You Don’t Need To See God To Trust His Protection

What if the strongest proof of protection is what you never notice? We open Psalm 91:11–12 and step into a guided tour of faith that doesn’t demand spectacle, yet grounds life in substance and evidence. From Hebrews 11:1 to Thomas’ doubts, we unpack why seeing is optional but trusting is essential, and how God’s care often arrives in quiet, preventative ways—like angels on assignment and timely nudges that change a day’s direction.

We share stories that bring theology down to the kitchen floor: near-misses, unseen bruises, and those small mercies you only recognise later. Along the way, we confront a common trap—testing God to “make it obvious”—and trace how Jesus handled that pressure in the wilderness without turning Scripture into a stunt. You’ll hear why renewing your mind daily is not a cliché but a survival skill, how to read the Bible in context so you don’t twist promises, and why words either seed hope or sow despair. We explore the practical disciplines that keep you under God’s refuge: choosing wise environments, setting boundaries that protect sobriety and integrity, and finding a community that helps you grow instead of erode.

This conversation is a map for ordinary courage. Expect wisdom on resisting old habits, living with one foot firmly in the kingdom, and letting your faith show through steady works rather than loud claims. We tie together angelic ministry across Scripture, the blessing of belief without sight, and the daily practices that make unseen protection feel profoundly real. If you’re hungry for a clearer way to trust God’s care—and to become the kind of person whose presence invites others to ask what changed—press play, take notes, and step under the shelter that never clocks off.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find these conversations.

Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.

