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Category: God’s presence

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We have a warrior God. I heard a pastor say once that when it comes to spiritual warfare, the battle is not against us, but over us.  We are the spoils of war. The Lord is ever warring with the enemy for the salvation and transformation of His children.

This truth came alive as I read Psalm 139. Verse 5 says, “You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.” I looked up the word “hem” in the original language, and discovered that it’s more of a battle term than a sewing term.

It means to press in, to confine, to besiege.  In His great love and passion, the Lord presses in to communicate with us. To protect us. To influence us.  His desire is to confine us to His presence so that we are never alone. He literally besieges our hearts, wanting to invade every empty and broken place so that He can bring healing and transformation.

The enemy wants to besiege us as well, with his lies and accusations. He wants to confine us with shame and bitterness. He wants to lay siege to our hearts in order to destroy us. What comfort we receive in knowing that God presses in first and foremost. We hold to the truth that we “are from God and have overcome (evil), because the one who is in (us) is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

By Posted on Posted in God's presence, grace, rest No Comments

“Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts…”

(but open them instead.)  Psalm 95:6-8a  NIV

“And so this is still a live promise. It wasn’t canceled at the time of Joshua; otherwise, God wouldn’t keep renewing the appointment for “today.” The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. And at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God. So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.”  Heb. 4:8-11 MSG

No matter what happened  yesterday, last week, or over the last 6 months, today is the day that you can enter His rest. Stop struggling, stop worrying, stop beating yourself up. If you hear, “You’re a mess”, “You don’t deserve it”, or “You’ve gone too far”… these are lies from the enemy. God’s voice is saying to you today, “Come to Me. I am overcome with love for you. I forgive all of your mistakes. I am ready to move forward with you today.”

Today is the day!

By Posted on Posted in God's presence, God's word, hearing God, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Remember when some of Jesus’ disciples were walking along the road and He appeared to them after He had resurrected from the dead? Luke 24 says that they walked and talked with Christ, even invited Him in for a meal, but they did not recognize Him until “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (verse 31). What I never realized until this morning was that just a few verses later in that chapter of Luke, we see something similar:

While they were still talking about (what happened with the disciples on the road), Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  (After some eating and discussion)  Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  (Lk 24:36,44-45)

There is definitely a theme here. Christ, through the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, has the power to open our eyes and our minds. When it seems that He is absent from our circumstances, He can open our eyes and show us His presence in that very moment. When we are reading the scriptures and we don’t understand, He can open our minds to understand what we are wrestling with. He can open our hearts to receive it and apply it appropriately.

People often ask me how I get such insight from God’s word when I teach or blog. Clearly, it is the Holy Spirit revealing truth to me. I make no claim to great depths of spiritual knowledge. Heck, I doubt my own sanity on a daily basis! If I were to recommend ONE thing to you in regard to studying and understanding the Bible, I would say to read the passage over and over again. Read it in several different versions. (biblegateway.com is excellent for this…you don’t have to buy a bunch of bibles.) When I teach, I read the passage I’m covering probably 50-75 times. Maybe more.

Why do we work so hard to figure out God’s will on our own?  Why do we pound the commentaries and bible dictionaries to make sense of the scriptures? While studying is important and I do it often, we often forget about the most important resource that we have. Christ’s very presence in us through the Holy Spirit. The Creator of the perfect plan for our lives, and the very author of the Bible are dwelling within us. We only have to press in, be quiet, and listen for the still small voice that will surely come.