Ruanna Levi - Under the Wings of God - Sunday March 1, 2026

It's I'm so happy that we pray for nations every week.

I just feel like it's so close to the heart of God.

It's it's of no benefit to us.

But it's sharing in the purposes of God over the earth.

And um and I think it's a treasure to him.

I really think.

Um it's just beautiful.

He stops and listens.

I can feel it every single week.

So thank you.

I want to speak today on living under the wings of God.

What it is to position yourself under the wings of God.

And Psalm 91, many of you would be familiar with it.

It says, He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him I will trust.

Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

Verse 9, because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the most high your dwelling place.

No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

Verse 14, because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him.

I will set him on high because he has known my name.

And if you meditate on these verses and you want to discover living in the shadow of his wings, living under the wings of God, you'll discover this isn't just a quick verse to quote.

In fact, the enemy tried to quote this at Jesus in the temptation.

If you remember, he's in the desert, and the enemy quotes it and says, throw yourself off here, he'll give his angels charge over you.

And Jesus said, Don't test the Lord.

Don't just throw something at me out of context and ask me to try and test God.

Because this psalm, this promise, is not a do what you want and I'll pick up the pieces.

That's what Jesus was saying.

I'm not going to just throw myself off a cliff and quote scripture and say the angels will pick me up.

It's not a just do whatever and then say, God, cover me, hide me.

This psalm is an invitation into depths of intimacy that we have yet to discover.

This psalm, it's like Psalm 23.

It's a doorway into a reality.

It's a doorway into a way of life.

It's a doorway into depths with God.

And that's why it starts.

He who dwells in the secret place.

The word dwell there is remains, keeps going back to he who sits down again and again and again in the secret place of the most high.

That means we need a revelation of God being the most high.

Not us, not someone else, not our problems.

He's exalted, he's high, he's lifted up, everything is in his hands.

And we come back to that again and again and again.

He is Lord.

And we're invited into this secret place.

You know, a secret place is not obvious to all.

That's why it's a secret place.

A secret place is you've got to look for it.

You've got to search, you've got to keep trying.

Is it there?

Is it there?

Where is it?

Or you have to know the person well enough that they will share their deep secret with you.

They're the two ways of finding a secret place, being brought into confidence because someone knows you and trusts you and you've spent time with them, a lot of time.

Or you have searched and searched and searched for that hiding place.

Psalm 25, verse 14 says, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him.

Psalms 25:14

And this is the Lord's question to us is how much do we want to know the secrets of the Lord?

How much do we care?

Because there's plenty of people that just kind of want to tumble along.

And when they need God, start squealing.

Plenty of Christians.

I kind of just do what I want, try and just follow after God a bit, and then I want you to do this God, I want you to do that God.

Or do you want to know Him?

We want a deep, ongoing pursuit of the secrets of God, those depths in God.

And it requires returning again and again, a sitting again and again with the Lord.

This depth of commitment and time until he begins to share the secrets of his heart.

You can't fool him, you can't trick him, you can't persuade him.

He knows those who fear him, he knows those who long for him, he knows those who want him more than every other distraction or need.

And it says here, they shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

The shadow here is under the Almighty.

We come under that.

Do not underestimate what you are coming under when you give yourself to a lifestyle like this.

You're not coming under a God who may or may not come through.

You are not giving yourself to a God who may or may not be able to do things.

You are coming under the shadow of the Almighty.

That means you are positioning yourself under the one who can do anything, make anything, create anything, end anything, speak anything.

And it's terrifying and glorious when we actually realize who we're dealing with, who we're invited to come into their secret, to come and sit with him.

We're coming under his lordship, under his greatness, under his leading, under his rule.

And I've meditated on this verse for many years and was like if you will position yourself in the shadow of the Almighty, that means he's the one that's seen.

He's the one that's in the light of your light.

He's the one that is recognized, he's the one that's getting glory, you're in the shadow.

It's not our will, it's his.

