1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him.
There are two broad categories of people within Christendom. They are not equally proportioned. One represents the vast majority and the other a remnant, a portion, “the few, as opposed to “the many.” This distressing spirit, spoken of in relation to Saul, is alive and well among the merely religious but who, nonetheless, call themselves after the name of Jesus. They seek the same comfort that Saul sought. And we see unfolding with David and Saul, an ancient battle that has always existed right from the times of Cain and Abel. In the end, one hates the other and determines to destroy the other. For the last 2000 years, the religious have mercilessly hunted down the genuine saint just as Saul hunted down David. David had what Saul did not. It really came down to jealousy.
In the beginning, Saul would get momentary relief when David played upon his harp. Modern day worship gives momentary relief to the merely religious. Its an opiate to them. Remember, the distressing spirit would leave Saul, but his relationship with God still ceased to exist. And then, of course, the distressing spirit would return. Like drunkenness, it lasts for but a short while and when one sobers up, they are distressed once again. The real malady is the malady of the soul. The only true solution is to come to Jesus on His terms. And His terms? Very simple, He requires your whole life. Those who try to save their own lives shall lose them, but those who lose their lives for His sake gain eternal life.
Therefore, feeling good when worshiping is simply temporary if you are not rightly related to Jesus. A pain killer alleviates the pain for a while but the source of the pain remains. It is only when the spirit is truly touched and changed forever that we are relieved of this deep malady of the soul, distress. God has a controversy with those who have not bowed the knee to Jesus and that controversy causes us all kinds of problems. Note that in this Scripture it is God Himself who sends this spirit and it is God alone, through His Son Jesus that can alleviate us from it. Men will try multiple religious acts to circumvent the need to be obedient to God and lay down their lives. Bonar writes……………..
“Men try rites, sacraments, pictures, music, apparel and the varied attractions of ecclesiastical ornament, but these leave the spirit unfilled, and its wounds unhealed. They cannot regenerate, enliven, heal or fill with the Holy Spirit. They may keep up the self satisfaction and delusion of the soul, but that is all. They bring no true peace, nor give rest to the weary, they do not fill they merely hide our emptiness.” Every Sunday in churches throughout the land and across the world there are a myriad of programs and liturgies and music that merely hide the emptiness of those who sit in pews, unchanged week after week.
What would have saved Saul? Obedience to the Word of God. We are called to obey the Lord our God with our whole hearts, holding nothing back. And the evidence of the reality of our genuine obedient relationship with Jesus is a changed life. You can raise your hands in worship every Sunday but without this changed life it is a futile as the worship of Saul. Saul was not worshiping God, for true worshipers obey God and are changed, no Saul was seeking momentary relief from his inner anguish. He just wanted to feel better. We may look upon the raised hands of a crowd and imagine that it denotes something, but the “Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)
In every storm, the saint has an anchor and His name is Jesus. We are out there in the roiling seas and He is the forerunner. He goes before us into the harbor and draws us in. In ancient times when the sea was too stormy to enter the harbor and giant waves would crash against the harbor walls and the ships would drag their anchors and be in danger of overturning and being swamped, they would lower a skiff, a forerunner. The anchor would be placed on the small boat and the boat would make its way into the harbor and the anchor would be dropped in calmer waters ,then the boat would be pulled into the harbor.
Jesus is our forerunner, Jesus is our anchor and He has went before us and prepared a place for us. A place of peace and stillness, His very presence speaks to the storms, be still! When you flee to Jesus He shall be our Rock, our strong high tower. Come to Me, He says, and I will give your weary souls rest. God and His Word are immutable, that is to say unchanging over time, any time, eternity even. God is unchanging and the Words that He speaks are unchanging. He never lies and this immutability, the Word says, is so that we “might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” There it is, its right there, take a hold of it, grab onto to it, never let it go, let it take you into the still calm harbor of His presence so that you might survive the storm. Take hold of this brothers and sisters, and you shall not drown.
