The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken, and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth. May our God come and not keep silence. Psalm 50:1-2.
I will hear what God the LORD will say; for He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones; but let them not turn back to folly. Psalm 85:8.
I will bless the LORD who counsels me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. I have set the LORD continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Psalm 16:7-8.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Every moment can be a moment of encounter. I am with you though often you are unaware of this. It is a conscious decision to refer to Me as you go through your day. And you will find that when you call to Me, I answer. From the rising to the setting of the sun I am speaking and summoning you to Me. Psalm 50:1-2. And in the night, you have My songs. Job 35:10; Isaiah 30:29.
Jacob, as he ran from Esau and went to find a wife from his father’s kinsmen, stopped for the night on a mountain of Moriah, in fact, I tell you lighted on THE PLACE. Ha Makom. Genesis 28:11. It later would be temple mount, the place where I put My Name. It was THE PLACE I had pointed out to Abraham to offer up Isaac. Encounters are not accidents. And there Jacob had a dream. And the dream was from Me and would set the course of his life. He saw a ladder a set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, My angels were ascending and descending on it. And I stood beside him and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Genesis 28:12-17.
I was with him to keep him wherever he went, but he did not know it. So he set up a memorial stone there and anointed it with oil, and called that place, “Bethel,” which means “House of God” in Hebrew. And there Jacob made a vow to Me. He swore, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me bread to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.” Genesis 28:20-21. An encounter turned him into a tither. And he then had tither’s rights. I did not let the destroyer steal his wages. I showed Jacob years later as he worked for Laban in a dream how to outsmart the deceitful Laban to collect his wages in full. And when I showed him the solution of the branches with the stripped bark before the mating sheep and goats, I also reminded him, “Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’” Genesis 31:12-13. I appreciate a tither. They honor Me with their wealth first. That is honor and gratitude. And Jacob was grateful, on his return to his father’s house when he departed from his service to Laban of twenty years, Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,’ I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.” Genesis 32:9-10.
Gratitude. Love is grateful. An attitude of thankfulness makes for beautiful relationships. It brings honor. Without gratitude for who the other is to you, you will take offense, in fact, you are looking for it without knowing it if you despise a person or hold them in low esteem, seeing them as a burden to your life. You will see things in that light. Irritable. But gratitude overlooks offense by seeing through it to who the other person really is to you.
When Jacob became aware of My presence that night in the place where he encountered Me in divine revelation, he called that place a “house of God and gate of Heaven.” In My house there is abundance, there is peace, and there is delight. A pure delight of power by association based upon revelation of My divine presence. And the power of My presence is love. Love never fails. It overcomes all. Love is a consuming fire. True love permits no foreign matter within it. It only thinks, walks, and talks in love.
A life without love is nothing.
I am not speaking of what the worldly call love. That is fickle, it fades, and it is not at a constant level. I speak of My kind of love. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is My love toward those who revere Me. As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you. Psalm 103:11-12. Love covers a multitude of sins for the beloved, in My case by giving the life of My Son for you.
I have loved you with an everlasting love. And I have sealed it by covenant.
Love is not an emotion but My divine nature in you. If you only love to the level of your emotions, your love is dependent on the behavior of the other, you are basing your love on a return of love and when it seems to not be there, your love evaporates too. But divine love does not depend on another’s behavior or return of love, it is a nature that does not change but keeps pouring out.
Love is a disposition of benevolence that no outside influence hinders.
Walking in love is walking in a disposition of benevolence and service. It is walking in honor. It is your spiritual worship. It is written, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2. Do not be seeking by your emotions for other’s approval and validation above the Divine pleasure.
True love is unification with Me who am love itself. Be imitators of Me, as My beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for you, an offering and a sacrifice to Me as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2. Like Jesus, giving of self to another for the good is love. Laying down your own selfishness to see the needs of others rather than taking offense.
I love you. I am grateful for you, My family, My beloved children. And nothing can separate you from My love, as manifested in Christ Jesus your Lord. It will never change.