The shadow just moves with the object.

And if Jesus, who was God, could humble himself and say, Not my will but yours, God.

It's not my name, it's the Father.

I don't speak on my own accord, it's the Father.

If he was willing to do that, if he was willing to not be the center, he's calling us to do the same.

To step out of being the center of our lives and let the Lord Almighty move and we follow, we reflect, we shadow him.

It's not our name, but his.

We're not the center, he is.

And the word abide means to remain permanently, to dwell.

He's what's seen, not us.

The attention's on him.

People remember his name that we talked about, his love that poured out of us, his answer to prayer that we prayed for him, for them.

Is this what you want?

Like if you really want that, if you really thirst for that, if you really want more of him, this is the psalm.

Verse 2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in Him I will trust.

Do you know that is not something to quote?

That is a life journey where you have learned to trust Him, where your life has modeled itself on trust.

My God in whom I will trust.

God is my refuge.

Not my opinions, not people, not gossip, not judgment, not fear, not me being in control.

God is my refuge.

And if God's your refuge, it means there's gonna be stuff around you need to shelter from.

There's gonna be stuff around that life throws at you, the world throws at you, the enemy throws at you, and you need shelter.

And it would be better that it's God than it's your own strength.

It's better that it's him than just people who can fail you.

It's better that it's him who knows all things, who is the Almighty.

My God, in him I will trust.

What that word means?

I will be confident in.

I will be bold in him.

I will be courageous.

This is a journey of experience.

You don't wake up one day and you're bold in God.

You don't wake up one day and now all your trust is in God.

It's not how it happens.

It's process, it's step, it's day after day, trusting him, seeing him answer prayer, seeing how he meets you when you talk to him, when you come to spend time with him.

That's where trust is built, in the secret place.

It isn't built when one fine day you need God to come through.

It's built step after step after step.

Verse 3 Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fouler, from the perilous pestilence.

Let's look at that.

They're words we don't use very often.

He shall deliver you from the snare of the fouler.

That is those surprise, unseen attacks, traps.

That's what a fowler is.

They put a trap in a forest, and the animal tumbles in unaware and can't get out.

And the enemy can do that.

Surprise things, they're hidden.

We're walking along, everything's fine, bang.

Suddenly you're stuck in a situation, suddenly there's a problem, suddenly there's a person, suddenly there's some worry or fear that keeps at you and it grabs and holds.

But in the person who has made the Lord their refuge, who has learned to live under the wings of God, God delivers them.

They don't suddenly have better ideas of getting out of a trap.

God delivers that one.

And it says, and from the perilous pestilence, that's not just sickness.

Perilous pestilence, this is what it says in Strong's, the eager coveting and rushing upon, the engulfing ruin that comes to destroy.

This is what the world can do.

The love of money just rushing in, the fear of man rushing in, fear of situations rushing in.

That's perilous pestilence.

And it says here, the one who has lived under the wings of God, the Lord delivers him.

You're delivered.

When you've had that time in the secret place, you're delivered from the strongholds that are around that want to grab, whether it's wrong heart connections, whether it's wrong pulls on our life, whether it's whatever, fill in the blank.

But when you're abiding and dwelling in God's shadow, you're delivered.

You've heard the Almighty.

When you're talking with the Almighty, when the Lord is sharing his secrets, God, God, God is sharing his secrets.

You're not up for buying by the enemy.

You're not lured into unhelpful situations.

It's a positioning in intimacy and underlordship where the fear of man loses its grip.

Where fear of anything happening loses its grip.

First four, he will cover you with his feathers.

Under his wings you shall take refuge.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

You're hedged in and fully protected by the wings of God.

Just think with me for a second.

Everything exists in God.

He speaks and creation forms.

He flung galaxies into space from his hand.

Just think about the size of what it means to be in the wings of God.

14 verse 14, because he has set his love upon me, I will deliver him.

