Longing For His Appearing

I’ve been reading and meditating on Psalm 106 over the last few days and my thoughts are still very incomplete, but I’m going to attempt to make sense of them through writing…

They exchanged their Glory
In verse 20 and 21 it says, “They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them…”  This hit me personally and I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit, for how many times have I had the choice directly in front me to either choose communion with Glory or exchange Him for something so much lesser and I have chosen the lesser?  When I choose to give my time, energy or resources (essentially, my worship) to something other than the Lord, how often do I reflect on the immense, infinite value of what I am giving up in exchange?  I don’t think I have a true revelation of the Glorious One, the God who has worked miracles and awesome deeds on my behalf and who saved me from the most horrific eternal destiny of hell that was my lot. 

I then was listening to a teaching by a woman of God name Shelley Hundley who was “coincidentally” (read “divinely”) speaking from this very same passage and she went back to the telling of this story in Exodus where the Israelites are getting a glimpse of their beautiful and terrifying Glory in a way they had not yet seen.  In 20:18-21 they are trembling in fear as they gaze upon a mountain shrouded in thick darkness, surrounded by thunder, strikes of lightning and engulfed in smoke.  While they had been invited by God to come close, up to the boundaries He had set for them, they shrank back in their fear and remained at a distance instead of embracing this gift of the fear of the Lord that God wanted to give them in order to keep them from sinning and keep them in intimate relationship with Himself.  As a result, in Exodus 32, when Moses takes too long to return from the mountain, Shelley proposed that the reason they created the idol was for the simple reason of boredom!  They had been given the opportunity to gaze upon the Glory of the Lord and be completely fascinated by His power and beauty, yet instead they distanced themselves and grew bored, exchanging Him for a lifeless golden calf crafted in the image of a soulless creature that eats grass!  Again, I ask myself, how many times have I exchanged the opportunity to be fascinated and captivated by my heavenly, eternal Glorious One in order to give my affections to something that is earthly, temporal and fading away?  Too many.

They shed innocent blood
The next thing that pierced my heart was verses 37-43 which starts off by saying, “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.  They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.”  It doesn’t take a genius to make the connection with this verse and the spilling of innocent blood that is occurring today through the abortions of millions of babies in North America.  While it may seem to some that abortion is only the removal of a piece of tissue, the reality in the spirit is that these living babies with a soul and spirit are being sacrificed to the gods of this age – convenience, selfishness, fear, lust, call them what you like, but there are real demons feeding off the blood of these innocent ones.  I know it sounds harsh, but we must see abortion for what it is – demon worship and murder. 

The passage goes on to describe how the Lord was angry with his people for these horrible acts and brought judgment upon them, yet still they would not turn from their sin and were “bent on rebellion”.  Another reality is that there is real judgment coming in response to our sin.  We are naive to think that we will escape judgment, for even if we die before the end of the age and miss the end-time judgments, we will certainly face it when we come before the throne of God.  I truly don’t mean for this to be a doomsday post, but I want the reality of the Word to grip our hearts!  I don’t want to read this and gloss over the weightiness of what it says - we need to be pained over this and understand what lies ahead if things don’t change!

Moving the heart of the Judge
And yet, while judgment is imminent, there is hope.  When the Israelites built their golden calf, Psalm 106:23 says, “So he said he would destroy them–had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.”  The Lord is longing for a people, like Moses, who will walk in intimacy and friendship with Him to such a depth that when they stand in the place of intercession on behalf of a sinful and wicked nation, that their weak words actually move the heart of God and turn away His wrath!  He is crying out for this generation to respond to the call of Joel 2:12-14, “‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’  Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.  Who knows?  He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing…”  I long to have revelation of Jesus as a Righteous Judge who will not allow injustice to go unpunished, yet who is fiercely in love with people and is more merciful than we know.  We must know this so that we will approach His throne of grace with boldness as Moses did and stand in the breach that He might have mercy on us.  The cry of repentance for exchanging our Glory and shedding innocent blood must ascend to heaven, as a people who are friends of the Judge rise up in intercession to move His heart…

“But he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented.”  (Psalm 106:44-45)

For Part 1 on this topic – click here!

