I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Eph.1:17-19

Ephesians is one of those New Testament letters that holds such a wealth of insight and encouragement that never runs dry for the one who keeps asking God to show him or her more. The few verses quoted above are significant keys to gaining all that God has for us so I thought we might reflect on them this morning.

Paul had a special relationship with the church at Ephesus (see Acts 19-20) and was clearly proud of how they had grown in their faith and love. He told them that he always gave thanks for them in his prayers and then said that he kept asking God to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that they might know him (God) better. From Genesis to Revelation the goal of God has been to accurately reveal himself to his people because to know him is to love him. And yet the failure of many has been to form opinions about God, who he is, and how he works with no real personal revelation of him.

Paul is clear that we can’t know God without wisdom and revelation that comes from the Holy Spirit. Man’s attempt to know God and explain him without this revelation has been catastrophic. It has led to all kinds of false worship that includes the worship of demons. It has led to a worldwide religion that claims that the heart of God is set on slaughtering all those who do not submit immediately. It has led to all kinds of beliefs that God is cruel, uncaring, and detached from the real struggles of mankind. We could go on but each of these distorted views of God comes from those who don’t know him well on a personal level and who don’t understand his purposes.

Paul says that to know him better requires revelation from the Spirit. The flesh always sees God as restrictive and demanding in the same way that children often view their parents that way even though the restrictions and the rules are in the best interest of the child. Children always long for a permissive parent who always lets the child do as he or she pleases without restriction or discipline. Many adults want a permissive God.   Only through the Spirit do we begin to understand the goodness of God’s commands and even his discipline. By revelation we begin to see the activities of God and by wisdom we begin to see their goodness. By revelation we begin to see the heart of God and by wisdom we begin to understand his heart. Left to our own intellect we will miss the mark of knowing an understanding him.

Paul prayed for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that the Ephesians might know God better. There are two general words in the Greek for “know.” One is gnosis and the other is epignosis. Paul uses the second one here because it denotes experiential knowledge rather than academic knowledge. Without wisdom and revelation our knowledge of God is merely theoretical. With wisdom and revelation we begin to experience God personally and know him in truth not just in theory.

Paul mentioned that he kept on praying for those things on behalf of the church. The implication is that we need to keep on asking for wisdom and revelation from the Spirit if we want to know God in a deeper and more accurate way. Most revelation and wisdom are progressive. God gives us a bit at a time as we can assimilate it so one download doesn’t do it. Sometimes believers get a basic understanding of God but their understanding levels out there and never grows. That is like a child’s view of his or her parents never changing as he or she grows older. The greatest treasure God offers is himself and to truly know him is the greatest prize. We need to keep asking for God to show us more of himself and he is clearly pleased to do so.

The second thing Paul prayed for was that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened so that they could fully comprehend several things. Again, this enlightenment is the work of the Holy Spirit who reveals the things of God to the deepest part of our thinking and feeling – the heart. Paul prayed that the believers at Ephesus would come to know the hope to which they were called, the riches of their inheritance and the power of God available to those who believe.

Hope keeps us going in dark places because hope expects the light to shine at any moment. Hope prompts us to grab hold of the promises of God with expectancy for our future. The riches that we have in Christ are everything that Jesus has purchased for us with his blood. The more we understand what is available to us the more we can access those “riches” for life on planet earth and for the expansion of the kingdom of God. Those riches may include some material wealth but that would be toward the bottom of the list. More importantly those riches include love, joy, peace, purpose, belonging, wisdom, spiritual gifts, eternal life and so forth. There are many ultra-rich people who would give it all up to possess those things because those things are what they thought wealth and power would get them. In their disappointment they simply keep chasing more wealth and power hoping that more will eventually get them what we all have freely in Christ.

Thirdly, Paul wanted the church and us to grasp how much power rests in the hands of the Lord who is more than willing to exercise it on our behalf. There is no need to feel afraid, powerless, helpless, and insecure for our Father has unlimited power and resources to release on our behalf. We are not victims nor orphans but sons and daughters of the Most High God. Knowing that truth in your heart lets you sleep at night no matter what.

Getting hold of those truths and planting them deep in your heart is the key that unlocks the peace and provision of heaven but it comes through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation…so ask for it and keep asking because there is no end to what God has for us in himself.

Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place. Judges 7:1-8

This is part of the story of Gideon whom God raised up as a judge to deliver Israel from the oppression of Midian. Many of us desire to see God move in powerful, supernatural ways. We long to see miracles, healings, demons driven out, and whole families and nations radically saved and we want to be part of all of that. I need to be reminded from time to time that God is still willing to move in those ways but he typically won’t move when we don’t put ourselves at risk. What I mean by “putting ourselves at risk” is that we allow God to put us in positions so that if he doesn’t show up and do what only he can do, then nothing is going and to happen and we risk failure, embarrassment, loss, and maybe more.

