God Arises

God arises. His enemies scatter, and those who hate Him flee from His presence.

-Psalm 68:1

Do you see God arising?  We pray, “God arises!”, as a declarative prayer.  He is arising, and we bless what we see the Father doing (John 5:19) just like Jesus.

“God arises”, is a statement of truth; like saying, “God is on the move”.  We are not petitioning God to come, but we see that he is already here.  We are announcing that God is here, so that we can do something.

We see and do.  We do not just see and enjoy the sight, nor do we just see and learn, all in the thinking realm.  Real learning is in the participation.

I declare, “God arises”.  Do you see?  I will help you see if you do not see God arising.

Can you see, can you hear, and can you sense God arising?   If so, what do we do?

When we see God arising, we:

1. Repent.  Jesus message was not to accept him into your heart as your personal savior.  Jesus message was not to believe in the cross and what he did (would do) there.  Jesus message was, “Repent: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”.  To repent means to change, to change your mind, to change your purpose, to change your direction.  God does not give a catalog of sins we should stop doing, because ‘sin management’ has never been the message or God’s way.  Repent also means ‘reform’: Reform or die.  You must change and re-purpose your life or you will die: you are signing off on your death notice.  Many people are the living dead, because they refuse to repent when the call to do so has been given clearly.
2. Get out of the way.  There is a dance that reverences participating with God and in God, without ever taking God’s place of headship.  Jesus modeled how to be submissive to Father’s lead and rely upon the power of the Spirit.  He is the model for how to live and the only way to live.
3. Join in on what God is doing.  We get to participate with God in what God is doing in the earth.  We are co-missioned into God’s mission.  He calls us child, friend, and slave; and we get to learn how to enjoy life in those three roles or dimensions with God.  Jesus gives us authority and we need to know what it is and how it works and our responsibilities for and how we use our authority.

When God arises he gets himself between you and his enemies.  When God comes into a situation his enemies are exposed and must flee.  Selfishness and sinfulness in people will not stand or live in God’s presence either.

Every person that Jesus encountered, during his years of ministry, after he left the family’s business; had issues that came up, that Jesus had a word for, a key to help then unravel from selfishness, hopelessness, delusions, or misconceptions.  This same Jesus who preached the general “Repent!” message to all, had helpful counsel and instructions for individuals.  So, God calls us all to repent and he also has compassionate, loving, care filled counsel and instruction for us as individuals.

When God arises we do not want to delude ourselves to think, “God is on our side”.  It does not work that way, because “Repent” means that we all surrender to being on God’s side, realizing that God is the king and we are all his subjects.  Some people have not realized this or taken action to bow to the king yet.

If you have surrendered and have become a subject and child of the king, it means you are in the kingdom and under and on the side of the king.  The only other side is the side of God’s enemies.  People are either with God or with God’s enemies, even if they don’t know it.  When God arises, the enemy is exposed and must flee and the peoples who are not in the kingdom, under the king, but have been captives in the enemy’s kingdom, get to be delivered or set free.

And when God comes, people get to choose if they are in or out, get free and become king’s kids, or stay in bondage.

I declare, let God rise up!  God arises!  Up with God!

____________________________________________

-This post was previously published on 8/2/16

Moves of God require new vocabulary. Psalm 68:9

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

God is moving, is sovereign, and His presence among His people will mark the coming revival.

God here is Elohim:

Expresses concept of creative divinity.

Elohim is a plural word.

“One Theologian points out that the use of the plural “only implies (even in the plural of majesty) that the word in the singular is not full enough to set forth all that is intended.”
Thus, whether plural of majesty . . . plural of intensity . . . or implying a Triune God . . . “Thou, O Elohim” (OJB)

…the plural words “Adonai” and “Elohim” teach us that there are no words that can adequately define — within the limits of our mortal understanding — the infinite personality of God!”
(Linda Smallwood)

“There is blessing and comfort in this great name of God signifying supreme power, sovereignty, and glory on the one hand . . . and on the other hand signifying a covenant relationship which He is ever faithful to keep.”
(Nathan Stone)

“In the Jewish ritual Psalm 68 is used at Pentecost, the Anniversary of the Giving of the Law, and the Feast of Finished Harvest…. The remarkable character of the Psalm is indicated by the fact that there are no fewer than thirteen words in it which are not found elsewhere.
The Pentecostal Gilt of Tongues seems needed for its full exposition.”
(William Kay)

Moves of God require new vocabulary

First, “No words”, then we acquire new words to describe the move, but we still say, “It can’t be described, you must experience it to know what it is.”

