Over the course of our journey with Jesus as we follow Him, we go back and forth between high and low times. These movements are like the ocean tide rising and falling and the waves that keep flowing in and out. They’re like breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. We receive and release. We’re strengthened to face difficulties and emptied to make space to receive new blessings.

Spiritual Peaks & Pits

The spiritual writers of old, in Scripture and church history talk about two basic and recurring movements of God in the spiritual life: We will refer to them as rhythms. There are often referred to as spiritual peaks  and spiritual pits.  I'm sure you have all experienced these rhythm's at both extremes! But however wonderful or difficult these bedfellows can be they are both are essential learning opportunities in our apprenticeship to Jesus.

Spiritual peaks refers to times in which we feel the warmth of God’s presence—we sense that we’re blessed and encouraged by our Lord. We get exciting new insights from the Bible, we enjoy prayer or being quiet in God’s presence, we experience intimacy with God in worship, spiritual conversations are rich, or service feels impactful. The Lord uses these often radical inward movements as an invitation to draw us onward to the next stage in our journey on the Wild Path of Jesus.
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But when things are the Pits and when we feel worn out, isolated, and alone, all the warm fuzzy feelings are fade and God seems far away. We do the same spiritual activities, but they don’t bring satisfaction. We pray, but it seems that God doesn’t answer. We go to church but it’s boring. In our spiritual life, we feel restless, bored, distracted, discouraged—it seems dry as dust and we lose motivation to seek God.
Worst of all, in desolation we probably think we’re regressing spiritually, that we’re doing something wrong and it’s our fault that we can’t feel God’s presence. So to avoid feeling like we are stuck in a Bog with no way out, we pressure ourselves to do more spiritual activities and feel anxious or we judge ourselves for our lack of faith and feel guilty and ashamed. The reality is... there is beauty to be found in our Bog even when it seems desolate!

Understanding the Pits

​Allow me a moment to differentiate between the rhythms associated with the pits and that they are different from being depressed, although they often do and can affect each other. Here goes! Depression is a psychological disorder that is pervasive in our life and personality, it darkens our whole life, including our relationship with God and spiritual activities. I once experienced this personally where Depression was the result of chemical imbalance in my body from taking the very drugs that were supposed to help my depression. Furthermore, I had unresolved grief, repressed anger, relationship problems, emotional detachment, or negative thinking and undealt with sin. All of these things eventually led to several attempts to end my life. Fortunately Jesus had other plans.
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I have concluded that the rhythms associated with being in the pits are also different from ordinary trials. We can see a work that the Lord was doing in Joseph in scripture that shows that his trials were of a spiritual nature that focused on his relationship with God and being moved throughout his life with God and in directions that most of us would not enjoy giving consideration to. Another observation is that in times when we feel like our life is in the pit, the rest of your life may be fine or even peaking, but God seems to be withholding certain blessings you desire. The experience of a spiritual downer could potentially become a pervasive life downer if it bleeds into other areas of your life. The old adage of "Don't let life get you down" seems to resonate with these thoughts so... If your life in in the pits... Look for the cherry on top!

Now although I believe that the pits are spiritual, They are not the same as being disciplined by God for sin. It’s not because you did anything wrong or did not do something good. It’s not because you lack faith. It’s not something you can fix by doing more spiritual disciplines or spending more time at church.

Much to my surprise, in the times I have been in the pits the Lord has intentionally withdrawn from me a felt sense of his presence. Initially it seemed unkind or like abandonment, but actually, it’s a deep work of love by the Spirit for a maturing disciple of Jesus. In this spiritually dry and empty experience, the Lord is always strengthening my character and teaching me how to rely on and appreciate the spiritual reality of the Spirit’s loving presence, even when I can’t feel it. Even so, I would still describe these "Pit" experiences as  feeling Desolate or like being in the Pit of Despair. Like in the book... "The Princess Bride!" Fortunately Jesus is like having a giant in your Posse!

​What is the pit of desolation and despair actually?

The Pit of Desolation and Despair is the place where the Psalmist cries out again and again, “O Lord, why is your face hidden from me?” He often found himself in prolonged seasons of spiritual desolation often referred to as the "Dark Night of the Soul." We can learn to be joyful and fruitful even in a spiritual desert if we adjust our expectations and participate in what the Spirit of Jesus is doing in us.

