“…the Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters…”
(2 Samuel 5:20, AMP)
Look for, hope for and believe for God of the break through to visit your house today….
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
“…the Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters…”
(2 Samuel 5:20, AMP)
Look for, hope for and believe for God of the break through to visit your house today….
thedailylily.com 
When I see the “look for, hope for and believe for God…to visit your house today”, I can’t help but think of Zacchaeus. Read with me Luke 19: 1-9, “Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. ‘Zacchaeus!’ he said, ‘Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.’ Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. ‘He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,’ they grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!’ Jesus responded, ‘Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
I believe Zacchaeus must have been “looking for” Jesus to come to his house??
Needles, Zacchaeus did what he had to do to “look for” Jesus coming… even climb a tree.
Romans 5:1-5 ” Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ had brought us into this place of underserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he heas given us the holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
“And this hope will not lead to disappointment.” Zacchaeus went further, dug deeper… He climbed a tree with “Hope” to see the one he was “looking for” Jesus Christ. Zacchaeus’ “hope” did not lead to disappointment but to an awesome blessing. He not only saw Jesus but Jesus told him He was going to Zacchaeus’s home. What an amazing blessing for the man “looking for” Jesus.
Hey, N&CF great minds think alike! Except I didn’t even think of Zacchaeus. 😦 However, I see it now. CF says, “…he climbed a tree with “Hope” to see the one he was “looking for ” Jesus Christ “hope” did not lead to disappointment but to an awesome blessing..”
I see both comments brings us into a relationship with Christ.
Also, there must be something said here about David and Zacchaeus’ “wholehearted obedience” to God…..what do you think??
In a local women’s Bible study, I am studying the life of David, with Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur. Beth Moore had us write the words “wholehearted obedience” in the margin, of our workbook. She wrote: “We’ve got to return to wholehearted obedience.” This is part of moving past “our devastation with God”, she said.
Right you all are! Hope is made ‘ashamed’ if there is NOT obedience to the ONE in Whom we have put our hope.
Walking through the cafeteria this afternoon , after classes let out, I saw a wonderful servant of the Lord and a Mother of one of our students as she taught a Bible Class to little ones in our school. YES! She is preaching to our little children, and some older ones, too) after school. She had two little girls in the front of the class and they were holding a lovely booklet with pictures of Jesus and the lyrics to the song that the children were singing…ALL the verses….TRUST AND OBEY FOR THERE”S NO OTHER WAY TO BE HAPPY IN JESUS (our Hope, Our Desire) THAN TO TRUST AND OBEY. Those little tykes were singing that famous hymn at the top of their voices in our cafeteria. PRAISE THE LORD. Yes, Needles, we must return to wholeheartedness of obedience to the Lord. Out of the mouths of babes He has perfected praise.
Sara taught Sunday, either you are or you’re NOT. There is no in between.
The Scriptures say there is not even a “shadow” of turning with the Lord.
An old jazz song says, “Is you is, or is you ain’t” There’s no in-between.
Jesus says in the Book of Revelation 3:14, to the Church at Laodicea ..”I wish that you were either HOT or COLD but because you are lukewarm I am about to spit you out of MY mouth.” The point being that we must be obedient if we are to “look for and hope in” the Lord Jesus Christ and His visitation.
In reading the following commentary we can see God’s “wholehearted obedience” played out in David. I love the sentence which in essence says wait on the Lord. I have often run ahead of God. I was even told by a prophet long ago, “It’s not what you have to do, but it is something I have to do in the persons life.” With age you learn that you can’t change anyone – only God can change a heart. It seems the ones that are closest to you are the ones you want to change or want to come to Jesus the most. What happens is you are the one who suffers because you didn’t put the situation in God’s hands. Your result is anger because you can’t change them. What happens you are the one who gets sick because you sinned for you can’t do God’s job. So we do need like Zacchaeus to go higher up to see Jesus and bring him in to help our loved loves. Philippians 4: 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. When we do all in the right order then God’s blessing pour out like a sweet fragrance on our lives.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on 2 Samuel 5 reads:
(Read 2 Samuel 5:17-25)
The Philistines considered not that David had the presence of God with him, which Saul had forfeited and lost. The kingdom of the Messiah, as soon as it was set up in the world, was thus attacked by the powers of darkness. The heathen raged, and the kings of the earth set themselves to oppose it; but all in vain, Psalm 2:1, & c; . The destruction will turn, as this did, upon Satan’s own kingdom. David owns dependence on God for victory; and refers himself to the good pleasure of God, Wilt thou do it? The assurance God has given us of victory over our spiritual enemies, should encourage us in our spiritual conflicts. David waited till God moved; he stirred then, but not till then. He was trained up in dependence on God and his providence. God performed his promise, and David failed not to improve his advantages. When the kingdom of the Messiah was to be set up, the apostles, who were to beat down the devil’s kingdom, must not attempt any thing till they received the promise of the Spirit; who came with a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, Acts 2:2.
