Posted on 03/10/2005 9:22:31 PM PST by Quix
MEDITATION ON PSALM 91
VERSE 1 - He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH
I sought the Lord as to the meaning of the "Secret Place of the Most High" in verse number one. I looked in the dictionary as to the meaning of "secret" to get an overview understanding of its meaning. I then got quiet with Him and started to write the following:
The "Secret place of the Most High" is a place of intimacy where only you and the Lord can dwell. It is truly one of a kind. There is no other place like it. It is unique, because we are unique, and our relationship with Him is unique. It is a place where we can come apart from the world, its cares and distractions, and concentrate only on being with Him. This place needs to be cultivated so it becomes a way of life, a lifestyle, to be in His presence continually. No matter what is around us or what we may face, nothing will be able to break the intimacy that we have found in Him.
He is our hiding place where we can run into and be secure, and know that all our needs will be taken care of. It is a place of peace and contentment in Him. It is a place of refreshment and rejuvenation. It is a place where we can be built up, strengthened, and edified, and to receive encouragement and empowering from Him. It is a place where we can rest and be satisfied, like being by streams of living water, with the freshness of the breeze and the beauty of life all around us. It is true reality, not the plastic of the world's allurements. It is a place where we can truly rejoice, and be filled to overflowing with the wine of His presence bubbling over with the joy of the Lord.
O Lord, fill us with Your presence. Let us taste the totally consuming and all-empowering presence. It is the one that never runs dry and never stays the same, for Your love is ever-increasing and abundant and is inexhaustible. Draw us in and let us have a taste so that we will never forget how it was without it. The allurements of the world and the pleasure and fulfillment we have in Him, there is no comparison. Draw us into the living waters and cause us to thirst forevermore of You, Lord. Fill us up to over-flowing enough to bubble over and effect everyone in our path.
Start with us, Lord, and bring revival and change us and bring us from glory to glory in You. Let revival start with us by enabling us to press into Your intimacy, Your secret place, from this day forward and forevermore. In Jesus name, let it be.
Come unto Him, all who are weary and heavy laden, and He will give you rest, for He is refreshment for your soul, a safe harbor in which to rest and be strengthened. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY
Deep within the recesses of man there is a calling to draw close to the heart of God to know Him in a deep and intimate way. It is a calling for more of Him and of His presence. We really want to know Him and to know that we can lean on Him. We want the assurance that He will always be there for us to take care of our every need. Psalm 91 is a journey into a deep relationship of trusting the Father and learning that you can have this assurance. Because we are always growing in our trust and knowledge of Him, every level of growth begins a new relationship with the Father. As we press into a deeper relationship with Him, we will receive in our hearts the knowledge that He is protecting us in every area of our lives. We can be assured that His angels will always surround us with flaming arrows and torches of righteousness.
We are in a war. It is a battle of good versus evil - the Kingdom of Light versus that of darkness. And we have a Mighty Warrior on our side, the awesome Lion of Judah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is our refuge, a place of great safety and protection. No foe can ever reach us if we continually rest in His presence with our eyes focused on Him and on His promises. He is also our fortress, a place to do battle from. A strong tower is He!
His mercies are from everlasting to everlasting. His love is ever-flowing and forever reigns. Come into the secret place of the Most High and dwell for there is where He covers you with His shadow. The shadow of the Almighty is ever-present. It is like a mighty encampment that nothing can pierce through. A mighty wall of fire around His loved ones is He. The fire of His glory encamps around about those that fear Him, and He delivers them always.
Come into this secret place for it is ever-present. It is like home to those who dwell within the arms of their Loving Father, the Mighty God of Israel. Yes, He is your God, and He is with you now and always. You are safe in Him, and all your needs are forever taken care of in Him. He is the Captain of the hosts of Heaven, the mighty Lion of Judah, and He is on your side. And because the battle is the Lord's, you battle from the place of great victory against the enemy of your soul.
So, take your place in the mighty army of God. With the Lord on your side, who can come against you and conquer? We are on the winning side, and we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. So, rejoice and seek to find your place in Him which you are to dwell, and take root there. Cultivate your place in Him, and grow and thrive and prosper in Jesus name.