Psalm 68 is about Jesus.

“The Lord Jesus goes before us through the desert. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The widow, the fatherless, the desolate, are all the objects of his care and love. He has gone before us to prepare our heavenly rest;

…the work is finished. He now comes, day by day, to load us with blessings, and at the last will carry us safely through death into life and glory. To the Lord our Saviour belong the issues from death; then, “Death, where is thy sting?” etc. “
(Ridley H. Herschell)

“Thou, O God” (KJV) or “You, God” (CSB), is emphartic in the Hebrew
(A.R. Fausset)

God alone can do this, will do this, has got this: Revive his weary people.

“Showered abundant rain”

The rain is free, free in flowing and cost; like the manna in ancient Israel, a grace gift. “You revived your inheritance when it languished.”

“The earth shook with fear, and in reply, the Lord, as from a cornucopia, shook out blessings upon it; so the original may be rendered. “Whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.”

…They were his chosen heritage, and, therefore, although for their good he allowed them to be weary, yet he watchfully tended them and tenderly considered their distresses.

…In like manner, to this day, the elect of God in this wilderness state are apt to become tired and faint, but their ever-loving Jehovah comes in with timely succours, cheers the faint, strengthens the weak, and refreshes the hungry;

…so that once again, when the silver trumpets sound, the church militant advances with bold and firm step towards “the rest which remaineth.” By this faithfulness, the faith of God’s people is confirmed, and their hearts stablished;

…if fatigue and want made them waver, the timely supply of grace stays them again upon the eternal foundation.
(Charles Spurgeon)

You, O God, sent the reviving rain upon your weary inheritance, showers of blessing to refresh it.
-Psalm 68:9 (TPT)

God is going to pour out something directly onto his people. Psalm 68:9

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

Psalm 68 is about
God’s majestic power,
God’s triumph,
God scattering His enemies,
Praise and thanksgiving,
The glory of God in his goodness to Israel.
(CSB, ESV, TPT, NRSV, NKJV)

Spurgeon, TOD
God is going to send abundant blessings upon his church.
It is going to be overflowing.
We will be given more than we know what to do with.

Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad; you restored your inheritance as it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

We have weary saints today:
-sick
-burned out
-discouraged

Dones, who have given up.
Disillusioned ministers.
Bitten, bitter, wounded, and betrayed at home.

You, O God, sent the reviving rain upon your weary inheritance, showers of blessing to refresh it.
-Psalm 68:9

God is going to pour out something directly onto his people.
No one will be able to control it.
It will seem chaotic, like a storm.
It will be fresh and different.

Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

The revival shower of blessings will bring us back to life.

People who thought they were saved will really get saved.

People who had lost hope will find new life.

You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, When it was weary.
-Psalm 68:9

God’s Mercy is Compared to a Shower and There are Seasons When These Showers Fall, Spurgeon Notes on Psalm 68:9

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

Hints for Preachers (Spurgeon, TOD):

1. God’s mercy compared to a shower.

(a) It is direct from heaven; not through priests.
(b) It is pure and unmixed. “You, God showered abundant rain;
you revived…”
(c) No one has a monopoly of it.
(d) There is no substitute for it.
(e) It is sovereignly dispensed, as to (1) time; (2) place; (3) manner; and (4) measure.
(f) It works efficiently. (Isa 55:10).
(g) Prayer can get it. There are seasons when these showers fall.

2. There are seasons when these showers fall.

(a) In the house of God.
(b) In the means of grace.
(c) In prayer.
(d) In affliction.
(e) When saints are weary (1) through working; (2) through sickness; (3) through non success.
(f) By the Holy Spirit refreshing the heart. You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9
3. These showers are meant to “confirm God’s people.”
4. They are wanted NOW.

-Charles H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Psalm 68, Hints for Preachers.

Psalm 68 is about God’s majestic power, God’s triumph, God scattering His enemies, praise and thanksgiving, the glory of God in his goodness to Israel.
(CSB, ESV, TPT, NRSV, NKJV)

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

Notes inspired by Spurgeon, in my words:

• God is going to send abundant blessings upon his church.

• It is going to be overflowing.

• We will be given more than we know what do do with.

• The issue will be not wasting it and stewardship of it.

• Crowd control and time management.

• Burnout and rest.

• Innumerable people are going to need immediate care.

• Everyone is a servant, all ministers, making disciples.

• God is going to pour out his mercy directly from heaven onto his people.

