Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

As A Man Thinketh Pt.2

Amen! Let's go back to where we left off this morning. We were talking about the battle for all our minds, and it's so real; yet, for so many of us, it seems to be trivial, in many ways, compared to physical aliments we might be battling right now. Some of us are believing God for healing in our bodies; some of us are really burdened down with care for our children and battles they're involved in. Others are having conflict in their homes, and personal relationships, and all of these things. These are the energies that are drawing us away from the great promises and presence of God. Yet, all of those seem to be the focal point; we need to step back and say, "That's just what Satan is using to try to occupy our minds." These are distractions. The war is right now for the very part of the mind (or soul) that is so necessary for life-for us to be victorious: that's the volition aspect of our minds. The choices-the things we will to do to take ourselves and say, "No! As for me and my house, we're serving God." That's a choice that's made regardless of any of life's circumstances that we're facing. Or we choose to say, "I know what I feel like, but I believe that, by the stripes of Jesus, I'm healed." Amen? It's just saying what God says about the warfare that we find ourselves involved in. If we're not constantly feeding ourselves the Word of God, as I was sharing with somebody after service this morning, then all we're drawing from is our memory of what the Scripture says rather than its vitality, which is the life of having just fed ourselves of the Word of God, looked upon it, muttered it, and let it come out of our mouths.

There's life. Confession, in the faith movement (we've all heard different things), people talk about the power of confession and spoken words. There's a lot of truth to those principles, but they were just abusing it for their own personal gain; and they were so fearful, in many ways, of making false confessions that many of them would emphasize the positive over the reality of where they were in their lives and what they were dealing with regarding the trials, and acknowledging the warfare.

What I want to get back to is encouraging us to understand that there is authority, there is power, in the words you speak, because "out of the abundance of the heart [say it] the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). If the Word of God is in there in abundance, it'll come out of your heart with power. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jeremiah 15:16). "The Word of God is [alive] and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword...and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). It's not enough to just remember the Word: we need to feast upon it. We need to take it into our immediate consciousness, and speak in agreement with what God has said. That's meditation; that's true biblical muttering, or meditation, of the Word of God; and too many of us are just remembering, rather than refreshing ourselves with the Word of God. Let me say it again: Too many of us are remembering the Word of God instead of refreshing ourselves with the Word of God! So, am I saying there's some magic in the written Word as it comes through the eye-gates? I'm not really saying that. What I'm saying is: We need to come and make it fresh, because "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). Remember, as we've taught so many times over the years, that means "an audience with God" or "a declaration from God": a hearing, similar to a court hearing. I've come into the court; the Judge has spoken; the verdict has been rendered; that's the law. When we encounter God through His Word and through prayer, it's not the eye-gate, but it's more than just memory, a thought, or a drawing up of a principle. When we come to God in the study of His Word, when we come to God in the stillness of prayer with no written Word and the Word begins to burn in our hearts, and it comes up alive and refreshing by the Spirit of God, and it renews our hope, and it brings again the vitality of faith that believes and acts, that's the fruit of true biblical meditation. When we're talking about meditating, I just want to emphasize that. We're not just talking about remembering things, bringing things to our remembrance, because everything that's in the human mind is stored up, and we have the ability, based upon word association and circumstances, to recall the Word of God. We need more than recall: we need refreshing. We need a revitalizing that comes from this living Word of God; that's just so important for each of us.

Psalm 4, verse 4, you might want to turn there with us and listen to this statement: "Stand in awe [I like that phrase [declaring] the awesomeness of our God. Stand in awe], and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah." Now, we know the word "selah" is a Hebrew word that means "to pause, just stop right there and give some consideration to what was just spoken;" that's what "selah" means. The psalmist is speaking to us here and he says, "Stand in awe, realize the majesty of God, the power of His presence, and of His spoken Word." As you're humbled by that, and you're awestruck at the wisdom of God and power of God, it says, then, to commune with your own heart upon your bed. When's the last time you took this admonition and really came to grips with who you are, and where you are, in this pursuit of God?

