The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Psalm 94:11.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Listening to others talk reveals what they are thinking. Listen to those around you, to the media broadcasts, to shows, and to yourself, what are people talking about? What are people focusing on? What do people plan and dream about? I know the thoughts that most people think and I have a word for them, in Hebrew it is הֶבֶל, pronounced hevel, and it means vain, breath, vapor, emptiness, futility, or that which quickly dissipates. It pictures something insubstantial and transient, exposing whatever is fleeting, deceptive, or ultimately worthless when measured against My steadfast purposes and plans that are for all generations. Weighed in the scales of time and eternity and found wanting
Your existence apart from Me is insubstantial, like a breath quickly gone. Psalm 62:9. But attached in fellowship with Me it is substantial, producing fruit that remains and is eternal.
And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” Revelation 14:13.
Solomon, the son of David, started off seeking Me and desiring a heart that heard Me so he could walk in wisdom. But he got caught up in the life of earthly show and the pride of self-accomplishments that had nothing to do with benefitting his constituents or his nation, and suddenly the life that had been so full of meaning as he built a beautiful sanctuary for My glory to settle in among My people and judged the people with wisdom and understanding turned into a life of vanity as he built palaces, gardens, and magnificent structures for himself and his pagan wives. He even built them altars and high places where he joined them in burning incense to idols. He became as empty as the idols and suddenly everything was hevel to him: vain. If you fill your world with idols you life becomes meaningless.
“Vanity of vanities, says the preacher; vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2.
It is the meaningless cycle of a fallen world, and by fallen I mean from the spirit to the flesh in separation from your source of joy, which is Me, where toil, pleasure, wisdom, and even labor for justice fail to deliver lasting profit “under the sun.” Without Me and eternity—without the eternal, the temporal has no purpose but to go up in flames in the end.
But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
Without Me you lose your first love. It is love alone that makes life have meaning, and I mean My kind of everlasting, pure, healing, majestic, miracle working, limit breaking, mountain moving, freedom making love. Love renews and never runs die, it is the fountain that springs up to eternal life.
While human plans without Me amount to hevel, My Word stands forever.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8.
So how do you change your thoughts and plans from vanity (hevel) and the life of empty show into meaningful and fruitful ones that endure as your reward?
Look at the opposite of vanity, its opposite concept is expressed with the emet (אֱמֶת, truth/reliability), chesed (חֵסֵד, lovingkindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness, goodness), and olam (עוֹלָם, enduring forever).
My Words are not idle, vain words. My Words are living and working sharper than any two edged sword.
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.
My Words make things. I call the things that be not as though they are and they come. I framed the world with My Words. My Words are like rain that comes down and waters the earth, breaking up the hard soil and softening it to receive seed that will grow to rich harvests. My Word is seed to the sower and bread to the eater. It produces and it nourishes. In blessing I bless you and in increasing I increase you. Where My Words are honored and put to work there is the blessing forever. You can turn a desert into a garden of Eden by calling in the things I promise you in My Covenant Name promises.
But most people do not speak My Words but say vain, useless words and it shows in their vain, useless lives. And I want to talk with you about a very common error that the devil started with Adam and Eve and still uses to this day. Do you remember how he tricked Eve into eating the fruit? He presented to her the statement that I was withholding things from her that she could obtain if she did what I had commanded not to do. But the devil does not need to go that far all the time to get people so they do not receive all I have them, he merely needs to persuade them that I have things and know things that I withhold from you that you have to beg, plead, cajole, and flatter Me to get them from Me. And even worse, that I may give them and then again I may not for reasons you cannot figure out.
That is simply not true. It has pleased Me to give you the Kingdom. You are with Me always and everything I have is yours. I made the world for you. I gave My Son for you. My sun shines on the good and the bad, the just and the unjust. But there is a difference between those who receive Jesus as Lord and those who reject Him.
If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:31-32.
My Son showed you this in the parable of the prodigal son. The younger son found that even when you waste your inheritance on vanity, when you return seeking to serve Me, you will find there is much more there for you than what you lost. My gifts and My call for you are irrevocable. But in that parable He also showed to you the older son who never left the father but did not benefit from the generosity and closeness of the father because he did receive his inheritance but saw it as being withheld from him. But it was not, it was all his. Everything the father had was his but he refused to receive it and make use of it. All things are possible to those who believe, just open your heart and receive. You can only receive as much as you can believe. That is why Jesus would ask people whether they believed He could heal them before He touched them. If your faith is not strong, you will not be strong, and you will be unable to receive and proceed in life.
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. Matthew 9:27-30.
I have blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Heaven (all blessings there are spiritual for that is the realm in which blessing resides) (I am Spirit and all good things given and perfect gifts come down from Me, the Father of lights) and then I raised you with Christ and seated you there with Him in the Spirit. You have full access to the Kingdom and to your heavenly account even now while you are still physically upon the earth as an ambassador of My Kingdom. With Me, you have the best of both realms, heaven and earth. It is time for you to take possession of all I have freely given you in Christ.
I love you. You are Mine. There is nothing I am withholding from you. Just learn how to receive.