And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. Matthew 6:27-29.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Learn a lesson from the way the lilies of the field grow. Why would I ask you to look at lilies to stop worrying about provision for your own life? Jesus tells you why, “if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!” Luke 12:28. Satan wants you worried about the cares of this world, so worried and fearful that you have no time for prayer and reading My Word, because he knows if you take time for Me you will learn from Me how to profit and the way you should go. You will learn to trample him and all the evils he brings under your feet.
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.” Luke 10:19. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32.
And today’s life lesson on what to do when Satan attacks is “Consider the Lilies.”
Worry and fear are terrible things. First, they show to Me that you have been fellowshipping with the thoughts the devil has presented to you and have lost true faith in My Word. You may still say you are a believer but you are really a doubting believer and that is ineffectual and frustrating to both of us.
When Adam and Eve doubted and did not adhere to My Word the immediate result was they experienced emotions they had never felt before, they became worried and afraid and the result was that they hid from Me rather than coming running to Me as they usually did to listen to My Words as we walked together in the Garden in the breezy time of the day. They had lost the desire for My Word and for fellowship.
And second, worry and fear choke My Word out of your life so that you become unfruitful. And this will put you into more worry and fear and end in depression as you see your life racing by and producing no fruit, no joyous increase, and no blessing—only painful toil. And this is what choking off My Word did to Adam and Eve and their descendants. It took them out of the freedom of the heavenly blessing flow into the constrictive yoke of the slavery of sin. Once you give over your dominion authority to the devil he will bring you into the darkness of the curse, that is sickness, lack, and eternal death, and all the evils that accompany those things.
In the parable of the sower sowing seed (the seed represents My Word) on various soils (which represent the hearts of the hearers) the explanation of the seed that is growing among thorns is as follows: “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” Mark 4:18-19.
But Jesus came.
The thorns are all around you in this life but do you recall what I call you who are the bride (i.e., members of the Body of Christ)? A lily among the thorns. “Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling (friend, companion) among the daughters.” Song of Songs 2:2. And what happens for that precious lily? “He has brought me to his banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.” Song of Songs 2:4. You have entered the rest, “Let His left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me.” Song of Songs 2:6. And in My left hand are riches and honor and in My right hand is long life. Proverbs 3:16.
But what is your part to stay there in the embrace and provision of My love? “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, while our vineyards are in blossom.” Song of Songs 2:15. What are the little foxes that slip into the vineyard and gnaw away at the branches so their source of sap is reduced and finally the branch is cut off to wither away and die? Worry, fear, anxiety, depression, and a host of other things that people put up with and do not realize their origin. They are unclean spirits from hell and you must not tolerate them. You have to catch those little foxes and take every imagination and thought contrary to My Word captive to the obedience of Christ, that is, captive to the knowledge that Christ was obedient unto death for you so that you are now My righteousness in Him and are fully provided for already with every spiritual blessing in heaven.
I do not pasture you in the thorns, that is, the fears and worries of the realm of darkness, I have rescued you from that and brought you out into the Kingdom of My beloved Son who has made you pure in My sight, represented by the pure whiteness of the lily. “My Beloved is mine, and I am His; He pastures His flock among the lilies until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away.” Song of Songs 2:16.
And which of you by worrying can add a single moment to your life span? Actually, worry will choke it off and give you a premature death, like the unfruitful fig tree that the master wanted to cut down. But My Word is different, “My son, do not forget My teaching, but let your heart keep My commandments; for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” Proverbs 3:1-2.
If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? You can do nothing fruitful without Me. John 14:5. But you can do everything, even the impossible, with Me. Nothing is impossible to Me, nothing is too hard for Me, nothing is to wonderful for Me. I made everything and I can rearrange everything. I set creation up with particles such as quarks, atoms and molecules of which all things are formed always moving and subject to voice command, subject to change for good or for evil, and death and life are in the power (hand) of your tongue. Speak the Words of life that you and your children may live.
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:27-32.
Remember, My Son told you to cast the demons, the unclean spirits, out in His Name. He won the authority back over the earth that Adam lost and then He gave it to you as He ascended back to Me. You are now the Body of Christ on earth and you have a sacred charge that you are not to throw aside as Adam and Eve did. I had given the sacred charge to cultivate and guard the Garden and replenish the earth and fill it and they did not. They abdicated their rule and reign of dominion authority I had entrusted to them over the earth to Satan. They had the charge to protect the beauty and fruitfulness of the earth, to replenish it and fill the earth with the Garden of abundance I had handed over to them and to fill the garden of the earth with a family that walked with Me and knew Me intimately as their source and mentor as they went from glory to glory in an ever expanding territory. Genesis 1:26-28. Isaiah 54:2-3; Isaiah 51:3. And they exchanged that great commission, that Covenant between us, for the lie of the devil and went under the yoke of sin, sickness, sorrow, and toil, without Me in the world and without hope and the beautiful family that was to be Mine they kidnapped away from Me. But I gave My Son as a ransom for the many.
