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!

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

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.

All of Me

He brought me to the banquet hall, and he looked on me with love.
-Song of Songs 2:4

Have you given all of yourself to Jesus?

I was thinking about this song, “All of Me”.  I feel like the Holy Spirit is  encouraging us to give ourselves wholly to Jesus. 

I heard once that many people are ready to die for the Lord, but very few are willing to live for him, dying to themselves.

Bonhoeffer’s famous phrase is, “When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die”.

Is dying to self and giving up everything optional in the christian life?  It does not seem so, if you look at Jesus words.

Have you read The Song of Solomon?  An interpretation is that it is an allegory about God and his people.  There is a lot of romantic language in it. 

The idea is that we are designed to have a passionate love towards God.

We were designed to be loved by God and to love God, passionately.  We are to have no other gods before God and He calls those little gods our lovers we are committing adultery with.

Jesus looked at his followers, I mean the people who literally followed him from town to town and showed up where he was; and he said to them, that following him can not be casual, but a serious thing, where we give up everything and love him more than everyone. 

There was the time when he said, metaphorically, that to be his real follower, you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood.  And he turned the people off by saying that.

When I had a personal renewal or revival, after college; I kept hearing, in my heart, “surrender”.  I began in worship, putting my arms up. 

I thought about, “why does my body want to do that?”  I realized it is surrender. 

I think that intimacy with God, passionate love, and surrender are things that must be nurtured.  It is a relationship that has to be cultivated. 

Think about those critiques that Jesus levels at the churches in Revelation.  “You have left your first love.”  “Return to doing those things you did at the beginning.”

Yes, repentance is for Christians. 

Relationship with God, is ongoing and must be renewed and revived and even re-awakened from time to time. 

This is a song from us to God, to Jesus.  Read Song of Songs, if you think words like this are far fetched.  This is the devotion that the Holy Spirit is encouraging believers to have towards Christ.

All of me
Why not take all of me
Can’t you see
I’m no good without you

Take my lips
I want to loose them
Take my arms
I’ll never use them

Your goodbye
Left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you

You took the part
That once was my heart
So why not take all of me

All of me
Why not take all of me
Can’t you see
I’m no good without you

Take my lips
I want to loose them
Take my arms
I’ll never use them

Your goodbye
Left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you

You took the best
So why not take the rest
Baby, take all of me

Notes For 2018

Here are my notes on what is going to happen in 2018.  Four points.  Not comprehensive.  

Do you know the story of when Jesus left his family at about age 30?  This year might be like that.  Do you know about the time when boys become men, when they leave their mom and join the men?  This year might be like that.

Do you remember when you left home to go to college?  Do you remember when you stopped being single and got married?  Do you remember when you became a parent?  Do you remember when you were called up to go somewhere, if you have ever served in the military?  Do you remember when you were tapped for or fell into a leadership role?  Do you remember when you lost your job and had to find another one: things changed but you survived and made it?  This year is going to be like that.

Do you remember meeting your spouse?  Do you remember your first day on campus?  Do you remember the day your marriage ended or someone died?  Do you remember the birth of your child?  And do you remember the day you met that boy or girl that you adopted?  Do you remember when you found out you were pregnant?  This year is going to be like that.

This is going to be a liminal year.  I mentioned all those life events, to bring to your mind what liminality is like.  There is liminality every day and every year: sunrise & sunsets every day and births and deaths every year, seasons changing and new jobs, and all the changes that we face in life.

But there are particular years when liminality is bigger, at large, corporately, society large.  And that is what 2018 is going to be.  You and I are like swimmers in the ocean.  The wave is coming, and we can ride the wave joyfully or have it crash over us.

No matter what, that wave is coming, and we will be disoriented from our bobbing up and down in the swells.  You can resist it, jump up like a cork and let it pass you, or ride the wave.  I imagine that people will do all three.  Three people might be standing before the wave and each one responds differently. 

The wave is coming and how to respond to it will be up to each one of us.  We aren’t robots.  Here comes the move and now we must choose.

