Familiarity with God

 Wednesday, April 7, 2025 

Today's lesson is a continuation of what the Spirit has been speaking to my heart. Trusting Him and having a willingness to accept whatever He brings my way, with gratitude and to consider viewing it as a growth opportunity. And how the best way to do that is to be in constant conversation with Him.

I started the morning, again with Unveiling Mercy, by Chad Bird. Today he briefly referenced part of the lesson from March 28th, how worship is meant to be full-bodied. Today he shows us how it's also full-sensory, as he teached us about the incense burned that represented the prayers of the Israelites. Then he ended with a prayer from Psalm 141:2, "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!" 

I have a note written in the margin of my Bible at Psalm 141:2 sending me to 2 Chronicles 29 where the Lord convicted me about 2015 whenever I shut the door of my prayer closet in frustration and never went back. I have this chapter marked with a tab that reads "testimony". 

1 Sam 12:24, Col 3:12, Rom 12:1, 2 Corinthians 4:1

I'll probably refrain from going into too much detail here, but essentially, I have always been the faith leader in my family. And whenever life had handed me one hard experience after another, coupled with a life-long difficult relationship that had grown even more toxic no matter how biblically I responded, instead of doubling down and enduring, I gave up, shut the door of my "sacred" place and never went back. I stopped praying. Stop reading my bible. We had already stopped attending church and our small group bible study had fizzled out. My kids became old enough to have jobs. And we ended up selling that home in 2016. We bought a mobile home and moved out to our property, and I didn't get serious about dedicated time spent with God again until around 2021-2022. By then, 2/3 of my children had flown the nest and my youngest was a Senior in High School.  I'm convinced, the decision to shut the door and "walk away" in part, led to a chain reaction of events, that has left my family in captivity to the enemy and all the lies he is selling our current culture. During my time with the Lord that day, He placed this Scripture before me in Aug 2024, and spoke to me about prayer as a form of offering. Later in Oct he would lead me to Isaiah 62:6-7 whenever teaching me about my role as a watchman and that I have his permission, His exhortation to come to Him continually, day and night. These verses in the NLT are especially encouraging. 

"O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the LORD. Give the LORD no rest until he completes his work..."

So, whenever I read this in Psalm 141:2 this morning, I turned to BibleHub for more information on what exactly the "evening sacrifice" was. From there I was referred to Exodus 29:38-39   where it says, they were to offer a sacrifice twice a day (day & night) regularly. The Hebrew word, translated as regularly is Tamid: Continually, perpetually, always, regularly. So, we begin to see the Old Testament basis for verses like 1 Thess 5:17, which is translated as pray continually, never stop praying, pray without ceasing, be unceasing and persistent in prayer. 

From here, I moved on to my Joni devotion, The Practice of the Presence of Jesus. Her quote from Brother Lawerence is where I drew the inspiration for the Title of his blog post. 

 "When we are faithful to keep ourselves in His holy Presence, and set Him always before us, this not only hinders our offending Him, and doing anything that may displease Him, at least willfully, but it also begets in us a holy freedom, and if I may so speak, a familiarity with GOD, wherewith we ask, and that successfully, the graces we stand in need of."

This brought to mind something the Spirit caused me to think of sometime last week, whenever contemplating the way He speaks with me. I envisioned being in a dark room blindfolded. If someone were in that room with me, the only way I would know it, would be if we were in continual conversation. In moments of long silence, I would begin to fear they had left me alone. In order to feel most secure and to feel their presence, it would require me to inch closer and closer in response to their voice. This is how prayer and reading God's Word, draws us nearer to God. This is how we achieve familiarity with Him. 

What Joni writes about caused me to grin, because I too, just this morning, heard the whisper of His Spirit, chastise me as my mind wandered into arrogant judgement while I was vacuuming. It feels good to hear His whisper of conviction and to be given the opportunity to repent and correct my behavior while I'm just a short distance off the path. And it's good for me to in that moment realize the truth of His word that declares, apart from Him I can do nothing. (John 15:5) or "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." (John 6:63) or Psalm 16:2 "I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” All these truths my ego needs to be reminded of, especially whenever my mind has wandered into worthless judgements of another soul. 