Gideon faced an expansive force of Midianites. Initially, he had 32,000 men ready to go into battle. Even then they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. But God was determined to turn Israel’s hearts back to him through an act of supernatural deliverance so that Israel would have no doubt that it was God who gave them the victory. After two “siftings,” Gideon was left with only three hundred men. The remaining 300 faced impossible odds and that is the perfect place to see God move.

The three hundred were never asked to face the enemy in a direct confrontation with swords and slings but they were asked to walk in faith and to act in seemingly foolish ways that still put them at risk. They were each issued a torch, a jar under which they might hide the torch, and a trumpet – not the high-tech armor and rocket launchers they had hoped for. Then they were asked to move silently to the enemy camp in the middle of the night, surround the camp, and at Gideon’s signal they were to break the jars, flash the torches, blow the trumpets, and shout “For the Lord and Gideon.” Sounds like a great plan to defeat tens of thousands of hardened Midianite troops doesn’t it? If God is not in this plan, Gideon and his 300 will shortly be toast. But as the jars break, the trumpets sound, the torches light up the night, and the men shout, the enemy believes that their camp has been overrun and in the dark the Midianite soldiers begin to kill whatever is moving in the shadows – which turns out to be one another. Then they flee in the night with Gideon in pursuit.

If you recall, Gideon was no military man, nor was he a great man of faith in the beginning. As you read the surrounding chapters of this event you will see that God gave Gideon experiences that built his faith to the point that he was willing to risk – an encounter with an angel, a ram’s fleece set out in the dew on two consecutive mornings for confirmation that Gideon was actually hearing God, an over-heard conversation between Midianite soldiers to confirm that God’s Spirit had already implanted fear and panic in their hearts before the pivotal battle. God did not ask for perfect faith nor did he ask for faith that wasn’t based on previous experiences with God’s faithfulness, but in the end Gideon still had to place himself (and his men) at risk to see the mighty hand of God at work.

I believe God still wants us to put ourselves in positions where if he doesn’t show up we will at least look foolish until we no longer mind looking foolish for God at some point because obedience becomes its own reward. Most of us won’t have to face a horde of Midianites, but if we want to begin to see the miracles of God we will have to pray for healing with no excuses and no disclaimers about “if it be thy will.” We will have to pray over strangers at Sam’s Club, the mall, and between latte’s at Starbucks.   We will have to share our faith at convenience stores and with risky relatives and neighbors to see what God will do. We may have to give more than we can afford and commit to things that we know are of God but that we can’t see how we will be able to raise the money. We may have to take mission trips to dangerous or at least very dirty parts of the world to see God move in supernatural ways that only God can do so that only God can get the glory.

When we keep it safe we won’t see much of the supernatural because it won’t be needed. If I had been Gideon I would have been believing God for thousands of Israeli troops to show up unexpectedly with armor that had miraculously come in the mail that day. But God wanted to display his glory not Gideon’s and that only happens when we face the impossible because only then do we know without a doubt that God just did something amazing for us and through us. Just a reminder to me and, perhaps, to you that if I want to see God more than I must risk more. Be blessed and have a risky day.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor.2:14

This blog is essentially dedicated to expressions of power in the life of the church and the preaching of the gospel. When we think of “power evangelism” we think of men and women coming to Christ after a dramatic healing, prophetic word, or deliverance. Those are certainly legitimate expressions of power and usually accompanied the preaching of the gospel throughout the New Testament. But there is also another kind of power that needs to be displayed in the day to day grind of bringing someone we know and love to the cross when he or she seems to be almost inoculated against belief.

In Paul’s statement above, he clearly states that a man without the Spirit cannot understand the things that come from the Spirit. He doesn’t say that the man without the Spirit is stubborn or chooses not to understand; he says that man cannot understand. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul adds to that thought. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor.4:3-4). So Paul tells us that without the operation of the Spirit a man cannot even understand spiritual things because the devil has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

Before a man or woman can truly come to the Lord, he or she must experience a paradigm shift in their view of the world, of themselves, or of God. That shift in thinking is called repentance. Dutch Sheets makes an interesting observation about this shift in a person’s worldview. “The perspective of unbelievers is distorted. People run from the pursuit of a God who is desiring to save them from destruction. Those of us who know him realize we love God because he first loved us. When sinners, however, hear of a loving God who wants only their best and died to provide it, they often see instead only the promise of loss and a lack of fulfillment” (Intercessory Prayer, p.171).