So what do we do in the pit of desolation and despair?

Note! A wise and healthy response to a spiritual pit is not to try to fix it by generating spiritual peaks. Instead, we need to accept the good provisions of the Holy Spirit’s work, waiting on Him and cooperating with Him. Here are five ways to cooperate with the Spirit when God feels distant or you feel spiritually dry:

Search your Heart

When I find myself in the pit of despair, and spiritual disciplines do not provide encouragement like they used to do; That is when the Spirit of Truth uses spiritual activities and other events as a mirror to show us our heart. That’s a primary purpose of spiritual disciplines, which is why in the Bible the Lord’s teaching is described as a mirror that gives freedom (James 1:25). The Lord may lovingly reveal to us issues like insecurity, spiritual pride, moodiness, expectations of being gratified, approval seeking, or inability to love well in difficulty.
“Search me, God,” we can pray with the Psalmist, “know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
 
 Develop Soul Friendships

The danger in times of desolation is that we may feel bad about our struggle and isolate ourselves. Often we downplay our distress or distract ourselves by staying busy. Instead, if we share our struggles with a soul friend, we open a new channel to receive God’s compassion to feel understood, validated, strengthened, and guided. When we are disheartened or weak, we need encouragement and help (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

Grow in the Grace you are Receiving!

In times of spiritual peaks, we like to think that God is blessing us because of the disciplines or good works we do. Our inflated pride comes back to haunt us when we interpret our experiences of the pits as being due to our sin or lack of faithful devotion to Christ. Peaks and Pits are both gifts of God’s grace for us to receive; they are not experiences that we generate.

Be Weaned off of Emotional Blessings!

I have found that when I am in the Pits that God shows me the ways that I’ve become dependant on feelings of being blessed by God to have balance and confidence. In John of the Cross’ metaphor, we’re like small children that need to be weaned off the bottle of spiritual highs and warm fuzzies!. Previously, we loved and served the Lord largely because it made us feel good and significant. Now our opportunity is to trust the Spirit’s presence beyond our feelings, discovering a spiritual-relational way of knowing that is more than emotions. We’re learning to love each member of the Trinity for who they are, not just when they make us feel happy.

Gaze upon His Beauty to Persevere!

If we cooperate with the ministry of Christ in trials then we can develop the kind of faith that endures to trust in God—even if we’re not feeling loved or our life circumstances are bad (Romans 5:3-5; James 1:2-4).
David suffered so much injustice at the hands of Saul and had to live in the desert for years foraging for food, sleeping on rocks, being hunted like a criminal year after year. Yet he had faithfully served Saul, risking his life as a soldier in his army, playing the harp for the king when he was depressed, and submitting to the king’s authority. Yet he prayed, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).

Jesus’ Beatitudes in Peaks and Pits
 
It is when we are on the Peaks that we need to hear Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are you in your good times because yours is the kingdom of the heavens” (Matthew 5:3-12 paraphrased). In other words, when we feel that God is blessing our circumstances this is not our greatest blessing, rather it’s in submitting to the Lord Jesus and joining him in his Father’s world.
Similarly, When we are in the Pit of Despair, we need to hear Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are you in your bad times because yours is the kingdom of the heavens.” When we feel distant from God or like God is not blessing our circumstances, we need to re-focus on the best blessing of bringing our life to our Redeemer in his Kingdom of Light.

“As a giant oak is hidden in the seed of an acorn, the intention of God is seeded in the heart of man to rule with power and authority from Him and not of ourselves”.

In Genesis, God takes the lid off of his intentions for us and lets us in on one of the most outrageous plans. In this plan, and after the creation of all things, He hands it all over to Adam and Eve as a gift that would give them full authority and power to be the rulers of the earth. It is here that the true heart of God for mankind is found.

Genesis 1:26-28

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it;

We learn that God has intended for us to experience the treasures of His heart towards us and that it has been seeded in our hearts to pursue the heart of God.

Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Think through this with me! Desires that are governed by a heart after God will naturally reveal our design. Live in the framework of His design and it will also naturally reveal your destiny. However, you don’t have to look very far into your own story and the story of any man or woman to see what’s gone wrong in the heart of man. I believe the answer is directly connected to the fact that we might not be pursuing God with all of our heart and we haven't understood how we are designed to live on course with His image.

