Inheritance of the Earth

Week 8:

Psalm 37:9-34

9 For evildoers shall be cut off;
   But those who wait on the Lord,
   They shall inherit the earth.

11 But the meek shall inherit the earth,
    And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

22 For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth,
    But those cursed by Him shall be cut off.

29 The righteous shall inherit the land,
    And dwell in it forever.

34 Wait on the Lord,
    And keep His way,
    And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;
    When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

I've been going through the whole Old Testament by sections, one of them being the Psalms, and I've just been getting stuck in the Psalms and getting so much revelation and insight.  This Psalm in particular caught my attention as the phrase "inherit the earth" was mentioned about 5 times.  When a word is mentioned more than once in a scripture passage, there is something really important the author or writer is trying to communicate or emphasize.  

In this passage, I believe the writer is really trying to emphasize that the patient, the meek, the blessed, the righteous, and those who keep His way will inherit the land.  What's interesting to me, though, is that in three of the five verses it says that the "evildoers" or the "cursed" or the "wicked" will be cut off.  I am believing and praying that this is the year that the sons and daughters of the Living God will arise to take their place, inheriting the land, and watching evil and wickedness fall away from the earth.

I feel like a lot of people have had the mindset that as we approach the end times, the darkness in the world is going to get darker and darker.  I would like to shed some good news on that topic..."For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth."  It's the time and season for which the church, the bride of Christ, will rise up and take what is rightfully theirs.  I don't think there's any question of how literal and true this is.  It was repeated 5 times!  Listen up, church...You will inherit the earth and the evil shall be cut off.  Righteousness shall reign and wickedness shall die.  It's not a question, but a statement.  If you don't get it the first time, read if four more times in the passage and maybe then you'll get it.

We are heirs of the Most High King!!!  Don't doubt your authority.

Your Face Will I Seek

Week 7:

Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.

Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.

For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.

Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Savior.

Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.

Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.

Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

God Will Provide

Week 6:

Genesis 22:1-14

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!"  And he said, "Here I am."  Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him... But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!"  And he said, "Here I am, my son."  Then he said, "Look, the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"  And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."... Then they came to the place of which God had told him.  And Abraham built an alter there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.  And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!"  So he said, "Here I am."  And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, you only son, from Me."  Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.  So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.  And Abraham called the name of the place, 'The Lord Will Provide'; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided."  

I love this story so much because it shows the goodness of God to Abraham.  This story is about a test that God brought Abraham through.  In the passages before, God promised Abraham nearly 4 times that he would be a father of many nations and that he would be blessed and favored by both God and man.  He was promised a son.  Abraham received a son.  But the test for Abraham was not in waiting for a son... the test was when Abraham had a son.  Yes, it was a challenge to have faith that God would bring him a son, however the real test was when he was told to give up that very thing he was promised.  

How many times has God given you a promise and then asked you to lay it down?  Throughout the past year and a half, God has taught me so much about promise and hope in the promise and what a challenge that has been.  But contrary to popular belief, the test is not when you're at the bottom or when you're in lack... the test is when you've been promoted, when you've finally been given something you've been hoping and waiting in earnest for.  Many people in this culture believe that the test of faith is when we're so desperate for something that all we can do is trust in God to come through.  This happens frequently when people are in a financial crisis and can't pay their rent or buy groceries.  They think that what they're going through is the ultimate test to see if they can trust God.  But what I learned from Steven De Silva in my finance class was that it's the greater test when you have a lot, and God is asking you, "What are you going to do with what I've given you?"  

It's time to stop dwelling at the bottom, in lack, in constant desperation.  God has enough.  Jesus' blood paid the price for you to live in abundance.  He's calling you into a greater understanding of His unending and ever-increasing government where the test is no longer when we're in debt, but when we've been given a crazy amount of blessings and finance!  And let me give you some good news: When we choose to sacrifice those promises and we lay them down on the alter like Abraham did, God will provide!  Meditate on that, because as Isaac asked Abraham, without the understanding that he was to be the sacrifice, where the lamb for the offering was, Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."  And as he believed in God's provision, he was not only spared his only son, but he was provided a lamb to sacrifice for the offering in place of his son and blessed by God.  