Transcript

Psalm 91:11–12 Read And Framed

Seeing Isn’t Believing: Faith Explained

Thomas, Proof, And Blessed Belief

Daily Renewal And Angelic Care

Church, Habit, And Heart Posture

Faith Without Sight Across Scripture

Don’t Test God: Temptation In The Wilderness

COVID As An Analogy For The Unseen

Resting In God’s Protection

Words Wound Or Heal: Speak Life

Temptation, Environment, And Boundaries

One Foot In World, One In Kingdom

Post-Recording Test Notes

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Now we're recording. There's a little bit of a talk in the background, then don't worry about that because what we're doing today, we're experimenting with a new system. We're going to be uh recording our podcasts uh from a pod hub at the Community Services Center in Lansdale. So this is you know part six of uh Psalm 91, and it's like Psalm 911, and this can also be referred to as the invisible guards. So if we listen to ourselves and decide what it is that you are reading about, so just if you haven't got it, follow along with me. Psalm 91, 11 through to 12, it says, For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. Now, some people believe that if you've seen God, you will believe in his protection, and this you can tell from past experiences uh is totally untrue. You do not need to have a physical manifestation of God to be able to know that you're hearing from him. There are several ways that this can be done. I mean, sometimes you can just sense that he's you know giving you a plan or a direction that he wants you to take. And the purpose of this is that I mean, even if you go back to the old testament, let's let's let's go back to the old testament and you look at how Moses um got the Ten Commandments. Now he had to hide his face in the cliff of a rock so that when God passed by, you know, the the brilliance of God would have blinded him completely. But I don't know whether this is biblically correct. I have uh Pastor Jan Werner here with me at the moment, and he's not choosing to comment on this, but it's basically let me let me remind you of something. My uh my father and my uncle um both served in in uh World War II, and um the thing is that the the body has an ability to be able to react in an incredible way when it witnesses something or senses something. Now, in the natural, what actually happened is my uncle uh had jet black hair and um he was to go on a bombing mission and uh he was unable to go because back in those days, um, if you had flu symptoms or cold symptoms, you weren't able to fly because you had to be on oxygen at such high levels for the bombing to take place, and so he stayed behind. And when the bombers returned, they normally count them as they're landing one, two, three, and they find out who's missing and who's not. And so, in this instance, they're thinking, where is his plane with his crew on it? And as they're coming in, you could see that the plane was completely shot up. Uh, there was bullet holes in it, there was smoke and flames coming out of the side, uh, and they're standing on the tarmac, you know, like willing them to get to that position where they could actually land the plane. And so they did. They managed to land the plane, and then basically it burst into flames, and right in front of my you know, my uncle, he was he was standing there, and uh he saw his whole crew engulfed in flames. Now he wanted to rush in there and to save them, but he couldn't do that. Um, so they held him back, and so he was fairly traumatized from that. And so, you know, they gave him his sanity, put him asleep, and hoped that he was going to be alright the next day. Now, cop this. He woke up the very next day and he was completely white, his hair had completely turned white from the sheer shock of seeing what he saw, because it was something that his natural mind could not you know comprehend. See, some people believe that you have to see God to believe in his protection, and that is not true, because we know throughout scripture that we can't look on the face of God, and also if you look at it from another perspective, we are born into sin, and so therefore, we have sinned, and so therefore, Jesus needs to stand in the gap for us. So when it says, come boldly into the throne with grace, stand before the Father, and the desires of your heart shall be met, you actually can't physically do that because what you're trying to do is you're trying to um be able to see that manifestation, and you can't. You can't do it. Faith, Hebrews 11:1 says faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not yet seen. Now, if you break that down, and I know I've mentioned this a lot of times, because I think it's very, very important that people look at certain passages of scripture, and in this instance, if you're looking at Hebrews 11, right, that is the faith chapter. But Hebrews 11:1, it says faith is the substance. Now, we all know what a substance is. If I pick up something and I hold it in my hand, I can feel a substance, I can actually feel that tangible thing that is in my hand. So if it says faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not yet seen, so you have not seen the glorification, or you have not seen God, and you have not seen Jesus, right? But you know that it is a substance, so that means it's tangible, it exists, it is there. But Jesus used to say, those that believe that have not seen, you know, are blessed. Blessed are they? Blessed are they that have believed that not seen. So we've got to get out of our natural mind. We've got to actually now start looking at things from a spiritual perspective, or should I say, kingdom dynamics. We don't want to uh be able to actually just say, Well, I will only believe this when I see it. Now, Jesus being who he was, rather than rebuking Thomas, he turned around and said, Okay, Thomas, here, come and put your finger into the holes in my hand or in my side. You know, when Jesus was brought back from the dead, he was brought back to life. Don't you think that there was a reason that instead of being a complete miraculous healing in his body, that the holes in his hands and his side were still there. They were there to serve a purpose for those that got to see him before he departed went to be with the Father. So they knew that it was really Jesus. And Thomas, in particular, was one of those that needed to see. But the thing is, we don't need to. Even when God is invisible, he is guarding us. Because he said he'll never leave you nor forsake you, and we know that he won't leave us nor forsake us. Once we become born again and ask Jesus to come and dwell within us, we have the Holy Spirit going with us, and he will guide us and he'll give us direction. Now, because we live in an ungodly world, we can still make mistakes, we can still mess up. So the thing is, staying in his word, you've got to renew it every