• Not through a man or woman, pure and direct.

• No person can control it or monopolize it.

• It will seem chaotic to those who are used to control and regiment.

• It will be fresh and different than before.

• We have weary saints today:

-sick
-burned out
-discouraged

• The revival shower of blessings will bring us back to life.

• People who thought they were saved will really get saved.

• People who had lost hope will find new life.

(These are my notes from Spurgeon’s Treasury of David)

If you believed, if you knew that God was faithful, that God was going to make the dreams come true, the dreams God gave you; how would you act, what would you do now, before it is here? Psalm 68:9

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

If you believed,

If you knew,

That God was faithful,

That God was going to make the dreams come true,

The dreams God gave you,

How would you act?

What would you do?

Now, before it is here?

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

If God is faithful. then how do I live?

What is my response to God’s faithfulness?

Before God comes through,

What I know that God is faithful?

What do I invest in?

What do I take up?

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

If God is good, then what does that make me?

If God gives me and is my rest, what does that make me?

If God is faithful, what am I?

If he says he is going to do it, what do I do?

If you know

If you believe

That God is faithful

Then how does that change things?

The choices we make about how we think, what we say, and do are the result of who God is to us.

We are learning his faithfulness.

What would you do if you believed that God is taking care of you?

Believing that things are getting better or going to get better and that God is already in the future, waiting for me;

How does that affect me now, today?

You, God, showered abundant rain;
you revived your inheritance when it languished.
-Psalm 68:9

God has seasons when He delivers His people en masse. Psalm 68:7

God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the desert, Selah.
-Psalm 68:7

God has seasons when He delivers His people en masse.

We are coming into one of them.

God is always leading us into new territory, breaking new ground.

But we have to follow Him

The church is a delivery and deliverance vehicle, for the world.

But we must participate, follow God.

God delivers His people, but there often is a delay.

The path to deliverance looks the opposite of what we were expecting.

We get free, but then we have to learn how to live in freedom.

Waiting and formation are part of God’s ways He transforms and grows people.

Wilderness wisdom

God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the desert, Selah.
-Psalm 68:7

God is present and superior (preeminent) in the church. Without the presence of God and preeminence of God, the church is not authentic.

Christ is actively head and the superior. 

All who wander are not lost.
-Tolkien

We might think or be told that our wanderings are wasted time and pointless, while all along; God has been with us, leading us, forming us, delivering us, and training us.

God, when you went out before your people,
when you marched through the desert, Selah.
-Ps 68:7

“Selah” might be placed here to say, pause and reflect before the next words.

And the next words are the earthquake and the rain.

What comes next after the long desert trek?

Suspense

The Move of God: God is Rising Up (Psalm 68:1)

God arises. His enemies scatter, and those who hate him flee from his presence.

-Psalm 68:1 (CSB)

Psalm 68 is about:

• God’s majestic power
• God’s triumph
• God scattering His enemies
• Praise and thanksgiving
• The glory of God in his goodness to Israel

(CSB, ESV, TPT, NRSV, NKJV)

Is this verse a prayer request, a declaration, or an invocation?

God arises.  His enemies scatter, and those who hate him flee from his presence.

God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!

God! Arise with awesome power, and every one of your enemies will scatter in fear!

Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee before him.

Let God arise, Let His enemies be scattered; Let those also who hate Him flee before Him. 

May the true God rise up and show Himself; may those who are united against Him be dispersed,
    while the people who hate Him run away at the sight of Him.

Up with God!  Down with his enemies!  Adversaries, run for the hills!  Gone like a puff of smoke,
    like a blob of wax in the fire— one look at God and the wicked vanish.

Do something, God!  Scatter your hateful enemies.  Make them turn and run.

God is [already] beginning to arise, and His enemies to scatter; let them also who hate Him flee before Him!

(CSB, ESV, TPT, NRSV, NKJV, VOICE, MSG, CEV, Amplified Classic Edition)

The Young’s Literal translation says:
Rise doth God — scattered are His enemies! And those hating Him flee from His face.

“Doth” is the 3rd person singular present indicative of do.

‘Rising up’ is what God does and is doing.  The picture here is of God going before his people, and leading them to victory over the enemies of God.  David looks to God’s victories, in this psalm: past, present, and future.

I think that Psalm 68 and it’s opening verse is about the move of God, God moving.  God moves for and before his people.  “Let God arise”, is stating a fact that God is on the move.