Pretty much every revival in the history of the church was embraced by some and rejected by others.  God moves and we have to choose.  Ironically, members of past revival movements often reject new revival movements, that are both from God, but are different.

When Jesus moved out of, departed, or took leave from his family, his hometown, and the business he headed up; he was not exactly given a nice send off and wished well, especially when they discovered his new endeavor.  His change was right and good, but some didn’t get it, and were even opposed to the move.  There is a time to shift and change, move from and into, to walk through a door of  destiny when you must depart in order to arrive.

• 2018 will be a year of departures and arrivals.  We will move on and take leave.  We will say goodbye and say hello.  This means big change.  We can not stay and be at the new place.  We will depart and arrive. The old can not hold the new and must be bid adieu.  After the Hebrew year of 5778 began, last fall, some people in our lives announced their departure plans and today they are already living in their new destinations.  They are first first-fruits people.  I don’t think everyone is going to move, but we are going to make moves, designed by God, in our lives, this year.  This is the year to move into your destiny by moving through change, from one place to another place.  This year is a year where there is a door that is open to be walked through.  We will all move this year, from one place to another place.  
• 2018 will be a year of moving from something and into something: departures and arrivals.
  
  I think that this is a year to move, to depart one thing and go into another thing.  We have to depart in order to arrive.  We will not get into the new place unless we leave the old place.

  It’s time.  We are now ready.  A window of time is here to walk through a door into something new.

  There is a time to stay, but 2018 will be the time to go, to depart.  If we stay, if we do not move out, move on, and move to; it will be a missed opportunity.  There is favor and permission to move this year.

  “Your move.”

  It will not happen if you do not act, if you do not make your move.  There is a path set before us, that we can only see the entryway to.  We have to move into that way, to get into that path, to go down that road; or it won’t happen.

  

  We can not go into the new thing, the new level, or the new and better dimension, unless we also leave the old.  To go there, we must depart here.  We can not arrive unless we depart.

  To stay where you are, but bring in that new thing, is not what God is doing.  That would be like staying with your parents, but still getting married: something not recommended (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:5, Eph. 5:31 ).  And that would also be like how Jesus said new wine will burst the old wineskins (Matt. 9:17, Mk. 2:22, Lk. 5:37-8).

  We are going to move from something and into something.  We are going to have to depart in order to arrive.  God has been preparing us to depart, so that we can arrive, preparing us to move from, so that we can move into.

  Did you notice the change in 2017, where you have already begun to reconfigure things?  When we walk with God, he changes us, for the better.  And changed people live differently.

  God has a better life for us, but we have to be changed to enter into it; and that is what has been happening.  People who refuse to be transformed, to change, will suffer unhappiness and needless pain.  They will miss out.  We have to walk in Christ to inherit the promises.  It’s not automatic.  God is placing a door in front of us, but we have to walk through that door.

• 2018 is going to be a year of justice for, in, and through governmental leadership.  There will be justice where there has been injustice.  There have been great injustices at the highest levels of government, particularly but not limited to President Trump and his team, that will be exposed and dealt with for all to see.  There will be exoneration for some and consequences for others.  President Trump will gain and regain his reputation as a champion of justice.  There is a move of God going on, in government; national, state, and local; to expose corruption and injustice.  President Trump and his team happen to be the ones in place while God is doing this.  He and his team may want things cleared out and cleaned up, but this was God’s idea and God is now answering prayers that have been prayed for decades.

• In 2018, people who have been looking for the authentic church, built by God in Christ, are going to find it.  We are going to be surprised to find other people, who are already there.  We are going to be surprised that we don’t have to build the church, but it is already built and being built.  We just did not see it or could not find it, but that is going to change in 2018.  Pioneers are going to find their homes.  Jesus’ church, that he has been building, will become more visible in 2018.  The church at large, especially the church that has Jesus as it’s head, will begin to regain it’s lost reputation this year.  The church that allows Jesus to be it’s head and builder, will be renovated and restored to it’s original design.  It will stand up and stand out as a city on a hill and the light of the world again.  A place of peace and rest.  A gateway and bridge to God and heaven.