You are and are are both little nuts (acorns). His intention for us is to live out as mighty oaks even in and through the mist!

Start a conversation with Jesus as you pray conversationally through the scriptures above.


Contemplation by John Fairrington.

As we have previously stated. Desires that are governed by a heart after God will naturally reveal our design. Live in the framework of His design and it will also naturally reveal your destiny. In other words, you'll know how to navigate the path of Jesus even when things seem unclear. Furthermore, this way of living opens the door to experience the beauty of what Jesus is leading you in presently. Far to often we miss out on the beauty around us! This is what happens when we lose focus on the path He has laid out before us. Today, experience his protection, direction, safety, strength, His glory. Your inheritance, prize, pleasure, and portion. Know your path, His timing, leading you to pleasant places and privileges as you follow Him.
Praise Him for his whispers and wisdom in showing you what to do. Praise Him for His presence, security, joy faithfulness, and fullness. 

THE GOLDEN SECRET
A precious song, engraved in gold, by David

My Protection
Keep me safe, O mighty God.
I run to you, my safe place.
I said to Yahweh,
“You are my Maker and my Master.
Any good thing you find in me has come from you.”
And he said to me, “My holy lovers
in the land are my glorious ones,
who fulfill all my desires.”
Yet there are those who yield to their weakness,
and they will have troubles unending.
I never gather with such ones,
nor give them honor in any way.

My Portion
Yahweh, you alone are my inheritance.
You are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion.
You hold my destiny and its timing in your hands.
Your pleasant path leads me to pleasant places.
I’m overwhelmed by the privileges
that come with following you!

My Praise
The way you counsel me makes me praise you more,
for your whispers in the night give me wisdom,
showing me what to do next.
Because I set you, Yahweh, always close to me,
my confidence will never be weakened,
for I experience your wraparound presence every moment.
My heart and soul explode with joy—full of glory!
Even my body will rest confident and secure.
For you will not abandon me to the realm of death,
nor will you allow your Faithful One to experience corruption.
Because of you, I know the path of life,
as I taste the fullness of joy in your presence.
At your right side I experience divine pleasures forevermore! (TPT)

Start a conversation with Jesus as you pray conversationally through the scriptures above.


Contemplation by John Fairrington.

John 4:26-30

Jesus said to her, “You don’t have to wait any longer, the Anointed One is here speaking with you—I am the One you’re looking for.”
At that moment, his disciples returned and were stunned to see Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman, yet none of them dared ask him why or what they were discussing. All at once, the woman left her water jar and ran off to her village and told everyone, “Come and meet a man at the well who told me everything I’ve ever done! He could be the One we’ve been waiting for.” Hearing this, the people came streaming out of the village to go see Jesus.

Romans 8:24-29

But hope means that we must trust and wait for what is still unseen. For why would we need to hope for something we already have? So because our hope is set on what is yet to be seen, we patiently keep on waiting for its fulfillment.
And in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. For example, at times we don’t even know how to pray, or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super-intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.
God, the searcher of the heart, knows fully our longings, yet he also understands the desires of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit passionately pleads before God for us, his holy ones, in perfect harmony with God’s plan and our destiny.
So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him.

Day three of recuperation from knee surgery had me contemplating many different things. (It wasn't the drugs Just for the record). The Lord has a way of bringing clarity to those who position themselves to wait on Him especially if you have desire for a work of the Spirit and you are becoming a person who anticipates the fullness of His Spirit as you walk in simple faith with Him. Regardless of whether or not this kind of pause and positioning in life are intentional and purposed or they are imposed like the aforementioned recuperation process; God is faithful to teach us and grow us up through either posture or process but! That doesn’t mean you are going to always get what you want! One thing learned from experience is that all too often; pain, setbacks, weakness, inability to see what is ahead, are all the venues that the Lord has a tendency to show Himself strong in while at the same time He shapes us to be a perfect fit into the valleys that we go through so that we can be salt and light in difficult times.  
During Post- Surgery Recovery for instance; I was optimistic that I was going to be breaking all the records for recovery. Raising the bar for other potential candidates of knee surgery! Day 3 has come and my resurrection has been postponed! What the Lord is teaching me in all of this is that He died and was resurrected so that I wouldn’t have to, and so that I wouldn't be able to take any credit for what only He alone could do!