I pray the Holy Spirit will keep working on me until I hear His voice more and more. And whenever I do hear him, even when it's in chastisement, it's a feeling of belonging because He has said, "My sheep hear my voice... (Jn 10:27) And He has promised, "Your own ears will hear Him. Right behind you a voice will say, "This is the way you should go" (Isaiah 30:21)

After this devotion, it was time to dive into my Jesus Calling. You can instantly see the connection made to my previous devotion about being sensitive to the Spirit's leading, as He participates in shaping and molding you into who God created you to be. This time through difficult life circumstances. And again, part of the way we do this is to develop the habit of turning to Him for guidance and discernment as we "test" what's behind our difficulties. Is it our disobedience? Is it Spiritual warfare the Father has allowed the enemy to engage in against us, either directly or indirectly through the disobedience of others and the natural effects of living in a fallen world full of flawed people, like ourselves. 

As you can see, I also did a word study for the word most translations render as "complaint" in Psalm 142:2. In the Hebrew it's the word siach which means meditation, complaint, talk, communication. Whenever difficulties arise, where do we turn first? Ourselves? Our spouse? Our best friend? Or do we take it to God and just lay our souls bare. Not necessarily asking Him for a specific solution as much as we're telling Him how we perceive our current reality. And then, do we mediate and muse and read His Word, listening for words of wisdom and discernment from His Spirit in how we should respond. I love what the following verse says in the NLT, "When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn." Recently, the past few months, I have truly had the eye-opening realization that the Lord is my best friend. And even though, there were times, like human friendships, where we went years without speaking (on my part anyway), He was right there waiting with open arms willing to be that special someone for me again. He readily forgave me all of my shortcomings. He truly does embody all that His word says. In 1 John 4:8 we read, "God is love" and in 1 Corinthians 13 we're told, "Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." He never has and He never will.

Whenever difficulties and hard situations arise, are we willing to consider any implication that we might be part of the problem or that we don't have what it takes to handle the situation without divine help from the Spirit we were gifted whenever we came to Christ. Do we set aside our ego and listen for instruction. Do we come to Him in gratitude for the opportunity to learn, and submit, in order to possibly share His grace, love and mercy with others. 

I loved the insight given as I read the verses in Isaiah 66: 2(b)

But this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word. (66:2(b) ESV)

This verse has so much to say, "But this is the one to whom I will look." In Hebrew the word is "nabat" which means "to look, regard, behold, or consider". In ancient Hebrew thought, to "look" or "behold" wasn't limited to physical sight but often conveyed deeper meanings, like understanding, discernment, or even emotional engagement. For example, when scripture speaks of God "looking" at His people, it implies care, attention, and favor. ¹

If someone is humble, in Hebrew they are "ani" poor, afflicted, humble, depressed. Jesus in His sermon on the Mount declares, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

The Hebrew word rendered here as contrite or "nakeh" speaks of someone who has been humbled by life's circumstances. 

I want to side-step for minute to mention I'm writing this post with my new computer my daughter and her boyfriend bought me for my birthday. My last laptop was over 10 years old, so old it would no longer take updates. It would freeze up and could easily take me 10+ hours to write a blog post because of how long it would take it to open a new tab without coming to a complete stop and having to be restarted. Sometimes multiple times.

My new computer comes with AI assist and has really been helpful with my understanding of the nuanced differences in the Hebrew and Greek languages. I've used ChatGPT on my phone recently as well, but you do have to proceed with caution. It has often given me information that was just plain wrong. You do have to have some basic understanding in order to point out whenever it answered wrongly. 

Having said that, I wanted to share how Microsoft Copilot has revealed a truth we see in Scripture. 

If you go to Biblehub for the definition of the word "nakeh" it will say the definition is: innocent, blameless, free from guilt. It will then tell you the meaning is: maimed, dejected. And that it's derived from the root נָקָה (nakah), meaning "to be clean" or "to be free from guilt." If you're like me, you may then wonder, "How does any of that get you to the rendering of "contrite"? This is where Microsoft Copilot comes into play. I asked it to explain, and this was one of the responses: 

"This root can also evolve into meanings of being "emptied" or "stripped," metaphorically extending to physical or emotional states of affliction. For example, to be "free from guilt" might imply being absolved after having endured trials or hardships."

