As Paul gathered wood, he laid them on the fire, and suddenly, a viper came forth from the fire and fastened on his hand. So as he gathered sticks, he actually picked up a viper without knowing it. As he gathered wood, he picked up something capable of harming him. He picked up something that could have bitten him and wrecked his destiny. Paul picked up a viper that was capable of truncating his destiny.
Notice that the viper did not bite Paul as he carried sticks to the fire. The viper did not harm him though it was close enough to cause harm. The viper may have pretended like a stick, and though it had capacity to cause damage, it was not able to harm Paul. The testimony of Paul was that of carrying something that could harm him, yet he was not harmed.
Friend, hear me as I hear the Lord: though the vipers around your destiny come close, they won’t be able to harm you. The wicked men who have crept into your destiny will not cause you harm. The messengers of evil that are hanging around you will not spoil what God wants to do for you; the spoilers of destiny around you will not open the gates of your destiny to negativity; you won’t be bitten by the vipers of this world.
The same God that stopped the mouths of lions in Old Testament times was available to stop the mouth of the viper when it rose against Paul. That same God will stop the mouth of the vipers and wicked men that have opened their mouths wide to consume you. The same God of yesterday is the same today and will shield your life from the deception and evil that men planned for you.
The vipers around you may yet be pretending, they may not have revealed their evil plots, they may not have shown their true colours, but even if they are still hiding and plotting, they can’t harm you.
