, there's nowhere to turn. God told Moses to stretch out his hand and God pushed back the sea for them to go through it. That is where Moses parted the Red Sea for them to go through. Then the Egyptians all drowned when they tried to follow them.
You may be at a place right now like the Israelites, where you're looking back and you feel so terrified because you're afraid of what's going to happen and you're looking forward and you feel terrified because you're afraid of what's going to happen and you feel like there's no way out. So you just want to go back to where you were. You want to go back to that addiction, to that relationship, to that environment, to your Egypt. I'm telling you right now, God is already making a way for you. When you think there is no way, there is a way. With God all things are possible and He's fighting for you. He's making a way for you right now. He just wants you to trust in Him. He wants you to be still. Then when he tells you to move, He wants you to move in faith without having a clue of what's going to happen or what the outcome is going to be. He wants you to be still, wait on Him, and trust in him completely, and whenever He gives you the green light to go, He wants you to walk out in faith and obedience. God is right here with you. He's going to get you through whatever it is that you're going through and you will get on the other side.
So I know it may seem tempting right now. You may want to go back to Egypt. I'm telling you, do not go back. Pray about it. Get on your knees and talk to God. Let Him know your struggles. Let Him know that you're afraid and you want to go back to Egypt. Be still and listen to what the Lord is telling you. Ask him for that wisdom. Get into your Bible. Seek the Lord with all of your heart and He will make a way for you. He's not leaving you astray. He's not ever going to abandon you. He loves you so much and He just wants you to trust in Him. He wants you to be still and He wants you to just trust in Him with all of your heart. The Lord is in control and you don't need to worry. I'm saying this for myself too because trust me, I get it.
God has been talking a lot to me lately about trusting in Him, being still, and knowing that He's in control. Even though things seem scary right now. Even though I have no idea how a lot of things are going to turn out and it just seems a lot easier for me to just go back to Egypt because that's what I'm used to and at least I know what I'm getting myself into there. I know that I have to be still, I have to trust in the Lord, and I know that he's got me. I also know that someone reading this right now is going through the same thing and they needed this message. That's why I'm on here today to tell you, be still and trust in the Lord. He will fight for you. Trust in Him with all of your heart. He's in complete control and He is going to make a way for you when you feel like there's no way. He's not going to lead you astray and He's never going to leave or forsake you.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
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