Michelle continues her quest to discover keys to Revival in Psalm 119 reading verses 121-128  in the Passion Translation. Today, as we discover the keys of living from intimacy and following God in obedience as our passionate pursuit and souls longing.  When we come into a right understanding of Who God is as we pursue Him through His Word - the keys of presence and bring us into an obedience that is born of love and intimacy rather than obligation. 

Show Transcript:

Blooming Inspired Podcast equipping and empowering the voices of women who live their lives Blooming Alive. 

Introduction

Good Morning! This is Michelle Bentham, host of Blooming Inspired Podcast. I’m always excited to be jumping on the podcast with you each week. This week we’re returning to our Revival Series and Psalm 119 beginning in verse 121. Go ahead and grab your Bible and turn to the Psalm as I pray to open our discussion today. 

Father God, I ask that you would open our eyes to see your revelation, open our ears to hear your voice, and open our hearts to know you more. Protect us from the plans of your adversary and keep us from harm. I ask these things in Jesus’ Name, AMEN. 

Psalm 119:121-128 The Passion Translation (TPT)

The heading over this passage is I Will Follow Your Ways

You know the image I chose for today’s podcast is an image of a man and woman dancing. That’s right, a man and a woman dancing. Because when a woman or a bride even chooses to dance with her groom she chooses to follow Him. This is exactly what we see a picture of - this beautiful submission that is reflected in the dance of a woman giving herself in obedience to her husband. A Bride giving herself to her Bridegroom. We, the church, surrendering ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the Sovereignty of Father God in obedience. 

Today’s Reading

Verse 121: Don’t leave me to the mercies of those who hate me, for I live to do what is just and fair.

How many of us pray for God to let us get away with SIN? Not many? But, don’t we often find ourselves sinning anyway, making a mess of things and go back to God trying to bargain our way out of the consequences.

 “God, if you’ll just get me out of this mess, I’ll never do this again.”  

I believe, especially after salvation many of us desire in heartsto do what is right before God. So, why don’t we always do what is right before God, and end up crying out in desperation for His rescue?

Sin Brings Consequences

This reminds me of something that my daddy used to tell me as a kid. He would say, “Sugar, if you screw up and do something wrong just come and talk to me about it. I’ll go easier on you if you just tell me what happened than if you go around and hide it hoping I won’t find out.” 

God’s Grace & Mercy Cleanses Us From Sin and Unrighteousness

I feel like God says this to us in 1 John 1:9 - if you belong to me you won’t go on sinning, but instead you’ll confess your sins and know I’m faithful and just to forgive them and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If your sins involve consequences in the real world, you bet you’ll have to deal with them. But God in His grace and mercy will give you the help you need to get through it if you will take it to Him and trust Him to help you work through the mess. Yes, even when you’ve earned it. That’s called mercy.

God’s Promises Also Free Us From Oppression 

Verse 122: Let me hear your promise of blessing over my life, breaking me free from the proud oppressors.

When we feel oppressed by people and the world around us all we have to do is look to God. Reminding ourselves, focusing on His promises will help us to overcome - breaking free from - the way the world around us seeks to bind us up. You notice he wants to be broken free from the proud oppressors but a lot of times that oppression is happening in our mind. Our actions are a result of what is happening in our mind - the way we think. So in order for our response to change, our thinking has to change. And God’s promises should always change the way we think. 

A Lovesick Lover

Verse 123: As a lovesick lover, I yearn for more of your salvation and for your virtuous promises.

As we’ve walked through the previous verses of Psalm 119, we see this progression from seeking God, to knowing God, to walking in intimacy with God. That is what I see in this verse - as a lovesick lover, I yearn for more of your salvation and your virtuous promises.- Think about it! Does your heart yearn for more of God’s salvation and the virtues of His promises to become a reality in your life? When we belong to God, walking in a depth of intimacy with Him, we not only want to please Him, we want to understand and receive from Him as well. 

Tender Love & Understanding

Verse 124: Let me feel your tender love, for I am yours. Give me more understanding of your wonderful ways. His tender love will lead us into understanding. We will marvel at the wonder of who He is as well as what He does. Have you ever stopped and considered all the wonderful things about God. If we flip over to Psalm 139, the Psalmist enumerates them this way, “How wonderful are your ways? I know that full well.” 

Are you full up on the wonder of who God is, not just what He does for us? How Wonderful Are You God… Help us to know that full well! 

Known By Revelation

Verse 125: I need more revelation from your word to know more about you, for I’m in love with you! It is in this place of intimacy, birthed from revelation through the Word of God (Jesus) and the scriptures that cause us to pour ourselves out in love for Him, the way He has poured out His tender love upon us. There is this idea in knowing that can mean to either know by experience or to know by information. We must never settled in the place of simply knowing about God - information, but rather we should seek to KNOW God personally by a first person experience of who He is. 

Breakthrough is My Heart Cry! 

Verse 126: Lord, the time has come for you to break through, for evil men keep breaking your laws. Do you hear the heart crying out for breakthrough? Weary of the fight and the pain that comes with a broken world... Meet us in the midst of this chaos God and deliver us -- all of us -- all those you long to call by your Name, and bring us to your goodness and your heart. We’re longing for, waiting on your breakthrough to come. 

Truth is Our Treasure

Verse 127: Truly, your message of truth means more to me than a vault filled with the purest gold. When we value God, His truth and His presence in our lives more than we value anything else, even gold and earthly treasures, we will find ourselves positioned for more of who He is. 

His Truth is Right & Beautiful

Verse 128: Every word you speak, every truth revealed, is always right and beautiful to me, for I hate what is phony or false. As we conclude today we see this love journey with God leads us not only to intimacy but a deep longing in our hearts to be obedient to God, His Word & Truth and to the promptings of His Holy Spirit which brings power and revelation to our lives. 

That’s all the time I have for today. As we close I’d like to tell you about my new adventure as a member of The John Maxwell Team. I’ve recently enrolled in their certification program and I’m walking through the process of getting certified as a Speaker, Teacher, Trainer and Coach through their platform. In July I completed their Maxwell Method Certification for the DISC personality/behavioral Assessment. If you contact me during the month of August to purchase the DISC assessment and book a follow up coaching session to review the report, I’ll give you a $50 discount off the recommended price. That’s RIGHT! I’ll help you walk through your report and plan next steps, the report is $50 with a session fee of $197.00. IF YOU CONTACT ME BEFORE AUGUST 31, 2019 to order your report and schedule your session you can get both the report and the session for $197.00. To take advantage of this offer, just email [email protected] and put Maxwell Method DISC Report in the Subject Line. Let me know you want to take advantage of my August Special and we’ll get you started. 

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the Accidental Hope Podcast with Jennifer Eikenhorst. She is our Hope Ambassador around this wildflower garden, passionate about helping others seek hope and build community after experiencing an accidental loss or trauma. Check her out right here at the bloominginspirednetwork.com or on Facebook @accidentalhope, again that’s facebook.com/accidentalhope

And now I want to remind you as I always do, Blooming where you’re planted is the first step to living your wildest dreams so live your lives blooming alive.