You know, so many of us get caught up in the everyday Christian lifestyle. When you have a fellowship that's as busy as ours is-and we come together every day, practically-and we're encouraging one another, and there's a momentum to the community effort to pursue God (and that's a Biblical principle) so that, when each of us faces the time when we are weak (and we each come to that), aren't you thankful for brothers and sisters who can lift up your hands when they're hanging down? Praise God, they encourage us! We thank God for the privilege of speaking a Word in season and encouraging other brothers and sisters, but one of the dangers of this is that we also have community morals-morality: a standard we know we have to keep-and many of us are keeping them because we're afraid of being found out if we don't. Not by the Lord, but we just don't want a bad name in the community. It begins to turn us into hypocrites who, instead of going to brothers and sisters and asking for prayer and help in how to be delivered, begin to hide [our sin], so it begins to take root in our hearts and it distracts us. Whether it's the ambition we talked about this morning in our secular jobs, whether it's some form of lust for material things, or impure thoughts, or whatever else it might be, if it's the love of money, if it's fear, if it's inordinate relationships where there's broken order, or it's something that isn't going to bring honor to Father, we just hide and get carried along with the community's pursuit. We judge our spirituality by the whole instead of individually: "What's really going on in my heart. Who am I when I'm alone? Who am I, really, in the innermost recesses of my heart, in my thought processes?"

We can all identify what we are as man-that we're totally depraved, that there's no good thing in us-so our theology is correct, but do we really understand our own personal vileness? Do we understand that there is in every one of us that propensity to constantly choose self, and to choose the appetites the world wants to feed us? Are we conscious of how vulnerable we really are if we don't put this armor on every day, if every day we don't pull down the evil imaginations that would exalt themselves against the knowledge of God? The war is for our minds, the fiery darts of Satan that come in, which tell us how we're being slighted, how we should be doing better, how others look down on us, and how we have to achieve this in life and reach a certain standard. Satan comes and whispers in our ear how God is playing favorites; He's a respecter of persons in whatever it is we are each dealing with. Constantly, fiery darts are being hurled at our minds, trying to get us to doubt God. Constantly, fiery darts are being hurled at our minds and telling us, "Do you know what? You're better than those folks down the street. Think back on all you've done, and how you've been committed, and the things you've given up for the kingdom; other people haven't done that. Now you've achieved this particular position in the kingdom, and you have a right to certain liberties." What are you hearing? What are you giving access to your mind? What are you doing with those thoughts, whether they're thoughts of condemnation or exaltation?

Many of us, frankly, think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, when it pertains to our spiritual pursuit. We grade ourselves based on our involvement-how many hours we pray and how many Scriptures we've memorized-but that exhibits one of the most sinful tendencies in the Scriptures: pride. Oh, we wouldn't boast on how spiritual we are and all the great things that we've done, we just put pressure on everybody else to be as good as we are. It's very important that we realize the subtlety of the satanic suggestions, to take control of your mind, and to begin to pull down every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

So, commune with your own heart upon your bed. Do you know what you really are? Do you know what your tendencies, what your weaknesses, are? Have you dealt with them? We all like to do what we're good at, don't we? Have you ever noticed that people really like the things [they are good at]? "Why don't we go bowling?" Why? Because you've got a 250 average and I bowl twelve. Why don't we go to an ice cream eating contest? I'll take you on in that one. We all like to do what we're good at. It bleeds over into our prayer life and our time of being purified with the Word of God. You see, in meditating upon the Word we're to be washed by the water of the Word; as we're meditating upon the Word, that's what's washing us. It's what's revealing the things in our life that are impure; it's what's identifying these areas that are besetting sins that we finally have to take hold of. Many of us are resigned to the besetting sins in our life: "Well, that's just a besetting sin in my life; that's what I am, and it looks like that's what I'm always going to be. I've battled it for twenty years and it's still there. That's my thorn in the flesh." No, that's sin! If you can confess it, He's faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from (say it) all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Then we repent, which means what? We turn our backs to it; we go the opposite direction. We don't embrace it; we don't justify it; we go to the Word of God and say, "There's something in there. John tells me there's something in here that'll wash me and cleanse me from that in my life." Do you want to be free? We say, "Oh, I want to be free." The cleansing is right in here; we just haven't found it yet. Amen?