It’s funny how the Lord can position us in such a way so that when we are in our deepest need or things are toughest, He can turn the light on so to speak and reveal to us what His desires are for our life, along with what He wants us to learn, and what is important for us to understand in the process of shewing forth His manifest glory, and not ours!
I have been able to reflect on how I view the world and how sometimes what I want is in conflict with what I need. I thought about how much stress I often create for myself by fixating on what I think I want instead of focusing on the things my mind, body and spirit need. I realized that if I stop chasing the things that I feel I should have, I won’t set myself up for disappointment when I don’t get them. It is becoming my belief that if I stop believing that something ought to be a certain way, I won’t be unfulfilled if it turns out differently than what I expected. Maybe the things that God has for me are better than the things I want anyway! Maybe, building a sense of entitlement only hinders me from recognizing it.

Have you ever said to yourself. “I must go after and lay hold of the things I want in life because isn’t that what drive is all about? If I don’t have drive, I won’t accomplish anything; if I don’t accomplish anything in life, I won’t be happy.” Thankfully, the more I grow in the Lord, those moments of panic become more brief and I realize... That kind of thinking is incorrect. The Holy Spirit is faithful to bring a rush of calm when I am postured to tune in to Him and yoke with Jesus. As his calm falls over me it is as if the God of this universe is gently telling me, “relax, I’ve got this!” He tells me to let go, and to trust that everything will be okay just rest in Me! Your personal drive and ambition may have gotten you far in life but, “how often have you tried to force a square peg in a round hole because you went after something you wanted just to say you achieved it? “ Or, “How often have you come up empty when Jesus wasn’t the Author and Finisher of the direction you were going?”

Those thoughts sink in deeper as I consider how my actions can impact my kids, grandchildren, wife, family and those the Lord has given me. We can all remember experiences where If when we look back there are situations where we wanted something for ourselves or someone else and the results were not what we expected. Or, we had a goal to make something happen because we wanted it, and not because others did. That really makes us stop and think about whether or not our motives are in sync with His!

We can all understand the feeling when moments we thought were going our direction, build up and then fall flat on their face. Much like the process of my knee surgery recovery. Will I have a closer relationship with Christ if I stop worrying about the things I want and instead focus on what I really need and long for which is Him and the work that He has done?” The answer is a resounding… Yes!

All I know right now is that the Lord will give me the down time to try this on. In the process I will be learning to be better satisfied with His timing, His flow, His perfect rest, and trust that He that is doing the work in me and for me. When it comes down to it, the work is done! It is Finished! And although the finished results may look different in each of us, It still has the look of the Finished work of the Cross and the look of 3 days and a resurrection for those who walk in simple faith and who simply abide in what he is doing!

Allow me to give you the simple equation again! The work is done so, rest in it, and wait for it. This is the Simple walk of Faith that manifests his glorious resurrection in our lives.


Contemplation by John Fairrington

What does your rest look like?

For everyone who experiences hitting a wall, or allows the mind to put up barriers that prevent you from living from your heart, or who just feel burned out in life, It is time to accept an open invitation from the Holy Spirit to reframe our perspectives and practices on rest. This can simply be done by looking at Sabbath rest through the lens of Jesus. Furthermore we have to quit looking at opportunities for sabbath rest as if we are trying to avoid any angle of indictment from the religious on our call, ministry, or spiritual well being. (As was consistent with what the religious did!) 

I find it interesting that much like us; Jesus was almost always up against a wall experiencing tensions in His life and ministry from every angle and yet in sabbath rest He would teach in the temple and heal people. Maybe we can begin to see our colorful struggles and tensions as both an opportunity rest and as a spiritual crucible where the Lord purifies our calling and provides the opportunity to labor from from rest as we yoke with Jesus. No more working to rest, no more working for rest, but living out of rest.
The outflow of a life lived from rest will look differently in each of us! It is up to us to accept the invitation to rest and to enjoy the colors, work, and outflow of Jesus' rhythms as we Easy Yoke with Him. For you more generationally adept... It is the only thing that will put the technicolor back into your set!

