The Way is Holy

Our verse is for study is Psalm 77:13 

Your way, O God, is Holy: what god is great like our God? (NASB)  

The King James version says Your way, Oh God, is in the sanctuary..Most translations on the market  read. “ Your Way , oh God is Holy.  What Happened? At first it would seem as if we are talking about two different  things, until you look at the original language of the text.  The word used here in this verse is Qodosh (kadosh) which means holy or set apart.  But this word is also used to describe the holy place, which was a room, the sanctuary, within the tabernacle of Moses, and later the Temple in Jerusalem.  So, are we talking about one or the other?  We are talking about both of them.

Our God is great and He is also holy.  He tells us to be ye holy as I am holy (I believe that Peter is quoting Leviticus 19 here.)  But God knew that we could not be holy in our own capacity. Our strength is limited.  Adam fell into sin in Eden, which cut off our direct connection with God. . 

Think about, with one action, from Adam we were restricted from doing the very thing that we were born to do.  We are designed to worship, but we were misdirected  from our purpose. (You see it every day in society of people being placed on pedestals to look up to in our cultures) But that place wasn’t designed for them.  That desire to look up to someone was designed for God. 

We are designed to have a connection with God. We were created to follow Him in his way of holiness but sin cannot survive in God's presence. God  gave us a way to still be able to connect with Him. So He veiled Himself in the types and shadows we see in the Hebrew Bible (the old testament) and the sanctuary (The tabernacle given to Moses and later the Temple). 

 Moses could not see the face of God for he could not withstand His glory and live. Even the High Priest could only enter the Holy of Holies which held the ark of the covenant once a year to place blood on the mercy seat to cover the sins of Israel for the year.  

For permanent access, a more excellent way had to be provided.  

Jesus said “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life, No man comes to the Father but by Me”

Jesus also said, I AM the Door.  Jesus is our point of access to a More excellent Way. 

If you have read a few blogs from me you know I cannot get through bible study without looking up scripture in the language and characters that it was written in.  In the original language the character for door is Dalet. It is shaped to look like the side and overhang of a door. But this door is shaped differently.  We are used to walking into doors that have overhangs that are taller than us.  Unless you are really tall, you do not have to walk through a door by bending over.  That is not true with this (dalet) door. It is shaped so that  the overhang is lower so a person would have to bend or bow down  in order to enter and pass though it.  

This is on purpose. When entering the way of faith, we bow in surrender. We exchange our ideas of how we think our life’s story should be written and we submit to the Process that God has to refine us and set us apart as recognizable citizens of His kingdom.  Our access to that journey is through our acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as our savior.  

We also walk through the sanctuary. We accept His sacrifice on the altar. We repent and are baptized at the brazen laver.  We begin the journey of walking by faith by the light of his Word filled with the oil of His Holy Spirit...  We eat the bread of the word and begin to lift the sweet smelling incense of prayer and waft it up toward His nostrils. We learn how to commune with Him. We are refined by Him until at last the day that will come that we will be able to stand faultless before the throne, the mercy seat of holy righteous and of a loving God. Access that has been provided by the blood of Jesus.

The plans for the tabernacle (sanctuary) were created  in heavenly places and given to Moses for earthly execution. Its successor the Temple was destroyed in 70AD and the sacrifices in that building finally stopped, so since it is no longer a building, what do we do now?

But the sanctuary still lives. Where does it live?

It lives in the heart of each believer.  Just as God etched the law into stone tables and had it placed in the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies in the sanctuary (tabernacle). We became the receptacles of His glory. When we walk in surrender we are living breathing love letters that God sends into the to world to show what His kingdom  is like

When access was granted through the blood of Jesus he was able to etch his standard into hearts of flesh of the humans who love and serve Him. Instead of trying to match His standard on our own, He empowers us to live this set apart life.  Our surrender gives the Holy Spirit permission to whisper into our hearts daily the way that we should take  in our decision making.  He walks with us through adversity, through grief and all tough challenges that come our way and each of these challenges grow us up in God.  