In this upcoming season where God is going to pour out the fulfillment of His promises, I will hold on to the truth that God will provide the sacrifice, even when I have laid down mine.  His goodness is beyond my understanding and my hopes and desires are not beyond his abilities. 

Isaiah 9:7 

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.

Number the Stars

Week 5:

Genesis 15:1-6

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am you shield; your reward shall be very great."  But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"  And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir. "  And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."  And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them."  Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."  And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 17:1-8

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly."  Then Abram fell on his face.  And God said to him, "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.  no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.  And I will establish my covenant between you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.  And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."

I believe this is the season where God is fulfilling His promises like He did to Abraham.  It's the season where we move from glory to glory.  The name Abram means "exalted father" and the name Abraham means father of nations.  God was taking Abraham from glory to glory.  We're coming into a season where the things that satisfied our longings will become unsatisfactory, and we begin to feel a hunger for something bigger, where our only hunger is for Him.  I'm already feeling like where I'm at is not enough and I need to go deeper. His love is calling me deeper.  

He's asking us to "number the stars".  Count them.  Count your dreams, your goals, your desires, the words God has spoken to you, and the promises He has given you.  Count them...and He will multiply them.  When you thing you've counted them all, there's more.  He's calling us to a deeper level.  Think of the stars...there's only a certain depth or layer of the sky that we can actually see.  But hundreds of millions of miles closer there is a whole new layer of galaxies full of unseen stars.  

He's calling us deeper.  

Remember the promises He's given you.  As Abram "believed the Lord, and counted it to him as righteousness," we too can believe in His word as it brings us to right standing with God.  As we choose faith in a word, we are realigning our focus and understanding of God's goodness and because of that we are set in "right standing" or "righteousness" with God.  It's also interesting that in the second passage after God changes Abram's name to Abraham, He said "I have made you the father of a multitude of nations"...not "I will make"...but "I have made".  His word is life!  It's amazing what believing in the goodness of God can do.  So number the stars.  Count His promises.  Count the things He's already done in your life.  It's the year of favor and blessing and we've only scratched the surface.  We're just about to embark on an exciting adventure where God is going to BLOW our expectations!

Let's Go

Week 4:

Luke 8:22-25
"One day He got into a boat with His disciples, and He said to them, 'Let us go across to the other side of the lake.'  So they set out, and as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.  And they went and woke Him, saying, 'Master, Master, we are perishing!'  And He awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm.  He said to them, 'Where is your faith?'  And they were afraid and they marveled, saying to one another, 'Who then is this, that He commands even winds and water, and they obey Him?"

As I've been meditating on this passage today, I've been trying to put myself in the disciples' shoes, imagining how I would respond in this particular situation.  Thinking back to the times in my life where there was a spiritual storm, my first response was to either just get discouraged or to ask why.  "Why is there a storm?", "why are you putting me through this, God?", "why now?" and "why this?" were the typical thoughts that would run through my head in the moment.  But I think after every single storm I've gone through, I have realized that the test wasn't about fighting off the storm or commanding the wind and the waves to leave, it was about having peace in the midst of the storm.  

So, I think in this situation with the disciples, it would have been easy for me to focus on the wind and the waves and maybe work up enough faith to command the storm to leave.  But in this story, the power to calm the storm didn't come merely from Jesus' words, but from His ability to sleep through the storm.

Sometimes faith looks like sleeping through the storm.

Bill Johnson quoted in one of his sermons, "You only have authority over the storms you can sleep in."  And I can say that that is very true in my life.  I find that when my focus is on what's going on around me and all I can see are the raging waters in front of me, my mind and my thoughts blend in with the sky: dark and cloudy.  And I end up feeling exhausted by it all, finding no fruit.  But when I can choose rest in the midst of the chaos, my strength is renewed in Him and all of a sudden, my words become powerful.  