So what are we doing to meditate upon this day and night, that our way might be made prosperous, so that we would have good success (Joshua 1:8)? "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not [say it] sin against Thee" (Psalm 119:11). For those areas in our lives, we've got to continually meditate upon the Word, and hide it in our hearts, saturate our hearts with it, so we don't sin against God. When is the last time you took time, got before God, communed with Him in awe of His majesty and holiness upon your bed, and just became still. "Oh God, here's what's going on; and here's what I want You to do; and I'm believing You for this, Lord. I'm confessing this, and I'm rebuking that and, Father, I need this in my..." You don't have a clue what you need. Amen? God's ways are so much higher than our ways; we can't know God! You know what my suggestion would be to you? Just come before Him in awe and ask Him to wash you with the water of the Word. As you meditate say, "Father, show me who I am; show me what I am; reveal Your will to me and Your purposes, that I might know Your glory. ‘Let the words of my mouth, and meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord'" (Psalm 19:14).

Turn to Psalms 63. There's a great passage there, which many of us are very familiar with, but I'd like us to be refreshed by it. I want to refer to the sixth verse, and then we'll go back to verse 1, and take a look at that. But look what he says: "When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me." In the midst of this war, he's talking again about this necessity of coming and meditating through the night watches when everything's still, when we can quiet ourselves and hear the voice of God.

I wonder if the enemy has something to do with this tendency toward so much noise today. When I talk about noise, I'm not talking about noise pollution: I'm talking about how we always have to have something on. There has to be music playing; there has to be some video going; we have to be on the telephone with somebody; we have this new iPod thing. I haven't figured that out. I was in the store the other day that carried the nose hair/lawn machine (that doesn't really exist, by the way) and they had this special iPod thing. I think that was in Brookstone, or one of those. I was in there, looking. We were at the airport, actually, and I was wandering through one and just looking at stuff, and I saw this iPod thing. I'm not going to have the numbers right so don't hold me to that, but it said something like, "Stores your 1,500 favorite songs!" I don't even know 1,500 songs! I asked somebody who's more technological than I am-which means younger (which includes most people these days)-"How in the world could I keep track of 1,500 songs?" The person said, "Well, you put them in categories." "How many categories are there?" "Well, there are 100 categories." "Ok, so now I have to remember only 100 categories, then I've got to remember what song is in what category." "No, there's a way..." Do you know what happens? You keep listening to your ten favorite songs. You might as well have an eight-track [player] packed on your back. A guy says, "What's that?" Say, "That's my iPod. Check this: Willie Nelson's ten best hits." The point I was making, I think, is concerning the noise, the need to always have something on.

I don't know about you, but I so look forward to those times of just moving away, and getting in the presence of God, to where everything else vanishes. Now, it can be in a room with everybody else here, but you come to that place where you focus in, and you're aware of the presence of God, and you're communing with him in your heart, and He's speaking life to you, and He's bringing you to a place of refreshing, and you're communing with Him, and you're opening your heart before Him. You're embracing Him as a loving heavenly Father. He's admonishing you as a son, an ambassador, a victor, to go out and conquer the world. Nothing else can be heard. Do you live in that realm?

Athletes get there. I don't know [it's that way] in any of the things you've done, but athletes get there. You think, as a spectator, that they can hear you. When an athlete's in "the zone", he doesn't hear anything. He doesn't hear the roar of the crowd; he doesn't hear what's being said by people around him. When he moves into that realm of "the zone", everything shuts off. It's a cool phenomenon.