Continuing on in Psalm 91, we are reassured that we are in a place of safety when we abide under the shadow of the Almighty. As I meditated more on this passage of scripture, the Lord spoke to my heart these words:
"Your dwelling place in Me is a place of security - a place to draw close to Me and to be intimately touched by My love. Your place in Me under My shadow is a place where you can be strong knowing that My Overbearing Love will protect you always no matter what you face; and that you have the knowledge of My presence by faith."
In the heat of the battle, you know that you can pick up your Sword and Shield covered by God's Armor, and stand boldly in the face of battle; because Jesus, the Captain of the hosts of Heaven, stands in front of you, all around you, and is also your rear guard. You are surrounded by His presence - all around you - under the shadow of the Almighty.
MY OVERBEARING LOVE
As I sat and pondered on what I had received from the Lord, I ran into a bit of difficulty understanding what He meant when He had given me the term "overbearing" in relating to His love. I don't know how many may have experienced this same difficulty when they read the above passage, but I am sure that when the Lord takes you on a journey through His Word, He does not leave any stone unturned. I continued to seek the Lord for days for the revelation that He was to convey, and the following is what I came up with as the conclusion with the help of His precious Holy Spirit, the Comforter and our Teacher.
With the mind you can see that these two terms, "overbearing and love," don't go well together if you look up the definition for "overbearing." But I have learned that you cannot rationalize what is of the Spirit in the flesh for the flesh is always enmity with God. Those who give into intellectualism will actually "explain away" the things of the Spirit.
You cannot even understand that of the Spirit with the carnal mind. That is why we have to depend on the Holy Spirit to open up to us God's Word. So, I encourage you that when you get before the Lord, and He speaks to you, and you even write it down, make sure that you are yielded to His Spirit when you read it later, for the enemy will try to rob you by tempting you to try to understand it with your mind and not with your heart. Stand guard of the enemy's tactics to try to rob you of God's words.
We are encouraged that everything that we go through, even our mistakes, sinful attitudes, and downfalls, work for our good. God wastes no time in preparing us for the further callings of our life. Ever since we made Jesus our all, He is using every step of the way to bring us to the place we need to be in Him. If we would just humble ourselves, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, especially of independence and pride, He would heal our land - that is every aspect of our lives.
All this came about after a trial I went through concerning my writing. This is a learning experience in the Lord that I want to share with you. I don't know how this can be related to my writing Meditation on Psalm 91, but it is something I hope you can glean wisdom from.
When I was reading over what I wrote aforehand, I came across the word "overbearing" in describing God's love. I write by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and at times I wonder if I had missed it in hearing from Him. I'm sure you know that there are many voices out there , and when you try to get quiet with God, you battle many distractions. Even your own thoughts come through and that of your own spirit, even though they may be sanctified thoughts, they're not God's pure words. I seek to write that which is purely of Him, and this is a process of fine-tuning My reception of His voice. He promises us that we will know His voice, and no other voice will we listen to. But this doesn't mean that the enemy isn't going to try to attack us to try to throw us off-track.
Getting back to the word "overbearing." If you look it up in the dictionary, its meaning in the natural does not go well in describing God's love. The words "proud, arrogant, domineering, etc.," is the opposite of what you feel when you think of His love. So, with my own reasoning, I substituted another word which did not fit what God put in My heart what He was trying to portray through the wording He gave me. I want you to realize that the English vocabulary is so limited in trying to explain that of the Spirit. A lot of what God shows us cannot even be put in words. Moments of intimacy with our Lord causes us to receive deep impressions in our heart that we can't even share with others.
I want you to know that even though it seems like I'm going off on many rabbit trails trying to relay this message to you, it is important for you to try to follow it through. As I sought the Lord for a word that more closely fit what He put in My heart when He gave me the word "overbearing," I could not come up with one that fit better when I read it with my heart and not my mind. That which is received prophetically can only be received in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Many have a hard time even reading prophetic writing. So, seek the revelation through God's Spirit, and lean not on your own understanding.