For some, the shift in perspective about God comes through a dramatic moment of healing, near death experiences, or some other encounter with Jesus that, like Saul on the way to Damascus,   jars the individual into a different view of Jesus. But what about all the rest? Two things need to happen. First of all, the veil or their distorted view of God needs to be removed and a revelation of Jesus needs to penetrate the heart of the unbeliever. When we talk people into a salvation prayer there is often no revelation and, therefore, no real change of mind – no genuine repentance – so their walk with the Lord is short-lived.

Power evangelism needs to be exercised in many cases through powerful prayers specifically targeting the strongholds (false beliefs and distorted views including pride, self-sufficiency, fear, distrust, unworthiness, etc.) of those we are trying to reach. Arguments, pressure, guilt, fear, and even logical presentations of the gospel will rarely bring about a lifting of the veil and the revelation needed for true repentance. The answer is found in God’s divine weapons spoken of in 2 Corinthians 10. These weapons have divine power to bring down strongholds, silence the enemy, and direct the power of the Spirit to release revelation and faith.

There are times when our prayers need to look like spiritual warfare in which we command and bind the enemy in a person’s life, call on angels to keep the enemy at bay, declare God’s word over that person, ask the Spirit to hover over that individual to release revelation and birth faith, and ask Jesus to orchestrate encounters that will bring about a change of mind and heart. That is where the work and the wrestling need to be done rather than in the natural realm where we tend to use pressure and persuasion. There is tremendous power in prayer and battles for souls are fought and won in that realm because our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That kind of prayer is also power evangelism.

Before sharing our faith, we usually need to till the soil of a person’s heart so that the word might take root. That tilling will be done through powerful and persistent prayers that bring the resources of heaven to bear on that person and his or her heart. Often we have prayed for God to save someone but have not truly entered into the battle ourselves with our persistent and specific prayers. Remember, God will do more things with us than for us. Join in and see what God does for those you are trying to reach.

When his disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he began with a relatively revolutionary idea – Our Father in heaven. For the most part, Jewish theological thought viewed God as the one whose name should not be spoken and whose presence in the Holy of Holies was as dangerous as it was glorious. He was seen as the Holy Judge of all the earth and the destroyer of the enemies of Israel. He was the thunder and flame on Sinai and the earthquake swallowing up the sons of Korah.

But Jesus spoke to the Father in familiar and intimate terms and encouraged every believer to do the same. That must have been a difficult paradigm shift for many. It still is. One of the great hindrances to receiving the promises and the power of the Holy Spirit is our view of God. When we ask God for healing, deliverance, favor, provision, and protection we often ask with a minimal expectation – more of a hope than a confident request. That presents a real dilemma when we know that whatever we ask for, believing that we have received it, will be ours (see Mark 11:24).  We hope he will answer our petitions, but we are not always confident that he will and that is a formula for few answered prayers.

Many of us have a difficult time believing that our Heavenly Father is willing, able, and eager to bless us, heal us, and deliver us from the power of the enemy. We still view him as a God who keeps careful records and who weighs our good moments against our bad to see if we have earned enough points to merit an answered prayer. We see him as a Father whose love is conditional, who is beyond understanding, and who may well visit pain and suffering on us to “perfect our spirituality.

So we pray, hoping for the best but not really expecting it. When we are sick we pray for healing but wonder if God actually wants us to be ill so that our faith in suffering glorifies him, purifies our soul, or has a purpose beyond our understanding. When we live with emotional pain and brokenness from our own bad choices we may see God as the Father who sternly remarks, “You made your bed, now you can lie in it.” Myriads of believers simply view their Heavenly Father as a distant replica of an earthly father who made promises he couldn’t keep, whose primary emotion was anger, or who was loving one day while distant and unpredictable the next.

When we have a mixed view of our Heavenly Father it is difficult to pray with faith or to pray at all. But prayer is the very thing that opens the valve so that the promises and the power of heaven can flow to us and through us. If we view God as distant, angry, or conditional then we will not pray at all (there’s no point in asking) or we will pray as if we have to convince, coerce, or nag God into blessing us.

So how do we understand this God who seems angry and vengeful in the Old Testament but is called “Abba” in the New Testament? John goes so far as to say that God is love and God is light. The key is Jesus. No matter how we understand the Old Testament or what kind of father we had on earth, Jesus clearly stated that when we have seen him we have seen the Father in heaven (see Jn.14:9).  If you want to know how much you are loved by the Father, look at the cross. If you want to know how God will deal with your sinful past, look at the Samaritan woman of John 4 and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Ask yourself how many times Jesus turned down people who came to him for healing and how he dealt with Peter after Peter denied and abandoned Jesus in his hour of suffering.

