24. A Man at the Very Bottom

24. A Man at the Very Bottom - for Notes

24. A Man at the Very Bottom PP

In the last session, the Spirit of God emphasized for us the critical importance of our Father’s careful removal from our hearts of every vestige of that contempt for others that Adam chose.

And contempt for others is best laid bare inside the great press of the abuse of ‘leadership’ in Christian circles.

When we see that contempt, we NEVER try to ‘remove’ it ourselves, because it is nothing more than a human quality turned in the wrong direction. Rather, we confess and believe that Jesus is already all that God requires in, as, and through us.

Rest Utterly. This absolute placing of ourselves, in all our human emotions, into Jesus now carrying us, is the entirety of what God is seeking.

I have expressed a personal concern about the dishonesty of wearing masks, but the Lord showed me that I can rest utterly inside of Him, regardless of all dishonesty. Suddenly, the unveiling of dishonesty all around us is no longer a threat to me and I rest utterly in Jesus carrying me.

Again, this is always what God is after – no sufficiency in ourselves – “I can’t do it, God” – all sufficiency in Christ, “Jesus, this awfulness is You sharing all with me.”

Running as Pirates. This quality is sometimes called “coming to an end of one’s self,” or even, “brokenness,” but those are not accurate terms and come from the old way of thinking about God.

Here is David at the VERY BOTTOM. And David ENCOURAGED himself in God.

Let’s use the meaning of the English word. – And David filled his heart with all boldness inside of God. – This is none other than Hebrews 10:19-22, children running as pirates, seizing everything that is God as their own. We don’t “lose” ourselves; we find ourselves with joy.

As If We Did. And so, we trust utterly in God, regardless of our circumstances, that it is always Jesus taking the initiative in our lives, proving Himself through us.

When God said, “Son, you passed the test,” He was speaking as if I had done something. But I had done nothing but stumble every step of the way.

In God’s mind, Jesus proving Himself faithful through us is us proving ourselves faithful in God. This is the meaning of 2 Corinthians 2:14 and the seventh ruling verse of the Bible. God is the energeoing of His Desire inside of us.

Finding the Right Viewpoint. Then we see that through all these years, David is killing a lot of people. Many Christians use this fact as a justification for going to the other side of the world and killing people who have never done them harm.

And when we look at David’s Psalms, we see much expression of harm against people who oppose David.

But we understand that David was a natural man in a natural world. He knew God, yes, but only inside the context of his present humanity. We know God inside the context of the humanity of the Resurrected Christ, beyond what David could know.

Our Warfare. It is entirely of God that a natural man should defend his family, even if it means killing a violent intruder. But we are not natural men and women.

For this reason, we apply a clear gospel rule to every word of physical violence in the Old Testament and especially in David’s life and Psalms.

We are not wrestling or contesting against blood and flesh, but against …spiritual evil in the heavenly realms. – For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but are God-enabled towards the tearing down of fortresses (Ephesians 6 & 2 Corinthians 10).

Protect the Church. In our prayer at the end of “A Man Who Believes in Me,” we used some of David’s Psalms that included a violence directed against wicked and ruling men who are determined to destroy the Church.

Here we must place ourselves very carefully inside of God. We never imagine or speak or call for any physical violence to be directed against any human person, ever.

Nonetheless, our task is to protect the Church, and in protecting the Church, violent men will be bound by our prayers. And sometimes, in the constraints of the Spirit, those men may die.

To Save Men’s Lives. For we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. – “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord.

It is inside this safety that we stand as the authority of God in the earth. And sometimes that standing will result in “collateral damage.” Yet we stand upon FIRM.

The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. – I do not have the wisdom to make this critical distinction clearer, and so we trust utterly in God.

Continuing the Timeline. Let’s approach these events that are the worst years of David’s life, then, from this perspective, that the proving of Christ faithful and true through us is God’s doing entirely.
 

1	David refuses to harm Saul the first time in the caves of Engedi.	8	David goes to the Philistines, where he serves King Achish.
2	David writes Psalms 57 & 105.	9	David and his men dwell in Ziklag.
3	Samuel dies.	10	The Philistines send David away from the battle with Saul.
4	Nabal refuses to help David.
5	Abigail stops David from doing wrong. Nabal dies anyhow.	11	David finds Ziklag destroyed and all gone, his lowest point.
6	David marries Abigail & Ahinoam.	12	David destroys the Amalekites.
7	David refuses to harm Saul the second time, near Ziph.	13	Saul is defeated and killed by the Philistines.