God is already moving, so we praise Him for that and worship God as He moves, to vanquish His enemy and save his people.  God is always moving, but there are times when His moving is very obvious or observable, if you have eyes to see.

Psalm 68 celebrates God’s moving.  It happened before and it’s happening now.  Look and see, celebrate and receive what God is doing.  The kingdom of God is breaking out and building the church, installing the government of God on the earth.  This is what Psalm 68 says and a lot more.

The message is that God is moving and that our whole lives are focused on and arranged around His motion.

These are my notes on Psalm 68:1

Henry Morris:

But this prayer, uttered both by Moses and by David, was fulfilled only partially and locally in those long-ago times.  Its final accomplishment, worldwide in scope, was yet future.  Its final phase began with the resurrection of the rejected and crucified Messiah.  The ancient prayer, “Let God arise” was answered marvelously when Christ arose from the dead.  The enemies that slew Him soon were scattered over the earth, like smoke driven away… (Treasures in the Psalms, 2000)

Thomas Case:

1. The church of God ever had, and will have, enemies and haters; for against these doth the Psalmist arm himself and the church with this prayer.
2. The church’s enemies are God’s enemies; they that hate the church, hate God. “Thine enemies, them that hate thee.”
3. God sometimes seems to sleep or lie still, and let these enemies and haters do what they will for a season. This, also, is implied: he to whom we say, “Arise,” is either asleep or lies still.
4. There is a time when God will arise.
5. God’s rising time is the enemies’ scattering time, his haters’ flying time.
6. It is the duty of God’s people to pray him up when he seems to be down, and to exalt him in their praises when he doth arise to their rescue and redemption; for these words are both a prayer and a triumph, as they are used both by Moses and David.

Henry Law:

“Let God arise,” etc. The moving ark is a type of Jesus going forth to cast down rebel foes. It is high joy to trace the Antitype’s victorious march. How mightily the Lord advanced! The strength of God was in his arm. His sword was Deity.  His darts were barbed with all Jehovah’s might. “He had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of Lords.” Revelation 19:16. His foes, indeed, strove mightily.

It was no easy work to rescue souls from Satan’s grasp, or to lay low the prison-house of darkness. The enemy rushed on, clad in his fiercest armour, wild in his keenest rage, wily in his deadliest crafts. He plied his every temptation, as a terrific battery.

But the true Ark never quailed. The adversary licked the dust. Malignant passions maddened in opposing breasts. The kings stood up; rulers took counsel; all plots were laid; the ignominious death was planned and executed. But still the Ark moved on.

John Boys:

“Arise.” The mercifulness of God is seen in his patience toward the wicked, implied in the word “arise,” for he seemeth, as it were, to sleep (Psalm 44:23), and not to mark what is done amiss.

The Lord is patient, and would have none to perish, but would have all men to come to repentance.(2 Peter 3:9)

He was longer in destroying one city (Jericho, Joshua 6:4), than in building the whole world; slow to wrath, and ready to forgive, desiring not the death of a sinner, but rather he should amend.

He doth not arise to particular punishments, much less to the general judgment, but after long suffering and great goodness.

Spurgeon:

“Let God arise.” In some such words Moses spake when the cloud moved onward, and the ark was carried forward. The ark would have been a poor leader if the Lord had not been present with the symbol.

Before we move; we should always desire to see the Lord lead the way.

The words suppose the Lord to have been passive for awhile, suffering his enemies to rage, but restraining his power.

Israel beseeches him to arise, as elsewhere to “awake, gird on his sword,” and other similar expressions. We, also, may thus importunately cry unto the Lord, that he would be pleased to make bare his arm, and plead his own cause.

“Let his enemies be scattered.” Our glorious Captain of the vanguard clears the way readily, however many may seek to obstruct it; he has but to arise, and they flee, he has easily over-thrown his foes in days of yore, and will do so all through the ages to come.

Sin, death, and hell know the terror of his arm; their ranks are broken at his approach. Our enemies are his enemies, and in this is our confidence of victory. “Let them also that hate him flee before him.”

How fitting a prayer is this for the commencement of a revival! How it suggests the true mode of conducting one: – the Lord leads the way, his people follow, the enemies flee.