According to Hebrews, Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory (the part of God’s goodness we can see) and the exact representation of the Father’s being (Heb. 1:3). When you see the heart of Jesus toward the broken and the suffering you see the heart of the Father. When you see the compassion of Christ toward the spiritually clueless you see the Father. When you see the anger and frustration of Jesus toward those who would deny the healing of God for the sick or who would drive sinners away rather than embrace them, you have seen the Father as well. The cross has allowed the love of God to overpower the judgment of God. And God is glad.

When you pray for the power of heaven to be released on your behalf, remember that the heart of the Father toward you is the same as the heart of Jesus. As loving fathers and mothers, we are not always so different from our heavenly Father. I always want the best for my children. When they were young and tumbled off their bikes, I ran to pick them up and bandaged their wounds. When they were afraid I comforted them. When they were confused I taught them. When they were in danger I protected them. When they laughed I laughed with them and when they did wrong I corrected them. All those things were motivated by love and, like most parents, I would have died to save my children.

Our heavenly Father did just that and is much more the loving Father and Mother than we could ever hope to be. When you pray, you can be certain that your Father in heaven is hearing and acting on your behalf. We can’t always know why we don’t see some prayers answered. There are mysteries yet to be understood. But we can always know the heart of our Heavenly Father toward us. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. If you have seen the cross you have seen his heart for you. Reflect on Jesus and his heart before you offer your next prayer. God is soooooooo for you!

Confession. Perseverance in prayer is not my long suit. The definition of perseverance is “to remain constant to a purpose, idea, or task in the face of obstacles or discouragement.” I don’t think I’m alone in this. I don’t mind obstacles if I can see them or identify them but I think the hard part is continuing to pray for something when you don’t clearly see the obstacle or are not seeing any evidence of change or progress.

After a while, the enemy starts messing with your head – suggesting that what you are praying for must not be God’s will since he is apparently not answering your prayer. If it’s not God’s will then you should simply accept that reality and stop praying. Sometimes he discourages you by telling you that your faith is insufficient or that something is wrong with you that God won’t hear your prayers so you might as well forget whatever it is you have been asking for. His goal is to get us to abandon the very need or desire that we have been praying into.

But think about it. If God were not going to answer that prayer, why would Satan bother with discouragement? Wouldn’t he rather us continue to expend our time and energy on something that will never come to pass than to refocus on prayers that God will answer? The fact that Satan would move in to discourage that prayer is evidence that his plans are threatened by your persistent requests and that, in the spiritual realm, he is seeing evidence that God is moving in response to your prayers.

I like Dutch Sheet’s take on the need for and reasons behind persistent prayer. In his book Intercessory Prayer he says, “The disciples had enough power flowing in their ministry to deal with most demons and diseases, but they came up against one that required more faith and power – and they didn’t have enough to overcome that one. Again, the obvious implication is that different measurable levels (of power in the spiritual realm) are needed to accomplish different things….When the prophet Elijah came to the widow’s son who had died, he spread himself out on the corpse face to face and prayed three times (see 1 Kings 17:21). Why did it take three times? Because the man of God wasn’t where he needed to be spiritually? Because he didn’t have enough faith? Because he didn’t do it right the first two times? We are not told the reason nor is it insinuated that any of those things are true. I believe that he was releasing a little more life out of his…spirit each time” (p.216). Sheets goes on to remind us that even after God told Elijah it was about to rain after a three and a half year drought, Elijah still had to pray seven times before a cloud showed up.

The implication is that that our prayers partner with God to release the power of the Holy Spirit into situations that, for reasons we will not always know, require more power than others. Some strongholds are stronger than others. Like a fortified city, some walls are higher, thicker, or denser than others and may require more bombardment than others to bring it down. Our prayers are the bombardment of heaven against enemy strongholds. In ancient times, some cities fell in days while others only fell after years of being under siege. Our prayers lay siege to areas under the enemies control or influence.

The key is to believe that every prayer makes a difference and that every prayer releases the power of heaven against a stronghold. Some come down immediately, others fall after a few months, and many will surrender only after years of prayer. We should be encouraged by Paul’s admonition in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” We usually apply that law to sin, but it also applies to righteousness and to prayer. The promise is that when you sow in prayer, there will inevitably be a harvest of what you have been sowing. It is a law of the spiritual realm reflected in the agricultural realm. Paul goes on to say, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal.6:9).