So, who is great like our God?  No one.  Who would choose us?  After we destroyed the peaceful paradise of the Garden of Ede;. what other god would already have in place a plan on how to save us?  No one. Who else would  take off power and authority and fold themselves  into the womb of a woman and make himself small and helpless to come and rescue us?  No one.  Who would come back for a bride that He had   to clean up Himself? No one but our God. 

Our God is great and greatly to be Praised.

Until next time

-xylia

And then there was Time

“Time keeps on slipping into the future.”

 - Steve Miller Band

Time is a measurement that we all use everyday but none of us  know how much of it we have for the sum of our lives.  Sometimes it feels as if I do not have enough time in a day; and at others I blink and it feels like years have passed in an instant.  For years I waited for the season that God would allow me to become a biological parent. (so much so that I wrote a book about that season).  All the while, I was raising my two bonus daughters.  While the wait for a successful pregnancy felt like forever; in the interim, our girls have blossomed into amazing young women and are moving on into adulthood. Their arc into womanhood felt like no time at all.  I will always cherish those memories. Now I'm doing mommyhood again with our miracle child.

Kronos and Kiaros dwelling in my timeline at once.

Time did not always exist. It was created.  Time is a gift from God - Elohim, the Creator. Time is divided into Eliohim's image.  Elohim is Father, Son and Holy Spirit  and time reflects Their image is reflected in the earth.

 Let's hop into the Word and go to Genesis

Genesis Chapter 1:14 - Day 4 of creation

 14 God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs, seasons, days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth”; and that is how it was. 16 God made the two great lights — the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night — and the stars. 17 God put the in the dome of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 So there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day. (CJB)

Here we are introduced here to how God measures time

Our  biggest units of time from Elohim are  - Past Present Future

1 Time is created and Elohim dwells outside of time. 

2 That time was created with purpose and broken down into units

3 Time is  to mark signs, seasons, days and years.

The Creator in Genesis is all about creating a systematic framework that allows for His creation to be in relationship with Him. This means that Elohim has divinely ordered cycles in the earth to draw us to Him. These cycles mark time and give signs for His plan of salvation.

One example is in our text. “ evening, then morning” marks your day. This wording is purposeful.  The Son, Jesus, is described as the light of the world.  Every evening you enter into a new day and every dawn, light enters and dispels darkness.  Just as this happens in the natural, it happens in the spiritual.  Everyday Elohim walks us out of darkness into His marvelous light- the light of His salvation - the light of His Yeshua (Jesus) every single day.

The signs and seasons of time point to the coming of His salvation.  But Elohim dwells outside of time so how does this work?  

(nerd moment - biblical hebrew does not have a present tense.  You can say the it has rained or it will rain but not it is raining. The present was considered to be too  fleeting to be quantifiable (measured).

 In this sense. One could  come but one could not  dwell.  But for the Creator, dwelling was the goal, but sin separated the Creator from His creation.  His creation cannot come to Him. He must come to it.

The present must  enter  the picture.  In this case the present is more that just a unit of time. It is the embodiment of a part of Elohim.

So let's jump forward in time and change languages -  from Hebrew to Greek. We’re  going to hop over to the Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 1 through 5  and 14

 John says allow me to reintroduce Him to you. The Word must enter the present.

The Apostle John in his gospel does something no other Gospel does.  He introduced Jesus not through His relationships with people and bloodline but through his relationship with time.  Using the model of Genesis Chapter 1.

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God 

and the Word was God

He was with God in the beginning

All things came to be through Him

and without Him nothing made had being

In Him was life

and the life was the light of mankind

The light shines in darkness and the darkness has not suppressed it.

14 - And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory (His Shekinah) as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth

John the Baptist said it this way.  There one coming after me has come to rank ahead of me; because he existed before me  (John 1:15 Messianic translation)  Jesus was not older than John the Baptist in the earth realm.  Elizabeth was pregnant first, before Mary,  The Baptist is referring to Jesus- TheSon and The Word -  predating the existence of time.