Conversational Prayer through the Scripture.

Matthew 11:28-30
“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me. For all that I require of you will be pleasant and easy to bear.”

This is the only autobiographical statement Jesus ever made.
He didn’t say, “Learn of Me because I am majestic and mighty,” or “Learn of Me because I am powerful and prominent.” He said, “That which you discover when you learn of Me will refresh you, for I am meek.”

When I meditate on scriptures, when I pray through scriptures in conversation with Him, and when I am learning of Jesus, I am always amazed at the color that He brings into my rest in Him, His goodness, His grace, His kindness, His gentleness, and His meekness. It's like pulling up a chair on my own private dock with a wonderful view while I work!

Jesus says, “Come to Me—you who have been burned out by Pharaoh, you who have been wearied by the folly of sin and everything is turned to black and white. All you have to do is Yoke with Me—don’t try to maneuver Me, steer Me, or demand of Me. Just learn of Me while you sit with Me, for I am meek and lowly.”
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The result? The color comes on!

…And ye shall find rest unto your souls.
You’ll find what your heart is craving: Shabbat. Sabbath. Rest.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Engage your imagination to experience the Spirit of Jesus through the stories of Jesus! Experience for yourself the rest that comes as you yoke yourself with the work that He is doing!

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Most of us have always been on the track of waiting for that anointed calling and path for our life that will set us apart for big things. We do this because we believe that greatness comes in the form of performance for God and that it is an outcome of catching the right call.

The reality is... It's just a precious waste of time because God is after our hearts and not our performance.
Shouldn’t we be asking daily… “Lord, how should I think about this, or Lord, how would you have me act while on this wild path today?”

Is it possible that our calling is to do even greater works than Jesus did? Could it be that God's calling (track) for me is to live in the constant rhythms, nature, and outflow of Jesus and that these things are what constitutes being on the right track and fulfilling His call and anointing on my life.

Is it possible that God’s calling and anointing has been in front of you the whole time!

Micah 6:8 The Message

But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.

Isaiah 61:1-3. The Message

The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. God sent me to announce the year of his grace--a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies--and to comfort all who mourn, To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness, planted by God to display his glory.

You know what to do from here!

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Psalm 83:4-13

Our enemies keep saying,
“Now is the time to wipe Israel off the map.
We’ll destroy even the memory of her existence!”
They’ve made their pact, consulting and conspiring,
aligning together in their covenant against God.
All the sons of Ishmael, the desert sheiks and the nomadic tribes, Amalekites, Canaanites, Moabites,
and all the nations that surround us,
Philistines, Phoenicians, Gadarenes, and Samaritans;
allied together they’re ready to attack!
Pause in his presence
Do to them all what you did to the Midianites
who were defeated by Gideon.
Or what you did to Sisera and Jabin
when Deborah and Barak defeated them by the Kishon River.
Do to your enemies what you did at Endor,
whose rotting corpses fertilized the land.
Repeat history, God! Make all their “noble ones”
die like Oreb, Zebah, and Zalmunna, who said in their pride,
“We will seize God’s people along with all their pleasant lands!”
Blow them away, God, like straw in the wind,
like a tumbleweed in the wilderness!
Burn them up like a raging fire roaring down the mountainside;
consume them all until only charred sticks remain!
Chase them away like before a mighty storm and terrifying tempest.
O Lord, disgrace them until their faces fill with shame,
and make them acknowledge the glory of your name.
Make them utter failures in everything they do
until they perish in total disgrace and humiliation,
so they will know that you, and you alone,
are Yahweh, the only Most High God exalted over all the earth!

Let's contemplate the Ishmael effect for a moment because it has been playing out over and over again in the Narrative of God.

Have you ever missed the mark or felt like you have blown any opportunity to be used in God's plans for you? Well, you are in good company and I have good news for you!

If you find that the narrative of your story has left you in desolate places or that you have made mistakes that you can't undo, then give consideration to how God still is working out His narrative even in the resulting mistakes of Abraham, the consequences of a wrong relationship, and the birth of something that got ahead of God's plan. You remember a guy by the name of Ishmael who became the father of the Arab people whereas his brother Issac became the lineage of the Jewish people and the two were at odds growing up and they are at odds even to this day. The root of all the tension that we are experiencing in the world today goes all the way back to the mistake that Abraham made. He got in the flesh, he lost his faith a bit, he tried to do things in his own energy and we are seeing the repercussions in the world today.