‘David waited till God moved’ Rena said. And it seems in many places in the Bible that when God moved into homes through His Son Jesus…things happened. Jesus said He came to do only the will of the Father…that’s shows us wholehearted obedience.
“When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. “Get out!” he told them. “The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” But the crowd laughed at him. After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.” Matt 9:23-26
“When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.” Matt 8:14-15
“One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. …
And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 36-38, 50
‘wholehearted obedience’=showing or characterized by complete sincerity and commitment…without any rebellion…
I want God in my home and in my daily life…..
Look! “He Who sits in the heavens laughs…”
(Psalm 2:4, AMP)
Hum, I see that “wholehearted obedience” is “characterized by complete sincerity and commitment”!!
Complete= finished; ended; concluded: a complete orbit… having all the required or customary characteristics, skills, or the like; consummate; perfect in kind or quality: a complete scholar… thorough; entire; total; undivided, uncompromised, or unmodified: a complete victory; HUM! Selah!
Partial or incomplete must leave the door open for the enemy (ies) and for all to go not well.
“You must diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the Lord said you would.” Deut 6:17-19 NLT
“Do what is right in the Lord’s sight….obeying ALL the commands of the Lord your God….” That’s a tall, tall order especially if there’s only a wishy-washy commitment, “on the fence”(and James says that one who wavers is like the billowing surge out at sea, tossed by the wind and waves .Let no one imagine he shall receive anything from God). Delayed response, procrastination in one’s attitude of mind. None of these help us access the promises of God if we are not sincerely seeking first the Kingdom. How could we “obey ALL the commands of the Lord our God? But…. we have the Holy Spirit Who helps confirm our resolve and assists us when we have a genuine heart to be obedient to our Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit Who dwells within us WILL help us for that is why He was sent by Jesus. To help us live the life that pleases our Lord. We must Listen to Him and follow His leadings.
Sounds to me we must get off the emotional ferris wheel of life and follow the Lord Jesus Christ all the way step by step setting our minds on the living God instead of looking in the mirror for our answers, seek God and the Holy Spirit will direct.
“…the Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters…”
(2 Samuel 5:20, AMP)
Look for, hope for and believe for God of the break through to visit your house today….”
It would seem to me the way off the ferris wheel, ie around and around with the same old same old is start walking the walk of faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “… faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…”
The only thing, I think, we need to remember is truth and righteousness will prevail in ALL circumstances.
I would like to share with you one of my very favorite promises of truth, hope, and love that keeps hope and love alive for me…”Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” (Psalms 85:10).
Hope you will read 85:10 very slowly and then add …Psalm 25:10…
“The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.”
Also, rethinking, “Zacchaeus” from our above comments. He climbed down from a tree and starting walking and walked really steady when he started making things right in his own life. Like giving, paying old debts, reimbursing monies he had spent on himself when he should not have, etc. etc.
Wonder how many ways we have stolen from others without recognizing it was stealing until The Holy Spirit showed up at our house?
Taking up people’s time when they could be doing something more valuable or wasting their time by not being timely and orderly ourselves is stealing. Using excess resources like water, etc may steal from someone else’s supply particularly in a drought. Misuse, abuse or overuse of many things can result in tax increases, insurance increases, price increases etc that steals money from pockets of those who try to be temperent and conservative in all things. Seems like a lot of ways to steal.
Faith & hope is calling those things that be not, or are not YET, as though they were….and not the opposite as many us do…Calling those things that BE as though they were NOT. That is being in denial and a waste of time, too.
Sara, I love the way THE MESSAGE BIBLE records those 2 Scriptures:
Ps. 25:10 reads, “From now on every road you travel will take you to God. Read the covenant signs (by the wayside), read the charted directions” ( and listen to GOD’S GPS) 🙂
Ps. 85: 10 then reads, ” Love and Truth meet in the street. (Those streets mentioned in Ps. 25). Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss. Right Living pours down from the skies. Oh, yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty and our land responds with Bounty and Blessing. Right Living strides out before him and clears a path for his passage.”
And I would like to add….that as we’re walking down that Road of Righteousness, The Way, the Truth and the Life, that “Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord, forever & ever, Amen” (Ps. 23:6)
GOD’s GPS = GLORY POSITIONING STRATEGY !!
Then why so much confusion?
A magnet for confusion seems to be found in James 3:14-16…bitter envy and self-seeking…enemies of mercy, truth, righteousness and peace. If they activate will send things into a spin.
“But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” James 3:17 NKJ
Often we do not sense the roots of bitterness within us because we are either lying to ourselves, or think our good works will cover up for our nasty dispositions, and talking out of both sides of our mouths. Paul takes care of that in 1 Cor. 13…..give your body to be burned, give away all your fortune, feed the poor, clothed the unclothed, BUT it’ll all be clanging gong and tinkling cymbal if it is NOT done with a heart of love…free from guile, bitterness, envy, contention and control-freaky-ness.
