“No high like the Most High” (Backlund)

“For You bring me a continual revelation of resurrection life, the path to the bliss that brings me face to face with you.” (vs 11 TPT).

Do we maintain the same character in the public sphere as in our private places and spaces? Where do the inconsistencies in our speech come from? In Jesus name, we long to SPEAK and heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead. But how can we if we have no honor in our day-to-day chatter. 

The power of our words. We flatter for position. We gossip for sport. Those little white, benevolent lies and “bless her heart’s” diminish the integrity of our words. We Bless. We Curse. Benediction. Malediction. We break promises. We hurt the people closest to us. The one’s God sent to help us.

Dishonesty is the root.

Jesus tells a parable to his religious critics about a father who asks his two sons to work their field. The first son is honest and says, “Nah, I’d rather not,” but then feels remorseful and ends up going. The other son says, “I’m on it… I will go…” but never does. Jesus asks the Pharisees which of the sons did the will of the father? They all agree on the first son. Jesus said, “You’re right. For many sinners, whoremongers, and prostitutes are going into God’s kingdom realm ahead of you!”

The religious scholars weren’t honest with themselves about their true condition. Their own sin. Confident in their station, they thought they were safe because they were obeying the rules. They could not acknowledge their own need for dependence on God. That is the sin that blocks His grace.  Honestly is the beginning of living a passionate and wholehearted life. Open your heart to him. “Stand in Him and Him alone, gloriously complete.” – James Proctor

Only the withering soul would say to himself,
“There is no God.”
Anyone who thinks like this is corrupt and callous,
depraved and detestable, devoid of what is good.

“Take a good look at me, God, and answer me!
Breathe your life into my spirit.
Bring light to my eyes in this pitch-black darkness…

The Power of Intercession – David prays… the Lord Arises.

A song of smiting, sung for the new day by King David:
” Help, Lord! Save us! For godly ones are swiftly disappearing.
Where are the dependable, principled ones?
They’re a vanishing breed!
Everyone lies, everyone flatters, and everyone deceives.
Nothing but empty talk, smooth talk, and double-talk.
Where are the truthful?
I know the Lord will not deal gently with people like that!
You will destroy every proud liar who says, “We lie all we want.
Our words are our weapons, and we won’t be held accountable.
Who can stop us?”
May the Lord cut off their twisted tongues
and seal their lying lips.
May they all be silenced—those who boast and brag with their
high-minded talk about doing whatever they want.

Inspired by this word from Stephanie Doty…

“I AM the One who created the Heavens and the Earth. I AM the One who created ALL things. I AM the defender of My people, those who call Me by name. I AM the One who knitted you together in your Mothers womb, and breathed life into you. I AM the One who welcomed you into this world for I made you for a purpose. I AM the One who will welcome you into heaven when your body takes its last breath. I AM the ONE who tore down walls to get to you when you needed Me. I AM the ONE who stepped into darkness just for you. I AM the One who is calling you out of the darkness.

Arise, O Lord!
O God, lift up Your hand!
Do not forget the humble.

“When I finished reading The Power of the Powerless I had a strange vision. I saw our crazy world, full of wars and conflicts, full of competition and ambition, full of heroes and stars, full of success stories, horror stories, love stories and death stories, full of newspapers, television, radios and computer screens, and millions of people believing that something was happening that they couldn’t miss without losing out on life, And then I saw a hand moving this heavy curtain of spectacles away and pointing to a handicapped child, a poor beggar, a chronically ill woman, an illiterate monk, a dying old man, a hungry child. I had not noticed them before. They seemed hidden so far away from were “it” seemed to be happening. But the hand pointed gently to these poor, humble, weak people and a voice said, “Because of them I won’t let this world be destroyed. They are my favored ones and with them I made my covenant and I will be faithful to it.” -Henri Nouwen

“Lord, I will worship you with extended hands as my whole heart explodes with praise!

This Psalm is all about Heaven invading Earth through worship. It also gives the most positive and highest view of humankind.

Consider the astounding statement in vs 2: “You have built a stronghold by the songs of infants. Strength rises up with the chorus of singing children. This kind of praise has power to silence the enemy. Childlike worship will silence the madness of those who oppose you.”

The songs of the weakest and frailest of humanity have the power to silence the enemy. Your children’s worship is doing some serious Warfare!

Personal testimony… The setting: I was shopping with my daughter Ella in a local store in Jackson. All around us… glum, sinister faces. Unmotivated, dry-as-dust employees. My daughter, then 4, started singing No Longer Slaves at the top of her lunges. The chorus of “I’m no longer a slave to fear,… I am a Child of God” rang through the aisles. Within mere seconds, smiles emerged. Laughter erupted. The Enemy didn’t stand a chance with this 4 year old.

“If worship bores you, you are not ready for heaven.” AW Tozer (The Purpose of Man)

– – –

Aristotle defined a Tragedy (in literature) as a situation in which someone who is good, perhaps even great, begins to overreach and put himself in the place of God as Judge. This once good person experiences what Aristotle calls “peripeteia,” which is the reversal of fortune.

There is an important warning in Psalms 7 –  if we seek to take revenge, hold grudges, stay bitter towards others, we are in danger of evil recoiling back on us. We will do more harm to ourselves than we could ever do to our enemies.

“They dig a pit for others to fall into,
    not knowing that they will be the very ones
    who will fall into their own pit of failure.
 For you, God, will see to it that every pit-digger
    who works to trap and harm others
    will be trapped and harmed by his own treachery.” (vs 15-16 TPT)

According to Bible scholar, Derek Kidner, “this verse says evil always comes home to roost. This principle operates unevenly in the material realm but inescapably in the realm of the spirit. In the terrible hardening and poisoning effect of a wrong attitude on the one who harbors it, far more disaster comes to him or her than any suffering inflicted on others.”

Righteousness and Justice are the foundation of God’s throne (Ps. 89:14). He will make everything right. Holding grudges and seeking to harm your enemy isn’t worth your peace. Let’s not be pit-diggers. Leave the justice to God.