We serve a God that both created and stepped into time in order to save us.  Jesus allowed himself to be touched and felt  and be touched by our issues and concerns and through His death change our circumstances.

The Word, the Present- The Son must be allowed to enter our lives and dwell with us. When He dwells with us, we find purpose in all of our seasons.

Until next time

-xylia

War rooms, coffee shops and other holy places

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances..." 

-1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

This year I am celebrating a big anniversary.  Thirty years ago, I began my journey and training in the foundations of  intercession. Learning about God through prayer ( the ongoing conversation with the Most High) has been a blessing in my life. I have seen this conversation change situations in the lives of others.  However, I have seen how this tête-à-tête has mostly changed me.  It brings awareness to the things I think I need to be content; whether I am in sync with the will of God; and  shines a light on the comparisons that I sometimes make on whether I am good enough. (Being nosey and looking around at what other people are doing has always gotten me in trouble.)

One of these comparison spots was having a war room. I know many prayer warriors that have war rooms, decorated spaces with boards laid out with the prayer requests of their families and communities. I know prayer warriors with designed prayer closets and even she-sheds dedicated to their prayer time. This is a practice that has given them focus and solace. However, this has never been my personal style.  My prayer practice did not match the warriors around me and that used to make me feel inadequate.  

 My secret place has always been hidden in plain sight. In my college days, my prayer time would be on the local city bus en route to class… or in the library between classes. As I entered my career, my space was my car or in a park on my lunch break…. Or anywhere at all really.  

You see, I have always carried a notebook.  A place for thoughts, prayers, requests, celebration and thanksgiving. A place to write to God about the things that didn’t make sense. This book was my “war room” and I could take it anywhere, code it anyway I wanted and hide it, in plain sight, if necessary.

Everyone should have a secret place before God, but your secret place does not have to look like anyone else's. I had to stop comparing my spiritual needs with the needs of others and find a rhythm that worked for me and God. My God space was always a place in my heart. He goes with me everywhere, so I can speak to Him anywhere. And I let that flow go into my notebook.

Now, nature may be my favorite place to pray- in a garden, on a hike or by a park bench by a lake; but I just need a place where I can feel that I can hear Him clearly.  Where the ambient sound of my own thoughts can quiet and God and I can have a clear conversation, nothing fancy - just talk.  My holy place is anywhere I can hear him clearly - a coffee shop, a hospital waiting room, or a parking lot - anywhere works as long as I can hear.

Because God is not loud. He will let me talk for five minutes or even five hours  and then He will whisper His answers.  Because God does not scream. Even though He will let us scream, even in His presence, when the pain is too much to bear, when bitterness won’t uproot itself and when grief just won’t make room for anything else.  He lets us scream.  And when we listen, He speaks. He pours His peace into us. He fills and heals the broken cracks in my human vessel and turns my heart into a holy place….Which is the only place He has ever asked for.

Find the rhythm that works for God and you.  Keep listening until you can hear.

Until next time

xylia

Seek, Renew & Press

Ecclesiastes 3  To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven

Congratulations! Happy New Year! Happy New Season! We made it through to 2024!  Tell God thank you! It is indeed a blessing.  Leaving one year or season and entering into another  gives us the opportunity to reflect on where we are and where we want to go. We can ask, “what have I accomplished and what do I  have left to do?" We can reflect on a larger scale than our daily check in. You may have like many of us sat down and written out goals or resolutions for this year. Many of us when new year comes focus on the external changes that we want. You may sound like this... I want to lose weight. I’m going to the gym and I’m not leaving this time. ...Or I’m going to change my diet this year. I’ve signed up for  Weight Watchers or Noom.” Does this sound familiar?