Now time goes on and Ishmael is sent off, It breaks Abe’s heart but God says “I want you to listen to your wife, you're doing the right thing!’ And off Ishmael and Hagar go. Time goes on and Issac grows up has a family and then he dies like Abraham before him but he has a son named Jacob and Jacob has 12 sons one of which who was named Joseph. Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob and the other sons became increasingly jealous of that fact so they threw him into a pit and left him there to die taking his coat, dipping it and blood and planning to convince their dad that he was attacked by wild animals and killed so as not to take any blame for their evil plot. But, while they were waiting for Joseph to die there in the pit, there were caravan’s coming along and one of the brothers convinced the others to sell him into slavery so Joseph's blood would not be on there hands. Genesis 37:28 says that merchants who were Midianites came by and pulled Him from the pit and then sold him to Ishmaelites, descendants of Ishmael who then brought Him to Egypt and sold him to a guy named Potipher.

Now here is the kicker! The Ishmaelites, Abraham's mistake, Abraham's goof, Abraham's missing the mark, Abraham's sin, as a father who fathered Ishmael. He got ahead of the Lord, He wasn’t obedient to the lord, and now Joseph, the great, grandson of Abraham is being taken by Ishmaelites to Egypt where through a series of miraculous events he winds up becoming the Prime Minister of Egypt. Meanwhile in the promise land there is a famine and the whole story hinges on the question, who got Joseph to the place where he needed to be to save the descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob? It was the Ishmaelites! It was the descendant’s, the offspring of Abraham's mistake! In this amazing story what God does through the mistake of a father ultimately saves an entire nation. We all as followers of Jesus have Ishmael’s in our lives, We have all dropped the ball at some point, but God had a plan to redeem your story, to restore his people, and to keep us on the Path of Jesus. Your Narrative may have been ugly at times but God is at work and accomplishing His Plan in you!

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Hells Canyon, located on the border of Oregon and Idaho, is North America's deepest river gorge. Its maximum depth is 7,900 feet. The canyon is almost 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Life has a way of making you feel like you have been through Hell and back! You might see the Seven Devil's in your background and no way through the canyon right now but that's your present perspective. It is driven by the emotions, negative circumstances, and experiences that happen in our story. But what if we practice new and different perspectives regarding the hellish activities of our lives and see things through the lens of Jesus?

Back when I took this photo while visiting Hells Canyon, the Lord ministered this passage to me and it has prepared me for every potential hellish experience whether by geographical location, spiritual discernment or metaphorical application! Pray through this passage and expect God for your break through!

Conversational Prayer Passage.

Psalm 43:3-5
Pour into me the brightness of your daybreak! Pour into me your rays of revelation-truth! Let them comfort and gently lead me onto the shining path, showing the way into your burning presence, into your many sanctuaries of holiness. Then I will come closer to your very altar until I come before you, the God of my ecstatic joy! I will praise you with the harp that plays in my heart to you, my God, my magnificent God! Then I will say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged; don’t be disturbed, for I fully expect my Savior-God to break through for me. (TPT).

What the lens of Jesus (scripture) says about your present Hell.

Psalm 103:4-6
You’ve rescued me from hell and saved my life.
You’ve crowned me with love and mercy.
You satisfy my every desire with good things.
You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again
like a flying eagle in the sky!
You’re a God who makes things right,
giving justice to the defenseless.

Psalm 144:7
Reach down from your heavens
and rescue me from this hell,
and deliver me from these dark powers.

Pause in his presence

Psalm 39:12-13
Lord, listen to all my tender cries.
Read my every tear, like liquid words that plead for your help.
I feel all alone at times, like a stranger to you,
passing through this life just like all those before me.
Don’t let me die without restoring
joy and gladness to my soul.
May your frown over my failure
become a smile over my success.
​

Song of Songs 4:15-16

You are a fountain of gardens.
A well of living water springs up from within you,
like a mountain brook flowing into my heart!