There's a baseball movie: For Love of the Game. When he would get ready to pitch, you could hear the crowd and everybody yelling; he's aware of it-people are calling him names, and other people are shouting different things-as he would prepare on the mound. He gets the sign, and he's getting ready to deliver the ball, and he just says to himself: "Clear the mechanism," and everything would "whoosh"; the noise would die down, everything around his periphery would blur, and there was one thing he could see: the catcher's mitt. Is that the way you pray? You can be in the midst of a room [full of people]: when we come up here on Tuesdays, I don't know about you, but I don't hear anything anybody else is doing. When I've "cleared the mechanism," when I'm standing in awe before God, when I'm communing with Him in stillness on my bed, when I'm aware of His presence, all the noise goes away. That's meditating on the Word of God: you begin to speak and mutter what He's speaking to you, and reiterate the Truth, and you're refreshed by it and all these principles, which are true life in the spirit.

Psalms 63, verse 1, says, "O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee [Now, that's not necessarily early in the morning, it could be, but he's talking about I seek You first, I seek You always]: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; [I so long] To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." I'm going to a Scripture in just a moment that talks about meditation bringing up the remembrance of the great things God's done in your life. I have so many to draw on, personally: times I've seen the hand of God to deliver; seen His power to change people's lives, from the greatest miracle of seeing people born again to seeing people delivered instantly from drugs and alcohol; demons being cast out of people; physical healings in peoples lives. All these things you remember as you're meditating upon the good things God has promised, and the reality of His Word verses the temporal consequences of living in a sinful world.

He said, "I long to see Your power and Your glory as I've seen it in the sanctuary." He's encouraging himself. This isn't something that just happens in isolation, in prayer; this is for everyday living. It's in the midst of the warfare that you can have that peace, that, as you meditate upon God, as you "clear the mechanism," everything around you is put into proper perspective, because your focus is on God. "Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches." What's he talking about? Having experienced His visitation, we've experienced the victory; now we sit down at night and we refresh ourselves in what God has done today in our lives, how He's preserved us, how He's delivered us. Do you take those times in the evening and just sit down and say, "What a great day, praise God! Father, thank You for bringing that person across my path today, and letting me speak a Word into his heart. I just believe that Word will not return void. Father, I thank You for giving me the right perspective today on what success is, and that You've helped me with that lust, and that inordinate ambition, and that I was at peace today to do what I'm supposed to do, and at the same time able to encourage people around me in the gospel. I know, Father, as he says in the sixty-third Psalm, that as I seek You early, as I sought You at the beginning of this day for You to order my steps, I'm confident today that everything that happened was orchestrated by Your sovereign purposes for me. Even in the things that weren't so good, the things that were an irritation to me, because the steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord." We don't get frustrated now with how the day went; we're able to rejoice that God is ordering our paths. That's what meditation is: it takes it back to the Word of God, and the sovereignty of God. Otherwise, we could be discouraged every day, couldn't we? Every day, something goes on. You think, "Nothing goes right," and "Why is this going on?" "Why is that person prospering?" "Why can't we get anything done?" "Why is it that everybody who works for me is an idiot?" Does anybody here identify, or is only my day like that? Am I the only guy for whom everybody working for him is an idiot? Oh, did I say that out loud? I didn't really mean to. I don't think that; I was just using that as an example for you people who live in the real world. We live up here, so we have no problems; everybody on the staff here is perfect. Amen? Our teachers are all perfect: Jeff told us that the other night. Our students are all perfect: the angels of the Lord deliver all the homework on time from the kids. We never have problems around here, so we can't identify with those of you who live in the real world, because everybody here is a perfect saint. Lying is a sin, isn't it? I had better watch what I'm saying here.

