The Chariots Of God

God's chariots are spiritual vehicles, often disguised as trials or hardships that carry the soul to victory and spiritual growth. Unlike visible, earthly chariots, these divine chariots are unseen and require faith to recognize. By embracing life’s challenges as Through God’s means of uplifting us, we can rise above difficulties and experience spiritual triumph. Trusting in God’s invisible power leads to true victory.

“The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary. (Psalm 68:17.)

Chariots are for transportation and moving forward. Earthly chariots carry their riders to their destinations, overcoming all obstacles. God's chariots carry their souls. No words can express the glorious places to which that soul shall arrive who travels in the chariots of God. And our verse tells us t hey are “very many.” All around us on every side they wait for us; but we, sadly, we do not always see them. Earth’s chariots are always visible, but God’s chariots are Invisible.

“So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?

He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. “Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:14 -17) This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another, “Lord, open our eyes that we may see.” For the world all around us is full of God’s horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to plac es of glorious victory. But they do not look like chariots. They look instead like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, unkindnesses. They look like massive cars of misery, waiting to crush us. But they are chariots of triumph. They can take us to the heights of victory our souls long for.

If we would “ride on the high places of the earth , ” we must get into the chariots that can take us there; and only the “chariots of God” are equal to such lofty riding as this . (Deuteronomy 32:12-13) “The Lord alone guided him ; no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.”

“Then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 58:14).

We may make out of each event in our lives either a Juggernaut car to crush us, or a chariot in which to ride to heights of victory. It all depends upon how we take them; whether we lie down under our trials and let them roll over and crush us, or whether we climb up into them as into a chariot, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward.

“And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.”(2Kings 2:11 - 12).Whenever we mount into God’s chariots , the same thing happens to us spiritually that happened to Elisha. We shall have a translation. Not into the heavens above us, as Elisha did, but into the heaven within us, which, after all, is almost a grander translation than his. We shall be carried up away from the low earthly groveling plane of life, where everything hurts and everything is unhappy, up into the “heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” where we shall ride in triumph over all below.

“And raised us with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ,” (Ephesians 2:6). These “heavenly places” a re interior, not exterior, and the road that leads to them is also interior.

But the chariot that carries the soul over this road is generally some outward loss, or trial, or disappointment; some chastening that does not indeed seem for the present to be joyous, but grievous; but that nevertheless afterward yielded the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.

“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”( Hebrews 12:5-11).

Look upon these scoldings , no matter how grievous they may be for the present, as God’s chariots sent to carry your souls into the “high places” of spiritual achievem ent and uplifting, and you will find that they are, after all, “paved with love.”

“King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.” (Song of Solomon 3:9-10 ). Your own individual chariot may look very unlovely. It may be a cross-grained relative or friend; it may be the result of human malice, or cruelty, or neglect; but every chariot sent by God must necessari ly be paved with love, since God is love, and God’s love is the sweetest, softest, tenderest thing to rest one’s self upon that was ever found by any soul anywhere. It is His love indeed that sends the chariot.

“Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord ? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah, you split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, or the salvation of your anointed. (Habakkuk.3:8-13) Here, the prophet tells us that it was God’s displeasure against the obstacles that beset the path of His people that made Him come to their rescue, riding in His “chariots of salvation.” Everything becomes a “chariot of salvation” when God rides upon it. The “clouds” that darken our skies and seem to shut out the shining of the sun of righteousness are, after all, if we only knew it, His chariots, into which we may mount with Him, and “ride prosperously” over all the darkness.

“Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!”(Psalm 45:3 - 4). “He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.” ((Psalm 18:10). “There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heaven s to your help, through the skies in his majesty.” (Deuteronomy 33:26). A late writer has said that we cannot, by even the most vigorous and toilsome efforts, sweep away the clouds, but we can climb so high above them as to reach the clear atmosphere overhead; and he who rides with God rides upon the heavens far above all earth-born clouds.

“O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, Selah to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies.”(Psalm 68:32 -34 ) . This may sound fanciful, but it is really exceedingly practical when we begin to act it out in our daily lives.

I knew a lady who had a very slow servant. She was excellent in every way and very useful. But her slowness irritated her naturally quick mistress.

The lady would get angry with the girl twenty times a day. And, twenty times, she would regret it and try to control her anger. But it was in vain. Her life was made miserable by the conflict. One day, it occurred to her that she had, for a long while, been praying for patience. Perhaps this slow servant was the very chariot the Lord had sent to carry her soul into patience. She immediately accepted it as such, and from that time used the slowness of her servant as a chariot for her soul. And the result was a victory of patience that no slowness of anybody was ever able to disturb.

At one of our conventions, I knew a sister who had to sleep in a room with two others because of the crowd. She wanted to sleep, but they wanted to talk. The first night, she was disturbed. She lay there, feeling frustrated and upset, long after the others had quieted down. She could have slept. But the next day, she heard about God’s chariots. That night, she decided to see the talking sisters as her chariots.

They would help her learn sweetness and patience. She lay there, feeling peaceful and calm. But it got very late, and they should all have been as leep. So, she quietly said, “Sisters, I’m lying here riding in a chariot.” This brought complete silence. Her chariot had carried her to victory, both inside and out.

If we choose to ride in God’s chariots, not our own, we would experience the same.

“ Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord! And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. (Isaiah 31:1- 3) “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. ” (Psalm. 20:7 -8). Our constant temptation is to trust in the “chariots of Egypt.” We can see them. They are real and look substantial. But, God's chariots are invisible and intangible. It's hard to believe they are there. Our eyes are not opened to see them.

“By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, ‘with my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest lodging place, its most fruitful forest.” We try to reach the high places with the “multitude of our chariots.” We first depend on one thing, then another. We do this to improve our spirit and gain spiritual victories. We “go down to Egypt for help.” (2 Kings 19: 23).

And God is obliged often to destroy all our own chariots before he can bring us to the point of mounting into His.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots ;”( Micah 5:10). “An d to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, everyone by the sword of his brother.” (Haggai. 2:22) .We rely too much on a dear friend to aid our spiritual growth. So, the Lord must separate us from that friend. We believe our spiritual growth relies on a favorite preacher's ministry. Now, we are mysteriously removed. We see our prayer-meeting or Bible-class as our main source of spiritual strength. Now, we are unable to attend it. And the “chariot of God,” which alone can carry us to the places where we hoped to be taken by the instrumentalities upon which we have been depending, is to be found in the very deprivations we have so mourned over. God must burn up with the fire of His love every chariot of our own that stands in the way of our mounting into His.

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.”(Isaiah. 66:15) .Let us be thankful, then, for every trial that will help to destroy our chariots, and will compel us to take refuge in the chariot of God, which stands ready and waiting beside us.

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.” (Psalm. 62:5 -8).We have to be brought to the place where all other refuges fail us, before we can say, He only. We say, He and something else.

"His, and my experience," or "my church relationships," or "my Christian work"; and all that comes after the "and" must be taken away from us, or must be proved useless, before we can come to "He only."” As long as visible chariots are at hand, the soul will not mount into the invisible ones.

“Sing to God, si ng praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him!” (Psalm. 68:4).If we want to ride with God “upon the heavens,” we have to be brought to an end of all riding upon the earth.

“Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.” (Psalm.

68:24). To see God’s goings, we must get into the sanctuary of his presence; and to share in His goings and go with Him, we must abandon all earthly goings.

“A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?”(Proverbs.20:24). “My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.”(Psalm. 17:5).

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.”(Psalm.40:1). When we m ount into God’s chariot our goings are “established,” for no obstacles can hinder its triumphal course. All losses therefore are gains that bring us to this.

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” (Philippians.3:7 -9). Paul understood this, and he gloried in the losses which brought him such unspeakable gain.

“So to keep me from becoming co nceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians.12:7 -10) Even the "thorn in the flesh," the messenger of Satan sent to trouble him, became just a chariot for his willing heart, taking him to victories he could not have reached otherwise. To "take pleasure" in one’s struggles — what is that if not turning them into the greatest of chariots?

Joseph dreamed of his future triumphs and reign. But, to the eye of sense, the chariots that carried him there were bitter failures. It was a strange road to a kingdom. It went through slavery and a prison. Yet, there was no other way for Joseph to reach his triumph. His dream, Gen. 37:5- 10 “Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to t he ground before you?”

His chariots, Genesis. 37:19- 20 “They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will b ecome of his dreams.” Genesis 27:28 “May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.” Genesis 39:19 -20 “As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.” And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the ki ng’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison; how he rode in his chariots, Genesis. 39:1- 6 “Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.”

Genesis 39:21- 23 “ But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him.

And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed .” His triumph.

And now a word as to how one is to mount into these chariots. My answer would be simply this: Find out where God is in each one of them, and hide yourself in Him. Or, in other words, do what the little child does when trouble comes, who finds its mother and hides in her arms. The real chariot, after all that, that takes us triumphantly through is the carrying of God.

Isaiah. 46:4 “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” The baby carried in the chariot of its mother’s arms rides triumphantly through the hardest places and does not even know they are hard.

Isaiah. 63: 9 “ In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them and carried them all the days of old.”.And how much more w e, who are carried in the chariot of the “arms of God.” Get into your chariot, then. Take each thing that is wrong in your lives as God’s chariot for you. No matter who built the wrong, it is now God's chariot for you. It must carry you to a heavenly place of triumph. Shut out all the second causes, and find the Lord in it. Say, “Lord, open my eyes that I may see, not the visible enemy, but thy unseen chariots of deliverance.”

Accept His will in the trial, whatever it may be, and hide yourself in His arm s of love. Say, “Your will be done; Your will be done!” over and over.

Shut out every other thought but the one thought of submission to His will and of trust in His love.

Make your trial your chariot. Then, your soul will "ride upon the heavens" with God in a way you never dreamed possible.

I have no doubt. If our eyes were opened, we would see our homes, businesses, and streets filled with the "chariots of God." There is no need for any of us to walk for lack of chariots.

That cross inmate of your household, who has made life a burden, may henceforth be a glorious chariot.

It will carry you to the heights of heavenly patience and longsuffering. Your misunderstanding, mortification, unkindness, disappointment, loss, and defeat are chariots. They wait to carry you to the heights of victory you have longed for.

Then, with thankful hearts, mount into them. Lose sight of all second causes in the shining of His love.

He will carry you in His arms, ensuring your safety and celebrating victory over it all.