In many things we pray for, persistence will be required. Not because what we are praying is not God’s will, or that we are not where we need to be spiritually, or because God does not regard our prayers – but because we are fighting against an enemy who has been digging-in to some situations for generations. It will take more power, more bombardment, more long-term warfare than other situations. But each prayer that is aligned with the heart and purposes of God releases more power into a life, a need, or a crisis and in due time there will be a reaping or a harvest of answered prayer. So…wherever the enemy has discouraged you in prayer, remember he has done so because he is threatened. Keep praying and shelling the enemy as you persist!

Okay. I have to weigh in on the Bruce Jenner debacle. The disturbing thing for me is not his choice to “make the change,” because there are many broken and wounded people in the world who make incredibly bad decisions. The disturbing thing is the conversations about it in the media and the complete absence of any discussion about God and his standards regarding Jenner’s decision.

When God’s standards are nowhere to be seen or heard in the public debate, we are on the brink of something catastrophic. The Old Testament is full of descriptions of wicked, foolish, and prideful men who say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge” (Ps.73:11)? There were many seasons in the history of Israel that the political and cultural leaders marginalized God and considered him irrelevant to the nation. Historically, God will allow himself to be seen as irrelevant for a while but then his “relevance” will come flooding in as judgment in an effort to turn hearts and minds back to him. The old saying that “there are no atheists in foxholes” also applies to national catastrophes when everyone suddenly feels afraid, uncertain, and extremely vulnerable.

Bruce Jenner is just another symptom of a culture trying hard to divest itself of notions about God because notions about God hold up standards and the possibility of accountability that many cultures have found restrictive. What we are seeing today is a kind of moral anarchy where every man has his own personal standard of right and wrong with no objective, absolute standard to guide him. Israel fell into that condition on occasion. “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). In other words, man was morally lawless except for what he determined in his own fallen nature was in his best interest. God and his Word were considered irrelevant.

That perspective is very dangerous in the lives of men but even more so of governments. As soon as any system of government decides that God is irrelevant, then that government also will determine that either there is no God or, if there is, he does not hold nations accountable nor bring them to judgment. Think about it. If leaders do not believe that God will judge them or the nation for sin and wickedness what is left to restrain them? Our government (along with “we the people”) pushed God out of our schools, then decided that the Ten Commandments had a bad influence in government buildings, then we decided that God could be tolerated as long as he was confined to churches but he had no business influencing the state. Then, some of our leaders, who reject the law of God have also rejected the restraints of the Constitution and have even redefined marriage, morality, the sanctity of a human life, and the nature of men and women. When government attempts to replace God with itself then government simply views itself as God. Required worship of the state and total submission to it is not far behind.

So what are we to do? There was a time and it was the intent of our founding fathers that the pulpits of the nation were the conscience of America. The expectation or at least the hope of those men who framed the Republic was that the church would stay strong in America, educate America’s people in the standards and commandments of God, and speak out against sin and wickedness as the conscience of a nation. The church has been strangely silent of late. Some speak out, but not nearly enough. We have cowered under the assault of political correctness and have been silent and even complicit as our nation has begun to call evil good and good evil.   Mr. Jenner is simply a symptom of our silence and our failure to evangelize and educate our own families and neighbors. It’s not too late for America but we seem to be in a barrel headed for the brink of Niagara Falls where few survive the plunge.

I encourage you to begin to pray in earnest for this nation and the Lord’s church in this nation. Pray that God would pour out a Spirit of boldness, holiness, humility, power, and evangelism on his church that she might once again become the conscience and the standard of a nation. Also pray that God will raise up men and women of faith and integrity and place them in positions of leadership and influence while removing those from positions of power and influence who have no regard for God…in government, education, and the media. We also must become the conscience of a nation again as individuals who unapologetically share our faith and values over coffee as well as in City Council and School board meetings.

God has solutions for Mr. Jenner’s confusion. I wonder if anyone ever told him about those solutions with genuine love and concern? Please pray daily for the church in America and the elections that are on the horizon.   I think I can hear the roar of the Falls.

In this Psalm, David makes some astounding claims regarding God’s protection for those who maintain an intimate relationship with him. In the current spiritual environment of America these claims would seem outlandish, boastful, and even presumptuous. Listen to what David says: He (God) will save you from the fowler’s snare, from deadly pestilence, from any terror that stalks at night, from arrows aimed at you, from stumbling, and from lions and cobras. He says that even though a thousand may fall at your side or ten thousand and your right hand, you will be kept safe from disaster, disease, and attacks. David declares that God will even assign angels to protect you in the midst of danger and crisis. For the most part, our culture – even today’s Christian culture – does not seem to view God and his personal involvement in our lives in the same way David viewed it.