We realize that we're all dealing with this in our lives, personally, and we have to come to that place of reminding ourselves early (in the beginning) and late at night (at the end of the day) that it's not about me: it's not about my frustration; it's not about my ambitions; it's not about what I accomplished today and whether my list got finished; it's about the fact that my steps are ordered by God. I can meditate on that, and be refreshed in it, and stand in awe that God could use me as an ambassador; everything that happened today was for His purpose-His glory. What a great place! You can lie down and go to sleep when that's happening. "Well, I don't believe that, because it doesn't seem to me that this worked out, and it doesn't seem that that was the right thing, and it doesn't..." You need to go back to the house of the Lord and begin to meditate. His ways are higher than your ways. Amen? It's standing in awe of Him, to where we don't understand, but we proclaim that what he has done is good, and it's for His glory. There are no mistakes in our lives because everything is working for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Psalm 119: I love that, I know you spend a lot of time there, but the psalmist cries out in verse 148. He says, "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word." "My eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word."

Go to that Psalm; we're going to look at a couple of other passages while we're there. The psalmist is speaking to us concerning a couple of different aspects here; I think it's interesting that he talks about the discipline of preventing the night watch. Here's a very practical thing: how many of you know what happens when you get still and quiet? I told you what I used to do, years ago, when I would study late into the night: I'd take my Bible and I would lie on the floor as I read my Bible, like this [Pastor holds his Bible above his face], so when I fell asleep, like you do after a while, how many of you know what would happen? It would drop in my face, wake me up, and I'd prevent the night watch. You've got to do something to stay awake. You've got to do something to discipline your flesh and stay up, and take that quiet time, that time that you have to yourself when nobody else can intrude into your space, when God can transform your heart and your mind, and speak some of the most intimate things to you.

If you've got an iPod stuck in your ear, or you have to go to sleep with noise on, and you can't be still-I believe I've heard more from the Lord in those quiet moments late in the night, those times when I'm half-in and half-out, and Father will speak. I hated it when I'd forget, and in the morning I'd have to get up and say, "Lord, what was that that You were saying to me? That was exactly what I needed to hear." I'd get frustrated and try to remember, and I couldn't remember it until I'd go to prayer. In the morning I'd just get quiet again, and get before Father, and there it would come again out of my spirit.

Do you have to go to sleep listening to noise? Are you one of those people? You say, "Yes, it's my husband's snoring." As you're going to sleep, are your last thoughts meditation on the Lord? As you're going away, are you speaking the Word of God, are you quoting the Word of God? Those times, when you truly need to hear from the Lord, are you preventing that time of sleep and shaking yourself again, and doing whatever it takes to spend one more moment in His presence, to be transformed? These are the times when God changes our lives as we prevent that sleep. The flesh wants to go under, and it's very similar to fasting: it's the discipline of the natural man so we can hear in the spirit realm.

In verse 57 of Psalm 119, the psalmist is speaking: "Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep Thy words. I intreated Thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to Thy word. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies." We made reference to this verse this morning, "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies: I knew that there was only one place that could really receive truth, the counsel that's necessary, the Word that I could hide in my heart and not sin against You." "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." This is one of the principles of true biblical meditation. As you're meditating, as the Word of God is becoming a reality, as you're muttering it over and over again, it's with a conscious awareness that you're preparing yourself to do it. You're on your way to obey; you're making haste to put this thing to work. You see, God does not give us revelation for us to consider it: He gives us illumination and revelation to do it. Whenever you've heard from God, the very next thing is an action of obedience: you do it immediately. I'll say it again: God does not speak to you for your consideration. As we're meditating, as we're standing in awe, wanting to hear that voice of God, then what we're going to hear will be in direct correlation to our purpose to obey. When God knows your heart, and He knows you're going to do it, He'll tell you what He wants you to do. You'll get that revelation you're looking for.

