Saturday, January 27, 2018

THE ALL-PROTECTIVE GOD - PSALM 139: 23-24

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." (Psalm 139:23-24)
Many of us have had encounters with angelic beings. There are accounts of what has happened on many mission fields or people in dangerous places or situations who are suddenly protected and cleared through those same situations.

Elisha saw the Chariots of fire. My wife spoke to a woman in line at an AMC Theater one time who knew more about us than any human being. Then the angel disappeared. I was about to slide down an icy small hill, where I parked at the top, on a cold snowy morning, when all of a sudden my little Taurus was shot directly into my parking spot a few feet away. The parking was perfectly straight with equal space on both sides! I sat there smiling knowing exactly what had happened and thanking the good Lord. "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them (Psalm 34:7)


Why are we even discussing this about Angels? Here is why - our positional salvation. When we are placed into the Eternal Kingdom of God - all of it. We are grafted into the Family of God, from Eternity past and into the Future. This includes every heavenly being. We all have our role in our Heavenly Father's Kingdom. However, as saved human beings, we baffle even the angels, in that we can literally appeal directly to the Throne of God, and He hears us.


It is unbelievable the kind of access we have to the very Throne of God. This access represents just some of the Fruit of acknowledging, fearing, knowing and revering the All-Knowing, All-Present, All-Perceiving and All-Powerful God. We have studied all four of these attributes earlier in Psalm 139. However KNOWING these truths about God and not doing our part to stay in the zone He presets for us, is NOT the mark of a good Christian. There is a reason Psalm 139 ends up with these two critical verses (verses 23 and 24).

Scripture explicitly compels us to examine ourselves daily (sometimes many times a day) to see not if we are saved, but if we are acting like one who IS saved. Therefore in order find ourselves in full alignment with the God Who is all we have described in this Psalm, we MUST constantly maintain every aspect and facet of our daily walk.  This world is so unforgiving. We can do a great job or do the right thing 99.9% of the time, but one lapse in judgment or a decimal point left out on a total by accident, can call all 


But our positional salvation in Christ – permanent and sure – gives us the hope and reassurance that we can now proceed to grow in Him, according to His Will and purposes. We can rest assured that even when we sin and fall short, the Lord is faithful to forgive and remove our sins from us, as far as the east is from the west. It is absolutely critical we use these 


To comprehend what these verses mean, we must have a fixed point of reference of God’s stated Will for our lives? Most people are still looking for that statement or “revelation”. Romans 12:2 tells us exactly what it is, right here “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."


This much is true – if we stay in the Will of God, He SHALL work His way through us and lead us where we are supposed to BE. For this to function in the form which God designed for us, there must be obedience and obedience comes from one place – a mind found in Christ.


For our minds to be found in Christ, there has to be maintenance. The Apostle Paul tells to “work out our salvation”. He did not say “work FOR it”. Working out one’s salvation literally means  the process of Sanctification. We are saved once and justified – made right – because of repentance and faith and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord. This is just the beginning of our walk in Christ. 

Now these final verses of Psalm 139 are active and ongoing, just as our daily walk with the Savior should be. In fact, these two verses should be used by us to take stock of ourselves, with the long view of holding ourselves accountable before God. So, let us look at what the verses teaches:
Search me and know my heart: Jeremiah 17:10 tells us that God does the following: "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds." So we know He has the capability to get to the root of the matter, since He is our Creator and knows every single thing about us.  We also know that every human heart...EVERY human who ever lived except the God-Man Jesus Christ, is exceedingly corrupt, sinful, lustful, greedy and all that bad stuff (Jeremiah 17:9). Even when the Lord causes us to be born again and gives us a new heart, we need to check our selves before we wreck ourselves by more sin!. The way to fixing our sin problem, in the process of becoming MORE like Christ as one who is born again is to constantly ask the Lord to search with the strongest searchlight, every hidden part of our heart, mind and soul to discover where we need Him to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.


Try me and know my anxious thoughts: King David, the human author of Psalm 139 writes to his son in 1 Chronicles 28:9 the following "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever." We know that because Solomon developed such a lust for female companionship of all varieties and pagan nation, he had over 1000 women in his royal household/harem and rejected the Law of the Lord by his actions, for most of his life. The Lord allowed Solomon to do this until he repented and came to his senses and proceeded to write the Book of Ecclesiastes as a warning, as much as anything else. We must know this about God, unless we do as Scripture tells us and take every thought captive by not allowing them into our system in the first place, we are already on the path to major sin, if allowed unchecked. Here is what we should be doing after the Lord reveals our thoughts or if we get side-swiped and blindsided by evil thoughts from the devil...from 2 Corinthians 10:5, we read: "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

- See if there is any anxious way....lead me in the everlasting way: We must realize that God is for us. In fact Jesus Himself intercedes, prays for and comes to the Throne of the Father on our behalf if we ask in His Name. Romans 8:27b tells us "He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." We do NOT want to be disqualified by service to the Lord or even worse. So we examine ourselves each day to keep short accounts with God by confessing our moral shortcomings immediately and then trying our best to NOT do them again (2 Corinthians 13:5).

God has offered us life and life more abundantly. He sets before us life OR death. He sets before us blessings or curse. He wants us to CHOOSE LIFE that both us and our descendants might life (Deuteronomy 30:19). The everlasting and eternal way that God has been leading us throughout our entire Christian walk is found in this Life. Choose Life is not just a slogan for the pro-life movement and what a wonderful movement we have here to protect the life of the unborn. Choose Life from this amazing sermon by Moses in Deuteronomy is the way out of anxious stressful living when all the world is falling down all around us. Take God at His Promises. He can be depended upon.

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