• In 2018, Christians will repent.  Repentance will come alive in the body of Christ, corporately.  Together, as a people and a family, we will repent of our sins and the sins of our fathers and mothers.  We will get in touch with our shame, so that we can be healed.  Instead of being shameless, we will repent and get in touch with our ugly, frightening shame; and let Jesus heal us and cleanse us.  We will get in touch with how out of step we have been with Jesus and with heaven.  We will get in touch with how and where the church has just become something in the world, run by worldly values, and not by Christ and by words that come from heaven.  The church will get in touch with it’s own captivity, of being Christians in name only.  It will be more obvious what ‘churches’ have nothing to do with the living God and His Christ and the Spirit of God, but are counterfeits, from the world and by the world, that is at odds with Christ.  False churches that bear the name of Christ or people and tribes who authentically represented and followed Christ in the past, will have the opportunity to repent and change.  Just the fact that some parts of the church do not bear a resemblance to Jesus and heaven, but are from the world, that has not been to the cross and bowed to the Lordship of the living Christ, will become more evident or exposed in 2018.  

Happy New Year!

Preparing For the Harvest

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.

-Genesis 8:22

A whole bunch of people are going to get saved, become Christians, and will need to be made disciples of Jesus.  I believe a huge harvest is coming soon.  God has been preparing his people for this.  Are we ready?

These are some thoughts of mine, in no particular order, about being ready for and receiving the harvest of people who will flow into our lives.

A huge number of people are going to suddenly become pastors, who have previously been minding their own business and walking with God on the sidelines.  The pastors who have been pastors will step back and be equippers, coaches, consultants, and fathers & mothers to this whole new tier of pastoral ministers about to be released in the kingdom.

1. Be ready for and willing for God to inconvenience you, with people.
2. You can only plan to be open to what God does.
3. The people God sends or gives you to care for will take up your time and resources.
4. The people that God sends you will make your plans change.
5. You will be surprised and at first think of who you could give these people to or connect them with, rather than caring for them yourselves.
6. Become resigned to the fact that some of and even the majority of the people will be with you for years or a lifetime.
7. See each person God sends to you as a gift.
8. You will get less sleep and have to care after the people God sends you.
9. There will be messes and your stuff might get broken by the new people.
10. The first thing they will need is natural and spiritual food and shelter, then learning how to live.
11. Get ready to be needed by people who will need what you have, to make it.
12. You will have to learn and practice boundaries, in love.
13. Expect fits and starts, relapses, and even betrayals.  Don’t quit over these.
14. Also beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Especially watch over and tend to the weakest ones.
15. Also beware of inauthentic or false conversions: be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.
16. Each one that God sends to you, hold lightly.  Every person has in them, through God, the capability to become a leader (servant leader) themselves.  Leaving your home and starting their own is the goal from day one for the majority.
17. Many of us who have dutifully tithed and offered to others are going to shift to giving our whole lives to God.
18. We are all going to shift into all being missionaries and pastors, rather than paying or supporting others.
19. We are going to more live our lives for the sake of others, rather than for ourselves.
20. “Give and it shall be given”, will come alive in your life, like never before.

My pastor, I grew up with, had a vision of potatoes on a conveyor belt.  Someone would separate the potatoes that did not look as good.  The Lord told my pastor that those would be his church.

Church is messy.  Community is messy.  Love is the key.  Love and grace.  Don’t be a perfectionist or idealist.

The most profound thing I heard and then read lately, that hit me, was a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from “Life Together“, that is this:

‘Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.’ (p. 36)

And here is more, from that same section:

‘God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly.’ (p. 36)

‘Because God already has laid the only foundation of our community, because God has united us in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that life together with other Christians, not as those who make demands, but as those who thankfully receive…. We do not complain about what God does not give us; rather we are thankful for what God does give us daily.’ (p. 36)

‘Therefore, will not the very moment of great disillusionment with my brother or sister be incomparably wholesome for me because it so thoroughly teaches us that both of us can never live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and deed that really binds us together, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ? The bright day of Christian community dawns wherever the early morning mists of dreamy visions are lifting.’ (p. 37)