Tell the truth, how many of you have balled up that New Year’s Resolution list and thrown it in the trash already? There is no need to hide. Many Americans walk away from their resolutions in the first two weeks of making them. The gyms are full in January but before March they are back to their normal attendance levels.

If you are one of these people, it is not too late to hit the reset button. You don’t need a new year to make a change in your life. You only need today. God gave you new breath, new mercy and a fresh chance today. You only need to today to make that Divine opportunity count.

May I make a suggestion? If your list is at the bottom of the recycle bin, don’t bother pulling back out. Let’s start fresh. Together we can make some resolutions right here and right now.  This really is your year. It is your year to Seek, Renew and Press. This is your year to lean in and receive what God has for you.

Let’s go to the gospel of Matthew chapter 6. I’ll start with verse twenty-five.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV)

Resolution one - Seek first the kingdom. Everything else is secondary.

The first thing that God has for you this year is His plan and your place in His plan. This year God wants you to make His priorities your own.  

So many times when we set our goals and priorities we do not consult our Maker before we make them. We submit our plans God after we have decided that this is what we want we want to do. When we seek His kingdom first our perspective has to change.

I like chess analogies though I do not play chess well at all. In chess, in order for your moves to effective in the long run against your opponent you have to take a step back visually and see the whole board.  What does that mean,see the whole board? It is the ability see the changing conclusion of the game with each move on the board you make; and with each move your opponent makes. For each move of a chess piece changes the number of options a player has to win the game.  It is more than just seeing several steps ahead. It is seeing to the end.  

In life I can only see so far ahead of what consequences my decisions (my moves) have on the long term options in my life. Thankfully, I don’t have to see them because I serve a God who is the author of my beginning and my end. He has asked me to look at Him and follow Him.  He is asking us to be moved according to His strategy and not our own.

In our setting priorities and plans for our lives we tend to forget that we are not the chess player, the master of the board who can see to the end.  But instead we behave as if we are the chess player and God is a piece that we can move on our board.  In truth we are the chess piece in the hands of a loving Master who will not lead us astray. 

Let us take the opportunity to change our perspective this year. In this season, let us ask the Lord where we fit in His plan this year and allow Him to move us into place. God can handle the needs and wants that we may have in this world (the what we eat and how we’re clothed stuff) while we focus on His priorities. 

Now you may say, “Well God is the one who gives us dreams and visions and the understanding to bring the plans to pass.”  This is true. But we also have to remember that there are 3 masters, 3 voices, that have access to our thought life (whether we are sleeping or waking). The voice of God, the voice of the adversary and the voice of your belly or your flesh.  Without the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit, we may have difficulty telling these voices apart. It is critical, especially in these last days to be able tell these voices apart and move accordingly.

This is where our second resolution comes in.

Resolution 2 - In this season, I choose to renew my mind. In order to hear clearly, we have to be renewed.  Turn with me to Romans 12: 1&2.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.

To hear clearly transformation is necessary; and it is not a one time thing. It is a day by day and moment by moment process. Sometimes the loudest of the three voices we just talked about is not the still small voice of the Lord or even the voice of the adversary; no, it is the voice of our flesh. That is the voice that tends to scream in our ears.  What our belly, our carnal mind, wants or thinks it needs.  It can be hard to tell these voices apart even as older believers. Sometimes we get complacent and say, “Well I’m God’s child? What I want must be what He wants for me, right?  Well as Sportin’ Life sang in the opera Porgy & Bess, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

We have to fact check what we hear against the word of God. Because God is consistent, He never gives instructions that contradict His principles. Our fleshly mindset can sabotage the very plans God has put in place for us to prosper. 

It is essential that we are rewed. Being renewed is like daily detoxing. The mind gets exposed to so much every day even without us trying. But being cleansed is not something we can do on our own. Because we were born into a fallen world our fleshly thinking is in tune with the pattern of the world we live in. Kingdom thinking requires an adjustment in our thinking. How do we do that?  How do we drown out the voice of flesh and amp up our receptivity to the voice of God? How do we renew our minds?

