They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. Psalm 34:.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The sanctified life makes you radiant. Do you remember that when Moses spent time in My Word with Me his face became radiant?
It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. Exodus 34:29.
How many people do you know that when you speak with them you become radiant? You can always speak with Me and that will make you radiant. I neither slumber or sleep, I am always available to you, shining into your darkness to turn all into light.
My Words are Spirit and life. Let your fellowship with Me in My Word each day light up your life and make your days wonderful, precious, and holy. Living in the light is the best life.
With Me is the fountain of life and in My light, you see light. But even better, you become light.
Adam’s sin and treachery against Me plunged you all into darkness, but now in Jesus, I have transferred you into My own marvelous light. You are Light in Me so walk as children of Light, for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them to the light; for all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. It is time for you all to wake up to the light, wake up to the righteousness I am offering in Christ
“Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14.
When I taught Moses the way for Aaron to bless the people, it was all about the radiant face, My face shining on you so that you shine back at Me too.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you hall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: “The LORD bless you, and keep you; the LORD make His face shine on you, and give you His grace. The LORD smile upon you and give you shalom.” So they shall put My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.” Numbers 6:22-27.
In the beginning I said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” and now I have shone in your hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of My glory in the face of Christ. His is the radiant face. In his exile on Patmos when John saw Jesus, the face of Jesus was like the sun shines in its strength. Revelation 1:16.
Jesus is the radiance of My glory and the exact representation of My being. And in Him, so are you. Shine on the world like bright luminaries, you are offering it the Word of life. Let your light shine for all to see. It will give glory to the whole body of Christ of which you are part and that glory will go all the way to the head of the body, Christ Himself. I shine on you, you shine back on Me.
Look to Me and you will be radiant and your face will not blush with shame. You become what you behold, keep your eyes on the light. Jesus is the Light of the world and no follower of His will ever walk in darkness, no never, for you shall have the light of life. My Word is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that gets brighter and brighter until perfect day.
The sanctified life is a radiant life filled with the good things that come down from Me the Father of lights to all of you who are My lights in the world. And a very good description of the sanctified life is Psalm 34, written by My own champion of light: David. I lit his lamp and illumined the darkness around him.
Let us begin the journey to a radiant life, for if you follow the directives of Psalm 34 your life will become a radiant resting place filled with My Spirit and shalom peace.
Psalm 34 begins: I will bless the LORD at all times.
This is not just when you feel like it but even at times you are facing challenges and tribulations. For with the blessing comes the light and the light will lead you on to My Holy mountain, the road to exceeding joy, the place of answers. And how do you bless Me at all times? I explain how in the next line: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
I am speaking here of the heart/mouth connection. Your mouth speaks from the abundance of your heart. You bless Me at all times by keeping praise in your mouth at all times. And I am speaking of gratitude and honor, admiration and strength. Just quietly sanctify Me throughout your day by thanking Me for all the little and big things that please you or sustain you.
What do you do for most of your day? I mean with your heart and your mind and your words? This is serious because you are framing your world and directing the course of your life. You are also setting your emotions. Mindset. Where is your mind set?
It is time you grew up and took authority over your soul and your flesh and stop letting them torture and enslave you to fear, unhappiness, grief, anxiety, stress, jealousy, anger, bitterness, regret, shame, guilt, lust, and the like. In other words, it is time to examine yourself to see if you are in faith or out of it. If you lack self-control in the area of your emotions and in your ability to curtail your speech and appetite, it is time to awake unto righteousness so that you can be far from oppression. All that negativity must go.
“I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Just pause here for a moment. This is key. This is the narrow road that leads to life that few find. This is denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Me. This is the secret to joy at all times—joy unspeakable filled with glory.
Does this describe you? If not, I will tell you why. You won’t deny yourself. Have you been with Me all this time and still have not done this yet? This is serious. Those who love Me obey My Word. And I am very clear about My Will for you in Christ Jesus: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give constant thanks. And yet many believers say that My Will is hard to know and very mysterious!
This is why many of you are so unhappy and burnt out, sick and dying, is because you are indulging your flesh and letting negative words and emotions be your meditation. That is why many of you cry at night and in the morning when you awake instead of joyously praising Me for a great deliverance and all My other magnificent promises.
Do you believe it when I tell you that nothing is too hard for Me and nothing is impossible?