That made me think of the blind man we read about in John 9 where Jesus was asked, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

Jesus' response is the heart of what the Spirit has been saying, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

Whenever we're humble and contrite and "tremble at his word", the opportunity for the works of God to be displayed in our lives is greatly increased. 

And just to give you another example of the way the Lord works, in trying to find out exactly how old my old laptop was, I went to FB to do a search to see if I posted whenever I bought it and came across this statement from 2013 that I shared that speaks to this.

"SECONDHAND SPIRITUALITY: "Come near to God, and God will come near to you." James 4:8

"Some of us have tried to have a daily quiet time and have not been successful. Others of us have a hard time concentrating. And all of us are busy. So rather than spend time with God, listening for his voice, we'll let others spend time with him and then benefit from their experience. Let them tell us what God is saying. After all, isn't that why we pay preachers?

If that is your approach, if your spiritual experiences are secondhand and not firsthand, I'd like to challenge you with this thought: Do you do that with other parts of your life? 

You don't do that with vacations. You don't do that with romance. You don't let someone eat on your behalf, do you? [There are] certain things no one can do for you. And one of those things is spending time with God. ~ Max Lucado (Just like Jesus)

This reminded me of what Beth Moore said during her Simulcast back in September, "Personal desperation can jar us out of second-hand stories." 

 So, what does it mean to "tremble at his word" you might ask. To "tremble at his word" requires your eyes to be opened from Spiritual blindness. You would have to see God for who He is and who you are in relation to Him. I think the best example of this in Scripture is seen when we read the prophet Isaiah's response to seeing God on His throne in Isaiah 6:5, “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.” 

Or Job's response when the Lord finally addresses his demand for answers, in Job 42:3-6, "Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Or John in Revelation: When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last..."

Or the disciples in Matthew 17 after witnessing the Transfiguration of Jesus, "While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down in terror."

If you sincerely ask for God to help you see Him for all He is, He will be faithful to do it. But sometimes in order to want to see Him, it requires personal desperation. Moments of personal desperation are what led to Isaiah's experience with the Lord. It's what led to Job's and John's. Even the disciples had moments of personal desperation. He will reveal to you all you can humanly withstand. Moses also had moments of personal desperation. He murdered a man and fled His royal adoptive family. His birth family and people were enslaved by his adoptive family. He was tasked with leading millions of impossible people, who most likely were living with the effects of PTSD, through the dessert in order to teach them to faithfully trust an invisible God. Personal desperation. But we read that he asked this very thing in Exodus 33 .  And what we end up with in Exodus 34 is God himself describing who He is, His very nature. “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Some people get hung up on the last bit but let me share with you the way I understand it. 

1. The LORD is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintain loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. 
2. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

His mercy is 25,000% greater than the accountability we face due to consequences. The second half does not imply that the innocent will pay for the sins of the guilty, as in held accountable, but rather it suggests that sin has consequences that affect our children and grandchildren, often up to the third and fourth generation. The current understanding of this might be the concept of "generational curses." These require personal accountability and dedicated effort to break the cycle of hurt.

This post has meandered a bit. My time with the Lord often does that. It's how I'm easily able to sit at my desk for 4+ hours, like I did today. God's Word is living and active and you could spend a lifetime reading it and never glean all the wisdom it holds. But what an adventure it is to try. It's a treasure hunt. And I promise, you will never leave it empty handed. You will find a nugget every time, if your heart is sincere. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Heavenly Father, thank you for every bit of life I've experienced. The heartbreaking, the mundane, the difficult and weary and the breathtakingly joyful. All of it. Thank you for your divine provision and everything You set into motion just for me to experience everything you've had in store for me. Thank you that you see me. Thank you that you allow me to hear You. Thank you for a loving daughter who sacrificed her time and money to buy me such a sweet gift, one that allows me to learn and interact with You without the distraction of having to squelch aggravating frustration with technology. Instead, I get to utilize it to learn and honor You. My mind will never comprehend how much of my life you encompass. Thank you, Jesus, that you made it possible for me to draw so near and to experience You in the way that you designed. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you continue to convict me and grow me. Help these roots grow deep. Change my default, habitual, self-gratifying, patterns. Sever the ropes of the flesh and tie your cords of love deep around my heart. In Jesus' name, Amen. 

1."Microsoft Copilot, personal communication, April 7, 2025."