And some day (not always) but often the root pops out somewhere in our bodies or our mouths or our attitudes or our demeanor and Bingo! Busted~
How did the root of bitterness get planted in our hearts soil?
Once we allow the soil of our hearts to receive even one little seed of doubt, fear, unbelief, envy, jealousy, anger, wounding, rejection and WE NURTURE that little seed; we water it with justifications and exaggerations and imaginings and excuses; we don’t deal with it according to 2Cor. 10:5 which tells us to , “cast down IMAGINATIONS and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of the TRUTH and bring into Captivity every thought and idea into the OBEDIENCE of Christ”, (which we can find in the Word of GOD)… then we start a weed garden in our hearts. Weeds grow fast. Fruit of the Spirit takes diligence and patience to await the Harvest. But a motley weed garden in our hearts takes root immediately and we have major agricultural dilemma on our hands that even a John Deere will not be able to handle. Weeds propagate other weeds and soon there is a root of the evil fruit….one main root with all these poison apples popping out on its branches and they are observed by others and others become victims of this poison fruit of bitterness, as is the poor deceived host who for gratification of the flesh allowed self to indulge in a sowing party and is now reaping the bad fruit of that bitter root.
The evil thoughts will assail us. The temptations to shoot off our mouths, to tell someone off, to boast, to hog the spotlight, to showboat, to interfere, to be offended by real or imagined offenses…We must take care of each and every one of these things in quick order because they leach the soil of our hearts and the Good Seed that the Word is will be a paltry harvest as the weeds choke it (THE WORD) out.
Jesus said, let the weeds in the Kingdom and the fruit of the Kingdom grow together but the weeds will be gathered and burned. with unquenchable fire….
Ok, I need to put a cap on my heart. I remember once I had a water well in the yard of my city country home. I didn’t think much about it until I had a son and he began to run around the yard and well with great curiosity. The first thing we thought of was cap the well with something very heavy so a child could not move it. And, we did immediately!
I think we need to be as diligent in capping off our hearts to those seeds MG spoke of about and allow our wells to flow with fresh spring waters….
I found a short paragraph that summarizes the root of bitterness.
Therefore a “root of bitterness” is a person or a doctrine in the church which encourages people to act presumptuously and treats salvation as an automatic thing that does not require a life of vigilance in the fight of faith and the pursuit of holiness.
Part of vigilance comes by being interconnected with the members of the church. Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.”
“wholehearted obedience’=showing or characterized by complete sincerity and commitment…without any rebellion.” a quote I took from Sara’s comments above, where she speaks of wholeheartedness. David says in Psalm 86, (a scripture that I love) ” I will confess and praise You O Lord my God with my whole UNITED heart and I will glorify Your Name forevermore.”
God is dealing with His church concerning her having a DIVIDED heart. What is our heart set upon? Do we have one “ventricle” in the world and one in the Kingdom. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will cling onto the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt. 6:24)
I desire a whole, united heart, undivided in my loyalties to the Lord Jesus Christ and His plan, purpose and program; not having an agenda of my own which I am trying to promote; not holding out for a better option; or like Gary taught, “not just attached to some aspect of Christ” but whole heartedly, with a united heart, an undivided heart, serve the Lord our God.
Yes, MG, a broken heart is sorrowful. But, when the Lord mends the heart by forgiveness it shows great gratitude in thought, actions and good deeds.
Amen. Jesus is the Mender of broken and wounded hearts. When the Lord opens one’s eyes by prophecy or a word or correction or a teaching and pin- points an area of darkness in one’s life He gives us space to repent. He offers forgiveness. Even the worst sinner of sinners, Christ says in Revelation, that He gives space to repent, to turn from our folly; to change course…to be DELIVERED of the demons that try to rule over us and control us and bully us.
Paul says they are messengers of satan that try to get us to throw in the towel; to discourage, to oppress and depress and repress. They come to hinder the work of the ministry. Why do we allow it when we have the righteousness of Christ Jesus, the power of His might, the power of the blood, the power of sonship? Some are familiar spirits and we don’t even recognize them….as in…
“oh, we always did it this way….my mother told me this; grandma was like this, I have been told; your brother, sister, uncle, aunt had that demeanor. You will have to have it, TOO! OH REALLY??? For freedom Jesus Christ has set us free. We can be delivered IF WE WANT TO. We can be healed, IF WE WANT IT. We can be “tools in the hand of the Living God” (lessons learned this morning in worship service), if we will shake off the heavy bands …those comfortable, familiar but constraining, binding, choking bands of familiar spirits and DO SOMETHING!!! DO SOMETHING FOR THE LORD. To be delivered, healed, set free and to DO SOMETHING FOR THE LORD while there is still time is the greatest gift that the Father offers us. What a privilege to send the demons running so that we can DO SOME GOOD THING FOR THE LORD.
Thank You Lord for deliverance, not just lip service but a changed life. Thank You for forgiveness and exposure and revelation and repentance and REFORMATION.