We renew our mind through by increasing our time in the presence of God and in the Word of God. It is here that we get refocused and tuned into the frequency of Heaven so that we can be responsive to Kingdom thinking. Do you have have a time or a set location that is set apart for your time with God? If you don’t, choose one. Worship, time in His presence is important. It’s what keep us in our right minds. But this time is more than just talking to the Almighty but for also waiting to hear His response. God responds to our prayers and He responds to our worship. The Holy Spirit comes and cuts through the clutter of our minds to help give us clarity of thought. When we have clarity of thought, we can have clarity of action on how God wants us to move. We will know which voice is seeking our attention and choose to respond to the voice of the Lord.

Now that you have sought the Lord and confirmed the vision; we can make our next resolution. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 3.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Resolution 3 - This year, let us press or lean in to the plan of God and not abandon it. I don’t know the vision or the tasks that God has given you to complete but I do know that whatever it is; it is precious and it deserves our undistracted attention. He has given you a task that cannot be handed off to someone else. Even with clarity of vision, there will be moments of adversity. There will be times that will be hard, but don’t give up. Instead, press. This year when you feel the push of adversity, push back. Press toward the goal God has given you. Difficulties come when you are in the right direction.

Sometimes pressing means that we have forget the pain of past failures or flawed decisions making. These are things that paralyze our movement. If you have asked for forgiveness, great! Learn the lesson from that failure and keep pressing.

 Paul was saying in this verse, don't’ think that I have always done this the right way….that I have this all figured out or that I’m already there… or that I've already accomplished it all. No! I’m reaching just like you. I’m striving toward the goals God has for me.

We can do this. We can press into the will of God and see His plans for our lives become reality this year.

Whatever has overwhelmed you, whatever may have tried to knock you to the dirt, you can get back up.  you can start again. All you need is today.  You do not need whatever you had to leave behind.  What you need in this season, you already have. Whatever you lack will be poured into you by the Holy Spirit.  All you need to do is say yes to Him. All you need is today.  All you need is this moment. All you need is now.

Maybe this is the new parent season. The empty nest season. The caregiver season. The reinvent your career season. Whatever the season … Let us in this new season, Seek 1st the kingdom, renew our minds so that we can hear God clearly; and press toward the vision God has given us so that when we  pray, we can say in earnest: Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in us as Your will is done in Heaven.

Be blessed.

Breathe In

In my home church, we have been talking about Reconnecting. How to get back in sync. How to reconnect with His presence His will and His direction for our lives. There are many reasons for becoming disconnected from God; but we are going to focus on one of them today - being battle weary or overwhelmed. Sometimes the cares and burdens of this world get in the way of our having true communion with God. This is not something that just happens to the new believer. The battle-hardened saint is many times more susceptible to this kind of spiritual attack. We can get so busy doing the work of the church that we can lose the strength of our connection with God- the head of the church. Make no mistake this is a spiritual attack. This is the enemy coming in when you are at your most vulnerable trying to make you fall.

How does this happen? We can become disconnected when we are battle weary. You weren’t distracted, you were following God’s instructions. You were told to stand for Him in a particular spiritual battle. You have done your job. The battle is over and God has won. But you are depleted. Worn out. You need refreshing and you can’t get the well fast enough. It is when you are in this vulnerable state that the attacks of the enemy are more potent.

Turn with me to 1st Kings chapter 19 and let’s meet my stressed out buddy Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet by had instances of stress and intense spiritual warfare. (God could trust him) We are meeting him after what was possibly the greatest spiritual victory of his prophetic career - The Lord’s victory at Mt. Carmel over the prophets of Baal. (You know it's big when this is the story that gets illustrated in Uncle Arthur Maxwell’s stories books)

Elijah has been standing for God in this one battle for three years . Commanding drought after Ahab and Israel‘s disobedience in worshipping Baal. Three years of standing brings us to the climax at mount Carmel. The atlars are built. The choice of who to worship is made. Yahweh shows up by fire and burns His sacrifice to the ground while Baal and his prophets can do nothing. The people return to The Almighty and Baal’s prophets are slaughtered and rain is on the way.