The Shulamite Bride

Awake, O north wind!
Awake, O south wind!
Breathe on my garden with your Spirit-Wind.
Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me.
Spare nothing as you make me your fruitful garden.
Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance.
Come walk with me as you walked
with Adam in your paradise garden.
Come taste the fruits of your life in me.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)     John 7:37–39

What makes you fruitful and refreshing, prolific and productive?The flowing of the Holy Ghost within and from your life. Seek the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught us to ask the Father for the blessing of the Holy Ghost (Luke 11:13), for when the Holy Spirit flows in you and through you, there is a fruitfulness about you. Without Him, there’s only barrenness and dryness.

Song of Songs 4:16...
Awake, O north wind…

The bride speaks. The north wind is a cold wind. Perhaps you feel cold presently—you don’t feel the intense love for Jesus that you would like to or once did. You feel distant and alone. That is the blowing of the north wind. Let it blow—because the times that are devoid of tingly feelings or “Holy Ghost goose bumps” provide unique opportunity for you to demonstrate your love for the Lord through diligence in worship, prayer, and study of His Word—even though you don’t feel His presence, an absence of feelings doesn’t mean the Lord has forsaken you. On the contrary, He is allowing you to go through a cold season in order to grant you the privilege of learning to walk by faith and not by feeling. Feelings are so fickle. They’re affected by what you ate last night, by what your family said to you this morning, by the news, the weather, the economic outlook. Not so faith. It is a constant because it is totally independent of outside circumstances. Therefore, the Lord, wanting the best for His people, desires us to walk in the surety and stability of faith.

Can you, like the maiden, say, “Lord, I’m willing to go through a week, a month, or even a year of the blowing north wind in order to give to You without expecting the sense of Your presence in return”? Can you say, “Lord, if I can best demonstrate what You have done in my life through periods of coldness, so be it”?
Most of the time, whenever I give to God, I get so much back that I can’t really call it giving at all! I start to worship and say, “Lord, this is a sacrifice of praise to You,” when suddenly, finding myself flooded with feelings of joy, I think, “This is no sacrifice at all. Am I doing this to give—or am I doing this to receive?” But when I feel somewhat distant from the Lord, it’s an opportunity for me to give without necessarily receiving anything in return.

If you’re going through a cold spell today, if the north wind is howling, rejoice. You have a unique opportunity to minister to Jesus, to give to Him worship and adoration, praise and thanksgiving regardless of your feelings.

Song of Songs 4:16...
…and come, thou south…

The south wind is a hot, arid wind. Perhaps you are presently walking through days of difficulty and times of fiery trials. That is the blowing of the south wind. If this is your situation, remember that it’s not when you’re prospering and cruising through life that others can see Jesus in you. It’s when they see you walking through difficult days by the grace of God that they know He is real to you.

Song of Songs 4:16...
…blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.…

Not long ago my wife and I got away to decompress. We had become a little snarky about some thing going on in our lives and committed to a week of just soaking in the work that the Lord was desiring to do in us. After a few focused days of thankfulness, gratitude, an refocusing on Him. We had just climbed into the warm waters of the Alvord Desert Hot Springs; A great little desert oasis in the middle of nowhere. While we were soaking one rather stormy day, all of a sudden, I smelled something. My mouth began to water and my stomach started to growl as the fragrance of barbequed steak was working its way down the path from one of the campground fire pits and into my nostrils.

When the storm winds of adversity and difficulty blow through our lives, a fragrance is released. It is either a foul odor of bitterness, snarkiness, even hostility, jealousy and anger—or it is the sweet-smelling savor of praise and thanksgiving, worship and adoration. You see, the wind itself doesn’t determine what the fragrance will be. It merely releases the fragrance already present. Therefore, when I find bitterness, anger, jealousy, or hostility and snarkiness coming forth from my life, I must say, “Father, the problem isn’t him, her, them, or where I'm at. It’s me. Father, forgive me. I thought I was farther along than that. Oh, Lord, have mercy!”
Here is the deal! If, instead of blaming everyone and everything else, you say, “Oh, Lord, the fragrance in my life is not what it should be. I repent, Father. Change my heart,” you will find a pleasing fragrance emanating from your life.