Two Weeks’ Time. Consider the time between David’s lowest point, when he finds Ziklag destroyed and his wives and children taken captive and the time he is crowned king of Judah! [“Judah” means Judah as well as Simeon and Benjamin, who were merged into the tribe of Judah by this time, along with about a third of Levi.]

We can safely guesstimate around two weeks’ time from lowest to highest.

One of the most important lessons I learn from Joel Osteen is that the completion is at hand just when it seems the farthest away. I say this to myself quite often.

Completion at Hand. Joel was jogging up the foot trail to the top of Pike’s Peak. It was full fog, and he was weary. It seemed the top would never appear. Finally, he paused to catch his breath, having decided to turn around and go back down.

Just then, some hikers came down through the fog. He asked them how far to the top. They said that he was at the top, the lodge was right there, visible if there was no fog. He would have turned around at the moment of completion, but God kept him in His hand.

A conversation often takes place in my mind. “Nothing is happening in my life; I have given everything and this Word I share has not brought back the return I expect.”

God Kept David. And every time that thought comes, in whatever present form, my only response is, “I will not quit; I will never turn back. I will not stop writing; my time WILL come.”  Joel Osteen’s story always comes to me then, and I encourage myself in the Lord.

I realize now that we covered, in the last lesson, God’s meaning of David not putting out his hand to harm Saul.

But what we see in these events is that David continues making foolish mistakes on a regular basis. But opposite David’s foolishness, God Himself, through others, directs David’s steps to not doing wrong.

When You Lose Everything. The burning concern of my heart right now is to talk about God keeping us through the valley of the shadow of death that we see engulfing our present world.

Very simply – all extended human lust is the desire to seize something not ours, something that belongs to another. And all human violence against others arises out of the fear of loss, the fear of losing what we consider to be MINE!

David, at the very bottom, lost everything. What do you do when someone throws a spear at you? – now became – What do you do when you just lost everything meaningful in your life?

The Annie Visions. Here is what David did – David encouraged himself in the Lord.

For our purposes, I would suggest that you read pages 25-38 in the Annie visions – I Looked and I Saw Visions of God. If you need a copy, download it from here: https://christrevealed.info/home/visions/Annie. I want you to use this PDF version of the visions, because my comments are very important.

As you read, feel free to skim portions, what I want you to focus on is those visions regarding the unleashing of the great storm of evil upon the earth. I will share one with you.

GOD'S VIEW OF THE STORM
In prayer, God… again showed me the great storm of evil and persecution that is coming upon all the earth. For the first time He showed it to me as He sees it, and not as I have seen it through my own eyes. To Him this storm was a most beautiful and glorious working out of His perfect will, which was bringing forth great blessing and not the destruction I had hitherto seen. In spite of being such a tremendous storm, nevertheless, it was not evil at all, but was filled with goodness. Seeing the storm as God sees it took away all the horror I had felt before concerning it.

Before it had appeared tragic and evil to me, and its image had haunted my natural thoughts because of its evil portents and terrible power, darkness, destruction and pain. I now saw an entirely different image: the storm as it really is - a wonderful and powerful wave of His cleansing power and grace which is bringing forth rich blessings.

Those evil forces that God had loosed into that storm went forth wearing themselves out. This continued until all save one, which was stronger than the rest, were worn out completely. This stronger one had tremendous power and rose up till it enclosed everything and everyone in its grasp.

At this point in its development - the peak of its power and extent - a great disaster of tremendous magnitude took place which was not defined to me. By this great disaster, a mighty loosing of the Spirit was brought forth upon the earth, so that its final result was tremendous grace and blessing.

Seize Hold of God. I want to pull four things together now. First, what David did when he lost everything, second, God’s view of the storm of evil we see now destroying everything in its path, third, our present lives going forward, and fourth, the power of the endless life which we possess.

First, our version of what David did is Hebrews 10:19-22, that we seize hold of everything we find in God as our own.

This choice we make, as we lose everything, is the meaning of the power of an endless life. We cannot lose anything. For all things that exist belong to God and all that God is belongs to us.