‘When pastors lose faith in a Christian community in which they have been placed and begin to make accusations against it, they had better examine themselves first to see whether the underlying problem is not their own idealized image, which should be shattered by God.’ (p. 38)

‘…the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be continually taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more assuredly and consistently will community increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.’ (38)

‘Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly we will learn to think about our community and pray and hope for it.’ (p. 38)

‘Self-centred love loves the other for the sake of itself; spiritual love loves the other for the sake of Christ.’ (p. 42)

-I pulled these quotes from Tim Chester.  I first read Life Together 30 years ago.  It’s a great book.

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.

Hail The New

Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

-Isaiah 43:19

God is doing something new.  You can miss it.  God is providing a way.

God is doing something.  But to experience it, we must see it.  If our eyes are shut or we do not look, we will not see it.

God is active.  We first have to get our minds around the idea that God is always on the move.  God is not just the God of the past.

God is also not just the God of of the past and of the future.  God is the God of the present.  He came and is here now.

God is doing something.  We should be looking for what God is doing today.  We are too often fixated on what God did and will do.

God is doing something today.  He is doing something new today.  He is not changing the past, but doing something new in the present.

God has always been actively working among people to help them.  Before Christ, God’s people got in trouble, faced enemies and fell into sins.  God both saved people outside Israel, bringing them in and also worked with Israel in bondage, getting them out, when they had lost their way.

The context of Isaiah 43 is a message to Israel, who is in Babylonian bondage.  God is going to show the whole world, again that He is the Savior and the one God.

God is going to deliver his people from their sins.  And God’s initiative comes from himself and not because of anything good in the people.  That grace, love, favor, mercy and kindness was true of God in ancient times and is still true today.

We need to see the new thing. We need to hail it. The new is here and we need to give it recognition.

The word says:

Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

-Isaiah 43:19

The idea that I see in this verse is that God does new things for our benefit.  He does the new things because God is active and creative.  He moves to move us closer to him, his mission and for his glory.

We can miss it.  The first word, ‘look’ means ‘pay attention’.  The old King James says, “Behold”.  It means ‘see’ or ‘watch closely’.  There is a ‘preacher-ism’ or a phrase preachers say that is, “watch this”, and it means, “listen carefully to what I am about to say”, or “pay attention”, or “listen up”.

We are more distracted than ever.  We have to make an effort to see what God is doing.  We have to make an effort to see it and hear it.

Do you know that song that says, “Did you hear the mountains tremble?”  The point is that you can easily miss it, if you are not paying attention.  A friend of mine came home one day and put a blanket over her tv to remind herself to give her attentions to God more.

The thing that God is about to do and is already beginning to do is like making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.  The symbology of this means that God is going to do something that seems impossible and is impossible, but for not for him.

Being at the end of your rope and being tempted to feel hopeless means you need God and that is super good.  Being upset about things not working in your life and having tension and lack of peace about things is a good thing because it means you need God.  You need God’s move, God’s way and God to make a way for you where there seems to be no way and to provide sustenance for you where there is none.

The problems and the ‘it does not work’ and signs or pointers to God giving you a gift of a new way.  We want to be in the place of contentment in Father’s lap, being his kids and being taken care of by him.  We do not want to be in the place of proud, smug self-satisfaction that says to God, “I’ve got this”.

The message is that God is alive.  He is here now.  He is on the move.

God is doing a new thing.  Creating, renewing, revitalizing and refreshing has always been God’s business.  The question is, “Will we avail ourselves to God’s continual renewal?”

God is making a way by doing a new thing.  Same God, same Jesus and the same Holy Spirit; but a new to you way that will be a way where the way seemed impossible and sustenance where there seemed to be none.

Will you take God up on the offer?  Will you pay attention, look and see?  Will you lay down your preconceptions and prejudices and let God show you something and bring you into something New?

Will you let God move?  Will you let God change things in your life?  After you see it, will you walk into it and drink from it?