Verse 15, because he has known my name, he shall call upon me and I will answer him.

These are doorways into a way of life, and I suggest you explore them.

Explore what it means to set your love upon the Lord.

Set your love upon him.

Just spend time just adoring him, telling him of your love, just enjoying the affections of his heart.

Spend time knowing his name.

Do you know what that means?

Because he has known my name.

Known means to experientially know in profound intimacy, knowing the names of the Lord.

Yahweh, the eternal one.

Yahweh, the one that we get to breathe in and breathe out.

Yahweh, the one who exists forever.

Dwell in him.

In Acts 17, verse 28.

Acts 17:28

This is what Paul says.

It's like he just erupts in this praise.

And he says, In whom we live and move and have our being.

It's full of wonder.

I used to, we used to have to recite that every day at prayer in chapel before I knew the Lord.

And the whole thing felt annoying and perfunctory and a waste of time.

Except that this verse, this verse, out of the whole thing, this verse would grab me every morning and I'd try and push it away.

In him we live and move and have our being.

What does it mean?

In him I live, in him I move, in him I exist.

It's full of wonder.

I don't want to live a day not in him when it's possible.

I don't want to live a day in him.

I don't want to go to work without being in him.

I don't want to do anything without it being in him.

Because it's possible to live and move and have our being in him.

Full of exploring God.

Full of mystery.

Full of discovering these secret places in God.

Know his name.

You know, I have been absolutely stuck on John 14, verse 8.

John 14:8

It's the Last Supper, and Jesus is talking about the Father.

And Philip says, just show us the Father, and it's sufficient for us.

He'd heard Jesus talk about the Father.

I only do what I hear the Father saying.

I doing, I only speak from the Father's words.

He just talked on and on about the Father.

And Philip got to this point.

He's like, just show us the Father and it's all we need.

And I'm like, oh yeah, show us the Father and it's all we need.

We just need to see Him in any circumstance, any need, anything.

When you see Him, when you know Him in that situation, in that problem, in that possibility, when you've seen the Father, it's sufficient.

Because everything is in Him and of Him.

Psalm 36, verse 5.

Psalms 36:5

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens.

Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the great mountains.

Your judgments are a great deep, O Lord.

You preserve man and beast.

How precious is your loving kindness, O God.

Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.

They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house.

You give them drink from the river of your pleasures.

For with you is the fountain of your life, and in your light we see light.

I'm telling you, there is no greater pleasure on the planet.

There's no clear more clarity on the planet.

There's no more life on the planet than in his presence when you've learned to trust in the shadow of his wings.

David's crying out here.

This Psalm 36.

How does he know the Lord's mercy and faithfulness?

How does he know that it reaches to the heavens?

How does he know?

Because he's meditated on it, he's gone running back to it, he's tested it out again and again and again.

And he's made the character of God the study of his life.

Like just every day, what can I learn?

What can I know about you, God, today that's more?

And he's saying, because he's done that, there's trust in the shadow of his wings.

And the fruit of that is amazing.

Because do you know what?

When you position yourself under the shadow of his wings, when you've learned that's the safe place, that's the soaring place, that's the trusted place, that's the place where I'm delivered from everything.

In the shadow of his wings, you have energy and strength to delight yourself.

It says here, those who put their trust in the shadow of his wings, they will be abundantly satisfied.

They're not just wrestling and restless all the time for just what do I need?

This person said this, I want this, I'm going after this, I need more of this.

Nah.

In the shadow of his wings, there's this abundant satisfaction of fullness, of joy, of richness, of wisdom, of creativity, the joy of his house.

When you're in the shadow of his wings, you love his people, and you begin to drink again and again from the river of his pleasures.

Do you know what that word pleasures is?

Eden.

The river of Eden is what you get to drink from.

The river of walking with God, like Adam and Eve had the opportunity to do.

Walking in union, walking, dwelling, meeting with God.

David cried out in Psalm 17, verse 8, keep me as the apple of your eye and hide me under the shadow of your wings.