James Luther Mays:

“Let God arise!” Psalm 68 begins with this invocation of God as the divine warrior whose victory established his reign in the world and whose strength is the salvation of his people.  The victory and the reign of the divine warrior are its underlying theme.  In this and other respects the psalm is similar to Exodus 15, the great song that praises the Lord for his deliverance from Pharaoh’s army.  That song fucuses on the battle at the Red Sea as the victory that led to God’s establishment of his people and his sanctuary “on the mountain of his possession.”  Psalm 68 focuses on the march from Sinai through the wilderness and the battles with the nations who opposed the progress of God and Israel to the sanctuary that represents God’s rule over Israel and the kingdoms of the world. (Psalms: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, 2011)

Witness Lee:

Now we come to the highest peak of all the Psalms, Psalm 68…

We will see that in this Psalm we have firstly Christ, secondly the house, thirdly the city, Jerusalem, and fourthly the earth.  But we do not have the law.  The law has been left behind; the law has been dropped.  When we come to the highest peak of all the Psalms, we only have Christ in the house within the city for the whole earth.  These are the four key words of Psalm 68- Christ, the house, the city, and the earth.  If we would understand this Psalm, and indeed all the Psalms, we must understand these four words.  The whole book of the Psalms is found in miniature in Psalm 68…

We may briefly define this Psalm by saying that it tells us how, in God’s move on the earth, Christ ascended to the heavens and as a man received gifts from God for the building of God’s dwelling place.  The building up of God’s house is for the expansion of the cit, and the expansion of the city is for Christ’s reigning over the whole earth.  Christ has conquered all His enemies, He has won the victory, He has led captive a train of vanquished foes, He has ascended and been exalted to the highest place in the universe and He has received gifts for building up the house of God.  This house is for the city, and the city is for the whole earth.  Now you have Psalm 68.  Without these points, though you may read this Psalm one hundred times, you will never comprehend it…. We may say that this Psalm has nine major points:

1. God’s Moving on This Earth
2. God’s Victory in Christ
3. Christ’s Ascension
4. Christ Receiving Gifts
5. A Dwelling Place For God
6. The Enjoyment of God
7. Praise
8. The City
9. The Earth

…Verse 1 says, “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.”  This is a quotation on Numbers 10:35.…Psalm 68:1 was the word spoken by Moses.…Now Moses’ word is quoted by Davis: “Let God arise.”  Hence, we see that the background of this Psalm is the move of God in His tabernacle with the ark.

The move of God on this earth is not only the background of Psalm 68, but also the first thought.  In addition to verse 1, there are other verses which speak most expressively of God’s move:

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him!O God, when you went out before your people,    when you marched through the wilderness, -Psalm 68:4 and 7 (ESV)

…He is not riding through the skies, but through the wilderness, through the deserts of this earth.  The entire earth today is a desert, a wilderness, yet God is riding through and moving on.…The first point of the Psalm is that God is moving on this earth. (Christ and the Church: Revealed and Typified in the Psalms, 1994)

Walter Brueggemann and William H. Bellinger, Jr:

Most interpreters understand the text as a whole in terms of a victory song.  The text is the final of four psalms (Psalms 65-68) that are hymns; the cluster of psalms comes to an end with, “Blessed be God at the end of Psalm 68.

…Psalm 68 portrays God as the one who comes to deliver and then is present to bless the community from Zion.
…The victory of God who rules from Zion is at the heart of the text, and it is likely that the community celebrated God’s kingship in a variety of worship settings.
…The poetry in the opening call dramatically calls for God to bring about the utter downfall of the wicked.
…The requests in the first three verses (in the “jussive” grammatical form – “Let God rise up”) revel in the justice God will bring between the righteous and the wicked as a demonstration of the reign of God.

…Contemporary readers who seek a revelatory word in Psalm 68 may well find themselves in uncomfortable and puzzling territory.  In addition to the obscurities in the text, there are other obstacles.  First, the military imagery in the psalm will disturb some readers.  That language comes from a particular cultural setting and also probably reflects a community that has suffered from military oppression.  The intent of the divine king’s action is central to the context.  This God defeats enemies and in so doing protects the vulnerable orphans and widows, the desolate and the prisoners, and brings salvation to the community.  In this psalm, the worshiping community of ancient Israel confesses that they belong to this God who reigns.

…The celebration of the reign of God is not so much about triumphalism(1) as it is about finding life that only this one can grant, as is indicated in the concluding verse(2).  The poem is a way for the community to imagine a life of growth and vitality in which justice for all those in need is possible. (Psalms (New Cambridge Bible Commentary), 2014)

1. (Websters) Definition of triumphalism. : an attitude or feeling of victory or superiority: such as. a : the attitude that one religious creed is superior to all others. b : smug or boastful pride in the success or dominance of one’s nation or ideology over others.
2. Awesome is God from his[your] sanctuary;
    the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!
-Psalm 68:35 (ESV)

John Allen (1816), A spiritual exposition of the Old Testament, or, The Christian’s gospel treasure:

Psalm 68

This is an excellent psalm, for the psalmist is led by the spirit of prophecy to speak glorious things concerning the Messiah, his ascension into heaven, and the setting up of his kingdom in the world.  

