SONGS IN THE NIGHT

Posted on May 5, 2013 by intothemistbook

Songs in the Night

Why is it that night time seems to be a time when thoughts assail and run like flashes of lightning through our minds? Why does it seem during those long nights that we cannot even connect one thought to another as we turn this way and that, onto our stomach, then side, then the other side, kicking the covers off, then pulling them back on?

Does anyone relate to this? I think I heard a resounding YES! floating through the air currents in answer to that question. I have learned some things about these nights and I no longer wrestle with them or fight to get back to sleep. I no longer dread looking at the clock at 12 midnight, 1 am, 2 am, 3 am. Why? Because I let God have my nights and He can do with them whatever He wants now.

Let me explain. A few years ago I stumbled across this Psalm: “I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me” (Psalm 16:7 NIV). And this one: “You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night” (Psalm 17:3a NKJV).

And while we’re at it, here are a few more to complete the picture. Add these to your nighttime “arsenal:”

“Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:2 NKJV).

“O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel (Psalm 22:2-3 NKJV).

“Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b NKJV).

“The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me-A prayer to the God of my life” (Psalm 42:8 NKJV).

“When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice” (Psalm 63:6-7).

“The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;” (Psalm 74:16a NKJV).

“I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, And my spirit makes diligent search” (Psalm 77:6 NKJV).

“In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, And all the night with a light of fire” (Psalm 78:14 NKJV).

“You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day” (Psalm 91:5 NKJV).

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night” (Psalm 92:1-2 NKJV).

“He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to give light in the night” (Psalm 105:39).

“I remember Your name in the night, O LORD…” (Psalm 119:55a).

“Behold, bless the LORD, All you servants of the LORD, Who by night stand in the house of the LORD!” (Psalm 134:1).

“If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me” (Psalm 139:11).

“Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You” (Psalm 139:12).

He is with me in the night when my thoughts are rampaging; He is with me in the night when my heart is breaking. His song is with me in the night. He is with me in the night “seasons” when my soul is going through a long season of darkness.

He is with me!

He is for me!

Oh Lord, my God, what would I do if I didn’t know this to be a fact of my real life, and not simply words on a page. Thank You my Lord.

 

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They Have Been With Jesus

Posted on April 9, 2013 by intothemistbook

They Have Been With Jesus!

Jesus seems to be spending much time with me lately taking me into deeper understandings of a few verses which have long been favorites. He has been “sowing” this seed into my actuality—my real life experiences—for some time now.

It has to do with our responses to life’s unexpected and difficult events and whether we choose to respond in our flesh or in His Spirit. It has to do with suffering and being filled with fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in the midst of suffering. It has to do with being conformed into His image (Romans 8:29); and being transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2). There are many layers to this teaching, and with each layer, a new and deeper experience of His perfect peace becomes ours. This journey is ours—He is reaching out His hand and asking, “Will you follow me?” and we, like the disciples, can indeed, follow Him. It is a strange and wonderful journey; it can often be a terrifying journey as He sometimes allows dark passages down lightless alleyways and at times, hanging suspended over treacherous cliffs. With His hand always on our backs, He repeats His question “Will You follow Me? Will you trust Me?”

There are times when I have said “No, not if it means suffering—not if it means allowing this thing into my life—this thing that nearly destroyed my faith altogether!” But, in the end, I always consent because my burning, passionate love for Him—a love that has grown ever deeper through the difficult times, drives me into Him.

This journey has given me a passion to walk alongside others as they navigate this path; as their faith feels fragile and hanging by a thread. My one message is this: There is something more wonderful at the end than you can ever imagine; something so much bigger than your mind can conceive and it is all worth it. It is all worth it. As Paul so beautifully wrote:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge– that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:16-21).

I have spoken many times of the above verses, and have prayed them word for word for my children and grandchildren. It seems to encapsulate everything God would Himself pray for us. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to be rooted and established in His love. He wants us to have His power to be able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is His love—a love that surpasses knowledge and to be filled with all of His fullness. This is the will of God.

Yet, we choose to live here in this temporal fallen place and wallow around in our pitiful selves and then to question God as to why He is allowing thus and such to happen to us. Beloved! He is allowing it in order to release all of the things spoken of in this passage of Scripture! It is all a part of the story He is weaving. Press on! Keep on believing—against hope—believe.

I read in my Streams in the Desert this morning a wonderful translation of another of my favorite passages:

“Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, being insulted, experiencing emergencies, and being chased into a corner for Christ’s sake; for when I am without strength, I am dynamite!” (2 Cor. 12:10).