Psalms 17:8

God David knew God.

He'd seen deliverance, he'd seen all this stuff, but he had this prayer: keep me right in the center of your view, God.

I want eye to eye with you, God, and hide me in the shadow of your wings.

In Psalm 61, it says this: Hear my cry, O God, attend to my prayer.

From the end of the earth I will cry to you.

When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For you have been a shelter to me, a strong tower from the enemy.

I will abide in your tabernacle forever.

I will trust in the shelter of your wings.

For you, O God, have heard my vows.

You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

This is covenanting with God.

David said somewhere else, The vows I make to you, O God, are binding on my life.

He made vows and then he pursued them.

He pursued them.

He pursued this lifestyle of knowing the name.

He's learned where to go when his heart is overwhelmed.

He doesn't just need the situation to be removed from him.

Remember before he's at Ziglag, and everyone's against him.

The Philistines have raided the place, taken their wives, taken their children, taken all their resource, comes back, and the men that are with him, they're so angry.

They're such at a loss they turn on David and they're gonna kill him.

And what does it say?

It says so David strengthened himself in the Lord.

He went to the rock that's higher than himself.

He didn't start pleading, he didn't start blaming, he didn't start judging, he didn't start getting angry, he didn't start weeping, he didn't do any of those things.

He went to the rock that's higher than himself.

And when he went there, the Lord brought him under his wings and said, This is the plan.

Pursue, overtake, recover all.

Because when you go to the rock, when you get under the wings, you get the secret, you get the strategy, you get the plan, you get to know what to do, what to pray, what to say?

And David has learned to abide in the tabernacle forever by doing it again and again and again and again and again.

And my question is: where do you go when it's tough?

Where do you go when it's confusing?

Where do you go when you're hurting?

Is our default to go to the rock?

Or is it to go to distraction, go to people, go to food, go to blame, go to judgment, go to self-pity?

There's lots of options.

Or do we go to the rock?

Do we get ourselves under those wings?

Because if we'll do that again and again and again, I'm telling you, you will learn to soar.

Let me just talk to you briefly about what the wings of God do.

In Exodus 19, verse 4, this is what God said to Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Exodus 19:4

Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

What's God saying?

I bore you on eagle's wings.

God brought them out of a situation they could never get themselves out of.

They were slaves.

They were beaten up slaves.

And the Lord came in with those wings and bore them up and brought them to himself, lifted up.

Do you know what eagle's wings do?

They find the updraft and climb up to 10,000 feet without flapping.

An eagle isn't there fighting the air.

An eagle isn't there fighting the situation, it just finds the updraft.

There's situations that you can't change that you can't escape from.

And if you're familiar with those wings, they will lift you up and bring you out to Him.

It's this unique covenant of worship, of knowing, of obedience.

Jesus knew how to find those wings.

In John 8, verse 58, he's talking to the Pharisees, and he says to them, Before Abraham was, I am.

John 8:58

He basically said he was Yahweh.

It was so horrific to them because they didn't understand.

It says that they took up stones to throw at him.

You've got a whole crowd there, an angry crowd, a crowd that thinks that it's doing the righteous thing.

Stone anyone who says they're God.

And all the eyes are on Jesus.

You imagine all of us here, one person there, we've all got stones, and we're going to throw them at one person.

That's the situation.

There's no escape.

It says, but Jesus hid himself.

He wasn't hiding behind a tree.

He wasn't physically hiding.

He stepped under the wings.

He hid himself in the wings of God and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them and so passed by.

That's what happens when you're familiar with the wings.

When you need to hide yourself from the enemy, from a situation, you hide yourself in those wings.

Because you know the way in.

Jesus hid himself.

In Isaiah 40, it talks about the wings bringing strength and renewal.

Isaiah 40, verse 31, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

Isaiah 40:31

They will mount up with wings like eagles.

They will run and not be weary.

They will walk and not faint.