Perhaps, our first thought is that David is using the literary device of hyperbole or exaggeration to make his point. But lets think about it. How many literal, biblical accounts are there of God providing miraculous protection for those in battle: the Red Sea crossing, the Jericho campaign, Joshua leading Israel in numerous battles against their enemies in the promised land (when Israel was faithful), Gideon’s unlikely but overwhelming victories, David taking down Goliath, Samson killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, David’s multiple miraculous escapes from Saul, one angel taking out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers camped around Jerusalem, Elijah taking on 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mt. Carmel, and hundreds of other accounts where the supernatural power of God protected his people in battle and gave them victory.   But does God still do that?

I have a friend who served in Vietnam and during the war his platoon was ordered to move into a village. On the outskirts of the village, a small shed came under fire as a possible outpost for enemy snipers. My friend said that they fired numerous rockets at the shed that kept inexplicably veering off and so they overran the shed, kicked open the door and found a Christian mother and her children hiding there, huddled in prayer. If you ask my friend he will tell you that Psalm 91 still paints possibilities for today.

We could continue to talk about angelic warnings and deliverance for God’s people from all kinds of threats throughout scripture including shutting the mouths of lions and protecting men from the flames in the book of Daniel. We could talk about the venomous serpent that attached itself to Paul’s arm without injury in the book of Acts. The truth is, from Genesis to Revelation there are numerous accounts of God’s intervention in the lives of men and women that parallel the claims of David in Psalm 91.

Some of that supernatural intervention simply flows out of God’s grace but one statement made by Jesus also sets a condition on some of that intervention. “Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you” (Mt.9:29). In other words, to the extent that we expect the intervention of God, we will receive it. David echoes that thought in Psalm 91. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust” (Ps.91:2). The rest of the Psalm is really a confirmation of David’s faith and a declaration that because of the love and care that flowed from the Father toward David, God would certainly protect him from his enemies, from plague, and even from wild animals.

I don’t believe David was born with that certainty but his history with God began to write that certainty on his heart. Before facing Goliath, David reflected on moments when, as a shepherd boy, God had delivered him from a lion and a bear. Upon reflection, David realized that he had not overcome those threats through his own brilliance and strength but that God had supernaturally intervened to save him. Part of our problem is the absence of reflection and meditation in our lives. Long days and nights alone in secluded pastures provided David with a lifestyle that encouraged reflection, introspection, and an ongoing conversation with the Father – since there was no one else to talk to. We might do well to intentionally seek out evenings or occasional days of solitude with the Father ourselves to intentionally reflect on his character and to look back to map his hand and his faithfulness in our lives.

It is important to notice that David declared God’s faithfulness and protection over his life on a regular basis. In doing so, he wrote that truth more deeply on his heart each time he spoke it or wrote it. As we begin to align our thoughts and hearts with God, we should also declare, write, and memorize the Word of God as it declares the truth we need to write on our heart. As we do so, the paradigm of God’s love, care, and faithfulness will begin to function as the lens through which we view life allowing us to see God’s care and protection daily in both big and small ways which, in turn will strengthen our faith. Intentional thinking, speaking, and acting are the keys to faith and faith is the key to unlock the promises of God. Let me encourage you to personalize Psalm 91 placing your name in the text, meditating on its application to your life, and memorizing all or sections of it so that faith in a day of uncertainty can stand on the same promises on which David stood. Be blessed.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Ps.91:1

In my last blog we looked at the first part of this verse that is followed by so many promises of care and protection. David begins by saying that he who dwells, stays, continues, remains sitting, or abides in the secret place of the Most High will rest. Most High is translated from the Hebrew elyon. It conveys the sense that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is above all and over all. His majesty, his power, and his wisdom surpass all others. That description is then coupled with Shaddai which is translated Almighty which reminds us that God is not only higher, more majestic and wiser than any other but also wields immeasurable power.

David begins his psalm with a reminder of who this God is in whom he trusts. It will take a God of that magnitude to deliver on the promises contained in the rest of this Psalm 91. It is always good to begin our prayers and our praise with a rehearsal of the nature of our God in whose hands were are placing our future. He who intimately remains in the shelter or hiding place of the Most High will rest in his shadow. The word translated rest means to spend the night, to abide, or to relax. IN our vernacular, we could say that he who abides in the secret place of God lives stress free and finds that peace or that stress free life in the shadow of the Almighty.

For those who hid out in the burning wilderness of the Middle East, a huge rock that cast a shadow was a welcome place. It provided comfort and protection from the heat and enemies. This verse reminds us that our God casts a big shadow. In that shadow we are sheltered from the storm, the scorching heat of midday and from the prying eyes of the enemy. Because our God is our Rock and our Strong Tower we can rest, relax, and spend time in his shadow.

