Hello everyone!
As I write this to you I am still resonating with our worship time on yesterday’s Live Stream service. I especially resonated with the Desert Song …
“This is my prayer in the desert
When all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer and my hunger in me
My God is the God who provides …
Our current experience may well feel like a desert experience … where we may even feel a bit spiritually dry, or our faith experience frustrating. Yes, I am being tested, as I have been sharing with you along the way. Deeply tested in many ways. So are you. Now, more than ever, I encourage you to pray. Pray and seek the Lord with all your heart – He wants you to find Him. Ask Him what he is doing around you and right there in your personal circumstances – because, as I said in the last update, He IS on the move doing all kinds of things.
“And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames …
Prayers offered up in “the fire” are so real and honest … they’re much purer … they’re raw … less baloney … Prayers offered up when we feel weak or helpless attract the most grace – God speaks and we hear with certainty and confidence when we are most dependent on Him … faith grows stronger in the testing and trials, as the apostle Peter once said, “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:7)
“I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here …
When we’re in the midst of battle, in addition to prayer, our key weapons are praise and the truth of the Word of God. “… no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from Me," declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)
Knowing this powerful truth, we are emboldened more and more in prayer – and the confidence that it brings as Holy Spirit agrees with our spirit – we feel it, friends, and this is so powerful. SO POWERFUL … victory is only ever a matter of time for God’s people.
“And this is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on its way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand
So, my friends, stand firm then, (Ephesians 6:14ff) in the confidence that we are His children and that He loves us so, so much, and that His promises never fail.
“I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here …
This then is how we live through the tough times! Through the fiery trials where God is burning away all that is not holy in us, where he is refining and sanctifying us, and putting his glory on us more and more … “And we all, … are being conformed into His image more and more with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord …” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And so, even in the desert our spirit sings …
“All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship …
I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here…”
Our victory is always with us. Always. With us. He has a name! Immanuel! It is in the fullness of time – kairos – that the activity, the effects and result of our victory (the fruit) is made manifest, made visible - as our enemies are defeated and our souls are conformed that bit more to his holiness … Our “vessel capacity” is vastly increased, too. Our faith and spiritual resilience is reinforced, increased, multiplied. And so, in this desert season … we pray, we praise and we wait confidently. The victory will come … it is certain … and we will be ushered into the harvest season – God’s workers in those fields white and ready – and entrusted with more “victory seeds” to sow in others through our ministries. And the song in this desert season will have done its work.
“And this is my prayer in the harvest
When favour and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
This seed I've received I will sow.”
I will bring praise
I will bring praise
No weapon formed against us shall remain
I will rejoice
I will declare
God is my victory and He is here”
This is my song in the desert.
You are loved so very, much.
Ps. Milton