After looking closer at the definitions of the word "overbearing" and emphasizing certain ones and deleting others, I saw that what was left closely described God's glory in relating to His love for us. "Of transcending importance; to prevail over, overrule or nullify; to have a dominant influence over; to press down by weight or physical power; to bear to excess"......these are the things we say that we want done to our self-life. As I sought deeper for the meaning the Lord wanted to reveal to me, I saw that all the above seemed to describe the Glory of the Lord that we are pressing in for.
We say that we agree with John the Baptist when he said that he must decrease and Jesus increase. That means that we need to get completely out of the way so that Jesus can be great in us and through us. He wants to live His life through us without any hindrance from our flesh. In order for this to happen, we need to press in for His glory; because after experiencing it, we will long for only Him and not ourselves to rule and reign in our lives. So, the meaning of "overbearing" really fits the description of God's glory in relating to God's love for us.
We long to be smothered by God's love, to be weighed down by it, subdued by it, engulfed in it so that we cannot rise up in the flesh. And that is what Jesus desires to do if we would only yield to His love. He wants to engulf us with His love like a river; smother us like a cloud; fill us to overflowing like a waterfall; and lose us in its ecstacy where there is no more left of us to rule but only Jesus.
Come to the depths of His love, and drink to the fullness of your capacity, and press in for increase of it even greater so. Pray the Lord increase your borders to be able to receive all He has for you. Lose yourself in His love, His overbearing love, in His glory. In other words, press in for the River of God to flow through you to wash away anything that would block its flow so there will be no more left of you to stand in its way but only Jesus to flow through, for He is the River of Love.
FROM INTIMACY TO GLORY
In conclusion I want you to see that as we stay in a place of intimacy with the Father, we are promised that we will walk in His glory. Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit says the Lord. It is not by anything that we do that we are saved, but by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we stay in the place of intimacy, we abide in His grace and glory - His strength and character being manifested through us to overcome the wiles of the evil one, and to shed the Lord's love abroad.
Come unto Him all who are weary and heavy laden, and He will give you rest for He is refreshment for your soul - a safe harbor in which to rest and be strengthened. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. This is His promise to us if only we would obey His call to intimacy with Him above all else. It is to be our first priority to dwell in His presence.
Abide in His intimacy daily where it becomes a way of life. If we obey His call, we will always be prepared, yielded, and in season to be used by the Holy One so that His Spirit may flow through you to repel the evil one and to touch all around you with His love and with His grace and glory. Halleluia!
VERSE 2 - I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, My God, in Him I will trust."
HE IS A PLACE OF REFUGE AND A FORTRESS
Verse two goes right along with verse one because you can see the correlation between "the secret place of the Most High" and the word "refuge" and with "the shadow of the Almighty" with the word "fortress" in verse 2. A refuge is to be a place of rest and security; a place of intimate worship and communion with the Father. And a fortress relating to being under the shadow of the Almighty is a place to war from; a place of strength and stamina; of overcoming power against the evil one.
MY GOD, IN HIM I WILL TRUST
Intimacy with the Father is the key to having true success and prosperity in everything. Yield not to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths resulting in His perfect will in every area of your life. Lean on Him for He wants to be closer than a brother to you. He wants to be everything to you for He loves us so deeply and does not want to be left out of any portion of our life. Not just on special days of worship does He want us to look to Him but always. He is to be our life, the air that we breathe, our sustenance, and our all in all. He wants to be our delight and our joy for if we stay in His presence, He promises to restore our youth like an eagle.
There are so many benefits that we reap just by staying in a place of intimacy with the Father. He strengthens our faith that we may walk in His promises of prosperity and divine health as we grow spiritually in Him. Only good can result from seeking His face, delighting in Him, and staying by His side always.
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May Holy Spirit profit this one in your walk with God.
Thanks for posting this encouraging meditation.
DS, you will really enjoy this!
Thx for the ping, Jan. I am going to read and reread this all day.
Thanks, Jan, DS.
May God bless it abundantly to many. Certainly feel free to ping anyone who might be blessed by it.
Jan, where are you in CO. You may know I'm just south of Durango in NM
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