David never viewed God as the one who would keep us from all battles but rather the as the one who would give us victory in the midst of battle and times of rest and renewal in between our battles. Too often we have interpreted salvation as God’s promise that we will never struggle, never face crisis and never find ourselves in a battle. God has never promised that. What he has promised is victory and deliverance in the midst of those things.

David goes on to declare, “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. (Ps.91:2-7).

Notice that David trusts in the Lords deliverance in the midst of battle and in the face of trouble. We can never learn to trust until we have to trust. If God were to keep us from all conflict and calamity we would never have need of faith or trust. I only discover if I can trust someone when I absolutely need him or her to come through for me – when I am absolutely dependent on his or her faithfulness and ability to save me from the calamity I face. We live in enemy territory for now so must expect some trouble along the way but the key is faith in God and the condition is remaining in his presence.

In the face of life threatening circumstances David makes some exalted and, perhaps, seemingly outlandish claims of God’s care and deliverance. Ten thousand fall at your right hand but you are spared. Angels will surround you and defend you. You will trample on the lion and the cobra. Are these poetic exaggerations and can we expect that kind of deliverance from our God? We will consider that question in my next blog. Until then…be blessed.

Psalm 91 has caught my eye lately and has been emphasized for me in several different contexts. Several months ago I was rereading Francis MacNutt’s classic on spiritual warfare entitled Deliverance from Evil Spirits. In that book, he mentioned that quoting or reading certain scriptures during deliverance could be effective in tormenting spirits enough that they would leave. One of the scriptures he recommended was Psalm 91.

Then during one of our latest Freedom Weekends, in which we minister deliverance to many individuals, we had a young woman with a strong spirit of witchcraft in her that had come down generationally. Our team had spent several hours commanding this spirit to come out but had not quite driven it from its stronghold. One of our team members began to read Psalm 91 over the young lady, personalizing it for her, and the reading of that scripture broke the stronghold and she was set free.

In just the past few days, I was scanning a little book on crafted prayer by Graham Cooke. In that book, Cooke mentioned that several years ago, the Lord had instructed him to study Psalm 91 for nine months – no other scripture, only that psalm so that he would get every truth in that section of scripture buried deep in his heart. Well, God hasn’t told me nine months but he has been bringing it up over and over so I want to spend a couple of blogs looking at it – for my benefit as well as yours. So let’s begin:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps.91:1)

The word or phrase translated “He who dwells” can mean a number of things: to sit, to sit down, to remain sitting, to dwell, to marry. The word carries the idea of both permanence and intimacy. It reminds me of scriptures that call us to “Be still and know that I am God” and of Jesus’s command to “abide or remain” in him as a branch connected to the true vine. The promises about to be revealed in Psalm 91 are not for the casual Christian or even the highly committed, super-busy Christian who is constantly in the kitchen banging the pots and pans like Martha but who rarely sits at the feet of Jesus like Mary. To know the heart of the Father (or the Son) we have to abide in his presence, to spend time speaking and listening, and to seek intimate connection.

The promises then are for those who dwell, abide, or remain sitting in the shelter of the Most High. The word translated shelter is also an interesting word and can be translated: shelter, hiding place, covering, protection, or secret place. David calls us to dwell in a secret place or a hiding place with God that provides both protection from enemies and from the storms of life. To me, this calls us to find a place with God that is secret, personal, and unknown to others. I think he is telling us that the place to dwell with God is not in a corporate relationship but in a very personal relationship that is ultimately unknowable by others.

It is like a relationship between husband and wife. Many can know about the relationship but not know the deeper things of the marriage which remain secret to the couple – pet names, intimate moments they have shared together that are for them only, embarrassing incidents that will remain known to them but untold to others, and the deepest hopes, dreams and fears of their hearts. Those will always remain hidden or secret to all others because they are so personal that they are only to be shared with a loving and trusted spouse.

That is the kind of relationship God wants to have with each of us. Again…God is calling us to spend time with him – personal time, transparent time, talking, dreaming, hoping, and sharing our hearts with him and his heart with us. Psalm 91 make it clear that all the promises of victory and protection that follow flow out of that kind of relationship so developing that must be our first goal and we must be willing to pay the price of time and intentionality.

In my last blog I talked about the great cultural distraction of busyness. Nothing competes with an intimate relationship with the Father (or a spouse, children, friend, etc.) like busyness. That will have to be dealt with first. Then the sitting, the seeking, and the openness will feel so threatening to many of us – especially men. But that is where the promises are to be found. The question is how badly do we want all that Jesus has for us?