And all creation is still groaning at the weight of the curse inflicted upon it by Adam and Eve, the very ones who had the sacred charge to bring the BLESSING that I imparted to them as My first Word to them to all the earth. Genesis 1:28.
“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” Romans 8:19-25.
The righteous, and you are in Christ, live by faith—true faith that believes what I said is true and acts accordingly. True faith leaves no room for worry or fear. Shalom, shalom have those whose minds are stayed on Me, that is, on My Word, for I am an eternal rock and My promises cover every weapon that can be formed against you. If you stand on My Word, no weapon formed against you will prosper and every accusation of the accuser of the brethren you will prove false. How? By answering it with My Word. My Word is truth and takes down any lie. Build your life on the unshifting rock of My Word and you will never go down, even in the roughest dust storm the devil can muster up from the cares and filth of the worldly life.
But let us go back to considering lilies, especially since I refer to believers as such and pasture among them. In the psalms, and I do tell you to address one another in psalms, hymns and spirit songs, and to talk to yourself that way as well, keeping a melody rising to Me in your heart, there are two songs, Psalm 45 and Psalm 69, that I entitle, “For the choir director (chief musician); over (above, upon) the lilies (shoshannim).” And both are Messianic psalms—psalms that tell you of Jesus—Prophecy in song.
Psalm 45 is “For the choir director (chief musician); over (above, upon) the lilies (shoshannim a Maskil of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.” And this Messianic psalm tells you of My Son as He returns in triumph as King and Lord, it is a psalm of the marriage feast of the Lamb, and how I anointed Him with the oil of joy above all others and of your role as the beloved daughter and bride. The word for “lily” in Hebrew is shushan or shoshan or shoshannah (שׁוּשַׁן). And the Maskil (מַשְׂכִּיל) is from the word “sakal (שָׂכַל)” an instruction to give you wisdom and understanding, to make wise. Consider the lilies and this is a lesson that will make you wise and understanding. When Jesus told you to consider the lilies He was referring to the lilies before them in the field but was also referring you back to read Psalm 45 and Psalm 69. So you may be wise to read them now.
Psalm 69 is upon the theme of lilies and it is a psalm of David. “For the choir director (chief musician); over (above, upon, according) to the lilies (shoshannim), of David.” And this is another messianic psalm but this time showing the sufferings of Christ on the Cross, very much quoted, as is Psalm 45, as referring to Jesus in the New Testament. You will find this passage in it, “Reproach has broken My heart and I am so sick (He bore all your sickness and reproach and removed it from you). And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Psalm 69:20-21; Matthew 27:34-25.
Consider the lilies, Jesus emptied Himself, “For zeal for Your house has consumed Me and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on Me” Psalm 69:9, and took the form of a slave, obedient to death upon the Cross for your sins which He took as if they were His own, so that by His poverty you might become RICH with every spiritual blessing in Heaven. The BLESSING of the LORD makes rich and adds NO sorrowful toil with it. Proverbs 10:22.
You have more than enough to meet every need in this life and the next in every arena of life—spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional. My plan for you is shalom and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11.
If you believe that, and My Word is truth, you have no business fellowshipping with worry and fear. They are not from Me. Answer them with who and what you have in Christ and throw them out. I did not give you a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. Do not take what is NOT yours. Answer it and command it out.
So why do I tell you to consider the lilies when Satan attacks? So you can have faith in My care and love to bring you to victory and cast all you care on Me with thanksgiving and live free from fear and worry all your life. And that comes from the three considerations I point out to you as considering the lilies: (i) To show you that since I show such care and bestow such beauty upon even the most temporal and least significant objects of My creation that you should know I will care for you who have an eternal destiny with Me, are in My image and according to My likeness, and whom I have called to fellowship with Me and prepared a life of good deeds in advance far more and at a much higher level; (ii) To consider how I so loved you I gave you My Son to take away all your sins and bear all your reproaches before Me as seen in Psalm 69, a psalm over the lilies; and (iii) To consider My glorious risen Son and you being borne into the palace of the King arrayed in the gold of righteousness and with songs and joy as seen in Psalm 45, a maskil upon the lilies, a song of love.
I love you. CONSIDER THE LILIES and you will not get wound up in the thorns.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,
And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,
And it will be a memorial to the LORD,
For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”
Isaiah 55:10-13.