A.B. Simpson explains:

“The secret of knowing God’s complete sufficiency is in coming to the end of everything in ourselves and our circumstances. Once we reach this point, we will stop seeking sympathy for our difficult situation or ill treatment, because we will recognize these things as the necessary conditions for blessings. We will then turn from our circumstances to God, realizing they are the evidence of Him working in our lives.” (Cowman, L.B. Streams in the Desert. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. 1925, 1953, 1965, updated 1997.)

Paul goes on in this same passage and actually says, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10).

He delights in these things!

This is our victory—this is our declaration of truth in the very face of the onslaught of oppression and attack and emotional pain and suffering and this is where His strength is made perfect. Trust me, this is not an easy thing to learn, it is a seed that we often hear and it brings a divine Amen to our emotions, but to take the seed and sow it into our actual experience—well, this takes supernatural, divine sowing and the only part we play is to consent to it, and to declare it as truth, whether our emotions believe it or not.

Here is our declaration of truth:

I am hard pressed on every side, but I am not crushed!

I am perplexed, but I am not in despair!

I am persecuted, but I am not abandoned!

I am struck down, but I am not destroyed!

I always carry around in my body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in my body!

For I am honored and count it a privilege that I am always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake!

Our emotions will come to believe it, trust me, and it will produce the harvest that Jesus is after in our lives and that harvest will feed many for years to come because when it has done its work in our soul, others want what we have—they see that “we have been with Jesus.”

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Let this then be our passion in life—that others would say of us, “we see that she has been with Jesus.” And they would want what we have.

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A Song for Pilgrims

Posted on March 26, 2013 by intothemistbook
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me. Let all Israel repeat this:  From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but they have never defeated me. My back is covered with cuts, as if a farmer had plowed long furrows. But the LORD is good; he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly. May all who hate Jerusalem be turned back in shameful defeat.  May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop, turning yellow when only half grown, ignored by the harvester, despised by the binder. And may those who pass by refuse to give them this blessing: “The LORD bless you; we bless you in the LORD’s name” (Psalm 129 NLT).

 

Studying Beth Moore’s Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent, I have been hearing many new revelations of old truths, which is what I love about the Word of God—He always has something new to teach me, no matter how many times I have read His Word. It is as though there are layers and layers of revelation imbedded in His Word and why not? Is He not the “Word of God?” And isn’t the Word of God (Jesus), “living and active” and “sharper than a double-edged sword?” Does it not have the power to penetrate to “dividing between soul and spirit, joints and marrow judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart?” And there is nothing in all creation that is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account”? (Hebrews 4:12).

So, true to His Word, He always manages to reveal something new, either about Himself, or about me, as I camp out in His word and actually allow Him to penetrate and divide between my soul (my mind, will and emotions), and my Spirit where He abides.

Psalm 129 held out a few truths over the past two days. Of course the Psalmist wrote it about Israel and God’s protection over His covenant Land, but I can also bring it home and apply it to my own life, and He had some things to share with me about how this applied to so many of us. Beth Moore explains how the word “afflicted” is translated from the Hebrew and it means “oppressed, attacked, persecuted, afflicted” and it is a picture of an enemy  “binding up, hampering, oppressing, distressing, besieging, pressuring us so far down or cramping us into such a knot that we feel constrained to exercise our God-given rights and effectiveness.” Israel’s enemies were real nations; our enemy is that ancient accuser of the brethren, who accuses us before the throne of God day and night. And, he can do a number on our mind, will and emotions in many ways and through many people. He is the oppressor and he does bind us up with his lies, hampers our ability to believe in the truth of God’s love for us, pressures us so far down that we are tied up in knots.

This enemy has managed to dig deep furrows and ruts into our minds so that he can return again and again to the same old methods of taking us down. Beth notes that many of us have been victims of abusive people in our lives and the furrows that have been plowed into our backs leave us open to others who want to victimize us until we develop a “victim mentality.” This victim mentality unbeknownst to us, actually invites others to reject, abuse and victimize us. The furrows in our backs are deep and open to anyone who is a victimizer. We react either by letting people walk all over us, or we turn callous and hard and become the victimizer.

