He Who Watches Over Israel Will Neither Slumber Nor Sleep

Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Natanyahu

Psalm

121:1 ~ A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? 

121:2 ~ My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. 

121:3 ~ He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; 

121:4 ~ Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 

121:5 ~ The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 

121:6 ~ The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 

121:7 ~ The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 

121:8 ~ The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Practicing The Presence of God

Daniel Yordy

Practicing the Presence of God

Somehow, I was placed on an email prayer list. Pray for this problem, pray for that problem. Please don't mistake me. Every one of us needs prayer; every one of us has ongoing and very real needs.

But over and over, my spirit says to me as I look across these endless requests: "It is not prayer you need, it is Jesus." I want to holler, "Open your eyes, it is Jesus inside of you that is your salvation. He is life itself. Know Him! My prayer is not worth a hill of beans for you right now. At this moment you need to see Jesus as He fills you right now with all of His glory and power. You need to place yourself right in the center of His light. That's where you are, see yourself there."

One of the most important commandments to us in the New Testament right now is Romans 6: "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord."

'To reckon' means to speak, to declare, to call it to be so, to believe it is so, to place it to your own account that it is so. To shout out loud with your voice box: "Everything in me that needed to die is already and totally dead, vanished into the cross of Jesus." And then refuse all evidence that your natural sight wants to throw at you.

But a few weeks back, in a dream, I found myself declaring this truth, "I am alive unto God. I am alive unto God." My spirit declared this over and over. When I awoke, I realized that I had been overlooking the more important second part of this verse.

The cross is our foundation, the base upon which we stand, but the resurrection is our life. Jesus, alive in us, is no longer referenced by the cross. I am alive unto God. Only God can show us what that means by a revelation of His Spirit.

Consider these verses:

Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it . . . The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. Exodus 25

. . . Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Exodus 34

And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. 1 Kings 8

. . . He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray, as He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and his robe became white and glistening . . . and they saw His glory." Luke 9

Every appearance of glory and power in the Old Testament was Jesus. All of it was limited and confined by natural sight and by human inability to believe. What the disciples saw upon the Mount of Transfiguration was also limited by human definition, but the difference was that now the glory and might of God was personal - Jesus.

This same Jesus is my life and He fills me with all of His glory. Not the limited glory of the Old Testament. Jesus stated that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet from Adam until Jesus, but that he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.

See Him. See Him as He is in you. From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, you are filled with more glory and power than was ever seen in Bible times.

Paul shouted, "WE ARE NOT LIKE MOSES! We do not cover over our glory."

We do not need our bodies healed, we do not need our debts paid, we do not need 'safety' from the coming storm. We NEED our eyes opened, that we might see the glory and the power of the Holy One who fills us with all of His glory. Then, out of seeing Jesus as He is in us, comes all of the things that we need, like a mighty river of life and blessing and favor.

I recently heard a fellow Christian say, "Be careful, if we get to busy and don't have time for chapel, then the devil can (do whatever the devil does)."

This kind of comment is very familiar to me from the past. But I am amazed at how differently I see things now. My first thought was to laugh. Are you kidding me? How can that possibly be? Then I realized that she would not understand if I said anything.

We are filled with all the glory and power and might of all the Holiness and Majesty of God, way beyond anything we read about in the Bible. We are surrounded by God like a mighty fortress wall, He keeps us at all times, nothing can come to us except that which He allows and all of it is for our glory.

The only possible way we can 'see' the devil and sin in that way, as something to be fearful of, is if we cannot see Jesus inside of us.

I am speaking to God's sons: "God, open our eyes, cause us to see this glorious One who fills all of our humanity with His power."

For all of you dear ones who are troubled about 'sin' in your life. For God's sake, get your eyes off of the sin. It is thoroughly nailed to the cross and cannot escape. God does not want your eyes to be on the cross, but on the Savior and the Salvation that fills your being right now.

This is why Jesus said, "In that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." The order in which He said it is important.

If I don't know that I, all of me, all of my flesh and sin and humanity and weakness and debt and all of this dying body, all of me, I am in Jesus. If I don't know that, then the rug is jerked out from under my feet and I cannot see HIM.

But the very same Holy One who came upon the Mountain in consuming fire and clouds of darkness so that those people back then were terrified and could not stand before God - that same Holy One fills me, my body, my soul, my mind, my strength, my spirit, every part of my humanity, every part of who and what I am, He fills me with a glory and a fire that so far exceeds what they were capable of seeing back then. How then can I so miss the glory of the Resurrected Christ who fills me that all I can see is 'what the devil might do' or some 'sin' that I refuse to leave upon the cross.

It is wicked to 'weep' over sin. Weeping over sin is more wicked than the sin itself.

See Jesus. First you in Him, and then He in you. Sin is not in that picture, except already dead upon the cross. Jesus is our life; we have no other life. How can we see anything else?

Oh, how I want to grab people and shake them and shout, "The power and majesty and glory and holiness of Almighty God fills you from the top to the bottom, from the inside to the outside. How, how, are your eyes so blind, how are your senses so dull that you cannot see the Fire and Glory that fills you."

