Here is what David wrote in one of his inspired songs: “Summon Your power, O God, the power, O God, by which You have worked for us.” – Psalm 68:24 {ESV}. He had already declared in this same Psalm, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up.” (vs. 19) and “God settles the solitary in a home; He leads out the prisoners to prosperity.” (verse 6). It would seem to me that we should gather from this 68th Psalm that God is proactively for His own children when their circumstances threaten to swallow them. I encourage you to meditate on this Psalm today and read with assurance that our God is a man of war (Exodus 15:3) and sometimes the territory being fought for is your very life.
I’m aware that many of you who are reading are currently in the greatest battle(s) of your lives. The rising sun signals a new day but the lingering fight is not brought to a victorious end. In your own heart you are assured that there could be little to nothing left for God to purify and your longing for relief from the battle, at times, takes your breath away. In moments like these we are susceptible to secretly wonder if He is going to give us the victory. One might quickly reply that even if we die, we have the victory. Personally, I long to see more overcoming victories while I am alive upon earth. Certainly our faith has instructed us that death gives way to ultimate victory but I often wish to cry out like David, “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?” (Psalm 30:9). No doubt, there is a legitimate place for God’s glory to be displayed for our endurance in overwhelming seas, but is there not also an opportunity to magnify Him on the victorious shoreline? I have been bred as a Baptist since coming to Christ in 1994 but I believe my Pentecostal friends have an insight here that we moderates have forgotten; they seem to be able to more dogmatically declare that God is FOR US, therefore we must expect a very present deliverance.
So I long for the righteous sick to be healed – today. My prayers for rebel children of Christian parents is for them to be granted dramatic repentance in this very hour. Churches which languish under the twice-gray sky of apathy and faithlessness, yet who have been given leaders full of God, have my petition for God to summon His power by which He has worked for them before. You who have left your first love – my plea is for you to remember how deeply Christ loves you so that you will draw nigh unto Him and find your covered joy beneath the veil of lesser loves which have owned you too long. The masses who frolic under the banner of Christendom, yet whose eyes are scabbed over from long and lingering looks at glittering treasures of earth…make up your mind today which Kingdom owns your citizenry and live there with all your might! Some who cannot escape the strong tentacles of depression and fear and hurt need a very present Help in their time of trouble. These and a thousand more cannot bear the weight of another season of their hearts giving way to the lie that God is theoretical. They need to see Him move today with a quickness that makes the leopard seem a slug. We need the mighty arm of Yahweh to rescue with such undeniable favor that the naysayers will be plundered of their taunts and made afraid of their own skepticism. These days of great challenge in our lives require nothing short of God being before our eyes the same God who split seas, rained fire, toppled fortresses, flooded a planet, sustained the faithful, shook kingdoms and quieted the hearts of fevered followers. Yes, I know that global recognition of His glory is for a time ahead…but is that truth given so that we turn off our hunger for His glory now?
Yes, this is the hour for the much needed, oft neglected cry for God to manifest His glory in undeniable measure. Call me an idealist, a young zealot or a naive dreamer if you must but my heart longs for a season wherein He shows Himself scandalously strong on behalf of those whose hearts are blameless before Him. I want the world to see the greatness of the glory of my King. How can they ever see it if we ourselves have lost our hunger for it?