But God has other plans. The Psalmist declares that the LORD is good and that He has cut us free from the ropes of the enemy! Amen. The enemy has bound us up with his “ropes” of lies, but Jesus is Truth and only Truth has the power to cut us free from the ropes of the enemy. Cutting the ropes (the lies) means that he can no longer plow furrows on our back. We have the power in Jesus Christ to no longer lay down and expose our backs to those who want to walk over us—we have the power to stand up (Ephesians 6:12) and refuse the lies and the oppression. Over the years Jesus has taught me a very important truth—Declaring His Truth out loud sends the enemy running because he has no weapon against Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth. The lie that the enemy plowed into my back for so many years was this: “You must pay and suffer the consequences of your past for the rest of your life.” And he had plenty of evidence to back that up. Finally Jesus got hold of me and said to me quite plainly “Is that truth? Is your past not under My blood?” And so He stood me up on my feet and instructed me to begin this process of defeating the enemy with His Truth and every time the lie would come into my mind, I simply said, “Yes, I do have a past, but it is forgiven and under the blood of Christ.”

Within a few short weeks, all of the bound up, hampering, oppressing, distressing, besieging, pressuring and cramping me into a knot, was gone. It was gone forever. The furrows healed. The ropes were cut. And I was free.

Beth asks that we write out the Psalm in the form of a prayer. Here is what I wrote:

Many times the enemy has attacked me LORD, creating a rut in my soul which the enemy can come back to again and again. It is a familiar rut LORD because I have let him plow his lies into my mind for so long.

But You, O God, are perfect and You cut the thick cords the enemy used to keep me enslaved to his lies! Thank You, thank You, thank You!

Now, victorious LORD, put my enemy to shame and turn him back—whither his lies before Your eyes and drive him away because his desire is to hurt You, by hurting me.

But his lies will no longer prevail. Praise be to You my LORD. Amen.

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My Bridegroom

Posted on March 22, 2013 by intothemistbook

(I was honored to be invited to write a blog for my favorite website www.awidowsmight.org. Thanks Kit, I pray it will be a blessing to those going through grief.)

Comforting widows through the healing of the Lord Jesus Christ | Devotions for Widowhood and Grief

My Bridegroom

by Kit on March 22, 2013 www.awidowsmight.org.

by guest blogger, Kathleen Beard

He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness.

Deut. 2:7

He knows my wandering. He knows my times in the wilderness. I have thought often about the wilderness—finding myself there more than a few times.

Does He care that I am in this wilderness?

I had that thought so often when my husband was ill. Finding myself in the role of caretaker for this large, once strong, self-assured and hilarious man as he was disappearing into a place in his mind where I could not follow, was the most profound wilderness I had ever known. It was unchartered territory and it would shake everything I believed about God to the core.

Where was He in my wilderness? Where was He in that middle-of-the-night panic and fear? How would I ever recover? How was this thing “working together for good” as so many love to quote. What possible good could come out of such a thing?

Yet I was to discover that walking through a wilderness, Jesus had much of Himself to show me. I would learn that my wilderness was designed by Him, not simply to test my faith, but to show Himself faithful. As I traveled through it He showed me little by little the deeper, bigger plan that He had designed for me in the wilderness. Writing about it three years later, I began to see the bigger picture He was painting. It is an impressionistic picture—darks contrasted with lights; shapes and forms not painted in detail, just dabbed onto a canvas in splashes that when viewed as a finished painting shows how those vague splashes of pigment—the splashes of color next to grays and blacks—all come together to translate what the artist saw all along—he was painting light. And light can only be painted as it contrasts with dark.

In my wilderness, dark places that seemed to go on forever, were used to contrast with the brilliance of His painting of light. The finished painting is not dark at all; it has an atmosphere of light, shimmering as light does when placed side by side with darkness. God paints in contrasts. But it all ends up as light. Witness that ethereal moment after a rain storm when the storm clouds darken part of the sky, yet with a break in the clouds the sun bursts through creating brilliant, almost otherworldly, color and light. The light is bathed in yellows and oranges and reds; the trees and houses appear to glow. It is in that place where the rainbow will form, with the darkest of clouds as a backdrop. Staring at this scene, the eyes are drawn to that brilliant, glowing light, not to the dark clouds in the background.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. … Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen.

Isaiah 43:19-20

I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of great drought.

Hosea 13:5

He knows me in the wilderness of my widowhood. He cares. He is painting Himself—the “Light of the World”—into every detail of my wilderness and as long as I am paying attention—fixing my eyes only on Him, drawing near to Him, choosing to believe when there is no reason left to believe, I will know Him at a level that I never imagined possible. When Jesus is painting light into my wilderness, I can run into that light; I can sit there and let it bathe me in its warmth and comfort, because it is He Himself who is the Light and He knows my wanderings in this great wilderness. There is life in His light.