Will you let God be God?  Will you let your heavenly Father take care of you and lead you?  Will you serve Jesus by letting him lead you in a new way than the way you have walked before?

Jesus is still calling to his disciples, “Follow me”.  Will you follow him into the unknown, off your map and out of your comfort zone?  Will you let him save you and keep you, renew you, wash you and comfort you?

Will you step into the place of discipleship where you know him and he knows you?  Your savior is coming to save you in your life right now, in the problems you are facing.  He is Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.

Prepare the house of your life for his coming to make a way for you.  Decorate your house for a celebration of God’s gift to you.  Begin to be glad with great joy that God is coming and already here, to make a way in your life.

See what God has already done for you and be thankful.  Get your heart ready to receive more.

Listen to the joyful and thankful people in your life tell their stories of what God has done for them.  Let them encourage you.

Let go of your past.  Let go of your disappointments.  Release any bitterness.

Do not define your life today by the failures and missed opportunities in your past.  Do not wallow in your misfortunes.  Instead, see every liability or negative on your sheet as a place where God is going to move.

Cultivate a revelation of God as being beyond your wildest imagination and dreams, in his goodness and love for you that he will show you.  God’s very nature is kindness: love and generosity.  If you have a very low or small revelation of God this way, look and even stare at him to get it in your heart just how good that God is.

Share the goodness of God and let your stories be an encouragement to others.  The life is meant to be lived with God and with one another.  Whether you have one friend or confidant or many, share your story.

The whole life is about God’s story and then our stories and sharing them so that we can know and be know, love and be loved and then share, share and share some more.

On the new road, the new way and in the new thing from God, there will be opposition from people and from the dark spirits.  There will be bad weather on the new road, guaranteed.  Regardless of the push-back, keep walking, keep believing and keep worshipping with your life, giving thanks in all circumstances.

The opposition is a sign that you are indeed on God’s path and that God is with you and you are with God.  Sing aloud to God on the new path when the enemy opposes you, and find a partner or partners to sing with and give the enemy a hard time back.

Here is the song that inspired me for this message:

The Journey into Union With God

I long and yearn for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and flesh cry out for the living God.

Even a sparrow finds a home, and a swallow, a nest for herself
where she places her young— near Your altars,

Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.
How happy are those who reside in Your house,
who praise You continually.

Selah

Happy are the people whose strength is in You,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a source of springwater;
even the autumn rain will cover it with blessings.
They go from strength to strength;
each appears before God in Zion.

-Psalm 84:2-7

The center of life is union with God.  We all have all kinds of things we are involved in and all sorts of relationships.  A common misconception is that life is about building things like a family, a business, a ministry, a following, a resume, an education or gaining wisdom, wealth or fame.

These are really the incidentals to life, that while being good and important, are not the center of life.  The center of life is union with God.  If we do not make union with God the center of our lives, we become off center, misguided, unhappy and discontent.

Psalms like Psalm 84 are not meant to be nor have the meaning of how wonderful it is to go to church, for Christians.  These songs are not about the longing and desire to get to corporate worship times.  Pieces like this one are prophetic poems about union with God in the life of the believer.

The courts of the Lord is God’s presence.  The psalmist tell us that in his next refrain: “My heart and flesh cry out for the living God.”  The longing is not for congregational singing nor for contemporary worship, but for union with God who is the center of my life.

God is my source, my wellspring and my only hope.  That is who and what I long for.  That is who I must have and who I must and need to be with.

Without God, front and center, in my thoughts and affecting my heart; my life falls apart.  I have an overwhelming desire for God and to be with God.

Every day, there is an opportunity for all sorts of things to creep into my life and crowd out my relationship with God.  I never lose God, but sometimes these things turn my attention away from God.  And I don’t like that and don’t want that.

I want God to be front and center in my life, in my thoughts and in how I see, hear and feel life and the people I come into contact with.

The psalmist looks and sees the birds who have found their homes, in and on the temple of God.  He sees this as a powerful metaphor of living in God’s presence and making that your home where you create your own and give birth and raise your own families.