1. He begins with prayer, both against God’s enemies, ver. 1 and 2; and for his people, ver. 3.
2. He proceeds with praise, (1) For God’s having given them victory over their enemies, ver. 11 and 12; and for delivering them out of the hands of their oppressors, ver. 13 and 14. (2) For the special presence of God in his church, ver. 15, 17.
3. The ascension of Christ, ver. 18; and the salvation of his people by him, ver. 19, 20.
4. The victories which Christ would obtain over his enemies, and the favours he would bestow upon his church, ver. 21-28.
5. The enlargement of the church by the accession of the gentiles to it, ver. 29-31.

And concludes the psalm with an awful acknowledgement of the glory and grace of God, ver. 32-35.

Verse 1. “Let God arise” – These words are to be understood of Christ, and his resurrection from the power of sin, death, and the grave, as the head of his people.  “Let God arise;” namely, the incarnate God, who has died for sin, suffered for sinners, and paid the debt of penalty with his own precious blood and death: let him, saith the Holy Ghost, arise victorious over Satan, triumphant over death, and a conqueror over the grave.  The debt is paid, the elect are discharged, the law is magnified, justice is satisfied, God is honored, Satan is foiled, sin is pardoned, and death, hell, and the grave are triumphed over.  “Let God arise,” as the mighty conqueror, as the victorious one: therefore his resurrection is applied to his divine person: not that Deity arose or suffered, but the man in union to the divine nature suffered and rose; therefore it is applied to his person as God-man.

The Warrior God

God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the desert,

Selah.

-Psalm 68:7

God is the Warrior God.  That is what Psalm 68 is all about.  God is at war for his people.  This is something we need to understand.

God is on his way somewhere.  God is leading his people somewhere.

God is leading us out of bondage and into freedom.

God is leading us from death to life.

God is leading us from alienation to becoming a nation.

God is a person who is with his people, standing before them and leading them.

God’s people are not ever left alone, but are led by God himself.

This has always been God’s way, from the beginning through today.

God is leading each one us us and all of us together somewhere.

This is something to reckon with and understand in your life.

And there is only one who is the True God.  Only one and that one is plural, three in one.

God is at war with all the other false so-called gods.

Only the one True God gives life and saves people.

The face of God is Jesus.

Every ‘god’ will bow to the One True God, who is Christ Jesus.

Jesus is God and God is at war with every false ‘god’, who is working to deceive people.

There is only one True God, the plural God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God is The Warrior King who is at war and taking his people to his dwelling place.

This is what God has been doing and is doing today.

The war is on and has been on.  We just need to recognize it and follow behind God who is leading us and making war on our behalf.

Renaissance

You, God, showered abundant rain; you revived your inheritance when it languished.

-Psalm 68:9

God is going to do a new thing (Is. 43:19) in the church (1 Tim. 3:15).  It is going to be a renaissance.  It is going to be completely new.

New birth (1 Pet. 1:3, 2 Cor. 5:17) is going to happen with God’s church (Gal. 1:13).  It is going to be so new that we need to get it that the structure has to change or become new, so that we can participate in the new thing God is going to to.  This is Jesus’ lesson of the wine and the wineskins.

New wine requires new wineskins.  The new wine will burst the old wineskins.  We are tempted to take our old containers or our old and present structures and go forward, to God, and say, “Yes, fill me up”, or “Yes, renew our church”.

But Jesus says that we need new containers for the new wine.  The new thing will simply break the old container.  And there will be a mess and the new thing will not work.

Many of us want revival and another great awakening in America.  And it is coming.  But it will be so new and so different, that we need to understand that it’s not going to be like God helping us or joining in on what we have been doing.

God is going to do a completely new thing.  It is going to be like when the children of Israel entered the promised land.  God said, “You have not traveled this way before” (Jos. 3:3-5).

The church is going to be reset or reborn.  God not coming to re-model the church, but do something completely new.  It is going to be so different and so powerful and so life giving that it will be a rebirth of everything that God wants to do with the church.  Renaissance.