Let Me share something about this with you now that will show you that you are not trapped in a painful situation as you think you are with no means of escape. I never let you be tried beyond your strength and always provide a way out for you, but prayer is the key to that. Pray without ceasing. In fact in Psalm 34, I tell you some good news in this area of impossibility become possible: “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them.” Psalm 34:7. I have many strangely wonderful ways of seeing to your good, that is, for you who are heirs of Salvation by receiving Jesus as Lord. Hebrews 1:14.
Do you recall that Herod, some time after Pentecost began persecuting the apostles and believers and he arrested Peter? When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out before the people and have him put to death. So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to Me.
On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. Now, you must admit this looks like a totally impossible situation to get out of—bound with two chains in a secure prison with 16 guards making sure you stay confined. But NOTHING is impossible to Me and NOTHING is too hard for Me. But the prayer of faith is the key. And the first believers knew how to pray it, in fact when they prayed in union it would shake the house where they were!
So what happened next? I sent My angel, and suddenly a light shone in that dark prison cell; and My angel struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” You will note, Peter was no longer worried about being killed for identifying with My Son. Before, out of fear of men, he had denied Him three times. But now, facing almost certain death the next day for preaching the Name of Jesus, he was sleeping so soundly the angel had to strike him to wake him up!
Well, then the impossible became the reality, Peter’s chains fell off his hands. Isn’t it time for you to rise up and shake off your chains of depression, shame, anger, bitterness, resentment, fear? I can do that for you if you will just take control of what you are focusing your attention on in your thoughts and what you are saying.
Then the angel said to Peter, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And Peter did so. And the angel said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” And Peter followed the angel out of the prison cell past the two guards with him. It all seemed like a dream right then to Peter but he kept following.
When they had passed the first and second guard, who were not even aware that Peter was passing them by, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself (and this was well before automatic doors!); and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” Acts 12:1-11.
This was an impossible situation. There were sixteen guards surrounding Peter to keep him in prison, he was secured by double chains, had two of the guards in the cell with him and two right outside the entrance to the cell he was confined in, and there was a huge, locked iron gate blocking the exit from the prison to the street. Plus, even if he got out, he was under a death sentence.
But nothing is too hard for Me. I have put My angels in charge of you to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 91:11. I have assigned an angel to every believer to encamp with you to rescue and deliver you. Psalm 34:7. How can you ignore so great a salvation and be depressed declaring that you are hopelessly trapped? Stop being so unhappy. The angels can do nothing for you if you do not speak My Word. They obey the voice of My Word, even in your mouth. Psalm 103:20.
Look to Me, not to your problem, not to your actions, and not to your efforts to come up with your own solution, so that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush with shame. Psalm 34:5.
But back to the beginning of Psalm 34: “I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; the humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:2-3.
What during the day is most continually in your mouth? And what kind of conversation to you lead others into or let them lead you into? Are you exalting My Name together? Or are you gossiping?
Think about the phone calls you made or received today. Think about what you shared with friends, co-workers, and family. Think about, most importantly, what were you telling yourself all day and thinking upon? If you were not rejoicing in My goodness, the Blood of My Son, the strangely wonderful things that occurred that were beyond explanation, if you weren’t telling yourself how blessed and happy you are and that you are the most favored among all people, if you weren’t pondering about so great a salvation that I have given you in Jesus and the good things to come, then you were not having a really good day.
If instead of thanking Me for the work you have, you were complaining how stressed you are and just cannot handle it, if instead of praising Me for a great deliverance about to come to you, you were filled with fear of someone threatening a law suit against you, if instead of thanking Me that I am your good Shepherd and the LORD your provider you were in crying in agony of not having enough to pay your bills or for your retirement, you were not giving yourself a good day. You were giving yourself a life of fear, stress, darkness, and unhappiness. And it is a life of lies, for anything that contradicts My Word is a lie for My Word is the truth.
If instead of thanking Me for the people I give you to help and who keep you from being lonely you are busy being offended by them and resenting that they need your help, then you are enslaving yourself in a prison from which you cannot escape.
I want you now just to read and meditate on Psalm 34. There you will find the keys to a happy, fulfilled, and fruitful life. In there you will see to bless, to have praise continually in your mouth, to boast about what I have done for you in Christ, to magnify Me and not your problem, seek Me, look to Me, cry out to Me, and take refuge in Me. All very pleasant to do and will keep you strong in Me and the power of My might.
I love you. Never forget that I made peace through the Blood of the cross and that you have easy access to Me at all times. Enjoy this and take advantage of it by praying without ceasing. Let your mouth be filled with praise of all the good I have done and am doing in your life and watch it multiply until you cannot contain all the showers of blessing.