Song of Songs 4:16...
…Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

Take special note of this verse, kids. The key to life and enjoying our union with God is saying, “I’m Your garden, Lord. Eat of me. I exist for Your pleasure and Your glory. That is why I am alive today. That is why I will awake tomorrow. I exist for one reason: not to heap pleasure upon myself, not even to please others—but to please You.”

Why do you exist? To bring pleasure to the Lord (Revelation 4:11).
Tomorrow will be a fabulous, wonderful, exciting, fulfilling day if you’ll say, “Lord, I’m here to please You all day long. I’m taking You out for lunch. We’ll grab a burger and then I’ll meditate on Your Word, talk to You, and worship You. Lord, on my coffee break, my thoughts and prayers will be ascending to Your throne. I’m going to carry a verse in my pocket so that my thoughts might be upon You as I meditate upon it at various intervals throughout the day.”
You exist to bring the Lord pleasure! You are His garden!

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Take my yoke upon you…

Matthew 11:28–30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Greek word translated “carpenter” used in Matthew 13 to describe Joseph refers to a finish carpenter rather than for a framer. Tradition has it that the carpenter shop where Jesus worked with His father, Joseph, specialized in making yokes and fitting things like stone together like a structural mason of sorts. To yoke two oxen together, the skilled craftsmen designed the yoke to fit each ox individually and it was the same in stone laying. However, in designing yokes since there was always a lead ox yoked together with one who would follow, the yoke was designed in such a way that the lead ox would pull the greater weight. The follower, or assistant ox, was just to go with the flow.

Take My yoke upon you…

Jesus used an analogy well known to the people who listened to Him when He said not only, “Come unto Me,” but, “Yoke with Me. Let Me be the lead ox. Go with My flow. Don’t try to figure out or change My direction. Let Me lead you.”

The story is told of a battleship cruising the Atlantic, off the northern coast of Maine. One stormy evening, the commander was notified, “Sir, there’s a light ahead. Oncoming vessel.”
“Signal the oncoming vessel: change your courses ten degrees to the west.”
The message was sent.
But a light flashed back, “Change your course ten degrees to the east.”
“Signal again,” barked the commander. “Change your course ten degrees to the west. I am an admiral!”
The light flashed back, “Change your course ten degrees to the east. I am a Seaman Third Class.”
By this time, the admiral was incensed as he thundered, “Signal again: Change your course ten degrees to the west. I am a battleship.”
And the message came back, “Change your course ten degrees to the east. I am a lighthouse.”
So, too, as we impudently and impetuously say to the Lord, “Lord, let’s go my way,” He answers...

“No. We’re going My way.”
I am the Lighthouse
I am the Light of the world,
The Rock of your salvation,
The Creator and Sustainer of your soul.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
The One who knows the beginning from the end.
Trust Me.

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart…

This is the only autobiographical statement Jesus ever made.
He didn’t say, “Learn of Me because I am majestic and mighty,” or “Learn of Me because I am powerful and prominent.” He said, “That which you discover when you learn of Me will refresh you, for I am meek.”
What is meekness? Meekness is strength under control.

Picture a big, gentle Saint Bernard surrounded by yapping, snapping, little Chihuahuas. Now the Saint Bernard could open his mouth and chomp the Chihuahuas down in one gulp. He could take his paw and knock them away with one swipe. But the powerful Saint Bernard patiently puts up with the yappers and snappers at his feet. That’s meekness.

When I study the Scriptures and learn of Jesus, I am always amazed at His goodness, His grace, His kindness, His gentleness, and His meekness.
Jesus says, “Come to Me—you who have been burned out by Pharaoh, you who have been wearied by the folly of sin. Yoke with Me—don’t try to maneuver Me, steer Me, or demand of Me. Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly.” The result?

…And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

You’ll find what your heart is craving: Shabbat. Sabbath. Rest.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The final consideration for this Acts 15 contemplation is... Questions arose concerning Gentile converts and whether or not they should follow the laws, and the rituals, and whether to be circumcised. Peter gave this response, I’ll state it again:
Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Acts 15:10
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“My yoke,” Jesus said, “is easy.” It’s not religion—it’s relationship. It’s not Judaism—it’s Jesus. It’s not the law—it’s love.

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