Renaissance is clearly revival, but the newness makes it clear that God is not reviving the old ways.  God is not going to bring back the past ways and days.  God is going to do a new thing that will be reviving to the body and put it back on the playing field that it was designed for.

A portion of believers have missed the move of God, every time, because they were unwilling to move into the new.  Zoom in to any portion of church history or salvation history.  See the portion of people who became flexible, perhaps because of hunger or humility, and moved with God, into the move of God, that was different from the standard bearing people of God around them.

Preparing For The Rain

You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance.

-Psalm 68:9 (NIV)

The rain is coming.  But are we ready for it?  What can we do to get ready?

I would describe what we need to do is to have:

• Open hearts
• Outstretched arms
• Eyes that are open
• Shoes on our feet
• Clean hands

Open Hearts

Be reconciled.  Get reconciled with God, with yourself and with others.  Do not have anything against anyone.

Forgive everyone, starting with God. Make sure you forgive yourself.  Get rid of, cleansed of all bitterness.

This heart work may require set aside portions of time now to become aware of your heart problems and get free, get reconciled and purge yourself of spiritual toxins, waste and obstructions.

You may have need of heart warming or palliative care from other people right now.  Your heart disease may be killing you or immobilizing you.  Find out how to reverse the disease and get well and be well and receive from God.

Some hearts are damaged and not functioning properly.  People with these hearts are barely living and walking slow, with chest pain at times.  If this is you, seek open heart surgery immediately, from the great physician.

Be honest about your heart.  Take time off of work and check yourself in for surgery.  Sign all the papers and give Jesus everything and then let him heal your heart.

There may be people you need to talk to or see for reconciliation.  You may need to write a letter to them.  Your being reconciled to them does not mean that things will suddenly be like they were in the past.  Do not insist on that or think you have failed when it does not.

The key is for you to be reconciled to all the people that you have had anything against.  Release them from charges you have held against them.  Cancel their debt to you.

Now you are free and they are free.  If they did want to be close to you again, but they are unsafe for you or are just on a whole different path in life, you can lovingly decline the offer, without there being anything negative about it.  

The matter of the heart is to be loving: love God, love yourself and then love others as you love yourself, based on God’s love for you.  In that picture, there are many people that we can not be close to, but we can be reconciled to and hold nothing against them.  

We can not be close to some people, even many people.  But we can be reconciled to them and be willing at any time to be closer to them,  if they become safer to be around, based on God’s love in their life.

The rain is going to fall on us, if we avail ourselves to being under it.  And the main place that the rain goes into is our hearts.  Our hearts are living reservoirs or aquifers for the rainfall.

A person who has a closed heart or a calcified, dry heart; may stand in the rain and even dance in the rain.  But they will have little lasting effect from the rain and will not be able to carry the rain to others for any distance.  

The main place where the rain has lasting impact and can be held to give to others is in the heart.  Our hearts must be ready.  Building a man made container to catch, hold and dispense the rain of God sounds like a good idea, but that is not what God wants and is wrong headed.

Get your heart ready.  Get your heart right.  Get your heart healed. 

The rain of God comes upon the whole body of each person.  But it only changes lives when it comes upon and into a person’s heart.  And it is through our hearts that we live out Christ’s life and share life with others.

Get your hearts ready.  Set aside the time now to get your heart right.  Stop being distracted and get real about your heart today.

There is a time when it is too late.  And you can miss it.  An opportunity for you is imminent and you can choose to miss it if you don’t get yourself ready.

Outstretched Arms

Begin today, if you are not already doing so, to be a person who reaches out.  Reach out to give and reach out to receive.  Be less independent and more communal.

Reverse your style of estrangement and isolation from others.  Sharing is a key component to the Christian life.  Share your needs and meet the needs of others.  

Stop being needless.  If you are ‘the minister’ in your family or community, start letting others minister to you.  You may be the most gifted one, but realize your need for others, for the life in them, for you to be cared for.

Humble yourself by asking for assistance.  Delegate things to others where you have been controlling.

The impact of the coming rain will be spread and multiplied through the web or matrix of our relationships.  This is God’s design.  Today, we can be prepared for being missionaries by just being connected to those around us, right under our noses.

Stretching out our arms to touch and be touched by others is preparing a network that God can build upon.  Many of us are like the little boy, who only had a small lunch in a basket; but he offered it to Jesus.  The Lord takes our small things and multiplies them.

It is a grave error to not honor the small things we have and participate in them, offering them to the Lord.  The person who does nothing and offers nothing is a person who has a heart problem and can not be used by God, transformed by God and blessed by God.