I wrote this poem yesterday after the report that the cancer in my colon was gone. It reflects upon the storm my family and I have navigated in the last several months with a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. It was not my first storm and I am sure it will not be my last but the one ever present help has been Jesus. I have lived as a Christian long enough to know that Jesus is the anchor of my soul. I still have a pet scan next week to determine if the cancer is still in the rest of my body, but the same God who rules and reigns this week, shall be ruling and reigning next week and I will be careful to give Him all the honor and all the praise. Peace, in the midst of the storm, is among the most valuable treasures from the vaults of heaven. If you are in the midst of a storm today, come to Jesus and He will give you peace and rest for your weary soul.
The strength that takes me through.
The anchor of my soul When I was on my knees Is the harbor of my life Amidst the stormy seas
You are my strong high-tower You're the one I run into When I'm weak you are the power The strength that takes me through
The waters shall not overwhelm The fires shall not consume When Christ my Lord is at the helm When His presence fills the room
You were there from the very start You are there when I'm all alone You dwell in the very depths of my heart You are there upon your throne
So I'll praise you lord forevermore You're my life, my breath, my all When you knock I'll open up the door I will answer when I hear you call.
The more I study church history the more I see a recurring problem in every age. There is a cycle of revolution that returns us to the old paths and then within a generation or less, that which revolted against the traditions of men return to what they had left behind. The second generation worships the works of their fathers and fall into traditionalism. Even as early as 85ad we had Diotrephes, arguably the first senior pastor, building his own kingdom and rejecting the preeminence of Jesus. Now, there is no doubt that he would never have said that out loud or ever actually acknowledged that to himself, but John calls him on it.
And less than 10 years later comes the book of Revelation with its dire warning to the “churches.” So, this usurping of the preeminence of Jesus in our services or order of service or liturgy or call it what you like lies at the heart of the downfall of Christendom ( not the Church, rather the system of the churches) in the west and beyond. Add the clergy/laity system and the downfall was always inevitable even if not overt.
The solution is the same as it has always been over the last 2000 years, getting back to the Word and rejecting everything that is not found within the Word. For me, it starts with 1 Cor 12 and 14. If we strove for anything that looks like that, we would be on our way to recovery/revival/reformation/revolution, call it what you may, but in it’s essence it would simply be a return to our roots and our foundation, the Lord Jesus Himself and Him high and lifted up.
And unless we stay there, within the confines of the Word of God, the coming movement would barely last a generation. Where are the men and woman who will stand and challenge those within the church systems? In the Hebridean revival the leaders asked of themselves “are my hands clean, is my heart pure?” They looked first to themselves. What does it even mean now to your average church to desire to not lift up their souls unto vanity? Rather, to desire to ascend that hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place?
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:(Isa 44:3) What if we are so blind to our state that we cannot see the dry ground nor sense our state? Ask the average non denomination senior pastor how “his church,” is doing and almost to a man he will say “we are doing great.” Can the man who refuses to acknowledge his sickness be made whole? How can the Holy Spirit be poured out upon his seed and his offspring be blessed?
And since the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been almost entirely done away with in every church service, how will they be called back from their sin? Even although the prophets have been banished and usurped by “senior pastors,” who perhaps follow in the traditions of Diotrephes, they still have the Word of God. The first few chapters of Revelation still cry out to the churches. The warnings are still the same. And so in the end they shall be without excuse, for the Word never changes. So, if the Lord tarries, God bless the next generation of those who rebel against the traditions of their fathers which nullify the word of God, but beware when you stand, stay tightly within the confines of the Word or you shall fall in your second generation.
I awoke this morning (05/17/2024) from a dream about exalting the name of Jesus and I had this line in my spirit “perfect in all your broken pieces,” which prompted the writing of this poem………….
Made perfect in Christ
Perfect in all your broken pieces Perfect in the Blood of Christ alone His perfect love it never ceases As He draws you before His triumphant throne
Jesus, Jesus how I love you so I know you'll never let me go Beneath thy wing I ever stand Safe and secure in the palm of your hand
I'm healed by the Blood that never ceases I'm healed as I wade amidst it's flow And my cry to the heavens surely reaches It cleanses me whiter than the purest snow
I'm perfected by Christ my one Redeemer The one who died for you and for me I'm healed and made whole as I go ever deeper Deeper in Him shall set me free
His perfect love cries out in the darkness It cries out to you right where you are Conquering all sin and death and sadness He is so near who once was so far.