I Can Lose Nothing. Everything David lost returned to him and with it, the crown of Israel. Everything we might lose in the present moment WILL return to us in its season and with it the crown of LIFE.

I can lose nothing. This knowing is so very important to me.

Why am I so reluctant even to visit move community or besides that, to come under the slander of those who would mock those things I believe to be true? Because I have hurt so much in my life, and I fear returning back to such pain.

Into Honesty. Every single time I find myself at the very bottom, which is more often than you might realize, I do one thing, only, ever, I place myself utterly with my Father, and I place my Father utterly with me. I never want to live anywhere else.

What God is bringing us to is utmost honesty concerning ourselves inside of Him.

From our point of view, the storms now blowing upon the earth are evil – and from the view of human action, they are evil actions. But God makes all things good by using these many actions to expose the intentions of the heart.

The Penetration of Word. I want to consider this verse in terms of what David did in filling his heart with the boldness of God. This is absolute honesty (naked) being penetrated by a Living Word.

For the Word of God is living and energeoing and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating through as far as the dividing of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is capable of judging the pondering and purposes of the heart. And there is no created thing unseen in His presence, for all are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom is our word of account [our story of self] in return (Hebrews 4:12-13).

This is Jesus as Word going into our very depths.

Fill Our Humanity. We live and walk and have our being inside a thick atmosphere of LIVING ENERGEOING Spirit Word. To be ignorant of the Spirit Word inside of which all live is an ability of humans that is simply staggering.

When David filled himself with God, his soul was ripped apart; his emotions were more hammered than any other time in his life, and his mind was in pain.

We are not “going into” such a place but coming out of it. We have so much more knowledge of the Word God speaks filling every crack and crevice of our lives than David did. FILL your humanity with GOD in all knowing.

One Thing I Have Desired. With every Word God speaks, I fill all my humanity with the God of that Word in the knowing of my mind. I never do that as an “exercise,” however, but only as a personal communion and fellowship with Father.

All fear is the fear of loss and pain. All antidote to that fear that would normally grip us in the face of the storm, is being filled with all of God as Living Spirit Word, that is, Love.

This is David to us. – One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is “A Man Who Stole My Ark.” Look back at David’s cry in Psalm 27. David was a very practical man, to have God, in his mind, he had to have The Ark of the Covenant. So he took the only thing he wanted for himself.

For next time, read 2 Samuel 5 & 6; 1 Chronicles 15, 16, & 17; Isaiah 16:1-5; Amos 9:11-15; and Acts 15:12-19.

So David… brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. …Then David danced before the Lord with all his might… So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. – I will restore the Tabernacle of David.

Let’s Pray Together. We cannot be callers of God into our world unless we ourselves are always filled with God, with a Spirit Word enmeshing every part of our humanity.

We cannot stand as the revelation of Jesus Christ unless we abide IN union with Christ. This time, let’s call our God into the fabric of our lives, into the marrow of our bones.

“Lord Jesus, You are a Living Spirit Word, energeoing the Energeia of God All-Carrying inside our hearts and all through every particle of our humanity. Lord Jesus, we ask You to fill our KNOWING with all the fullness of God penetrating our humanity, spirit, soul, and body.”

Our Secret Place. “God, our Father, we dwell utterly inside of You; You are our secret place, our refuge and our Rock. And here inside of You, Father, we look around and see all that You are by Your Word given to us.

“Oh God, our Father, we seize hold of everything You are inside of us; we fill our hearts with Your boldness; we ENCOURAGE ourselves inside of You.

“God, our Father, FILL our humanity with Your knowledge, fill every crevice with Your Living Spirit Word, the Lord Jesus. Penetrate into the cells of our bodies and the marrow of our bones, that we might LIVE inside of You forever.”

In the Time of Trouble. “Lord Jesus, as the storm of great evil sweeps over our lives, we call You out from our lips to TURN every particle meant for evil into the goodness of Your revelation through us.

“Lord Jesus, we love Your Word; we ARE your Word. And as God is in our mouths, so we call our God into our world through every particle of our human frame.

“Having asked, Lord Jesus, that You would fill our humanity with Yourself as Living Spirit Word, the Energeia of God, we know that we have received All that we ask. Lord Jesus, we are utterly filled with God, our refuge and fortress, our ROCK in the time of trouble.”