Yes, it is a dying body that the One who raised Jesus from the dead fills in His power. Yes, it is a weak human that is the earthen vessel that holds this Holy Treasure. Yes, my life is messy. Yes, when I look in the mirror, I see a very human face. That is the incredible wonder of this mystery. We imagine that we must see an outward glory with our natural eyes to know that we are filled with Christ.

We walk by faith and not by sight. We see Him who is invisible.

. . . that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith - the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1

It is not Jesus up in heaven that we do not see with our natural eyes, it is Jesus inside of us in all of His Ascended glory that we do not see with outward sight. But we see Him by faith and we are filled with a joy that cannot be expressed.

But now is the revelation of Jesus Christ, now we must walk in the knowledge of His Presence, His Parousia, His coming in us as we have never known before.

Practice living as if Jesus in all of His resurrected and ascended glory has returned to earth and now appears in a physical form - you. Practice living in the open consciousness of that reality - because it is true.

If Jesus showed up visibly, we would all fall on our face before His Majesty.

Jesus has shown up in a far greater way than anything we can read about in the Bible, Old Testament or New.He has appeared as you.

Preston Eby pointed out something that I had never considered before. When Jesus appeared after His resurrection to the two who were walking to Emmaus, they did not recognize Him with their natural sight. Though it was Jesus, the physical body He appeared in was structured quite differently from the one they had seen before. More than that, there were NO scars on his hands. They did not recognize Him until He broke the bread, seated across a small table from them. But when He materialized before them in the presence of Thomas, then, for Thomas's sake, He appeared in a body that showed deeply and plainly the scars from the nails. It was a different physical appearance.

And so now, He has appeared in your body, and He has appeared in mine.

Then, He said to Thomas, "Thomas, because you have seen Me (with your natural eyes), you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Believe what?

Believe that He has appeared in all of His resurrected and ascended glory in us. Jesus is our life.

Christ in us is our hope of glory. Christ, appearing in any form outside of our self can do nothing for us except weep. See Him as He is in you - by faith.

Then all of these many things we so desperately need prayer for will simply vanish from our sight and He will meet them with the favor of His hand that is always flowing out from our bellies.

Practice seeing Him in you. Practice it until you see nothing else.

And here is the truth. There is nothing else. Everything we imagine to be in us that is not Jesus, is just that, our imagination. How very sad if we keep our imagination more vivid before our eyes than the Ascended King who fills us in glory.

See Jesus. See His glory in you.

A Checklist On What Is Hidden In Your Subconsciousness

How well did I understand grace before I understood grace?

A Facebook Note by Paul Ellis on Thursday, 19 May 2011 at 04:11

Have you ever seen those Magic Eye 3D pictures that look random at first glance but then reveal a hidden picture? Maybe there’s a group of you looking and someone says, “Wow – look at that! It’s a ship!” Then another person sees it and now they’re both describing the picture to you. But try as you might you just can’t see it. They try to encourage you. “Look – it’s right there. It’s huge!” But still you can’t see it. You’re starting to think there’s no picture at all and they’re all deluded when suddenly, revelation comes and a ship appears! If you’re like me and you’re usually the last person to see these things, you’ll no doubt embarrass yourself at this point by shouting, “I see it!”

That’s how it was for me with grace.

I knew people who looked into the Bible and saw radical grace but I didn’t. Sure, there were pockets of grace but there was a whole lot of other stuff as well. Then one day, revelation came and I saw Grace! He’s right there on every page and in every book! How can you miss Him? He’s huge! I now find myself reading old scriptures with new eyes and saying, “Look! This is speaking of Jesus! This is all about Him – I never saw this before.” Now that I’ve seen Him once I see Him everywhere. I was saved decades ago and I have always loved God with my whole heart. But when I got this revelation of His amazing grace, it was like being born again, again.

A friend recently asked me, “How did you understand grace before you understood grace?” Here’s my answer: I thought I understood grace perfectly well. For as long as I can remember I’ve considered myself a testimony of His grace. But when Grace Himself came into focus, I was floored. I realized that I had barely understood grace at all. Looking back I can identify nine signs that showed I did not fully grasp the grace of God.

1. I understood that I was saved by grace but not that I was kept by grace

I had received Christ by faith and without doing a thing, but I was not continuing in Him by that same faith (Col 2:6). Although I would never have said it, I had taken out a little works insurance. Faith is a positive response to what God has done, but I liked to initiate things. And so my walk became “do, do, do,” rather than it’s “done, done, done.” There was no rest, only performance anxiety. There was always another meeting to lead, another plank of truth to teach, another stray sheep to gather. I thought this was normal. I could get excited about the idea of being saved and saving others, but I was not drawing from the wells of salvation with joy (Is 12:3). I was constantly stressed and I treated grace as grease for my engine.