We must do business in our very small circles, with our very small provisions or influence now and bless people in tiny ways, if that’s all we have got.  All you might have is a smile.  Then give that smile.

We need to extend out arms now to others, so that they will be extended and in service, as bridges and aqueducts; when the rain of God falls.  When the downpour happens, we don’t want to then lower our bridges and open our aqueducts and figure out how they work.

Now is the time to stretch out your arms.  Now is the time to reach out to others.  Now is the time to become available.

Now is the time to figure out how your open door policy is going to work or function.  Now is the time to make a path to your door that people can walk on.  Now is the time to venture out of your hiding place.

Eyes That Are Open

After we have got our hearts right and are stretching ourselves to reach out and be available to be touched by others, we need to learn to see.  I grew up in a revival church, where we learned to close our eyes when we worshipped, to focus on God, undistracted.  I also learned to pray for people, hands on, with my eyes open.  I also learned to see with my spirit.

We need to live with God and others, with our eyes open.  Jesus is an eyes open person.  He saw people.

Jesus heart is always wide open to his Father and his eyes are always open to people.  We need to cultivate Jesus style in this.  Some of us do not see people.

Some of us are always struggling to see God and miss all the people.  Some of us are mostly preoccupied with seeing ourselves and with how others see us.  Many of us pass through life with our eyes closed, blocking out the people in the world.

To get ready for the rain, we need to cultivate and learn to live with our eyes open to other people.  We need to learn to be seeing God with our hearts and to be seeing people with our eyes.  We need to not just look at people, but see them with our hearts.

Meet people’s eyes.  Look into the windows to their soul.  Learn to do this.

Jesus can look people in the eyes and ask them, ‘What do you want?’, or, ‘What would you like me to do for you?’, and we can learn to do that too, as we walk with him in the world.

We so often see people as being in our way.  We so often see and look to see people who we want to get something from.  Instead of this, we need to cultivate Jesus style of seeing people and coming as servants and not to be served.

This is why Jesus said, “Open your eyes and see the harvest around you”.  That is what we all need to do right now.

Shoes On Our Feet

Many of us have the wrong shoes on our feet.  We each need to have our feet fitted with gospel shoes.  Many of us are walking through life in an angry rampage and completely misrepresenting Jesus and the gospel of peace.

Take an inventory of your shoes.  Are you wearing the shoes of Jesus or something else you have fashioned?  Do your shoes stomp and kick, allure and purr or are they functional for the bringing of good news to people?

Your shoes can be high fashion, open toed or closed, sandals or boots, athletic or dress up.  What matters is where are your feet taking you?  Your shoes are about where are you prepared to go and what are you prepared for.

One person carries the good news, wearing stilettos; while another person carries the message wearing flip flops.  God fits two people differently, but they have in common that they are prepared to share the good news.  We all need to take care to be ready to share the gospel every day in many different ways, just as we put shoes on when we leave the door of our homes.

Clean Hands

Many of us need to wash our hands.  We have lived lives where we have been doing all sorts of unholy, undignified and unchristian things with our hands.  Two big ones are what you type or text and your pointing your finger in judgement at others.

Christians also take part in many sinful activities that are participated in through using their hands.  The, ‘Cleanse your hands you sinner’, message of James 4:8, is a message to Christians.  It is not meant to condemn, but is a loving admonition to ‘Knock it off’.

Many Christians, from the first century to today, have lived double lives.  We have lived as Christians but not as Christians, in the same lives.  The word of the Lord to us is, the rebuke of, ‘Stop it!’

We must stop living on two paths and only cultivate the path of Christ in our lives.  Churches should stop having recovery groups and become recovery groups.

Many people disqualify themselves from being Jesus’ hand, because of their hands.  Some have shame and guilt and see no way out of double lives.  But there is grace for escape, deliverance and emancipation.  

Many people who name Christ also need deliverance.  Nothing to be ashamed of, but something to be glad of that is a blessing.  We shouldn’t be embarrassed about deliverance, but humbly receive freedom.

If our hearts get made right, if our hearts become cleansed, we will live a different way, exemplified by what we do with our hands and fingers.  Many people do not need deliverance, but need to just begin to learn to walk in Christ, and the naughty stuff, even addictive behaviors will change and just fall off their lives.

Jesus and critters can’t live in the same house.  Our job is to open up every room in the houses of our lives to God and welcome him to live there.  Even in the basements and the belfry.