“Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?” — Isaiah 37:11
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” — 1 Corinthians 10:13
Chapters 36 and 37 of the book of Isaiah give us a perfect portrait of our prosecutor, the enemy of our Lord, who exists only to steal, kill, and destroy us. We see how King Sennacherib of Assyria, the enemy of God’s chosen nation of Israel, devised to come up against Judah and destroy it. With great boldness, this foreign king sought to plant seeds of doubt among the people of God, telling them not to listen to their leader King Hezekiah, and that there was no hope of their deliverance from the powerful Assyrian army.
“And shall you be delivered?”
That question is dripping with contempt. It’s designed to make God’s people look at the overwhelming evidence of the enemy’s power and conclude that their God isn’t big enough. Everyone else fell. Every other nation was destroyed. What makes you think you’ll be any different?
That’s the enemy’s playbook. And he’s still running it today.
The Voice You’ve Been Listening To
It might sound a lot like this:
“Well, I’ve always had anger issues. I guess it’s just who I am.”
Or perhaps, “I’ve tried dealing with my addiction before, and I just ended up right back where I started. I guess I just have to live with it.”
Or maybe, “I know what I’m doing is wrong, but I just can’t let it go. Not now. Maybe somewhere down the road I’ll be strong enough, but I just can’t right now.”
Your enemy has you fooled. He has you doubting the very Creator of the universe, who holds the stars in His hands and set the boundaries of the raging seas. Our God is all-powerful, and ever faithful. And yes, He is able to deliver you.
For leaders, this voice takes on forms that are even more subtle. It sounds like this:
“I’ve always led this way. People just have to deal with my style.”
“I know my pace is unsustainable, but this is just the season I’m in. I’ll deal with it later.”
“I’ve struggled with this privately for years, but I’m still effective in ministry, so it must not be that serious.”
“I’ve tried to change this pattern before. Nothing worked. This is just who I am as a leader.”
Every one of those statements is the voice of Sennacherib. Every one of them is designed to make you accept captivity as permanent and stop believing that your God is powerful enough to set you free.
The Strategy Behind the Lie
Do you see the craftiness of our enemy? He knows he is a defeated foe. He knows how his story ends. He has been eternally banned from the presence of God, and will be eternally bound at the end of the age. His demise is unthinkably horrid, eternal darkness and despair. And he wants you to believe the same for yourself.
Oh, he knows he cannot take you from the all-powerful grip of God. He knows you are safe for eternity in His loving arms. But he can surely bind you in shackles of shame and defeat on this earth, rendering you powerless for the advancement of God’s kingdom.
All he has to get you to believe is that “you shall not be delivered” from that which holds you captive. He has to convince you that your Almighty God is not powerful enough to break your chains, to set you free from the sin that entangles you. All he has to do is get you to make peace with your captor. Just accept it. Life will be so much easier if you do, he whispers. Just accept your weakness, and know that your God will not deliver you from it.
That last line is the key to the entire strategy. Making peace with your captor. That’s the goal. Not to get you to deny God exists. Not even to get you to leave the faith. Just to get you to stop believing He can deliver you from this one thing. This pattern. This habit. This compromise. This area of your leadership that you’ve quietly accepted as permanent.
For leaders, this is devastating. Because the moment you make peace with captivity in one area, it affects every other area. The leader who has accepted that their anger is “just who they are” will eventually normalize other compromises too. The leader who has made peace with a private sin will slowly lose their authority to speak truth into other people’s bondage. The leader who has stopped believing in deliverance for themselves will struggle to preach deliverance to anyone else.
The enemy doesn’t need to take you out of leadership. He just needs to neutralize you within it. And making peace with your chains is the most effective way to do that.
The God Who Delivers
But here’s the truth that Sennacherib didn’t count on, and your enemy doesn’t want you to remember: God delivered Judah. Completely. Decisively. In a single night, the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Sennacherib retreated in disgrace and was later killed by his own sons. The enemy who stood at the gates mocking God’s power was utterly destroyed.
That’s your God. The same God who delivered an entire nation in a single night is the God who is able to deliver you from whatever has been holding you captive. Not eventually. Not when you’re strong enough. Not when you’ve earned it. Now. Today. Because His power has never been dependent on your strength.
You have the presence of your loving heavenly Father, and the power of His Holy Spirit in your life. He has provided you the way of escape. It’s Him. He is the way. The only way. Greater is He that is in you, friend, than he who is in the world.
And can we just rejoice in the truth that our God is able to keep us from stumbling? Jude 24 says He is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. He is able. Not you. Him. The deliverance isn’t something you manufacture. It’s something you receive from a God who specializes in breaking chains that looked permanent.
Your Right, Your Reality, Your Responsibility
You have a choice. You can choose to stand on the unchanging promises of God’s Word. He is able to keep you from falling. He is your way of escape. You have a mighty Deliverer, your ever-present help in times of trouble. You have the unfathomable power of the Holy Spirit to fight your battles for you so that you may emerge victorious and blameless with great joy.
This is your right, your reality, your responsibility.
That last word matters. Because deliverance requires participation. God provides the power. You provide the willingness. He breaks the chains. You walk out of the cell. He opens the door. You refuse to go back in. The enemy will tell you it’s impossible. God says it’s already done. And the leader who believes God more than the enemy becomes dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.
You must refuse to make peace with that which would hold you captive, and accept your freedom through Christ and His sacrifice. If the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed. And when you submit your heart and will to your Rock and Redeemer, you can boldly claim that “we shall be delivered.”
Not we might be. Not we hope to be. We shall be.
Next Steps for the Leader Who Needs Deliverance
Name the area where you’ve made peace with captivity. You know what it is. The thing you’ve accepted as permanent. The pattern you’ve stopped fighting. The compromise you’ve normalized. The sin you’ve made a truce with. Name it. Out loud if you can. Because the first step toward deliverance is refusing to pretend the chains aren’t there.
Reject the voice of Sennacherib. When you hear “you shall not be delivered,” recognize whose voice that is. It’s not God’s. It’s the enemy’s. And he’s a defeated foe running a bluff. He has no power over you that you don’t give him. The next time that voice tells you this is just who you are, respond with truth: “My God is able to deliver me, and He will.”
Stop trying to deliver yourself. One of the reasons leaders stay stuck is that they keep trying to break their own chains. They rely on willpower, discipline, self-improvement, and strategy. Those are good things, but they are not the deliverer. God is. Submit the area of captivity to Him and ask for His power to do what yours cannot. The way of escape is Him, not your next self-help plan.
Bring it into the light. Chains thrive in darkness. The enemy’s greatest ally is secrecy. Find one trusted person and tell them what you’ve been carrying. Not to earn judgment. Not to be fixed. But to break the power of isolation that keeps the captivity in place. James 5:16 says to confess to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Deliverance often begins the moment someone else knows.
Pray the prayer Jesus taught. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” That last line is your battle cry. Deliver us from evil. Pray it today like you mean it. Because the God who heard that prayer two thousand years ago is the same God hearing it from you right now. And He is able.
You shall be delivered. Not because you’re strong enough. But because He is.