God Will Make a Way

Maybe you are staring at something right now that has no exit. The report is in. The money is not there. The door you were counting on has closed. You have run the numbers, replayed the options, prayed the prayers, and every road ends in a wall. I want to say something to you that I know both from Scripture and from my own life: God can make a way where there is no way. And God will make a way where there is no way.

Before I show you how He does it, settle this in your heart: “no way” is a verdict our senses reach, not a verdict heaven has signed. Scripture is one long record of God making roads where people saw only walls — through seas, through wilderness, through dens of lions. And I am not saying this from a safe distance. I have lived it.

When the answer was no

When I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the summer of 2013, I met with two neurosurgeons — one in Temple, and one at MD Anderson in Houston. After those meetings, and after the extensive research I did, I knew I absolutely wanted my surgery done by the incredible, expert surgeons at MD Anderson.

But my insurance denied it. They said the surgeon in Temple was perfectly fine and in my insurance network, so I would have to have the surgery performed there. On paper, the matter was settled. There was no way.

But in true God fashion, through a series of events that were clearly orchestrated only by and through Him, God allowed me to change insurance companies after my brain tumor diagnosis, so that MD Anderson was in my new insurance network. My new insurance took effect on September 1, 2013. On September 13, 2013, I had a twelve-hour, super successful brain surgery at MD Anderson.

Look at that timeline. Twelve days between the coverage starting and the surgery happening. I did not manufacture that, and I could not have. God can make a way where there is no way. God will make a way where there is no way.

Why we think there is no way

Here is the only reason we ever conclude that there is no way: we look at the past. We look at the former things — how this kind of problem has always gone, what happened to the last person who faced it, what happened the last time we tried — and we cannot see any way out of this.

But guess what: every miracle of God in the Bible is a brand-new miracle. There may be some similarities between them, but each miracle is different. Your mind will try to fit your situation into an old mold — “it has never worked out before, so it will not work out now.” God is not bound by that mold. How does God make a way? He does a new thing.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:18–19 (NIV)

Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den for serving God — for praying, for reading his Bible. And God made a way: He shut the mouths of the lions. I want us to pray for everyone facing lions right now. Lions of cancer. Lions of ulcers. Lions of diseases that want to eat them up and kill them. God of Daniel — make a way.

So let me walk you through some of the ways God makes a way, because seeing how He works will feed your faith to trust Him with the wall in front of you.

He opens your eyes to see

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16 (NIV)

One way God makes a way is by opening our eyes to see. Sometimes it comes as new information you did not have. Sometimes it is a new insight into a situation you thought you understood completely. Sometimes it is fresh revelation straight from His Spirit.

Notice the language of that verse: unfamiliar paths, darkness turned into light, rough places made smooth. The path was there; the blind simply could not see it until God guided them onto it. Do not assume that because you cannot see a way today, no way exists. Ask Him to open your eyes.

He provides out of seeming nowhere

Another way God makes a way is through supernatural provision.

So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

Genesis 22:14 (ESV)

Out of seeming nowhere, what you need for the hour is provided. That is God’s pattern all through the Book. Five thousand people were fed with five loaves and two fish. When Elijah’s brook dried up, God sent him to a widow woman in Zarephath to sustain him — and her little flour and oil carried them both through the famine.

Provision from God is not always dramatic. But when it arrives, it fits the hour precisely. What you need for the hour will be provided on the mount of the Lord.

He blesses the work of your hands

God also makes a way by blessing the works of our hands. He makes His hand available to us, to help us. By ourselves alone we could never have made it. We would have failed — the task was too much and too hard for us. But God makes it so that the little we do yields a result far more than our effort could ever have yielded.

Remember the wife of the prophet, whose husband died poor, and the creditors came to take her two sons. God did not drop silver from the sky. He asked what she had in the house, and it was almost nothing — a little jar of oil. But as she poured, it multiplied in her hands until every debt was covered.

So do not despise the small thing already in your hands, the small work already in front of you. God’s way through your wall may run straight through what you are holding right now.

He teaches you His ways

Here is the one we most often overlook. One of the ways God makes a way is by teaching us His ways. For some of us, it is not another miracle we need — it is to learn how to be a miracle worker. It is not another act of God you need, but the ways of God, so that you can repeat the acts of God in your life again and again and again.

There is a difference between receiving a breakthrough and knowing the God of breakthroughs. If God only ever acts for you, you will live from crisis to crisis, always needing rescue. But when He teaches you His ways, the way He made once becomes a way you can walk again — and show to others.

Pray like it is true

So what do you do with the wall in front of you? First, stop staring at the former things. Your history with this problem is not a prophecy over it. Every miracle of God is brand new, and He is fully able to do a new thing in your wilderness.

Then pray, and pray specifically. Name the dead end out loud to God. Ask Him to open your eyes to what you cannot yet see. Ask Him for the provision that fits this hour. Ask Him to bless the work of your hands beyond your own effort. And ask Him to teach you His ways, so that this is not the last miracle you ever see.

I was once a man with a tumor, a denied claim, and no way forward. God made a way. He can make a way for you. And He will.