“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek…” (Psalm 27:4)
We received an e-mail asking if there was any more to meet the eye regarding the word “desired” in Psalm 27 verse 4. My answer: always. LOL, let’s take a peek together.
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“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.” (Psalm 91:15) If you have been reading the messages the Lord give me to share over the years, you have probably noticed my attraction to the Divine romance that will come to a mighty culmination with the wedding supper of the Lamb of God. Therefore, it will come to you as no surprise that I was thinking I was thinking of my wedding vows this morning with my Jesus in mind. The phrase that caught my attention today was “to have and to hold from this day forward”. What an encouragement this was to me today. You see, we are not alone in our struggles…God is there to have and to hold. From the moment we said “I do” and received Jesus as the only One to save us He entered into a covenant with us and He is never going to let us go. While the wild-ness moments of troubles are not pleasant yet the Lord God is always present. Our key Scripture backs this concept up quite well. Let’s take a closer look.
“Draw me, we will run after thee…” (Song of Songs 1:4 KJV) מָשְׁכֵנִי אַחֲרֶיךָ נָּרוּצָה I began this month’s message with a song that I wrote called Draw Me. The above verse was the inspiration to the song yet when I wrote it, I had no idea that God leads His children into the wilderness. I should have looked it up what “draw me” meant in Hebrew because it is not at all what I thought it would be. In Hebrew the word is mashak (pronounced maw-shak’, Strong’s # 4900). While mashak does mean, “to draw” and “to attract” like I suspected it might, the word also means: to drag, to seize, and to drag along. Oui vey… My journey through the wilderness just get’s wilder and wilder with medical emergencies that are coming upon the family. I had to take my hubby to the ER last week because of his back and Momma Lewis just had emergency surgery on her eye for a detaching retina. Sigh… The good news is that I know all this is happening to produce more and more faith and trust within me. Therefore I continue to nestle my soul under the strong Hand of the God of the Hebrews. There is an interesting textual oddity in Exodus 3:18 regarding the strong Hand of the God of the Hebrews I would like to share with you today. “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3b-4) This verse is teaching us that our trials and tribulations are actually producing all these good things in us. However, I have to be honest and tell you that I am not yet “glorying” in my suffering. I’m not a fan…nevertheless, I know that God has a plan. There is a Hebrew phrase called bitachon (pronounced beet-ah-khon) Bitachon refers to trusting God. It’s not belief in God per-sey, but rather having faith that everything that God does, everything that occurs in life, will somehow – someway be for the good. One of the ways a soul can fully embrace bitachon is through the Love of God that was poured out on Calvary through Jesus Christ. What greater example of love do we have than if someone would lay their life down for another? “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5) Five is the number of grace…ah thank You Holy Spirit for the double anointing of grace…I can breathe again. This Hope gives bitachon back bone and conviction. While I may not be able to boast in my burden, someplace deep within my being…it is well with my soul. I pray you too can say bitachon today. Click to listen to a prophetic song that may help to build our bitachon.
All I need is a miracle…all I need is you. In this month’s Manna, The Way of the Wilderness, I shared from a personal perspective about the Hebrew word for tempt/trial – nacah. I’m not alone in my trials, it seems as though many of the body of Christ are in a “wilderness time” either financially, emotionally, or physically right now too. We are all crying out for a miracle and many feel as though it’s never going to come. If that’s you today I have some good news for you. Hidden right inside of our trial there is a miracle. Let me explain. The Hebrew word for miracle is nes. In the bible we see that the word nes means: banner, sign, standard. It is something lifted up and displayed (Strong’s #5251) There are many places that this root word is found, but one that is particularly interesting to me is Numbers 21:8-9 where God instructs Moses to place a serpent on a pole (nes) and instruct everyone to look at it. All who looked at it were miraculously healed. Interestingly, Jesus referred to this historical account in John 3:14-15 saying, “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
“I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.” (Psalm 69:3) While in the wilderness the soul can grow quite weary. In the weariness one may even wonder if the Lord hears them in their distress. Can you identify?
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10) Humility is a central concept of Christianity and one that we have all strived to achieve at one time or another. We can act humble, we can choose the low road, but how do we really become meek humble in our heart? How do we truly break ourselves so that pleasing perfume will arise from our heart to the Lord? We are blessed to offer free streaming of this song. If you would like to download it to your MP3 player the song can be purchased for $.99. The funds support this ministry. Thank you.
You are probably familiar with the parable of Jesus and Jonah found in Matthew 12:39-42. Most agree that when He called Himself not only a type of Jonah, but even greater than Jonah, that Jesus was referring to the three days and nights that Jonah was in the belly of the fish as a shadow of His time in the heart of the earth. But I see a little more in God’s letters of light that I think is super cool because it points to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Let me show you what I mean. In this month’s Manna we learned that the Hebrew word meaning truth is ‘emet spelled אמת aleph א – mem מ– tav ת. Surprisingly, this word is actually found in Jonah 1:1. It’s the word Amittai. “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai…” Since we are having technical difficulties and I can’t post the new Monthly Manna yet I thought I would share some more pearls about our awesome Aleph that can be found in “Can I Get an Amen.” I shared in the article that the three letters that spell the Hebrew root word “Amen” are aleph א mem מ nun נ and mentioned that the mem represents water and/or chaos. With that in mind let’s take a look at Peter’s venture out on the stormy water.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me.” (John 14:6) In Hebrew, the word truth אמת is ‘emet (pronounced ‘em-et Strong’s # 571) is spelled with the three Hebrew letters: I shared in this month’s manna that the word truth (‘emet) comes from the root word Amen. I consider this an “all encompassing” word. Let me explain.
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Copyright 2010 Tiffany Ann Lewis | |||||||||||||
