I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalm 34:4-5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Heaven is a radiant place, there is no night there only endless perfect light—the light of life, the light of love, the light of joy. It is the land of never ending smiles.
Start smiling now and make your life a land of smiles for you have been born again from above and are citizens of the great and glorious Kingdom of Heaven.
Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted. Isaiah 49:13.
When you smile, the other one will smile back. Try it. Even a stranger on the street or in the grocery market will smile back if you smile. And even your enemies, if you just keep smiling at them and doing good for them, will finally smile back at you with joy and love.
I am smiling upon you, look up and smile back. I am the lifter of your head. Psalm 3:3. Do not hang your head low in depression, sorrow, and shame, look up and smile back at Me. And then share My smile with everyone, even yourself!
When you smile you change inside. Try it right now. Smile at Me. I am waiting on your smile to pour good things into your life. Your healing, your prosperity, your answered prayers for your loved ones, all begin with a smile. You enter My courts with thanksgiving and My courts with praise, and that means there should be a smile on your face that is lighting up your eyes.
Draw close to Me by seeking My face. Psalm 27:8. How do you do that? To begin with, smile at Me. Your face will never be ashamed. And then hear what I am speaking to you in your heart by My Spirit and it will turn your mourning into dancing and tears of sorrow and remorse to tears of sweet joy and much comfort. For in My Word is consolation and peace in every attack against you that would take your peace and joy from you.
This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your Word has revived me. Psalm 119:50.
And other people are waiting for your smile to bless and encourage them on their way in life. If you smile at your spouse, your children, your parents, your siblings, your relatives, your enemies, your students, your co-workers, your boss, your teachers, and I could go on, you can light one hundred smiles or more in your day. Give and it will be given to you. You smile, you get back a smile. And best of all, any smile you give, you are giving to Me, and I reward you by smiling more and more on you and that will give you peace, favor, joy, and blessing. It will bring Heaven to earth.
And as you go, proclaim, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is near to you.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Matthew 10:14.
And all good things start with a smile and all good things bring a smile. Why is that? My joy is your strength. You enter My gates with thanksgiving and My courts with joyful songs of praise, and I challenge you to try to sing joyfully, shout, and give thanks without smiling. You cannot and be sincere.
I love a cheerful giver. Try to be cheerful without a smile. You cannot.
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7.
I am a cheerful giver and Jesus is one with Me. He gave His life for you so you could have eternal life, and endured the cross with all its shame for the joy that lay before Him of saving you without any suffering on your part. He did it all for you with joy. And with joy you will draw water, living water of the Spirit, from the springs of Salvation (Yeshuah, which is the Name of Jesus in Hebrew, the language in which it was first spoken).
For the LORD God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation (Yeshuah). Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of Salvation (Yeshuah). Isaiah 12:2-3.
But you notice, you can only draw it with joy. The is true of reaping the harvest that will come from sowing My Word in your heart. You may sow with tears but you can only reap with rejoicing. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:5-6.
You may be weeping but if you will take the seed of My Word out of the Bible bag and plant it in your heart, it has the power to save you, James 1:21, but you only cultivate it and grow it to the harvest with joyful thanks before you see the blade appear from the ground of your heart. It is time you started smiling more and frowning less and watched the garden of your life grow up to be a place you love to live.
I give you the opportunity to know Me but it begins with the opportunity to know that I am God, that there is no other God but Me. I am the one true God and the only God that saves.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3.
There are people in the Bible that got everything right in their lives, like Joseph the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt but never held anything against them, Mary of Nazareth, the mother of My Son, John, My beloved disciple, and Daniel, My prophet in a pagan land. And there are people that got everything wrong in their lives, like Pharoah, the king of Egypt at the time of Moses, Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, Herod, the king put in by the Romans at the time of Jesus, and Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands and ordered Jesus crucified out of fear of man. What was the difference? The dividing line is the ones who got everything wrong did not know that I am God. They mocked Me and discounted Me.
And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” Exodus 5:1-2.
Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate. Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other. Luke 23:8-12.
And then there were those who got everything right and then went wrong and never repented, like Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, Solomon who started out gloriously for Me and then turned his back on Me for the idols of the foreign women he loved, and, of course, Adam who thought he could be God without Me. They all forgot that I was God.
And then there were those who got things right, sinned, but came back and got it all right again, like David, the man after My own heart, Peter, My zealous disciple, and Manasseh who finally knew that I was God, and that changed everything for him.