Lord, my Bridegroom: You asked me to call You “My Bridegroom” when John moved to Heaven, and I didn’t know what that meant but You were all I had and I needed to know that You were going to be a Husband to me. Now, five years later I am astonished at the ways You have proven to be exactly what I needed in every wilderness trial. Lord Jesus, have Your way with my life; have Your way with my emptiness as well as with my fullness. Thank You for painting Yourself into my wilderness and creating something so unimaginably beautiful of this mess. I surrender all into the masterful painting You are creating. I love You, in Jesus Name and for Your glory. Amen.

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SOWING IN TEARS/REAPING A HARVEST

Posted on March 12, 2013 by intothemistbook

Sowing in Tears/Reaping in Harvest

Sowing in Tears/Reaping a Harvest

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him (Psalm 126:5, 6).

In Beth Moore’s workbook “Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent (Moore, Beth. Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent. 2007. Lifeway Press, Nashville, TN. pp. 80-81), as she discusses Psalm 126, she writes:

“I want what these verses promise. I need to know I’ll never endure a season of tears that can’t turn into a harvest of joy”. (Ibid.)

And isn’t this how we all feel? She then connects this Psalm with the parable of the seed found in Luke 8:11-25, and her insight brings with it some very important answers for me.

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:11-15).

Moore relates how she and her husband visited a very poor African nation where children were severely malnourished. She tells of a missionary friend who explained to her that “… one of the most frustrating things is that in villages where they receive seed, they often eat the seed rather than planting it and bringing forth the harvest.”

This settled in her heart as she asked God to expand this into a possible explanation for the parable of the seed in Luke 8:11-15.

She writes:

“Why do some people see the results of the Word and others don’t? Why do some study the Word of God yet remain in their captivity?

“Some just eat the seed and never sow it for a harvest. You want examples? Why have many of us heard hundreds of messages on freedom, done every line of Bible studies like Breaking Free, wept over them, been blessed by them, and even memorized parts of them, yet remain in captivity? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have many of us read books on forgiving people, known the teachings were true and right, cried over them, marked them up with our highlighters, yet remain in our bitterness? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have we repeatedly heard how Christ has forgiven our sinful pasts and sobbed with gratitude over the grace of it, yet we remain in bondage to condemnation? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it.

“Sometimes we don’t even realize the difference. We’ll think we accepted the teaching because we were so moved by it. But you see, the seed of God’s word can fill our stomachs and give us immediate satisfaction and still not produce a harvest—that’s when we eat it but don’t sow it. Many times we apply biblical truth to our theologies without applying it to the actual practicalities of life.

“I cannot say this loudly enough. God’s word is meant to be applied to our reality. We can ‘Amen!’ the pastor as he preaches sacrificial love. We can walk to the car and comment on the great sermon he gave, drive home, and march in as mean and cold as the person who pulled out of the driveway. We decide surely God did not mean to apply His truth to our reality because He knows how difficult this or that person is to love. What just happened? We ate the seed instead of sowing it….

“[M]any of us will eat the seed instead of sowing it. Then we charge God with unfaithfulness when we don’t get the harvest He promised. God repeatedly says that a harvest is sown, not eaten as seed. We have to get down on our knees in the hardship of our circumstances and apply God’s word to the most difficult places, believing God will bring a harvest. Forgiving others, for instance, is a beautiful theology but a difficult reality. Those who apply it have a harvest for the rest of their lives. We were meant to eat from the sheaves, not from the seeds.” (Ibid.)

Sowing the seed for a harvest for me happens when I am abiding in Christ, taking every single issue in my life to Him, allowing Him to work his Word into my thinking, believing Him—not merely believing in Him. It is allowing Him to separate the truth from the lies in my mind and emotions. Bottom line—it is letting Him be God, letting Him walk out the story He is weaving in my life as it relates to His bigger picture—His above-the-line story—and being at rest in that story.

Sowing in tears is also prayer that has gone seemingly unanswered. There will be a harvest, though I have sown so long in tears—He has promised, and I have sown that promise: Abraham “… against hope, believed…” (Romans 4:18).

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galations 6:9).

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand (James 5:7-8).

Sow the seed with tears; wait for the harvest. It will come.

It will come.

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