“For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’” Isaiah 41:13.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
From the beginning I have not left you orphans. I am your Father. I created you in My image and according to My likeness. I prepared everything in the earth for you. I created the Kingdom of Heaven for you. I am here for you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Your life is My life in you and you were birthed by My Word which contains My breath, which is called the Holy Spirit and who proceeds from Me but is a Person in His own right just as My Son and I are but we are One and you can be one with us as well.
This trinity of unity is for you. My own arm brought and wrought salvation. Jesus is the way I reach down My everlasting arm to draw you back into My bosom and unite your humanity with My divinity. My Holy Spirit is the way I pour My love, My thoughts, and My divine life into your heart and dwell within your spirit so we can constantly communicate.
Nothing is too wonderful for Me and nothing is too hard for Me, but in everything, My purpose is the formation of My family as one with Me. I made you for one reason, to be with Me forever in perfect holy love. Love gives and love shares and love seeks the beloved. All the beauty and bounty I have made was with you in mind. I made everything for you and handed it over to your authority. But you used that authority to reject My Word and bring death and evil into the beautiful world I had made for you. So I went into action to save you from the darkness you had allowed yourself to be imprisoned by. I came to the rescue.
And it starts at it did at the beginning. I introduce Myself to you by blessing you.
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28.
My Blessing is the empowerment to prosper, to increase. When I first introduced Myself to Abraham, I introduced Myself as the one who would bless him.
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3.
Why was Abraham so willing to follow Me when he did not even know where I was leading him? Because when he heard My voice it spoke to his heart. His heart recognized the voice of the Shepherd of his soul. And do recall what I said about Abraham? “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” Genesis 18:19.
And he indeed taught them well. Look how Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons:
The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day.” Genesis 48:15.
And David, also a descendant of Abraham, knew Me as shepherd as well.
But how did all of these know Me? Each had a personal encounter with Me where I introduced Myself to each one of them just as I had to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to anyone who cared to listen to My voice. For just as Jesus said to Zaccheus, I mean to stay at your house today and walk you over right into My house forever. And you will find in Abraham’s day that anyone that knew him, knew to call upon Me. He had introduced them to talking to Me, for that was what he and I did. Hagar talked with Me. Sarah talked with Me. His servant talked with Me, you recall when he went to find the bride for Isaac he talked with Me, getting directions and answered prayer every step of his journey, which I made successful. If only you would listen, I teach you how to profit and the way that you should go. And you will see Me and Issaac talking in Jaar and him planting in the time of famine and reaping a hundredfold and becoming very wealthy. And then you see him praying for his wife Rebekka to have children, which I answered after they had been married for twenty years, and I answered with twins. And Rebecca had learned to talk with Me, asking Me about the twins in her womb. Then you see Me and their son Jacob talking at Bethel in a vision as he ran from Essau and went seeking a bride. And then you see Leah talking to Me, in fact, Leah, the unloved wife of Jacob, is the first person in the Bible to praise Me.
And in that talking they all got to know Me as the one who answered whenever they called to do four things: bless them, prosper them, protect them, and take down their enemies.
And what is talking to Me? Prayer.
Prayer is what the thirsty soul seeks. The child seeks to drink at its mother’s breasts and so is prayer—like a nursing child seeking nourishment from its source, drawing life giving sustenance out of the one who bore it, birthed it, and clothed it in humanity.
Prayer without ceasing is a continual feast—a continual drawing upon your source for the abundance of the filled up cup.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:5-6.
But prayer is not just nourishment, it is also revelation and enlightenment. The only way you get to know Me is by what I tell you about Me and about you. And that is prayer through and through.
Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul. Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I take refuge in You. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For the sake of Your Name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. Psalm 143:8-11.
Abraham knew nothing much about Me and neither did Moses. So I introduced Myself as the one who blesses and delivers from enemies. But it was in prayer that we talked. It was not all one sided. It was conversation at its highest level.
I put you in a world where you must make choices, you must steward what I gave you. You have a royal mandate and a sacred duty to guard, protect, value, cherish and make fruitful the life (spirit, soul, and body) that I have given you. And I have empowered you to do this by staying connected to Me as your source of all you need for life and godliness.
When Abraham was but one, I called him and made from one man of faith a great nation. Moses was just one when I called him and with his leadership a made a crowd of slaves into a great nation.
I call each of you individually but then what you learn and see in Me sends you forth to be a world changer. Like Gideon who never imagined he would be the champion who would deliver his nation from the oppression of an enemy nation who had taken the upper hand. But when he encountered Me and I introduced Myself to him everything changed in his world. And it was the same for everyone who really encountered Me in the midst of their trial no matter how small or hidden they seem in the eyes of the world. Even Sarah’s maid Hagar. I introduced Myself to her and gave her a well to drink from and she named that well “The God who sees me.” She understood. Each of you has My loving eyes upon you.
Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” Exodus 34:6.
The secret for all these who encountered Me in prayer and went out to do mighty, amazing, astounding miracles and works, like Paul who had been Saul of Tarsus, was that they did it with Me. Paul proclaimed he could do all things through Me who strengthened him. And when Moses and Gideon told Me they could not take down the enemy and free My people, I simply told them how they could do it very well: “I will be with you.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And He said, “Certainly I will be with you.” Exodus 3:11-12.
Gideon said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” But the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.” Judges 6:15-16.
Sheep have to hear the Shepherd’s voice and they have to respond and follow.
One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the delightfulness of the LORD and to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4.
I love you. Talk with Me. Days of praise will find My ways.
Let your soul be formed anew by My Word both tried and true, so you no longer waste your days but do My works and know My ways. Train your heart to hear My voice, so in all things you make the wise choice. Never do anything without Me and you shall have the victory. In trust and peace you sill increase and your life will be a continual feast. Never look back on the sins of the past, look forward to the future and you will stand fast. Faith, hope, and love, these three, in the end will be what brings you safely home to Me. And the greatest of these is love, for it is Love that is seated on the throne above. I am love. Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love and you will never walk alone. I am with you, never to leave you or forsake you.