day, every day, every day. You continue to renew it. So as you read on, you know, you've got to understand this passage is highlighting God's tender, detailed protection through angels. And I can't remember the last time I saw an angel sitting on the couch or at the end of the bed, but I know some people have. This is not to say they weren't there either. This verse assures believers of divine care against small dangers and major catastrophes alike, encouraging reliance on God as a refuge rather than a self-reliance. See, Jesus is there to work with us. You know, and because God is a loving God, He doesn't force things upon you. That's because we have been given free will. You know, so many people, I hear so many people say, Oh, look, I've got to hurry up, we've got to get the kids ready, we've got to do this, we've got to do that. We have to go to church. And then if you ask them, you say, Why do you need to go to church? Well, that's what we do. As Christians, we go to church on a Sunday. Well, you don't need to go to church. Another little story. I like my little side anecdotes because it helps people understand and they get to know that it's it's not the be all and the end all about being a walking-talking encyclopedia of of the Bible, right? Yes, knowing the word of God and knowing scriptures, it is very, very helpful. And the thing is, if you've got an opportunity to speak into someone's life, having that that uh knowledge, that word knowledge is helpful when they ask a question. You can say, Oh, it says this in Jeremiah 29, 11. So, going back, see, sometimes we see things and then we understand, but other times we're asked to understand even without seeing, and it's it's very apparent, all through the Old Testament and the New Testament, people had to work on their faith, they had to believe that God was giving them direction and telling them what to do. It's a lot harder than one would think, and that's why we have our faith. Some even go as far as calling it blind faith, and it's easy to believe in God when we see him in action. When we don't see him in action, we can doubt that he's actually around. When it says that he will neither leave you nor forsake you, that is 100% true. But we can leave him. God is not going to chase after us, we've got to chase after him, and it's important to remember that that you're thinking to yourself, um, what why am I doing this? Why is it important? Do I have to keep this happening? It's the importance of staying in his word and reminding us of who he is and how much he loves us, because he always is working whether we see it or not. Let's look at uh Psalm 91, 11 and 12 again. I only mention this because Jesus see, Satan did bring it up to Jesus in the wilderness in temptation. In the second temptation, Satan said to Jesus, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on your hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. That's Matthew 4, 6. Now, but did Jesus sort of like rebuke Satan? No, he said, Don't put God to the test. We too don't need to challenge God to prove him to us. So, how do we respond to these truths in Psalm 91? Believe without seeing, or putting it in another words, Hebrews 11:1, and I go back there again, because we understand that faith is a substance. We believe in invisible things all the time. When the coronavirus uh pandemic hit, it was hard for a lot of people, but it's a perfect example. The majority of us saw the virus with our own eyes, but we knew it was real because we saw the results. So you could be in a room with another person and they've got COVID-19, but can you see that that person got COVID-19? There may be signs and symptoms, but you cannot actually see the virus. But you believe it was there because everybody was telling you it was there and you saw the tangible results of it. So we have to take things seriously when we see its results, and the same is with God. Even though we don't see God face to face, we often see his work, and his work is what we need to focus on. The protection may be invisible, but that doesn't make it any less real. Maybe you've never seen an angel as promised in Psalm 911, or maybe you have, and if you really want to know if angels are real, then there's several passages of scripture I think you should write down. Now, Psalm 34:7, Psalm 103, 20, and Hebrews 1:14. See, we read that the angels did come to Jesus often, the temptation, and they ministered to him, just as an angel has come to Joseph, warning him to flee with baby Jesus from Herod. And just as an angel later attended to Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. If God commands angels to protect his children, we don't have to see it to believe it, because it is true. We can rest securely in God's shadow. And Psalm 911 tells you that we no longer have to fear the terror of the night. Psalm 91. And we are safe in our dwelling place in Him, Psalm 91.9. Rest in God's protection. I stopped doing the dishes and pulled up my socks, tiny red spots confirmed I'd taken a direct hit. Earlier I had opened the dishwasher door and a steak knife fell out, tipped first, and went straight into my foot before hitting the floor. And it was a very minor injury from an accident that could have been much worse. I thought of Psalm 91, and I thank God for his unseen protection. He doesn't always stop catastrophes from happening to use in the physical realm, but this is time it was spread out. So as you get older, you'll find out that um when you um when you bump into things, sometimes you don't even realize that you've bumped into something, and the very next day you find this big bruise there. And your lovely wife turns around and says, How did you do that? And I said, Well, I don't know. I didn't see or feel it take place, but it happened, and this is what we need to remember with God. Sometimes you don't see things, but you see the result of those things, and you know that God is at work in your life and in mine. As we focus on Psalm 91 holistically, I think it's very important to understand that in doing that, we need to take the word at face value and what it is. And like I've said on many occasions, with the word of God, you don't just grab a scripture and take it out of context like a lot of people do. You read this the passage before it and after it, and then it puts it into context. But further than that, what you need to do is first off know who penned it. Now we know it's the word of God, but it's penned by man, okay. But who wrote it? What was the purpose of the being written, and who was it directed at? See, Paul on many occasions he was writing to the Corinthians, and uh he was he was talking to them directly in relation to their faith journey, but we can actually put it into our right perspective in modern day, it's just the way that it's actually been worded, it was targeting them in particular, and so if you don't