Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalm 37:5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
To be an overcomer you must know how to overcome.
Then he said to me, “This is the Word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the chief (אֶת) stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’” Zechariah 4:6-7.
By My Spirit. And all this has to do with knowing what to do when trouble comes, that is, knowing how to answer and how to cast your care so you have no fear, dread, or worry.
Be strong in Me and the power of My might. Commit your way to Me, cast your cares upon Me, trust in Me, and I will do it. And when your trust becomes so strong that you begin to find your delight in being with Me, I will not only act with what is sufficient but also give you your heart’s desire.
Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalm 37:4-5.
There will come a point in your walk with Me when I become so real to you and our companionship deepens to a point where your heart’s desire is to be like Me in the way you think, talk, and live. You want to live at a higher level where all in you is righteousness, peace, and joy.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20.
And after you reach that point your greatest desire becomes to know Me. Moses reached that point as also My servant Paul did. When I first approach people I only talk to them about what I will do for them and their greatness in My eyes, like Abraham and Gideon, but there comes a point when you have come to know not only My power and the things you are able to obtain from Me in accord with My magnificent promises, but My goodness, My love, and the sweet fellowship of our conversations and it is then your desire is to know Me, to know just who I AM.
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians 3:7-8.
You will join with My servant Paul as he spoke from his heart’s longing, “that I may know Him.” Philippians 3:10.
Jesus addressed this issue as well, He prayed that you would know Me and the one I sent, Jesus Christ. For He told you that is eternal life. Our life is a forever relationship that just continues to grow stronger and deeper, from faith to faith, from glory to glory, until you know even as you are known.
And now let us look further into the “how to” in the casting of your care on Me so you never draw back but always go on to become the overcomer. You must walk by faith and not by sight.
Let us consider a battle in which Hezekiah, king of Judah, cast the care of it on Me and I took care of it as the LORD of Hosts.
When Hezekiah became king of Judah he was twenty-five years old and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. He did not continue the evil his father had done before him but was right in My sight, according to all that his ancestor David had done.
He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he prospered. 2 Kings 18:4-7.
Hezekiah was zealous for My honor and I honored him. He drew close to Me and I drew close to him. I was with him and he prospered wherever he went.
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25.
I responded to him as he responded to Me. He trusted Me and clung to Me.
“Because you cling to Me in love,” says the LORD, “I deliver you; I protect you because you know My Name. When you call to Me, I answer you; I am with you in trouble; I rescue you and honor you. With long life I satisfy you and show you My salvation (Yeshuah).” Psalm 91:14-16.
Now in the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. At the end of three years, they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. And the king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, and they never returned to their land again. They had gone too far away from Me. I let them go their own way at that point, like Judas Iscariot and like Herod. They rejected Me and My Word and trampled My Covenant underfoot. I sent them prophet after prophet, including Elijah and Elisha, but they would not listen or change their evil works. I finally let them go their own way into the captivity of idol worshippers, that is, demonic allegiance. There comes a point when you will not return and then I must let you go as you have chosen. If today you hear My voice harden not your heart. Call on Me while I am near.
Many years later, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. At first Hezekiah tried to placate the king of Assyria by paying them much gold and silver, stripping it from My temple. But you cannot placate a greedy enemy, they will not stop there, so it is better not to compromise with Satan or his followers even one inch. Do not even give him a toehold in your life. He will not stop until he has robbed your entire house.
The king of Assyria then tried to put fear in the people of Judah to surrender to him, promising them good if they did. That is what the devil does, in fact, when he tempted Jesus to bow down and worship him to obtain the kingdoms of the world without going to the cross, he was doing just that tactic. But Jesus would not budge. And Hezekiah had commanded the people not to get into conversation with the envoys of the king of Assyria.
The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, and they called to the king, but Hezekiah did not come out, instead Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.
Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, “Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’” But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 2 Kings 29:19-36.
When this did not budge the people, the king of Assyria sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared? Did the gods of those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’” 2 Kings 9-13.
But Hezekiah knew what to do. He brought the matter to Me and cast his care on Me.
Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”2 Kings 19:14-19.
Hezekiah prayed a prayer of faith based on his close relationship with Me. He referred to My dwelling above the mercy seat and to My supremacy and power. And I sent him the answer from My prophet Isaiah. I sent him a letter from My prophet Isaiah countering the letter from the king of Assyria.
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’ 2 Kings 19:20.
And when I hear you, you know that what you have asked for is yours.
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.1 John 5:14-15.
I promised Hezekiah I would send the king of Assyria back by the way which he came. And My conclusion to the letter I sent him was this:
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’” 2 Kings 19:32-34.
And what happened? I took care of it as the LORD of Hosts. And I will take care of you with My angels as well.
Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place. 2 Kings 19:35-37.
He cast his care upon Me and I took care of it immediately with one angel. Nothing is too hard for Me. I protect those who are Mine. And I counted Hezekiah as an overcomer, though he did not have to fight physically, only in the spirit. He knew where to turn. And he even wrote a song to Me later in his life. Isaiah 38:20.
I love you. Cast your care on Me because I care for you. But best of all, get to know Me. I know you.