So as a follow-up to my first post on this topic, since I’m currently pregnant, this has presented a challenge for how I can still participate in the gift of fasting.  I’ve been thinking about a few different options and got some ideas from others, and I also had the opportunity to ask my doctor a couple questions.  So here are some suggestions on things you might want to consider trying if you are in a similar situation to me.

1. Fast Facebook or Myspace or any other networking, bloggy, time-eating site.
2. Fast email – this one isn’t too practical for me, since it’s pretty crucial to my day-to-day life and work, but it could be good to try!
3. Fast T.V. and/or movies – since we don’t even have our T.V. set up, this one isn’t too helpful for me personally, but if you have a bit of a T.V. addiction, then this could be the fast for you!  When my husband & I still had T.V. in our house, we went on a 40-day T.V. and movie fast and it dramatically shifted the atmosphere in our home and I definitely felt the difference in my times with God during it!  (This fast should also include watching videos via the Internet)
4. Fast blogs – fast reading your list of 50 favorite blogs – I’ve noticed it can take quite a chunk of time to keep up with everyone’s writings!
5. Fast other media/entertainment – reading a great fiction novel?  Just bought a new magazine?  Love video games?  Try fasting them for a day or more!
6. Fast a particular type of food or drink - fast meat for a day, fast the tasty carbs (breads, pastas, rice, potatoes) for a day, fast all sweets for a day, eat only soup for a day, fast coffee or sodas (caffeine).  Be creative and try fasting something that you actually really enjoy eating, since the pleasure of food is often the thing we crave more than the sustenance we get from it - so, if you’re me, fasting mushrooms and pineapple would sort of defeat the purpose, since I hate these anyways!    Also, I ran this idea by my obstetrician, and she gave me permission to do this, but you should check with your doctor to see what is okay for you.
7. Fast talking – yikes!  I’ve not really tried this one yet, but I think it could be a great one. 
8. Fast sex – obviously this would be one for the married folks and you need your spouse to agree to this, since the Bible is clear that we are not to deny our spouse the fulfillment of their sexual needs unless both are in agreement, and then to do it only for a short time.  But this is a totally valid way to set aside another desire of the flesh in order to focus on the Lord.

I’m sure there’s more than this, but it’s a start.  So, I’m going to try implementing a couple of these ideas as well as some other strategies to help me.  For example, I like to read the occassional news article online, but instead of fasting this, I’ve decided that I can’t read an article unless I’m going to pray about it.  This helps in the area of ensuring that I’m not just fasting, but also praying!  Another thing is that even though I may still be eating meals, I will prioritize and make sure I spend some time in prayer before eating on my fasting days.  As I mentioned in another one of my blog posts on fasting, I’ve set some clear guidelines for my fasting and also made a prayer plan, with specific topics I want to pray about on my fasting day and a scheduled time to do so.  I’m excited, because I don’t want to allow myself to get into a rut where fasting isn’t a part of my lifestyle, even though I’m pregnant, and it’ll make it so much easier to start fasting food again once I’m able to, if I’ve kept my heart in an attitude of fasting.  I hope this helps!

Oftentimes, the most valuable gift a person can give is the gift of them-self. 

In this post, I want to talk about how God gives of Himself to us, how He desires us to give ourselves to Him, and how we can bring this act of giving into our marriages.

God Gave Himself to Us
I’ve just started reading the book “Desiring God” by John Piper, in which his goal is to prove that there doesn’t need to be a struggle between duty and delight in our relationship with God for delight is our duty!  We were made to desire and find the most satisfying pleasure and joy in God.  However, before getting to that point, he says the following…

Lately I’ve been reading and meditating on Isaiah chapters 61 to 63 which contains several scriptures pertaining to the coming of the Messiah, both His first coming and His second.  The verse which stuck out to me recently though was Isaiah 62:10 which says, “Pass through, pass through the gates!  Prepare the way for the people.  Build up, build up the highway!  Remove the stones.  Raise a banner for the nations.”