The manifest presence of God is the tangible reality of the Lord in our lives. Too often we simply have fellowship with each other about fellowship. We often just simply talk too much rather than enter in. So many of our services are devoted to talking about the theology of God. We hear teaching after teaching and it takes up 90% of the service.
The sad truth is that we would rather hear about God than hear from God. To hear from God is to shake the very foundations of our comfortable lives. To hear from God is to cry out like Isaiah “I am undone.” The manifest presence of God leaves nothing untouched. The secret garden of our heart is penetrated.
If the garden is good then we are overwhelmed with His goodness. If the garden has weeds, has secrets, secret darkness, then the Light of God shall make it known. This is why our services, for the most part, do not resemble 1 Cor 14 with the gifts of 1 Cor 12 in operation. It would be too “messy.” The “order of service,” would be turned upon its head. The “liturgy,” would fall by the wayside. We would do real business with God and with each other.
Yet, I believe the main reason this is avoided is because most of those sitting in the pews know nothing of the new birth. And, sad to say, so many of them who occupy the pulpit in our day know nothing of the new birth either. One luke warm generation after another has caused the very idea of a 1 Cor 14 church to be an impossibility. One gift after another has been cast out of the service until all we are left with is 20 min of rehearsed professional music, and a regurgitated sermon and a plea for money.
It’s a sad indictment of our age. It’s the tragedy of our age. Yet there are a remnant of God’s people. There are still those who have been born again and know of His glory. Who have been touched and forever changed by His glory. Whose hearts are set on Him. Whose secret places are filled by His light and His glory.
Have most of these Spirit filled saints been chased away from the typical Sunday morning service? Yes indeed. They can find no place in the order of things, so they find themselves, often times, in a lonely place, a wilderness of sorts. And in this wilderness they find that God will meet all of their needs. Their intimacy with Him grows in direct proportion to their direct needs met. And one day soon enough, those whom God has called away unto Himself will come walking out of that desert.
Just as John the Baptist declared from the wilderness “behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,” the remnant saints will declare “behold, the Son of God is coming in all His glory to judge the living and the dead.” They identify the signs of His coming and the world will mock them. And as each sign becomes increasingly hard to ignore, the world will increasingly hate them.
Yet they will find that this remnant has been individually and uniquely trained in the desert. They have been taught in the ways of endurance. They have walked through trial and flood and our Lord God has taken them through them all, they are overcomers. And now, they shall overcome the last great battle against them by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimonies of Christ in them, and , because of what the Lord has trained them in the desert, they love not their own lives unto death.
So dear lonely saint, be of good cheer, for the time of the Lord draweth near and let us ever draw near unto Him by entering into the manifest presence, the glory which the Lord Himself has given and revealed to us.
I could not sleep last night, a mixture of the chemo and the prednisone no doubt. It has happened many times since I began treatment, but last night I awoke with the phrase “entertain or enter in.” The Lord was laying something on my heart. It occurred to me that if you take the letters “ta” out of entertain you are left with enter in. And yet, the definitions could not be more different. The Greek word for entertain is “psychagogia,” meaning “amusement-diverson-distraction.” The Greek word for”enter is “bo,” meaning “to go out or to come in.” The choice seems clear, be amused, diverted or distracted, or enter into His presence.
Interestingly enough, if you look at the two letters “ta,” in the Greek it means “the third person,” meaning “when you are speaking ( or singing) about someone else rather than directly addressing that someone.” Speaking in the third person you remain detached. Are we remaining detached from God in our modern day version of worship? Are we merely being entertained, an amusement or a distraction? A distraction from what? From actually entering in. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise (Psa 100:4) Enter into the joy of the Lord (Matt 25:23) For He who has entered into His rest has himself rested from his works (Heb 4:10) Not everyone that says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter in (Matt 7:21)
It makes my heart long for stripped down, simple/profound congregational worship, something the modern day worship ” team,” has wholly set aside for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is to entertain. We don’t need to be entertained and sit by as mere spectators/fans, we need to enter in. Enter into what some might say? Enter in by the only door available, Jesus and Him high and lifted up. And let every voice sing as unto the Lord and face heavenwards and not towards a “stage,” a place for actors. Let us take the “ta,” out of entertain and let us who know Jesus, enter in.