Who?

The ones who wait on the Lord.

There's no point getting to exhaustion and then going, Oh, I don't know what to do.

This is about a lifestyle of waiting on the Lord day after day.

Having your strength renewed, able to rise up.

That word wait means to bind together, twist together.

Your life twisted together with God.

Your heart twisted together, bound together with the heart of God.

Your mind getting bound together with the Lord's thoughts.

That's what waiting here means.

To linger with Yahweh.

There's nothing more important in your day, in your life than that time.

There's nothing.

I was studying eagle's flights.

It's unique, completely unique on the earth, the flight of an eagle.

It's the most highly efficient flight there is that just uses the updraft.

We get to just use the updraft of the spirit.

And there's no flapping, there's no exhaustion, there's no fighting.

The energy goes into hold out your wings and stay like that.

And catch the updraft and tilt the wings and tilt the feathers as needed to go up and up and up in strength and up and up and up above the situation, above the problem, above what was said about you, above whatever.

The wings of God also represent rest and restoration.

If you read the book of Ruth, Ruth is a refugee with nothing, widowed at a young age.

And she's just found trying to pick up odd grains in the field of Boaz to feed herself and her mother-in-law, both widows.

She's just trying to survive.

And if you don't, if you haven't read the book of Ruth, it's a parable of us and Jesus, and the wealthy landowner Boaz represents Christ.

And he notices her and sees her from afar and makes provision for her and protection for her and comfort for her.

And in verse 12, it says he says this to her the Lord repay your work and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.

Ruth chose to leave everything familiar to come under those wings of Israel.

The wings of the God of Israel.

And God provided.

God cared for her.

The last thing that the wings represent in Scripture is healing.

Remember that I said that the word for wings is also the word for the armspan.

It's also the word for the train.

It's also the word for the hem of the garment.

It's the edge of something stretched out.

And in 2 Kings 4, you might remember the story.

There was a Shunammite woman who wanted to have Elisha come and stay at their place when he was ministering.

So she opened up a home and let him come and go for years.

Fed him, provided for him, but they hadn't been able to have a child.

And then Elisha prayed and they had a child.

And now this is some years later.

And we don't know, but the scripture tells us that he's suddenly like, my head, my head, and collapses in a field.

He's brought to his mother and then dies.

It's bad.

It's bad when the promises of God look like they've just died.

It's bad when the promises of God you've fought for, you've nurtured, you'd cared for, you've paid a price for, just died.

But she puts that child on Elisha's bed in that room where he used to stay.

And she goes and gets a donkey and she rides till she finds Elisha.

And then Elisha sees her coming, sends out Gehazi with his own staff and says, Go and put this on the child.

What's he doing?

I'm putting the extension of my hand.

I'm putting my wing over that child.

And the woman's like, I'm not going unless you come.

And so he goes.

And then it says in verse 32, when Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed.

I reckon we're at least at day three by now.

He went in, therefore, shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord.

And he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.

And he returned and walked back and forth in the house and again went up and stretched himself out on him.

And then the child sneezed seven times and opened his life eyes and he was back to life.

What's he doing?

He brought him under the wings of God.

He brought that dead thing under the wings of God.

And then he prayed some more and then he stretched out some more until that life came back.

In Acts 9, verse 40, Peter is raising Dorcas from the dead.

Acts 9:40

And he sends everyone out of the room.

And I think he did the same thing.

He knelt down and prayed and was near her and spoke to her.

And then he says, Arise.

And if you look at that word, arise, Tabita arise, it says, be lifted up in the way wings lift up.

See, this is, I want you to understand how much, how critical it is that we know the wings of God, because it's not just for us.

You begin to bring other people, other things under the wings of God.

In Mark 5, verse 40, the little girl has died before Jesus gets to the house.

Mark 5:40

But it says this when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying.

Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talita kumi, which is translated, Little girl, I say to you, arise.

Immediately the girl arose and walked.