Prepare the way for the Lord
I believe this verse has many layers of meaning, but it’s especially important to view it through the lens of Jesus’ return to the earth.  This is quite clear from the following verse where the Lord instructs Isaiah to proclaim, “See, your Savior comes!  See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.”  The Lord desired for Isaiah to preach a message that the Savior was indeed coming, bringing with Him both a reward for His people and vengeance for His enemies.  Yet, before this message could be proclaimed, obstacles needed to be removed and the path built up and prepared so that the people would be able to receive the message.  This a similar calling to what was given to John the Baptist who was a forerunner that was to ”pass through” ahead of others and go before to prepare the way of the Lord… 

A voice of one calling in the desert: “Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  Isaiah 40:3-5

Make ready a people prepared
In the case of John the Baptist, a key aspect of preparing the people’s hearts was to call them to participate in the baptism of repentance.  For them this was an outward act to demonstrate the inner response of their hearts to turn from their wicked ways and return to the Lord.  But what is the Lord saying to the forerunners of today?  What do we need to do to prepare both our own hearts and also the hearts of those who God desires us to proclaim this message of His return to?  How can we remove the obstacles in the way, the things that are hindering us and them from being ready on that day?  How can we do what is necessary to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord”?  (Luke 1:17)

Watch and pray
I think a key component to being prepared for the Lord when He returns is found in Jesus’ talk with His disciples in Matthew 24 and 25.  After warning them of the signs of the end of the age, Jesus exhorts them to be like the faithful and wise servant who was found watching and waiting for his master’s return and the five wise virgins who kept oil in their lamps and were ready when the bridegroom appeared.  Among other things, I believe this speaks of prayer, for when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, he implored the disciples to “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation”.  (Mark 14:38)  Prayer is one of the most strategic ways that we can keep our hearts alert and on guard, full of oil and lit with the fire of passion for Jesus, as opposed to slumbering and being caught unaware when He returns. 

Remove the stones
Intercession on behalf of others is also critical for the removing of the obstacles in their way – we need to be watchmen on the walls of our cities that are never silent day or night (Isaiah 62:6-7), warring for the demonic influences over people to be taken out and for the blinders to be removed so that they are able to “see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).  I believe this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for people – that they are unable to see Jesus for who He is and that He is the express image of the Father.  Many, including myself, do not have a correct view of Jesus or the Father and we need to intercede for wisdom and revelation to know Him better (Ephesians 1:17) and also preach about who He truly is, tearing down the wrong mindsets and ideas of what He’s like and how He feels about us.

Return with fasting and weeping
Another passage of scripture that contains several instructions on how to prepare our hearts for Jesus’ return is Joel 2:12-17.  There’s too much here to go into great detail on each item, but the Lord calls for the people to return to Him with all their heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.  If we desire to be prepared and desire to make ready a people prepared, then repentance, fasting, and mourning need to be an essential component of our daily lives.  If we do not want our love to grow cold (Matthew 24:12) then we need to turn from our sin and turn to the Lord wholeheartedly – holding nothing back.  He wants our whole hearts – He desires for us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).  I believe that adding fasting to your repentance is an incredible accelerator to the process, as you are choosing to kill the desires of your flesh and live by the spirit (Romans 8:13-14).  Also, when we are able to connect with the reality of how our sin grieves the Holy Spirit and we can mourn over our spiritual condition and the condition of our cities and nations, our hearts will be tenderized and the gift of weeping and groaning will allow us to enter into partnership with the Spirit in intercession (Romans 8:26).

Raising forerunners
So what does this have to do with raising forerunners?  As a soon-to-be mother, I have been impressed on my heart with the importance of my calling to make ready my children to be ones who are prepared for the Lord’s return and who will also be forerunners that will prepare others.  Imagine what it was like for Elizabeth, realizing the destiny of the child she carried within her and how vital it was for her to raise him as the Lord had commanded and teach him the ways of God, instructing John about his destiny to prepare the way of the Lord and ready the hearts of the people for their coming Messiah!  I feel this same urgency, this same weight of responsibility.  I know that the child in my womb has an incredible destiny and purpose and it is my role to disciple them and prepare them for it, with the help of Holy Spirit.  I certainly cannot do this on my own and sometimes the thought of it overwhelms me, but I also must trust that the Lord has given this child to us and will equip us to train him or her in the way they should go.  I have a new appreciation for the story of Samson’s parents, who when told of the special calling on their unborn child’s life, cried out to God, “O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”  (Judges 13:8)  God answered their prayer and as I make this prayer my own, I believe He too will come and teach my husband and I how to raise this little forerunner in the making.