In the quietness of peace and in the beauty of Holiness we should make our way through this noisy world. Like an elegant sailing ship making its way through calm waters with a beautiful fresh wind in its sails, we should walk through this world as peacemakers, drawing men and women to Jesus. We must not simply be a believer in doctrines but rather we must be a manifestation of such doctrines. Living epistles read of men. If men could read aloud the story of our hearts would it draw them to the Father? The narrative of our spirits should be like manna in the desert and water that bursts forth from rocks. In short, we should be life among death and light that pierces through the gross darkness of this world. A lighthouse that stands tall upon the Rock.
Your presence fills me with great joy And turns every shadow into light Great consolation is mine Which feeds the deepest part of me, and sustains me though the night.
Oh blessed joy is mine divine The eternal longing of my aching heart For the day when the morning star rises And then, forever, we shall never be apart
To look into the depths of who You are Even for a moment, gives life unto my weary soul The one who took the many broken pieces Before the throne and the Father made me whole
I will awaken the dawn with the praises of my King You will hear, from the ends of the earth, heavenly choirs sing Look through the door of your heart that He has knocked upon And hear the angels singing their golden heavenly song
Then shall heaven and earth be one together And we shall abide before His throne forever I in him and He in we Cast upon an eternal holy sea.
Sorrow leaves it's mark upon the soul As the Lord shapes us and takes back what the enemy stole With an iron pen and lead in the rock, it is written The genuine work of God, His composition
He has written His word upon the heart that He has given And with many a blow, sin from our soul is driven Shall we not welcome the rod that can never miss? And with a warm embrace, direct it with a kiss
We can count the cost, then embrace the cross or lay it down and suffer the loss Remember each one is crafted by His hand And are designed so that no man can still stand It's by His Blood and sorrow they were crafted And they seal the wounds whereby we are grafted.
2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
This word weight is used both times in the scriptures with the context being very different obviously. It can mean abundance or burden or load. Now clearly sin is a burden to the soul, a load not easily carried. It slows us down, much like if we were attached to an anchor and had to drag it behind us. We have all felt it. Yet Heb 121:1 is compelling us, with a vision, to lay that burden down. Look up with spiritual eyes and see that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone before us, the angels of heaven, the Kingdom of God. See the things that are eternal. See the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up. When we look to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith then sin loses it’s power and its hold on us.
When we look not at the things that are seen, but rather the things which are not seen then there is a power released in us. The light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ begins to shine forth from the depths of our very beings. This treasure that dwells in the depths of our hearts pours forth like the rising of the sun after the long night. What a welcome sight for all those who dwell in darkness to see the rising sun shine forth from us, and it draws men to God. Rather than our afflictions causing us to look down and to fall into sorrow, let our light afflictions cause us to look up and to be encompassed with the eternal abundance of His glory. With eyes to see, we peer into the glories of the world to come. We are overcome with His majesty, with His glory, with His holiness, with His joy. This power truly comes to pass in the midst of our afflictions for it is then that God has commanded His light to shine forth from the darkness.
“How fast we learn in a day of sorrow. It is as if affliction awoke our powers and lent them new quickness of perception. We advance more in knowledge of Scripture in a single day than in years before. We learn songs in the night, though such music was unknown before. A deeper experience has taken us down into the depths of Scripture and shown us its hidden wonders.” (Horatius Bonar)
And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. (Isa 45:3)
When darkness comes knocking at our door and we come to the end of our own resources, we cry out into the night. There is a hidden treasure that awaits the saints who are overtaken by afflictions. Out of the darkness, God Himself has commanded that light would shine. It shines into the depths of our hearts and dispels all fears. Our perceptions change. Worldly things that were important yesterday, are no longer important today. Our hearts and our minds are drawn up into high and lofty places. Our brokenness allows the hidden treasures of God that lie within us to pour forth as never before. The night watches, so dreaded by men, becomes our sanctuary. A holy place where the Lord Himself gives us a song. Is there a more sweeter sound that the song that resonates in our heart in the night? The contrast of darkness only serves to illuminate the brilliance of the light of God.