Let Me share the story with you of Manasseh, son of My servant Hezekiah, so that you may know what makes people come to Me who have sinned who either never really knew I was God or knew I was God but never knew Me as who I really am, LOVE and full of goodness and grace.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the LORD of which the LORD had said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.” For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger. Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses.” Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel. 2 Chronicles 33:1-9.
This was a horrible state for My Covenant people to be in. They had forsaken Me, the one true God, and gone after idols, and opened themselves to demonic activity, even practicing witchcraft and immolating their children, something I never even thought of. Their thoughts were not My thoughts and their ways were not My ways. They were out of My rest and out from under My protection for they had left My jurisdiction for that of the realm of darkness. You cannot serve two masters. You choose and I have to permit in your life at least your choice.
I tried speaking to Manasseh and My people to call them back from their folly and the dangerous pathway of death they were walking but they would not pay any attention to Me. 2 Chronicles 33:10. So Satan took advantage of his stronghold in their hearts, and the arm of the king of Assyria and its commanders captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. 2 Chronicles 33:11.
But in prison, like the prodigal son in the pigpen in dire want, his heart turned back to Me. He came to his right mind at last.
When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.
Manasseh knew I was God and that changed his life completely. But had he not learned that from his father, Hezekiah, who was a great follower of My Word and whose heart was towards Me from his youth? Yes, as head knowledge but not as heart knowledge.
What happened in the prison cell when he turned his heart to Me? He found out that I am good and that I abundantly pardon. I lifted him up out of the prison as all the chains fell off and all the gates flew open and took him back and put him on his throne in Jerusalem. A sign and a wonder to all. It made all his enemies back off. I fought for him and restored all and more.
He had a personal encounter in that dark prison cell with My goodness and forgiveness. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13. And that was enough.
Hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. Psalm 130:7.
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:4.
And his response was to tear down all the altars of the idols and reinstate Me as LORD according to My Word. And I blessed his later days more than his former.
He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. 2 Chronicles 33:15-16.
He drew close to Me and I drew close to him and he is still with Me in the Kingdom. And he is smiling forever. Herod is not, though I gave him many opportunities to know Me. I sent him the finest, John the Baptist and Jesus. And later I also sent him Peter, whom he put and prison and tried to kill as well. But I had different plans and so did the community of believers. We all smiled.
And I would like to also share the story of Joshiah, his father was Amon, the son of Manasseh, who had been anointed king at the death of Manasseh. But he reinstated all the idols his father had torn done and did evil in My sight, and only lasted two years as king before his servants conspired against him and killed him. The people anointed Joshiah as king when he was only eight years old. But he became a great king who led My people back to Me and to My Word.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images. 2 Chronicles 34:1-3.
He sought Me and I let Myself be found by him. And how did I do that? I gave him back My Word that had lain hidden in the scrolls stored in a back room of the temple in Jerusalem since the time that Hezekiah had died. If you seek Me with all your heart, I will always lead you to My Word.
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. They came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then they gave it into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD and the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD used it to restore and repair the house . . . When they were bringing out the money which had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Then Shaphan brought the book to the king and reported further word to the king, saying, “Everything that was entrusted to your servants they are doing. They have also emptied out the money which was found in the house of the LORD and have delivered it into the hands of the supervisors and the workmen.” Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes. 2 Chronicles 34:8-10; 14-19.
I gave him My Word and he wept over it for he was deeply grieved at the fact it had not been kept and that opened them to receive the curses from the destroyer. He immediately had the scribes and priests consult one of My prophets and they went to Huldah. She prophesied evil would come on the land because the people would again return to doing evil but she prophesied differently about Josiah. She said, “But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus you will say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel regarding the words which you have heard, Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the LORD. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.”’” And they brought back word to the king. 2 Chronicles 34:26-27.
All the days that Josiah was king he made sure the priests taught My people My Word and they served and loved Me. He kept the Passover and all the appointed times. But after his death, the kings who followed did evil in My sight so great that finally Babylon conquered them and burned down My beautiful temple, which had been desecrated and filled with idols, and they were gone from the land for seventy years, but after seventy years something wonderful happened, but that is for another time.
Josiah knew that I was God. He loved My Word and had a heart that was tender to it. And I blessed, favored and protected him and all of Judah and Jerusalem while he was king. And the people mourned his death.
I love you. Do you know that I am God? If you do, you can relax and cast your cares on Me because I care for you.
Be still [raphah (רָפָה):relax] and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted upon the earth. Psalm 46:10-11.