Promises of God

"...in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures forever more." -Psalm 16:11. This was a promise God had shown me a week after returning from Ellerslie. I've heard and read this verse countless times before, but it pierced my heart in a different and deeper way then ever before. It is a promise. If I seek after my Jesus and continually stay and abide in His presence, I will be filled with His joy. I will find fullness and be completely satisfied. God made it clear to me that He wanted me to go after this promise. I had been fighting to find true joy in being home. Knowing it was where God wanted me, but still finding it hard to have joy in being here. Day after day I ran after this promise. My prayer was continually, "God, You promise it. I know you do not and cannot lie, so therefore it will be fulfilled. No matter how long it takes, it will happen." One of the things that God was pressing into my being while at Ellerslie was what it really means to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor. 5:7 - This verse has been a "theme" verse for me over the past several years.) Walking by 1) FACT: knowing what the the Word of God says; who He says He is and knowing that my God cannot lie. It is Truth. 2) FAITH: so then having faith in the facts. "I believe Lord, but help my unbelief"(Mark 9:24) . 3) FEELINGS/EXPERIENCE: then the feelings/emotions/experience- whatever you want to call them, will come. So many Christians live out these three things completely backwards. Feelings/experience first, not fact. For a month and a half I clung to the promise that I would be filled with God's joy and completely satisfied when I continually abide in Him. Day after day, hour after hour, I did not have the feelings, but God was truly teaching me how to walk by faith: to walk by FACT not FEELING. I wont go into details, but after a month and a half of this, God had filled me with His joy. And within days He began to give me the joy and desire to be here and serve and love the people He has placed in my life right now. Psalm 61, 62 & 63 have been pretty significant in my relationship with Christ in the past 3 years. This summer He took me deeper in these chapters and showed me so much more which I'm not going to share now in this post, but it talks a lot about God as our Rock. Our only Rock, Fortress and Salvation. Our refuge and our hiding place. Psalm 63 has been my prayer specifically since being home. My Lord is the only One that will truly satisfy. Every fiber of my being longs and faints for my Jesus. Verses 7-8 says, "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me." The words followeth hard were translated from the greek word dabaq (daw-bak). Which means to impinge, cling or adhere. to catch by pursuit; abide, fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard, after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take. Am I following hard after Jesus? The word upholdeth was translated from the greek word tamak (taw-mak). Meaning, to sustain; keep fast; to help, follow close; (take, up) hold (up), maintain, retain, stay (up) Verse 8 says that God's right hand upholdeths me. Period. Not just sometimes or every now and then. It is used in present tense. It upholdeths. Such a key thing to remember here in this verse is that the only reason we can follow hard after Christ (dabaq), is because His right hand is upholding (tamak) us. That is the only reason. I cannot do it on my own. No matter how hard I try, I cannot do it on my own. These are just a few of the many Truths and promises God has been revealing to me in the past couple of months and weeks. Feel free to share your thoughts and comments. I pray that God would use it to encourage you in some way. This is a song that has been a prayer of mine for several weeks.

In the light of the King's face

there is life

Giving favor to His children

like a cloud of rain

Rain is falling in Your presence

on our thirsty hearts

As we seek the knowledge of Your will

oh God, impart

Oh, never ever ending river

fill us up

Lord, rain down upon us

Rain down upon us

We need You, we need You

Rain down

One thing we ask

and Lord, we humbly seek

That in Your shelter we can hide

and gaze upon the King

In Your presence

we find fullness, we are satisfied

Come, Lord Jesus

let us look upon You with enlightened eyes

Oh, never ever ending river

fill us up

Lord, rain down upon us

Rain down upon us

We need You, we need You

Rain don

You are raining down

and we are filling up

You keep raining down

and we keep filling up

"Rain Down"

Shane & Shane