One more interesting implication of this first verse is the suggestion that we meet with God in a secret place. Undoubtedly David was thinking of places where he had hidden from Saul while Saul hunted him. This verse suggests that there are times when we are so snuggled up to God that Satan can’t find us or see us. That is an incredibly safe place to be. You may want to contemplate that a bit as you begin to read Psalm 91 over and over for a few days.

More from Psalm 91 in my next blog.

Remember the old saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop?” I’m not totally sure what that means but the idea is that staying busy kept you out of trouble – so stay busy. I have discovered in my own life that busy hands are also the devil’s workshop for believers.   It’s not that the “busy hands” are involved in sinful things, but rather they leave no margins for the deeper and more important things of God.

The “drug of choice” of our culture seems to be busyness and constant interaction. The more we do, the more significant we feel – productive, included, achieving, connected. Our children are most prone to the busyness and feel the pressure of it. The Midland School system had a rash of teenage suicides several years ago. Most of these young people were not abuse victims, they weren’t strung out on drugs, and they weren’t from “bad families.” Several were popular, high -achievers in their schools. Interviews later with kids at risk for suicide discovered that these elementary, junior high, and high school students felt so much pressure to perform, to be part of the “in crowd,” and to “do everything” that they were contemplating suicide rather than face a life of that kind of pressure and busyness.

Think about it. Even when adults get together its not long before they start comparing their weekly or monthly itineraries – the job, the early morning meetings, the evening meetings, the basketball, volleyball or baseball games they had to attend or travel to. Christians get the throw in all their ministry commitments on top of that. Its as if being way overbooked in your life is a badge of honor or an indicator of worth. God’s injunction to David to “Be still and know that I am God” is still quoted but is typically something we aspire to do rather than something we actually do. Even when the preacher quotes it, everyone winks in their heart knowing that he isn’t all that serious because right after the sermon he will be asking his people to commit to serving an additional night of the week in some ministry.

There is something in our fallen nature that wants to work. Maybe it gives us the illusion of self-sufficiency or gives us a reason not to do any introspection or evaluation of our lives. God didn’t have to command his people (for the most part) to work, but to take a day off from work every week. Obviously the Sabbath was created to honor the Lord but also to bless God’s people. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. We need the rest. We need the margins in our lives.

How many times do we turn down a “divine appointment” to speak into someone’s life, to disciple someone, to share our faith with a friend at the office, to have a hurting friend come stay at our house for a few days, etc. because we know that to do so would demand time and relationship capital that we don’t have because we are already “all booked up?” I fear we often miss the most important things (myself included) because we have no holy margins in our lives for significant time with God or for those little detours he wants us to take to touch a life, to plant a seed, or to water what someone else has already done.

I’m afraid that someday we’ll meet Jesus and point out all the hard work we did for him and everything we built in his name. He’ll smile and tell us how much he appreciated our efforts. He might even tell us that what we built was impressive…however, it just wasn’t what he wanted us to build because we got so little direct input from him. We can be like a builder who builds an amazing house for a client without having any real conversations about what they are looking for or without consulting them in the process to see if he is on track with their vision and desires. That’s a pretty risky way to build a house. I’ve known builders who were just too busy to have those ongoing meetings with their clients and in the end there were always some problems. If we are too busy to meet, we can be like that as builders of God’s house on the earth.

I’ve always been impressed with the focus of Jesus on a few primary things in his life that always took precedent over everything else. He kept his small group to twelve. Bigger isn’t always better. He turned down invitations to hold month long healing conferences even when he was trending. He often stole away to spend quiet time with the Father when there was so much that “still needed to be done, and he had time to take detours on his way to some town because the Father showed him someone who needed a touch on the way. If Jesus had operated on highly scheduled agendas, I think he would have had far less impact on the world and would have walked in much less power than he did.

Jesus, Paul, and the other great men of the New Testament seemed to live by God’s agenda for their lives rather than the world’s agenda, cultural norms, or even by all the demands of the church. In review, their lives seem sort of ragged and even ill planned, at times, but look at the impact.

The world will not relent. Satan will not relent. Everywhere you turn someone will ask for your time and it will all be good things. We need to establish some holy margins, a Sabbath principle, in our lives so that we have time for God and time for those little detours that bear so much fruit. We’ll need to pray and will have to decide to stop living at a crazy, spirit killing pace. We’ll have to prune some things, but pruning always produces more fruit in the end. We’ll have to be a “bad guy” to our kids to trim their schedules but our lives cannot be driven by cultural norms but should be driven by kingdom norms. By definition, Christians must be counter-cultural. If we are like the culture then we loose our power to change the culture. God will have to show you which parts to trim but my guess is that we all need to trim some things to create margins for us to hear and obey God. Anyway…think about it…if you can find the time. Blessings.