"The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments." Now, that's an interesting thing. Midnight for them was later than midnight for us. I can't rise up to give God thanks at midnight because I'm usually still awake at midnight, but we know that at this time they would go to sleep, usually, very close to sundown. They did have some forms of illumination, but they didn't live like us: twenty-four hours a day. What he's basically saying is: In the middle of the night I purpose to shake myself, to wake up, consciously, and put myself back in the spirit realm, and give thanks to God for what He's spoken to me and for what He's entrusted to me.

One of my favorite verses is verse 63: "[How is it, and why is it, that I do this? It's because] I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts." Interesting: meditation is something that has to become a habit in our lives-a discipline. You have to have a disciplined mind to do this. You have to have a disciplined life to truly move into biblical meditation. It's more than just giving a casual thought to God, or giving consideration to a certain situation in your life; it's more than just praying thanksgiving for the food; it's more than just breathing a prayer for a loved one. Meditation is the intention of getting before God until you've been illuminated-it's a fasting of external circumstances to be still, to come into that communion and confrontation with the living God, to stand in awe of the fact that God's going to appear to you, and reveal Himself to you, and bring you to that place of ambassadorship, of sonship, of declaring out of your mouth the eternal purposes of God, muttering eternal truths.

"I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes." We look around and we understand the goodness of God and that it's His delight to show Himself to us. God's not holding back from us He's longing for us to press in to know Him, to embrace His grace and His mercy and His majesty. It's going to come through this principle that we're talking about, this meditation. I think we're beginning to see that when we're talking about rising at midnight, when we're talking about meditating upon His Word day and night, that we're not talking about something casual; meditation is a commitment to having a visitation of God. It's very important for us to understand that.

Psalm 143, verse 5 says, "I remember the days of old; I [will] meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands." I muse on the work of Thy hands. Let's finish with this verse for tonight and take just a second to "remember the days of old." Here's something that we need to do in our meditation: we need to go back and remember all the good things God has done. You remember, the song of Moses was just a remembrance of all the good things that God has done. When you read of the testimony of the living saints in the book of Revelation, they're remembering the things that God has done: declaring the great works of the washing of the blood of the Lamb. The way to begin to discipline your mind is with thanksgiving. It's going back and saying, "OK, Father, I just want to take this time, right now. I'm going to take this time I've set apart"-meditation requires regimentation; it requires purposing to hear from God and to give God His glory-"and the first thing I want to do is just thank You for how good You've been to me." "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). "...By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6). We begin to remember our redemption; we begin to remember our healings; we begin to remember His grace and His mercy, His kindness toward us, and we meditate upon all these, the works of His hand.

Many of us here have some pretty good testimonies. What he's basically saying is: Expect God to do it again. Begin to declare, just like the three Hebrew children, "Our God is able; and even if He doesn't, we're not going your way; we're not bowing to your methods" (Daniel 3:16-18). I think some of you are guilty of failing to judge God faithful based on Whom He has revealed Himself to be, to the detriment of your own personal life's testimony. He said He would never leave you nor forsake you. We've forsaken Him; and every time we've returned He's been merciful, and He's forgiven us, and He's embraced us, and He's given us the robe, and He's given us the ring. Remember the times of old in which He's forgiven you. Remember the times of old in which He's delivered you. Remember the times of old in which He's blessed you and prospered you: why would you expect Him to be any different this time? He's the Lord; He changes not. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Meditation remembers what God has done, and that, because of immutability, that's exactly what He's going to do this time; so, we boast in that, and we hope in that, and we joy in that. That's what true meditation produces in our lives: hope, faith, and an expectation of God being glorified in these temporal circumstances that we're involved in.

Spend some time on your bed, and come to grips with your own heart, and say, "Lord, I need to discipline my thoughts more. I'm more taken up than I'd like to be with the cares of this world, with this temporal life, with my own personal ambitions, my own personal thoughts, my own agendas. I ask You to reestablish in my heart the eternal perspective, and let me begin to think more about Your imminent return. Let me begin to think more about the lost souls at work: not who's getting advancements while I'm not, but who's going to hell. Help me to not be so quick to judge others in their weaknesses when You've been so quick to forgive me in mine. Help me to not think of myself more highly than I ought to think, but to purpose to present my body as a living sacrifice: holy and acceptable to You. Help me to think on these things, as Philippians [4:6] says, and be anxious for nothing." The meditation is on the promises and the presence of God, and we muse over these things. We give presentation of what God has declared as the truth, and He confirms His Word with signs following.