Down we go, down into the depths of the Word and His truth and His promises. And as we are taken by the depths of His love, we are lifted to the heights of His glory. The precious hand of God wherein we lie, closes over us and holds us tight as the storms and the waves reach up to try and pull us down. Yet, they cannot, for nothing can pluck us from the hand of God. Every precious word of God becomes a shaft of light that pierces through the darkness. And that light warms us and envelops us and keeps us from the icy blasts of this world with all of its ravages. We become super sensitive to His presence and to His promises and to His love. We begin to actually live one day at a time just as our Lord and Master Jesus told us to. And what a glorious way to live with our eyes truly set upon Him.
As we consider the lilies of the field, as we consider the sparrows of the air, as we understand that His eye is on the sparrow and He clothes the grass of the fields with much more splendor that Solomon was ever arrayed, we understand His eye is on us. And in the knowing of this, in the depths of our heart, there arises great joy. Joy in the darkness? Joy in the affliction? Joy in the depths of infirmities? Yes, yes, yes!!! It is the joy of the Lord. And the joy of the Lord that rises up from the darkness is our strength in the night. You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psa 16:11) His presence is my song in the night. His presence is my fullness. His presence is my joy. He alone lifts me up to the mountaintops from the valley floor. In fact, they are both alike to Him for where He is, is Holy ground…..bro Frank.
Interesting story with this tree. Before it ever existed, I had a tree planted, by professionals, about six feet in front of it. It never flourished. I prayed for it as well but in the end it died. I pondered that as I removed it. Well, the very next year this tree was born. I did not plant it. It is, what they call, a volunteer. I watched it grow. I did not water it, pray for it, or do a single thing to enhance its growth. And here it is, several year later in all its splendor. The birds love it.
I think about what it means to try and produce things in our own strength, by the power of our own hands. Especially in ministry. And all the time the wind of the Holy Spirit is doing His work. Seeds come from who knows where and life begins. What God initiates, always flourishes. With men it is hit and miss but the Lord never misses, He always accomplishes what He sets out to do. This magnificent tree, it’s position in the yard, it’s incredible growth, all His work!
The Lord, of course, was acquainted with sorrows and sufferings and this gives us strength to know that He knows and He sees all of our afflictions. In the end, our walk must simplify as we mature in Him. We must decrease and He must increase. This decreasing is something of a mystery. Perhaps diminished is also a good word, to be diminished in our own estimations of our “self.”
The greater damage we do to self, the clearer the two kingdoms become. The kingdoms of this world and its ruler, and the Kingdom of God, that was, and is, and is to come and it’s ruler, the Lord Jesus. How do we “diminish,” “self?” How do we decrease? How is the hold that self has on us loosed? Only by the cross. Only ever by the cross. The flesh refuses to die, it refuses to relinquish control. We cannot negotiate with it or compromise with it. Absolute surrender, which is so offensive to the world and self, is our stance. Therefore it’s a battle to the death. No quarter to be given.
As we go down this road, by the power of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to turn a corner at some point. As we surrender to surrender our eyes begin to “see,” things more clearly. We begin to hear the call of heaven more loudly. It begins to fill us and fill us with a greater longing to only live in the Kingdom of God. The things of this world begin to lose its grip on us. We can picture ourselves in the dungeon with Paul and Silas, praising God in the darkness of the midnight hour.
Paul “learned,” to be content. He did not just suddenly arrive at the place where he could declare all things loss as dung in comparison to be found in Him. He walked through many fires and afflictions. He suffered greatly with infirmities. He was hungry and naked, shipwrecked, lashed to within an inch of his life. He was despised and rejected. All of this happened to him as he walked down the path the Master has blazed for us. Shall we continue down the narrow path brothers and sisters?
This narrow path leads to Calvary, the ultimate death. Can we say, with our Lord ” for the joy that is set before me?” What joy is this? The joy of fulfilling the will of God in our lives. His will, not ours. His will, which is so violently opposed by our flesh and fights so viciously to exercise its own will. His will is the solid Rock upon which we stand. His will is the center of all that exists. His will is our very spiritual existence. Death to the flesh begins to leads us to an unobstructed view of His will.We see more clearly His desire for us. His desire for us becomes our desire for ourselves. The desire of our hearts is to glorify Him in all that we do.