What a moment! After this Elijah should be riding high, Right? Look closer. You can’t tell from the outside that he has left all of his strength on the battlefield. Those around him have no idea that the Glory to do the work has lifted and in your own strength the slightest wind could blow you over. This is where Elijah is in this moment. The enemy senses an opportunity and sends Jezebel to blow Elijah over. With one message, Elijah was on the run.

-You’re a dead man.-

That’s all it took. Because Elijah is depleted and can’t get to well fast enough. This first thing you need to do when you are depleted like this is to separate yourself from the source of your stress so you can regroup. Elijah does this, though it does not appear to be a tactical decision. He is disoriented and running for his life. Elijah is running and it seems as if he does not have direction. Not quite so. Elijah heads to the wilderness near Beersheba. Beersheba is in the southern desert region of Israel. Its name means “well of the oath” for it was here that Abraham made an agreement with Abimelech over ownership of the well there. Whether Elijah realized it or not he was headed in the right direction. He was headed for a place where he could be refreshed.

That brings us to the next key to reconnecting if you are overwhelmed or depleted. Once you have separated from the source of your stress- seek a safe space. When I say seek a safe space, I do not necessarily mean find a spa or a hotel to be pampered. Seek a place where God can refill you. For the truth is you cannot fill yourself. Stepping back and finding a safe space is an acknowledgement that you are not battle-ready right now and that is okay. It is alright to say, ”I am not okay.”

Elijah went from the mountain top to rock bottom and asking to die in the course of a day. It was what he heard that turned his exhaustion into depression. Your safe place needs to be a place where the promises of God are reinforced for you. Where God can breathe back into you His life-giving strength. Elijah needed a place where he could be refreshed and reconnect and God placed him under a juniper tree.

1 kings 19:4-8 -4 “But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.  5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.  6 And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.  7 And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.  8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.” (King James Version)

Locations are not given in scripture at random. Not even a tree. Elijah is noted to have been place under this juniper tree. Why is this here? Why this tree? Juniper in this text is actually an incomplete translation. The juniper with berries that we are familiar with is not found in this area of the world. The tree Elijah is under is known as the Spanish broom tree. It is a shrub that grows up to 8 feet high and offers shade in desert places. Why is our stressed out man here?  Because the flowers of this tree have special properties. The scent from these yellow flowers lowers heart rate. The essential oil from this plant is so strong that is not used in modern herbal formulations for treatment. It cannot be digested and it cannot be used in large doses as it is can be considered toxic.  The only way to use this natural medicine was to breathe it in.

Elijah was under the care of the Master Physician who knew just how to dose him. All Elijah had to do was breathe.  When we are stressed. When we are overwhelmed We are not alone. God is right there waiting to make provision for us so we can reconnect with Him.  But first He had to calm Elijah down.  Elijah is under this tree to keep his heart for failing him from overwhelming fear. 

The next step to reconnecting when you are overwhelmed is to rest. Rest in God.  Breathe His rest in.  Exchange your stress for His rest.  When think we have to do something in order to rest.  Not so.  God has already made provision to restore you, just like He did Elijah. God knew what was going to happen before the first instruction was given. And in Elijah’s lowest moment God sent reinforcements. An angel kept watch over Elijah the entire night. He woke him up and fed him at intervals to bring back his strength.  An angel got assigned to cook for Elijah!

We he got up from this rest, Elijah was able to run. Not from his problems, but forty days toward Mt. Horeb- toward God - where He could obtain instruction.  These instructions would make out the framework of the remainder of Elijah’s spiritual career. But he could not have received them until he was refreshed.

When we are refreshed. God will be able to speak instruction to us too.  But first we have to let Him nourish our battle-weary souls. Breathe In. Rest in him and be refreshed.