Father, we do thank You tonight for Your Word, and the eternal purposes You have for us. Many of us are caught up with absolutely compressed schedules, to be here and to be there; and if that's the case, then we're going to have to take some time at midnight, because You must have time to speak to us. If we're going to fill our life with activities, then we're going to have to pay the price of getting alone at the night watch and hearing what You have to say to us, or we'll be consumed, we'll be distracted, we'll begin to think from the other [kingdom's philosophy]; and to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). The mind that focuses on the spiritual, the eternal, is always at peace. There is no anxiety, there's no care; there's the ability to just stand and rest, knowing that You're going to confirm Your Word with signs following. Bring us, Your children, to that rest as we remember the great things You've done and will do. Be glorified, Father, in Jesus' name; amen.

Let's stand before the Lord as Gary plays for us. We've tried to take a slightly different approach to the principle of meditation; we've tried to deal with practical aspects, and not just the doctrinal. When you commune with your own heart tonight, just be honest: how much of your time is spent with things that are meaningless? It's all going to burn. If Jesus were to come tonight, how much mental energy would you have spent on things that are going to be consumed in a moment? How much mental energy have you spent on things that you're just going to leave behind as you're instantaneously changed, and old things pass away, and all things become new? As you commune in your heart on your bed tonight, is Jesus your first love, or are there the little inordinate relationships I spoke of earlier? "Do you love mother and father, spouses and children more than Me?" Jesus asked. "If you do," the Master said, "you're not worthy of Me; you don't know who I am; you've not encountered Me. You cannot encounter Me, and have Me reveal Myself, and meditate on who I am, and be awestruck, then choose other than Me. You need to get back and catch another glimpse of Me; it will put things back in order in your life." Just one look, and everything will come back into focus. Just one moment tonight on your bed, as you're truthful with your heart, and God shows Himself, and you're broken, and say, "Lord, I haven't made You first: forgive me," and it'll all clear up, praise God! Instantly, you'll see again. Then there's a restructuring, a reorganizing: some things have to be cut out; most things just have to be put back into their proper place as you remind yourself of that visitation. You remember the days of old, and muse upon that, and you stay free, praise God! If you don't daily think on these things, if you don't daily pull down those evil imaginations that Madison Avenue distracts you with, then Satan entices you with the fruit of that tree, [which promises to] make you independent. But, when you sit upon that bed tonight, and you commune with your heart, you say, "Show me Your ways. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord. There's nothing here that detains me. I want to be like You; I want to be with You. Consume me with Your eternal purposes." We're not distracted by the sales at the mall, and the Lotto, and the TV programs, and recreation, but we're satisfied as we find His Word and eat it, and it becomes to us the joy and rejoicing of our hearts (Jeremiah 15:16). Grant it, Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Make it real to us.

Let's sing it together, and just worship Him tonight. You're so good, Lord! (Singing) Oh, Lord, You have been good.

Hallelujah! You're so good to us, Lord, and we just delight in all You've done and all You've revealed Yourself to be. We stand in awe of You, and we're humbled by Your declaration of us as sons of God, and we delight in the privilege You've given us to go into all the world to be Your ambassadors. We need Your grace. We need Your wisdom. We need Your power. We need to focus, Lord; there are so many things distracting us from the task at hand. Let us be ambassadors of Your kingdom with a clear purpose. No distractions, meditating on the call and the work at hand, that You might be glorified. It's our hearts desire: that You might be glorified. It's our hearts desire, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen, amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Don't forget who you are." Amen. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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