do that, when you grab a scripture, and what you're going to do is you're going to um misconstrue the whole thing. You need to find peace in your presence and the insurance of your future about things that are seen and things that are unseen. God is always at work in your life, and every time you meet someone, either you will plant a seed in their life or they will plant a seed in your life, and what you do with that is most important because you can either allow that seed to manifest and grow and take root in your body, or you can discard it and say, you know, no, that's not for me. But the thing is, have you ever heard the old saying, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me? That is so about face, it's not funny. Because, you know, I've got past a yarn here. If I hit him with a stick, uh, it's gonna hurt and it's gonna leave a mark. But uh a week from now, he may have forgotten about it. He may not have forgotten that I hit him with it, but as time goes on, he will eventually forget about that. But if I looked at him and I turned to him and I said something, the word is sharper than a two edged sword and it cuts deep to the deepest marrow. So if you speak something into someone's life, you know. If you're a teacher or a um a coach of someone who's playing sport, or it's just another family member, and they turn around and say things like, You will never amount to anything. You know, you are an oxygen fief, you know, like another word, you're breathing someone else's air when you shouldn't even be here. The words are very powerful, and and those words can manifest into someone's body, and then years later, you could find that person on the street homeless, and uh you could offer to help them, and in the the time that you're offering to help them, you find out that well, they've got no hope in their life, they believe that what people spoke about them when they were younger uh was very true, and so they started acting the way that that person told them they should act, and so they said, Well, I'm worthless, I'm useless, I'm not good for anything. But if you speak words of encouragement, words of affirmation, you praise people up, you lift them up, and and even when you've got someone who is you know struggling in life, they get wow, I am important, I have got worth, you know. Everybody that's born on this planet Earth, uh, there is a plan and a purpose for their life that God has destined for them. Whether or not that actually manifests itself or they're in the right circumstances for that to take root and and grow and nurture, there is a lot of factors that relate to that. But the thing is, don't put temptation in temptation's way either. I had a friend of mine that we used to always go to the pub when I was in the services, and we were always hitting the booze and going out and you know drinking until we fell down and then get up and go back to work and do what we did, and then because we thought our life was short-lived, it was only just a matter of time before we got sent overseas somewhere, and that was the last time we'd see each other, and we'd be pushing up daisies, but you know, that didn't happen, and uh many, many years later, I I ran into my friend again, and uh I said, Hey, how you going? Long time no see. Uh, how about going down to the pub and we can reminisce about good old times? And uh and he said, No, I can't. I said, Why not? He goes, Well, when we separated, I kept doing what I was doing, and I became an alcoholic, and now I am five years sober, and I said, Great, I said that's awesome. I said, So we can still go to the pub, you'll get a lemon squash, and and I'll have a pipe. And he goes, Well, no, I can't. He said, Why not? He said, Because the the mind, the mind is a very powerful thing, and so if I go into that environment, it doesn't matter whether I don't want to drink, you know, being in that environment, smelling all the smells that I smell, my body will be reminded of something that it had and it wanted it back again. And so the thing is, he couldn't go there. This is what happens when we have the word of God in us, and we decide that we're gonna socialize with people that are not Christians, that haven't got a purpose in their life, they just going about doing whatever they want to do, and it's I suppose you can put it this way, it's death by a thousand cuts. So if you get one shiny red apple and you put it into a barrel, and that barrel is full of rotten apples, in a very short period of time, those rotten apples will contaminate the good apple, and then that good apple will also become corrupted. And this is what happens with the word of God when people try to have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the world. God has given us a place of refuge, a place of protection, a place to be looked after, and we need to make sure that we grab it with both hands because he says that he'll never leave you or forsake you, but you may decide that you want to go away and and walk on the the the wrong side of the spectrum for a while. Trust in God, lean not on your own understanding, but everything, you know, according to his word. If I could have any words of encouragement for you today, it is purely and simply to make sure that you read these scriptures and let yourself know that they're for you. God meets you where you are, you know. If you're knitted together, you and the word of God, that is you know, it says a three-course drink are not easily broken, right? If you want to grow and things in the kingdom of God, then hang around other godly people, be in that environment, don't go out in the world. Now, I'm not saying you can't have friends that are non-Christians, I've got lots of friends that are non-Christians, but I do not allow them to contaminate me. Okay, I want to be an in good influence on them, you know. So I remember when I when I was a very young Christian, I still worked for uh the Department of Corrections, and um people would come up to me and say, Hey, uh, there's something different about you. And I go, What do you mean there's something different about me? No, no, I'm just me. I'm just Phil. No, no, no, something's changed, and then it clicked, and I go, Oh, I know what it is. I'm a born-again Christian. I've asked Jesus to come into my heart, and they go, Well, I want what you got. It's as simple as that. See, don't tell people you're a Christian, show them, show them by your works, okay? Because it says in the word of God, faith without works is dead. I think I've bent your ear enough for today, but I just want you to take that thought and try and and try and actually read the word of God and then ask what that word of God is trying to tell you. Amen. All right, we'll talk to you next week. Bye for now. Testing one, two, one, two. Testing one, two. Okay, this is a test for um podcast at Great Vine Ministries. Uh test number one.