Let everything that does not bring you peace, let everything that does not bring you to this place, go. In the end we love Jesus more than everything. Which was our genuine declaration in the beginning of our walk. Our peace in Him, our joy in Him, is our strength. Without this strength we can do nothing. When all those around us are floundering, when all are losing their heads, then we must be found in Him. We cannot go down with the ship, rather we must walk upon the water and reach out our hand to them. We walk upon the water by keeping our eyes on Jesus. Lift up your eyes today dear brothers and sisters, and see where your help comes from. Reach out to Jesus, take His hand, and never let go!
George Matheson, the great old, blind Scottish preacher once said, “The hour of thy loneliness will crown thee. The day of thy depression will regale thee. It is thy desert that will break forth into singing. It is the trees of thy silent forest that will clap their hands .. the thorns will be roses. The valleys will be hills. The crooked will be straight lines, the ruts will be level. The shadows will be shining. The losses will be promotions, and the tears will be tracks of gold. The cup of suffering you prayed would pass from you will be your constant royal crown in the sweet by and by.”
The Lord sees us. He knows us. He comforts us. His comfort is strength and joy where there should be none. And though darkness may press in on us from every side, His light triumphs over it. Even the darkness is light to Him, and then, of course, to us. When the landscapes of our lives seem to stretch out before us in endless deserts, suddenly even the sand cries out, and the very rocks cry out, glory, glory, glory to the Living God! When the silence floods in and we struggle to hear anything above its noise, suddenly, glory to God the silence is broken. Just one word from our Lord shatters the deafening silence and our hearts and spirits are filled with His majesty.
Sometimes the thorns of life invade our lives yet from these thorns come magnificent roses. I am reminded of the Lord’s crown, and yet truly, He was crowned in a higher place. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Crown Him with many crowns, but first the crown of this life which was overcome. And now we overcome in Him. Paul once said that he considered the loss of all things as nothing, as less than nothing, for he only wanted to be found in Him. If our losses in this world lead us into the depths of Him, then we should surely be found praising Him in the midst of every situation. I praise Jesus today.
There is a cup in this life, and we are asked to take it, to take it all. Jesus led the way in the garden, and if He could take that cup, the cup that was filled with all the sin of this world and would lead to the death of the cross, then surely, in His power, and in His might, we can drink down the cup given to us. And in just one of the countless paradoxes in the Scriptures, we see that as we willingly drink this cup, there is another cup that simultaneously begins to fill and overflow………..Psa 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Deep calls unto deep At the noise of your waterfalls And in the daytime Your loving-kindness calls And when the nighttime comes Your song shall be with me And even in the darkness, I shall see.
To the Lord my Rock I run beneath thy wings And in the night watches I listen to the angels sing When darkness is all around Send out Your light to me Shackles are broken, and I am free
A very present help Though the mighty waters roar And mountains they fall down Yet your Spirit helps restore My troubled heart in times of need Within my chest it surely leaps As the deep within my soul calls out to Deep.
This is the word from the Lord that led to my last poem. This video is an update of my current sitution, may the Lord be praised through all of it………………..bro Frank
“And in the silence there is peace. It dwells above the noise and the din. Above the begging and the pleadings and the raging storm, there sleeps Jesus in the boat. Shall we too arrive at the place where sleep is not dependent upon the storm being stilled? Where trust lies down among the lions. Where perfect love casts out all fear. This is the Kingdom of God, this is the rarified air of heaven. This is the shaft of light that pierces the darkness and guides us home.”
This a a poem I just wrote based on a word the Lord gave me last week due to my current circumstances (cancer)
And in the silence there is peace It dwells above the noise and din And faith from heaven is released And fills completely from within
Beggings and pleadings are not heard By our own hand we are not kept afloat Yet Christ Himself in the midst of it all Keeps the storm at bay, asleep in the boat
I shall lie down, at peace in the silence When all around, the storm rages still Safe and secure in the depths of His glory In perfect peace at the center of His will.
I sleep in the midst of the lion's den They are held at bay by His heavenly hand His perfect love casts out all fear And in peace or storm I shall surely stand
I breathe in deeply the air of heaven It fills me and fills me with His perfect love A shaft of light shatters the darkness It leads me and guides me to my home high above.
A Call To The Remnant 