2. I felt obliged to serve

Jesus had done everything for me, what would I do for Him? Of course I didn’t use the word “indebted” – that would’ve alerted me to the poverty of my theology – but much of what I did was motivated by a sense of obligation. I thus cheapened the exceeding riches of His grace (Eph 1:7) by trying to pay Him back for His priceless gift. Inevitably this shifted my focus from Him and His work to me and mine. Instead of being impressed by what He had done, I was trying to impress Him with what I was doing.

3. I motivated others using carrots and sticks

Because my own motives were screwed up it was inevitable that I would preach rewards and punishments to others. Do good, get good; do bad, get bad. At the same time as I was preaching against legalism I was putting people under law! My gospel was like an ash-tray – full of “buts”! God loves you but… Jesus died for you but…  God’s gifts always came with a price to pay. But grace is free – you can either receive it or reject it but the moment you start charging for it, you’ve missed it. There’s only one motive in the kingdom and that is love. The Son of Man didn’t come to threaten us, judge us, or scare us, but to demonstrate love (Rm 5:8). I no longer believe that evangelism means scaring the hell out of people. The good news that the world needs to hear is that God is good and He loves us. The new covenant of grace is the formal expression of His unfailing love for us (Is 54:10).

4. I saw myself as a servant rather than a son

My identity was in the things I did rather than in my Father. I saw myself as working for God (a noble cause!) rather than doing the works of God. I would not have said I was justified by what I did for I knew that grace and works don’t mix (Rms 11:6). Yet I was mixing grace with works like there was no tomorrow! But here’s the strange thing. Even though I preached servanthood more than sonship, whenever there was a crisis I was quick to relate to Him as Papa. It was only when I was strong and healthy that I was seduced by the religious need to do something for God. Happily, there were many crises!

5. I kept asking God to provide things that He’s already provided

6. I was more sin-conscious than Christ-conscious

Like many Christians I was afraid of sin (keep it out of the camp!) and I was not known as a friend of sinners. I defined sin as bad works only and I taught that the solution to sin was repentance. I had read that the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness (Tit 2:12), but I wasn’t quite sure how that worked. So when preaching against sin I used inferior incentives like fear and punishment that led, at best, to temporary, will-powered changes in behavior. I emphasized what people must do (repent!) more that what God has already done (forgiven us!). I kept the focus on us when it should’ve been on Him and my preaching was powerless as a result. If anyone failed to experience victory over sin, I just figured they were unacquainted with God’s transforming grace – even though I had given them none.

7. I always tried to do the right thing

Someone under grace says, “I trust Him from start to finish. He will lead me in the right path” (Ps 23:3). But in subtle ways I preferred rules to relationship. What I craved were clear Biblical guidelines for living. I thought I was choosing good, but then so did Adam. We both had an independent spirit that led us to eat from the wrong tree. I felt particularly good when people came to me for guidance. I thought I was giving them wisdom when really I should just have got out of the way and taught them to lean on Jesus (Jn 10:27).

8. I had a stronger relationship with the written word than with the Living Word

I did not read the scriptures to find Jesus (Lk 24:27) but to learn, what should I do? I read indiscriminately and was often confused by scriptures that seemed to contradict each other. My solution was to go for balance: A little of this, a little of that, for all scripture is profitable. But by failing to filter what I read through the finished work of the cross, I unwittingly poisoned myself. I was mixing the death-dealing words of the law with the life-giving words of grace. Although I was zealous for the Lord, in truth I was lukewarm. I was neither under the stone-cold reality of the law nor walking in the red-hot heat of His unconditional love and grace.

9. I knew I was righteous, but I didn’t feel righteous.

When I stumbled I would more readily confess my sins to God than allow the Holy Spirit to remind me of the gift of His righteousness to me (Jn 16:10). I knew I was a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), but in many ways I acted and spoke as if I was merely an improved creation. I thought honesty about my struggles was the key to getting more grace. But I probably would not have struggled so much in the first place if I had just learned to see myself as God sees me – redeemed, righteous, and holy.

I am convinced that grace comes by revelation. If you don’t yet see it this post may sound like the ramblings of a man who is unbalanced. (Thank God I am! I’m done with balance!) If you do see Grace, then right now you will be resonating like a tuning fork. So let me finish with a few words for those of you in the first group. Please be patient with those of us who are leaping for joy. Don’t walk away from the Magic Eye picture scowling, “I can’t see it, there’s nothing there.” Just keep looking! Grace really is standing right there in front of you. And He’s huge!

Abundance And Strength In The Presence Of Jesus

Have you ever, like the disciples, "toiled all night and caught nothing"? Find out in this inspiring message by Joseph Prince how weakness, lack and fruitlessness can't help but give way to strength, abundance and good success in the presence of Jesus. Learn how you can "cast your net on the right side" and draw into every situation of need a huge "catch" of the Lord's provision and blessings. You'll be blessed as you hear about how our resurrected Lord Jesus' heart is still to prosper and bless you, and take you from defeat to victory, and from empty to plenty!

A little become much in the presence of Jesus....

Pastor Joseph Prince

Sermon note from Tycm's Blog by Terence Yeo: 2011-05-01 ncc 1st svc and 2nd svc : Abundance And Strength In The Presence Of Jesus