I think Jesus and after him, his disciples, lived in a very different reality to what we live today. “New Agers” perhaps yearn after a different reality in an ungodly way. But to seek and to find the narrow way of Jesus is, I think, much more than a life of surrender and self denial.
“In Him we live and move and have our being” and “Abide in me”: what do these expressions of devotion to Jesus mean at their deepest level? I wonder.
I am seeking to live a life surrendered to His Spirit: living for God, not for myself. This is because I realise that my own desires are lower than His. My flesh gets life wrong; my spirit yearns for the purity, clarity and vitality that only Jesus can give. Remember he said he provides drink from which we will never thirst and food from which we will never hunger? There is simply a dimension that I’ve had glimpses of, but I hunger for so much more.
There was a time several months ago when I was engulfed in peace. I walked, spoke, breathed differently: more calmly and more full of peace than ever before. I want that again. I could feel His anointing in a tangible way. It lasted a few days and then it lifted. I’m not sad for its departing, like a long lost friend leaving, but I do long for its return. It was as though there was no room for my crotchetiness or my impatience, no place for my temperamental nature; I felt full of love and grace…. as though, for that short time, I truly did live and move and have my being under His anointing.
Why can I not live like that always? To live as though “living under the shadow of the Almighty.” How lovely: fresh, deep, peaceful.
Birthed in prayer, perhaps again that blessing will come. Perhaps it will come to many – or already has. Or perhaps it was a glimpse of what living in Heaven is like. It was breath-giving.
I urge any to join me in this prayer of Psalm 91:
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler[a]
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
Perhaps it is our time in the Lord to soar: to see ourselves high above our distractions, frustrations and troubles, high above where life is full of peace, joy and laughter in the LORD.
Blessings as you reflect with me in this Psalm.