The other thing I found significant in this passage was what Jesus said before they set sail.  I didn't think it was significant until I got this new revelation about it.  He said, "Let us go across to the other side of the lake."  When Jesus told them where to go, He did not give them a destination they couldn't reach.  The disciples were afraid for their lives, but I wonder if they would have responded differently if Jesus had told them not only where they were going, but that they were going to get there, storm or no storm.  

When God gives you a destination, He's giving you a way.

He means for us to grow and to trust Him through the thick and thin.  And when you think you have an impossible situation, you have what you need.  Sometimes it seems like He's sleeping when you're crying out for Him to help you, when in reality He simply trusts you with the situations in front of you.  If you didn't have what it takes, He wouldn't trust you.  But you do, so He does:) 

What Kind of Friend

Week 3:

Genesis 6:5-8

"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.'  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."

I love that.  I love that Noah was such a friend to God that he could find favor in his friend's eyes.  That amazes me!  In verse 5 it said that the Lord saw that the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.  "BUT, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord..."  That word "but" made history.  If it weren't for that "but" in the story, I would not even be here, sitting by my fireplace and writing this right now.  That "but" paved the way for hope.  Hope that there was still some good in the world.  That "but" was the friend that looks into someone's eyes and stops them from doing something terrible.  That was Noah.  Noah was the exception.  Noah stood for something.  Noah had hope, and he went against the grain of other people's thinking to do what he had to do.  Because sometimes in life, it takes a little bit of going against the grain to see something happen.  Sometimes hope feels like going against the grain of man's thinking, because what man thinks about is only what he can see, but hope sees the unseen and it paves a way for the impossible.  Noah had that hope and it gave him vision to see the impossible happen.  

"Where Are You?"

Week 2:
I'm going through the book of Genesis, and my goal would be to focus on one thing I've read this week and write my thoughts about it.  Easy, right?  Well, to be perfectly honest, Genesis is one of the weirdest books of the Bible in my opinion.  And as many times as you read the story of Creation, it's not easy to find something to write about when half of the time you've heard the story a million and a half times and the other half you have no idea what it's even saying.  But somehow, the Holy Spirit still unveils new truths about the Word, and so one thing I know is true: it's a living Word.  It's moving and active; the words don't change, but the understanding of it changes as we dig just a little bit deeper.  And just behind the surface I find a trove of new treasure I've never seen before.  And all of a sudden... reading that verse for the thousandth time is worth it.
Relationship.  God is all about relationship.  God created man in His own image so He could interact with man.  Chapter 2, verse 18 says this, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.'"  And that's when He made woman.  God loved Adam.  He could have just been content there.  But because of His value for relationship not only for Him but for man, God created a companion so that man would not be lonely.  I love how the beginning of all humanity started in a garden with just God and a man.  It was so intimate, and God was so concerned with relationship, that He created woman to join in partnership with man.  And that partnership reflects our partnership and relationship with God.  Or at least what it should look like.  So humble and unashamed, naked in the open, yet so unashamed!  
One of the lines in this passage that gets me every time is when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit from the forbidden tree, and suddenly they were ashamed of their nakedness and hid from God and God came into the garden and said, "Where are you?" That was the separation of their relationship.  In that moment, the one thing He says is "where are you?".  But in that heart-broken question, there is the chance to say "here I am, Lord" and to be found.  It is the unanswered question that separates our relationship from God; the shame of being naked, of being uncovered; the shame of our partnership.  But love overlooks that.  1 John 4:18 "For there is no fear in love."  And that was His intent in the very beginning.  That though we fall into shame, we should experience the fullness of relationship through love.  It's my favorite part of the scriptures.  It never ends without love.  Love is the thing that completes it and makes it what it was created to be.