Help Us to Dream
Your
Dreams oh
Lord!
Your
Dreams oh
Lord!
The more I learn about God's "hesed" love, the more peace and stillness is coming to my heart. I am learning from David how to position my heart each morning to receive God's plan for my day. Like David, I will "prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you.. and lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart." Ps 5:3 (TPT). "Perfect love casts out fear. He who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18 (NIV). I continue to recognize "hestitations" and "reservations" in my heart toward what God is wanting me to surrender. I have a willingness but He is showing me the fears and doubts that remain. No one's love is perfect except God. He loves His creation so much that we get to choose allegiance or defiance in each and every area of life each and every day. In fact every minute of every day. Can Jesus be my Savior and not my Lord? His love is big enough for this, yet His love calls me higher. The glimpses of what He has shown me of His future call for me is staggering. I know He must empower me and I must be willing for Holy Spirit to manifest in me the way He chooses.
I was led to jump ahead to the "first mention" of hesed love that was sung to God in this first psalm that mentions God's "hesed" lovingkindness. I have spend several weeks in this psalm captivated by David's rich understanding and dependence on this love in order to be turned from a rejected shepherd boy to a rejected king to a beloved king all the while being a "man after God's own heart". Speaking God's word powerfully transforms us and the world around us. It was God's word that created the world and we are told as God's image-bearers that "life and death are in the power of the tongue." Pr 18:21 (BSB) But when we sing God's word it has a way of softening hardened parts of our hearts so we can receive hard truths more easily. God's word stopped Satan in his tracks when Jesus used it against Satan in his wilderness experience prior to the start of his ministry on earth. Let's do damage to the lies of the enemy that make us doubt God's love. In Psalm 5:7 David writes: "But I know that you will welcome me into your house, for I am covered by your covenant of mercy and love." (TPT) This takes me back to Psalm 23:5b where David writes of his Good Shepherd's blessings as his "cup runs over." (NKJV) In the verses leading up to vs. 7 David admits how he is feeling about his enemies and often through his songs admits that God doesn't always feel very close or helpful in his striving against his enemies. Despite his honest admissions he gets to verse 7 and senses God's welcome, His favor and His blessing. It is God's covenant blessings promised centuries ago that are certainly considered by David in this verse. The KJV's translation of this word used the same translation as they did in Ge. 19:19 for hesed- "magnified mercy and kindness." Yet I believe the Passion translation renders hesed more accurately in this context. The tabernacle's welcoming presence of God had to speak covenant to David. De 4:7 reminds us of the great divide between Israel and every other nation on the earth back then. "“For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?" (NIV) God's peculiar love for David and his people don't just magnify God's mercy and kindness for David, they speak promises/covenants that are now all "yes" in Jesus according to 2 Corinthians 1:20 and yet they were still quite powerful in David's day. This covenant mercy and love are explained with both old and new testament reference in 2 Corinthians 6:14: "And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? As God has said: “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” In David's day the Holy Spirit would come and go but often accompanied him and his might men in battle where Holy Spirit "Kungfu" gave them supernatural powers to overcome the demon-powered Philistines in 1 and 2 Samuel. In those days the only consistent place to experience the literal presence of God was to go to the tabernacle where the very presence of God was ALWAYS there as long as the ark of the covenant was inside and no demonic idols were added inside the "house of the Lord" like in Ezekiel's day when they literally saw God's Shikenah leave the temple and never return. The idolatry had reached it's peak. David felt the difference because for 32 years the ark was not in the tabernacle and he had the privilege of finally bringing it back. Today, since Pentecost, we are the temple of God. The more willing and yielded we are, the more His supernatural power can flow through us to love our enemies, repent of and walk away from stubborn sins of even the worst kind of addictions. We can heal the sick, cast out demons and take back the ground that demons have "legal claim" over because of the fall. Why? Because on the cross the devil was defeated and now we are God's agents of His Kingdom as the body of Christ with Holy Spirit indwelling to equip us with power. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be His name. He has a heavenly bank account endless in it's provision, full of gifts, giftings, resources to do ALL that is written in our book. We are to take withdrawals often, daily, minute-by-minute an believe Him when Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come on earth AS it is in heaven." Not only do we have power, we have covenant promises that are all "YES" in Jesus. We ARE to speak to our mountains of doubt, fear, unbelief and obstacles to His plans for our life and expect them to move. Yet corporately there is a greater presence of the Lord possible when all are surrendered and open to the Holy Spirit amongst a group of believers. In most circles today Holy Spirit is NOT welcome and so little power and glory are experienced or revealed in most church bodies today. I believe our lack of faith in Drs. have led us to a greater faith in the Great Physician. I believe the loss of faith in government have drawn us closer to God's desire for His spiritual kingdom governance to be displayed on the earth. Our inability to reach the hard-hearted unbelievers around us has thrust us into a desire to display God's glory through power evangelism. Preaching the gospel in word and deed, signs, wonders, deliverances and healings to soften hearts hardened because they thought the rejection of others meant God has forgotten or rejected them. We are called to show them He has NOT forgotten them. I know that the governments of the world are on the shoulders of my Savior and whether that will result in only Spiritual reign or a literal one, I haven't a clue. Actually I don't need to know it to advance His kingdom His way. While we may dominate in sheer numbers our influence is nominal. I believe this is contrary to God's heart for the nations. Both Canada and the USA have covenant promises with God made 100's of years ago that God is remembering in our day and God is reminding me that it is not because we "deserve" rescue that we WILL get "rescued." It is because of promises and covenants our forefathers made with God hundreds of years ago. We stand on the shoulders of our "forefathers" by Holy Spirit insight and revelation. I repent as Nehemiah and Daniel repented for their nation. Lord forgive us for how poorly we have been influencing society, legislation, demonic strongholds and lost souls in our land. Forgive us for not taking advantage of ALL that Jesus carried on the cross. He became a curse on the cross so we could reverse every curse on the land, in our communities and world. Most of us know that He carried our sin, but in the original Hebrew according to Strong's concordance Is 53:3 shows that He also carried our sickness, deformitieis, grief, sorrow, abuse, the sins committed against us so we do not have to pick them up, look at them ever again. Teach us how to pray and believe and receive "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." As I ponder David's great triumphs on the battlefield, yet great defeats in his home life, I get disappointed at David and at myself. People get to choose how much of their life, they surrender to God. God never forces people to believe him about anything. The areas we don't surrender we leave for our children and grandchildren to fight. So I pray, Holy Spirit, for the sake of my children and grandchildren please reveal any other parts of my heart I have walled off with "no trespassing signs." I am willing for it all to be yours. I trust You to do the necessary surgeries in my heart to expose and remove those reservations I have to Your hesed love.
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For over a week now I have been inspired by an unnamed servant in Genesis 24. It has felt like another “first mention” of the word hesed because three out of the four references in this chapter are the first mention in the Bible of God's hesed kind of lovingkindness that English takes elaborate explanation to describe accurately.
Here is the background. Abrahem was getting pretty feeble. He was sensing he didn’t have long to live and didn’t want his son to fall into the idol worship of the Canaanites around him. He called on his senior servant to go back to his own kin in the land where Abrahem once lived to find Issac a wife amongst his own clan of people. When the servant shared his hesitation about this seemingly impossible task, Abrahem’s response was full of faith. “God will send an angel before you to prepare the way.” His servant was not so convinced, “but what if she won’t come with me, can I take Issac there?” Abrahem knew the promises God gave him and believed them and recalled them in the hearing of this servant, “No, Issac cannot go with you because God promised THIS land to us. If the girl won’t come with you, I will not hold you to this promise. Just promise me you won’t look for a wife for him among the Canaanites.” This promise was not just for his family. God promised that ALL the world would be blessed through Abrahem. Indeed, through his eventual seed, I am part of that promise as part of Abrahem's spiritual seed. Jesus continues to impact the world today through us, the body of Christ. As Jesus did we are to do. This unnamed servant didn't know anything about Jesus yet his faith, prayers and worship in this passage put my faith, worship and prayers make mine look quite insufficient for the tasks God has called me in which He wants me to trust Him to accomplish through me. I WILL let this servant's testimony become my testimony and I hope anyone reading this blog will do the same. As the servant arrives at the local watering hole he is faced with a daunting task. First he must find Abrahem's clan amongst all the other clans in a land in which he is likely unfamiliar. He prays to Abrahem’s God, not willing yet to claim that God as his. “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. " From this day forward I want the same kind of response to daunting assignments the Lord gives me. "Lord God make me successful today and show your kindness to others through me." Then came a word of knowledge that taught me far more thant he 'first mention of a word of knowledge' as described in 1 Co 12 provides. God put in his mind to speak out this destiny God would fulfill through this word of knowledge: "See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Here is what I learned from this servant about a prophetic word of knowledge now that I have experienced them and watched them work in miraculous ways to lead christians and nonchristians into greater faith and reliance on the Lord:
Several times you see this servant not even responding to the events around him until he first bowed down and worshipped the God who showed "hesed" kindness again and again. I am humbled and ask for this servant's kind of hesed love for God and for those in leadership over us. Surely this servant became a believer of God's words coming out of Abrahem and even his own mouth. Surely we will see him on the other side. When he met the parents of Rebekah he told of God’s hesed kindness and faithfulness to Abrahem and Sarah through the miracle son, Issac, and all the ways God has blessed them in every way, especially on this journey. He retold the story of what happened at the town well. Here is her parent’s response: “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.” Divine appointments, prophesies fulfilled have a way of bringing such a sense of awe and reverence to its witnesses that they become willing conduits of that hesed love and can’t help but respond in surrender and willingness to go along with the Lord’s plan. God changes hearts, orchestrates the affairs of our day, sends angels before us to do His bidding, let us not become dulled to Your workings in our life Lord. I CAN'T even imagine such a "yes" from Rebekah's parents. Yet Lord, if you ever ask that of me I can trust YOU can give the rich gracious supply of mercy and hesed to follow through. Every missionary who leaves their homeland has made this sacrifice. There are many left on this planet who still have not one word of the Bible translated into their heart language. Millions in the 10/40 window have not yet heard one time the name of Jesus. I was reminded also by a missionary to Spain that there are unreached peoples who were once reached by CINO's (Christians in name only). Some of these "christians" brutally beat, sexually abused, forbid indigenous people their own culture or language "in the name of their false Christ" and have turned off multiple generations to the beautiful name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Only authentic christianity demonstrating the power of the gospel of the kingdom can possibly shatter the plans of the enemy for these people groups all across our land and in the world. Jesus's power IS more powerful than the Shaman's many have returned to, mixing witchcraft, new age medicine, alcoholism, drug abuse and pharmaceutical power grabs. Yet what satan used for evil GOD has and WILL use for good, even this pandemic. What is toppling? Our dependence and false understandings of Drs. and medicine or even herbal preparations and supplements as our "first line of defense against illness." Is. 53:4-6 tells me that Jesus carried sickness sadness AND sin on the cross. Whether His whippings brought physical or spiritual healing, Hs body paid the price from illness and sickness so we would not have to carry them. One of His many names is Great Physcian and one of His Dad's names is "I AM Healer." The Israelites, despite their sin and failure wandered in the dessert 40 years and ther was not a sick or feeble one among them. That is our destiny and God is using covid to break our reliance on mediine, herbs and supplements to do what only God can do with contagious diseases, mandates destroying livlihoods of people and even IF there are nano technologies in some of the vaccines people took in good faith. God has been in the past few yeasr removing metal from people's bodies all over the world where revival is breaking out and healings and miracles are taking place. His timing is perfect. He is building my faith and the faith of many around me. I believe God is going to use this blog someday, maybe starting today to build the faith of those who read this. God wants to display His glory, His power and His majesty to the humble willing to believe in GOd's kind of success to do impossible things in and through us. I want no other God than this. I’ve been so blessed by a Hebrew word that describes God’s love that I just had to share it on this blog. The word is “hesed” and is translated, mercy, kindness, loving kindness, unfailing or steadfast love, depending on context, yet is is much richer than this. My goal in writing this is to become better at demonstrating and receiving hesed kind of lovingkindness from God and others and hope others will as well. Scholars say it would take multiple Bible stories, pictures and volumes of words in English to describe this one Hebrew word. That has fascinated me and Holy Spirit has clearly seen how desperately I need a touch of that love in the days we are living. Maybe someone who reads this will be as blessed as I was to discover these truths.
