Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.

Time and chance happen to all men. The word chance here is not luck, but it is the Hebrew word pega ’ and means, “impact, or something that has an impact.” Life changing events that impact us for good or bad happen to us all. Jesus said it well when He said that God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). We are bombarded with positive opinions as to how good things should be and given weird explanations of what went wrong when the outcome crushed our expectations. The fact is, there will be times when there is an unexplainable no ! On numerous occasions I have observed that when a very godly and pure-hearted believer is stricken with cancer or some disease, and other believers stand in the gap through intercession, calling on God on that person’s behalf, still the individual passes away. Basic explanations may be given, such as, “It was just his or her time to go.” But we must always believe that God is sovereign. There are things we may never know this side of heaven. God may have been protecting that person from future crisis and sorrow. L IVING FOR AND D YING W ITH I NTEGRITY