And the tassels on the corner were called the tzitzit, and they would have represent the wings of God.

And Jesus leant over her and he said, Talita kumi, come into the wings.

Come into the wings of this prayer shawl that I'm wearing.

Come under my prayer.

Come under what I'm carrying before the Lord.

Talita kumi, come in to those wings.

And she got up and lived.

When it says in Isaiah 6 that the train of his robe is filling the temple, it's his wings that's filling the people of God.

It's his wings, his glory that's filling us.

I'm gonna end with this.

In Luke 8, verse 42, you know the story.

Luke 8:42

The crowds are thronging Jesus, and the woman with the issue of blood has determined she is going to touch Jesus.

And she crawls through the dust, she faces the kicks, she was probably trodden on multiple times.

She was poor, disdained.

And it says Luke 8 42, she came from behind and touched the border of his garment.

Same word.

She touched his wings.

She touched his wings.

And immediately her flow of blood stopped, and Jesus said, Who touched me?

And when all denied it, Peter and those with him said, Master, the multitudes throng and press, and you say, Who touched me?

But Jesus said, Someone touched me, for I perceived power going out from me.

Now when the woman saw that she could not be hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him.

She declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched him and how she was healed immediately.

And he said to her, Daughter, be of good cheer.

Your faith has made you well, go in peace.

Most scholars say she was after that hem of his garment, that tassel on the pressure, because what she knew she was touching was the wings of God.

We all face pressures.

I've been reading just this week, just in Samuel and reading the pressures that Saul faced.

Had his own fears to face, his own insecurities.

He had problems, he had pressures on many fronts.

And he never really dealt with the fear of man, which ended up being his downfall.

He never really settled in his heart that he obeyed God.

He never really settled into a life of devotion, of time.

So he didn't really know God under pressure.

And his life is this devastating mess, swinging from one calamity to the next, one disobedience to the next, until he ends up like consulting witches, and it's just a disaster because he didn't dwell in the secret place.

David faced many more pressures, many problems.

There was much slower breakthrough for David into the promises of God than for Saul.

But he found the secret place.

He found that fountain of life.

He found what it was to hide in the wings of God.

Where it didn't matter what anyone demanded, what anyone pressured, what anyone said, he was waiting for God.

He knew what it was to know the name of God and live in his shadow.

You know, Jesus cried out in Matthew 23, 37, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I just wanted to gather you under my wings, but you wouldn't have it.

We have a choice.

We're gonna face pressures.

There will be times when it feels like everyone around us is against us or doesn't understand us, when it feels like the storm is just out of control, when it feels like the needs are too big, the demands are too high.

The question is, do you know your way to the secret place?

Do you know your way to those wings?

There's many way reasons why Jesus had to die on the cross, but I think one of them was so that he died with his wings wide open.

The stretch of his arms, a statement through eternity.

The wings of God are here, available.

Come in to the divine protection, come in to healing, come in to the place where you're in the shadow of the Almighty.

John in the first chapter of John, he's just trying to get us to understand what it is that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And he says in verse 18, No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

That word is he who is in the embrace of the Father, he's declared him.

He who's learned to dwell in the wings of the Father, he's declared him.

And the more that we learn to live in those wings, the more you're gonna declare the Father to the world around you.

So let's pursue that.

Let's pursue a life of knowing those wings, knowing that secret place, knowing that name of God, dwelling in his shadow.

And when he moves, we move, and when he lingers, we linger.

Lord, we want to live in your wings.

We want to live in the shadow of your wings, in the full divine protection and glory and healing and strength that's in your wings.

We want that God teach us the pursuit.

Holy Spirit, lead us in again and again and again and again.

Because there's a lot of things that you have for us to do on the earth.

There's a lot of lives that you have for us to touch.

There's a lot of things you want us to contribute to in the world, every single one of us.

But we'll do it from the shadow of the Almighty.

We love you, God.

Amen.