Next, the psalmist gives us a picture of how a life of pursuing God works in daily lives.  We are each on a journey, on a road or a pilgrimage to God.  We are all people on our way to heaven.

That is what life is about, being on our way to God.  Everything that we go through or that happens to us is raw material that is a bridge to union with God.  Since mankind fell, life has been hard; and every hardship is softened and transformed by relationship with God.

Being a believer has always been an inside job.  We are changed, transformed and live from the inside out.  The strength of the Lord is deposited into our hearts through grace and by faith, resting on God’s steadfast love or faithfulness.  From the strength God provides in a heart under His care, that has begun its journey, the life of the believer is lived.

The Valley of Baca is the place of weeping.  We all pass through places of sadness. We have losses: disappointments, failures, injustices, seeming silence from God, betrayals, sicknesses, setbacks and loneliness.

The valley of weeping is part of the journey.  There are three things to know about this place of sadness on our journeys:

1. It is unavoidable.
2. Our time there is finite.
3. We get to take our sorrow and see it transformed, redeemed and recompensed.

When we encounter sorrow, how we respond is important.  Children do react and respond childishly, but adults need to face troubles in a grown up way.  “God, help me to grow up, before I grow old”, we say.

Being in denial or sinking into shame are two examples of the wrong way to respond to sorrowful circumstances.  Another destructive one is to get stuck in anger.  

We can not and should not avoid our valleys of weeping, because they are a place of transformation.  With every sorrow or thing that makes you sorrowful, there is a gift attached.  Where their is sorrow, we get to find wells of living water or springs of nourishment.

In the same place where we feel the pain of loss or disappointment, God has already provided sustenance and living waters.  A place of springwater is just below the surface in our valley of tears.  We just have to dig down and find it.

God never blesses us small.  God’s blessings are overflowing and there is always extra.  And that is the picture of autumn rains falling on us in that valley of tears.

The place of revival or renewal 

is in our daily routine lives 

as we meet with God 

in our circumstances of life 

that are sometimes sad.  

The place of revival or renewal is in our daily routine lives as we meet with God in our circumstances of life that are sometimes sad.  God puts a deposit in us at the beginning of our journeys and that deposit accrues interest and our benefactor puts in more deposits along the way.  But we also procure our find compensation that has our names on it, in the midst of the sorrows of our lives.

Bravery is called for for every adult saint.  We valiantly face our trials, setbacks and failures; and go forward, finding new grace packages in the place where we are lamenting.  And God transforms us into the image of Christ.

Even in the greatest of losses, that are shocking, God has reviving waters stored up for us.  God takes wrecked lives and transforms, renews, heals and redeems them.  The greater the loss, the greater the work that God has in store to recover us.

Our hearts are set on the journey of union with God.  We see the birds, raising their families, in and on the temple, as a picture of living our lives in, towards and to God; living lives of worship and service to God.  And then, we embrace the reality of small and large losses and sorrows along the journey and we discover that God has hidden help and sustenance waiting for us, to strengthen us; making us more godly.

Life is a journey into union with God.  That is the center from which life is lived and sustained.  

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.  

Free Rain Coming

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

-Psalm 68:9

I believe that God is going to shower down refreshing, reviving, life-giving, restoring and reforming rain upon people.  The people that are going to get hit with the gracious, merciful and completely free gift of refreshment are people who are weary, discouraged, impatient, grieved, worn out and languishing.  

God has showers of free-will gifts that are coming.  There are no strings attached.  The rain is free.

God’s rain is not at all exclusive, but is outrageously inclusive.

The abundant rain from God is a free-will gift.  

God’s abundant, generous. plentiful, heavy downpour of rain is a free-will gift.  Literally: “A shower of free-will gifts thou shakest out, O God”.

The weariness we have been experiencing is like growing tired of waiting and ready to give up, discouraged: languishing.  But God is about to change all that with the refreshing rain.

The refreshing will be a confirmation.  Believers who are genuine are about to be confirmed by God.  

Massive confirmation that God is real and God’s kids on the earth are really God’s children is about to happen, when God, the plural God, Elohim, sends rain upon his inheritance on the earth.