This word, hesed, is used 250 times in the OT. So that tells me it is an important word. It could be the most important word in the universe because it was the foundation for which the Lord made the world. It was out of his boundless, unfailing, steadfast, merciful love that He chose to create the world knowing what a mess we would make of it. Translators have used multiple words and phrases to explain this love but I think Cory Asbury actually has one of the best explanations of it in his song, “Reckless Love”. Here it is along with an explanation of what He meant by some who may consider "reckless" a reckless word to use to describe God's love. I know I once did until God corrected me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xx0d3R2LoU This word was first mentioned in Genesis 19:19. “Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your compassion (hesed), which you have shown me by saving my life;” Lot is showing his respect and honor for the angel that repeatedly saved his life over the past 24 hours. According to the Strong’s definition of hesed, even if another person is described by this word in the Bible it is generally referring to God. At least that is the case most of the 250 mentions of this word in the Bible. Let me set the stage. In Chapter 18 Abrahem received a prophetic message from God telling him that Sodom and Gomorrah were about to reap destruction because they had reached the limit and a legal right to continue to exist. Abrahem begged God to save 500, then, 40, then 30, then 20, then 10 righteous people. Yet in this 19th chapter of Genesis, it also becomes clear that He will NEVER force people to take God’s way of escape from judgment. We only know that God is good and is not WILLING that ANY perish. We are to resemble that in our pursuits to warn people of danger ahead and even in what we refuse to allow our thoughts to enter in regard to the "whys" of any death, trial or sickness that befalls another. Yet when God sends His warnings, we each have our part to play. Abraham's job was to plea for mercy for those still righteous in that town. The angels were used to warn and rescue the willing and even the reluctantly willing. Lot was dragging his feet when the angel grabbed him and his family. Some people love doing evil and will never want God's rescue plan. Others need a prophetic angel to convince them and drag them away from danger, but isn't God amazingly merciful to even those who are slow to respond. How many even in Sodom did He appear to one more time before that fateful day. One day in heaven we will find out. Meanwhile we who are His kids are called to be image-bearers of His hesed heart of love for His creation. It is a VERY sad reality that grieves the heart of God, their Maker when people have given the devil a legal right and foothold that gives demons permission to take their life. When the choices of people lead to destruction I believe these are some of the toughest moments for God. Yet even tougher for Him is to see the innocent slaughtered, enslaved and bullied. There are seasons on the earth when God has used extraordinary means to rescue the perishing crying out for justice because of His hesed love. To the blinded townspeople of Sodom, justice was that they bully and do with the angelic guests and then to Lot whatever they saw in their own belief systems what they deemed right. Newspapers in the town would have all agreed that Lot and his family had no right to say "no" to that angry mob.We are made in His image to reflect both sides of His "hesed" lovingkindness when truth and error are difficult to discern we need clear guidance from God and sometimes He will send a prophet to give that information to us. Hesed sometimes doesn’t always looks to us like love when it sets limits that others think are restrictive. God only does good things, but we see at times when people chooose paths of destruction, they give legal rights to the devil to build strongholds in their lives of others that evenutally blind them to truth. While God is long suffering, there comes a time when He acts on behalf of the innocent and His kids who are crying out for justice. This is called the "law of reaping what you've sowed." If you sow destruction long enough it will destroy you. If you sow kindness, even if others don't pay it back, God ALWAYS will because He is hesed. There is another law that Bible scholars came up with called the “law of first mention.” Scholars noted that the first time a word is used in the Bible it has the clearest description of that word and should be considered in interpreting the meaning in every future verse. Now that’s what makes this first mention of “hesed” so interesting. It depicts the different responses people have toward God’s “hesed” love that includes a rescue plan for any who will believe and receive it and His judgment of those who repeatedly and defiantly refuse it. Yet some, like Job's wife, are caught up in destruction and God gives us no insight into the reason. She didn't listen to the angel's warning, but neither did Lot at first. He was the one dragging his feet, not his wife. We aren't to make those judgments as to why the seemingly innocent die along with the wicked at times like that. We must take that thought captive every time we "wonder if this was a just judgment or simply the fall-out of living in a sin-ruined world. Yet this first mention of hesed is a perfect picture to help us see into the kind of Savior God would someday bring to earth to save us from hell's fire which all deserve. Lot was an eye witness to all these different responses that were magnified over the past 24 hours of his life before he spoke so kindly to the angels. It’s not every day you get rescued by an angel. His words demonstrate his gratitude and humility over their rescue while so many others, including his own wife, did not make it out alive. Thank You God for this “hesed” love You are showing in our day. You saved us to demonstrate that love in such tangible, out-of-bounds persistence that we will be “a sweet perfume to those who are being saved and the smell of death to those who are perishing.” Yet we preach Christ and Him crucified in order that we have the privilege of participating in reaching and saving some and we hope MANY in these days. |
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