“God’s Word for the Hour, Spiritual Detours Needed” by: Prophetess hilda arredondo
Dear Praying Friends, We are quickly moving on into the New Year and many of us are anxiously looking toward our Lord God and wondering what good thing or Word He might have in store for us this New Year. Just recently, I spent some time alone seeking God while He may be found. Among the many things I have heard from Him—one good Word for all of us is to be sensitive in our everyday “course” with Jesus and watch for the DIVINE DETOURS in the Highway of Life. What is a Detour? The Webster Dictionary says that a detour is a roundabout way of “course” especially a road used temporarily instead of a main route. Detour also means “deviation” from a direct course of action to or cause to go by a roundabout way. A very important word here is “deviation”. Deviation means to depart from the accepted norm, or to turn aside. In the book of Acts 8:26, it reads “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert”. Philip was preaching the gospel in Jerusalem’s surrounding villages winning the Samaritans. He was at a great revival, things were going so well. He felt comfortable where He was at, but suddenly the Holy Spirit told him to leave and go South through the GAZA Desert—surely a spiritual detour!! God sent him to preach Jesus to one Eunuch, a special man, the treasurer of Ethiopia, a Eunuch of great authority and because of Philip's obedience, the eunuch was saved and baptized. In order to accomplish the salvation of this Eunuch, he drew Philip away from the usual highway of a great revival and detoured him to go preach to one man. Philip could have thought this truly is not God--winning many at the revival and now detoured to go to one person?
THE DETOURS OF LIFE ARE FOR A PURPOSE
If you are a child of God, He always has very good reasons why the “detours of life” come. Philip’s obedience raised him to a higher place in the supernatural—he was promoted!! He was a servant that was now ready for the Master’s use. “And when they were come out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at A-zo-tus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” Acts 8:39-40. He had just passed his test for greater “divine appointments” and “assignments” from the Lord. Azotos means fortress or stronghold. Philip was sent there to tear down the principality that had the people in the region in captivity. God wanted to set the captives in those regions free and He did because Philip obeyed.
WILL YOU PASS YOUR TEST OR WILL YOU FAIL
If you encounter a divine spiritual detour this year--How will you handle it, will you pass your test or will you fail it because you cannot change your course? Are you so comfortable that you will not move or obey God? You see, when on a highway headed one way, then suddenly you encounter a detour sign, there are certain emotions that immediately surface in us. You become anxious and possibly fearful because you are not familiar with the new route you will be traveling; therefore, you will have to slow down. You can also become frustrated, pressed for time and you think it is going to mess up your usual schedule. But if our Jesus is in control of our “spiritual detours,” then He is with us in that change and we can trust in the Lord with all our heart; and not lean unto our own understanding, continue to acknowledge him and he will direct our detour. Detours are needed many times because of dangers that lie ahead in the road. That “detour” could spare your life and those that are with you or you could encounter someone who desperately needs your help.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN HELPED A POOR MAN
In Luke 10:30, we read the account of the Good Samaritan. He was on his way to take care of his usual business for the day when he encountered a certain man who was attacked by thieves leaving him half dead. He was stripped of his raiment and wounded. As we read in this chapter, we know that a priest and a Levite passed this man by. They would not take the detour to help this man. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. He bound up his wounds, poured in the oil and the wine and set him on his very own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. He paid his motel bill, so to speak, for the time he needed to recuperate from the beating and wounds. Then the Good Samaritan told the inn keeper, I will stop on my way back and if he owes any money I will take care of it. He had compassion and took the detour from his daily schedule. What an example unto us!
THEIR LIVES WERE SPARED AS THEY WENT ANOTHER WAY
Another example are the wise men that came to see Jesus at his birth, they had to take a detour. Our God knew that Herod was waiting to kill our baby Jesus and God was protecting and watching over the Saviour of the world; therefore, it reads, in Matthew 2: 12, “And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.” The detour was to protect baby Jesus and them from danger and our God showed them another way – a detour. You can be sure that as a child of the Lord, He is watching over us. If you don’t take the detour it could rob you of your blessing. My daughter Debbie shared with me that she had been out running errands during the holiday season and along the way she gave an offering to some church group and in return they gave her this ticket. She looked at it briefly; it was an invite to go to some church who was putting on the birth of Jesus with live actors and animals. She was not familiar with that particular church and didn’t know where it was located. Therefore she dropped the ticket in her purse and went on.
HE IS STILL DOING THE SAME THING TODAY
On a Saturday night her and her husband James were out riding around and they thought let us go and find a place where can get some hot chocolate with marshmallows—James’s favorite. As they were traveling and looking here and there, suddenly a detour sign appeared on the road, so they followed the detour but they didn’t know where it would lead them till finally they came to what appeared a dead end. Staring them in the face was this big beautiful church that had a lot of commotion going on. They thought, well we don’t have anything else to do, let us stop and see what is going on here at this church. Immediately, Debbie remembered the ticket and looked at it and sure enough it was the invite to the birth of Jesus celebration. They went in and enjoyed it thoroughly, when they started to leave walking toward their car, someone came up running and said, “Wait a minute; we have a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows for you!” God is so wonderful, if they had not taken the detour, this couple would have missed their “blessings”, Hot Chocolate and all because they obeyed – our Lord was in control and the Holy Spirit was surely leading. Usually a detour will lead you a different route that you are not familiar with, but usually the detour will lead you back to the main road you were on and as you catch up it will take you to the original destination where you were headed. The secret is this; the detour was needed to get you there. To God be the Glory!
Thank you so much for reading this message. If you would like to make a copy or copies of this newsletter, you are welcome to do so. Make sure your copy is in its entirety and the message should not be changed. Judgment messages are very serious and those declaring them carry a big responsibility.
Hilda Arredondo's name and her website http://NDCPrayer.com/ and e-mail address uipwc@bellsouth.net should accompany this message as you print it. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail us. At this point we have no representatives outside this ministry and all business for the ministry is handled by hilda arredondo, 195 El Shaddai Rd, Opelousas, La. 70570
