Psalm 16:7-9 – “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. ⁸ I have set the Lord always before me;  because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.”

What will we discover today that will enrich our lives and give us greater peace in His presence?   As I was reading God’s Word this morning, praying, musing, and pondering the richness of His Word, a thought flooded my heart and mind – Living with the Consciousness of God’s Presence!  

I can almost hear someone say, “We always do that!”  But do we? The Legacy Standard Bible’s translation of Psalm 16:7-9 is refreshing.  “I will bless Yahweh who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.  ⁸ I have set Yahweh continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely.”

You cannot receive the counsel of the Lord without an awareness of His presence.   I refer to Psalm 1 and receive incredible strength, hope, and encouragement of living a life wholly consumed with Him and His Word.

Several things stand out to me in Psalm 16:7-9.  The decision to bless, worship, praise, and give thanks to God was a conscious personal decision.  It was not waiting until the Spirit moved us; it was a decision to do it now!  In that state of living in the conscious presence of God, we find that God instructs us in the night.

Does God instruct us in the night?  Yes, when we are asleep, it is one of the best times for the Holy Spirit to download information to us.  It is the time when He has access to our unencumbered and uncluttered minds, hearts, and spirits.   As we are asleep, like Solomon, God desires to communicate with our innermost being and does so in many ways, including dreams or night visions.

Out of that place of living with a consciousness of God’s presence, we receive strength, courage, hope, faith, fearlessness, and the ability to stand.  Knowing that God is there or where we are is incredibly comforting or disturbing.  The difference is in our attitudes and actions.  If we are hiding from Him and living a life controlled by fleshly desires, it is disconcerting that He is there, sees, and knows.  But, alas, He does whether we are conscious of His presence or not.

It is incredibly comforting that He is with us, always present, if we follow Him wholeheartedly.  We have peace knowing that He is there.  We have confidence knowing He is there, as we know Him and His Power.  We have Hope because we know He does not, cannot, and will not lie or fail.

Galatians informs us that the Blessings of Abraham, obtained by faith, belong to the believers.  If I am living with a consciousness of God’s presence, I rejoice in His Promises and Blessings.  I begin to know who I am, and as I know who I am in Him, I can become who He says I am!  Who are you?  Seriously, Who Are You?  Why not be Who God Says You Are?

Today would be a fantastic day to set our hearts to keep our minds and hearts filled with the consciousness of God’s presence.  That is not a troubling but a comforting thought!  He Is There!   Hallelujah!  He is Here!  You are more than you have become.  You have a world to impact for God and the provision to do just that.  You have the continual presence of the LORD; believe it, embrace it, and embrace it.

Have a wonderful day, and always allow the awareness of God, the Living God’s Presence, to fill your heart and mind!

Joshua 3:10 – “And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.”

Today, as I prayed, read, and pondered what I was reading, God’s Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence flooded my heart and mind.    

As I read in Job, the declaration was made that God sees our ways and counts our steps.  Wow!  He sees it all, records it all, and knows it all.  That, for some, is frightening, but for those who are His, it is a comfort. 

He is Love, but that does not mean He ignores sin.  He is also just and will judge sin.  But He is longsuffering and promises to forgive if we come to Him in repentance and belief.  Some try to make God all Love and omit the Justice portion of His character.  No sin can enter heaven, but if we adopt the view that regardless, everybody gets to heaven, we negate the Cross and the price Jesus paid.

Jesus paid for our rebellion.  There is no way to clean up sin with human justification and with human philosophy.  We err if we create a doctrine out of our desire for justification.  We need to allow the Word of God to transform us rather than attempting to transform the Word of God to suit us.

God is Love!  God is Mercy!  God is Longsuffering!  God is Forgiving!  God is all that, and He is also Holy!  His Holiness demands divine Justice, which Jesus did at the Cross.  He paid our penalty.  However, the caveat was that we must confess our sins and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead. 

The Bible says “if” not whether we do or not, but “if” we confess.   He promises not to reject us when we do.  God is more interested in our pardon than we are.  He wants no one to be lost but gives us the ability to choose right and wrong.  He even promised the Holy Spirit to help us walk the right path.

Today, take comfort in the reality that God sees it all, knows it all, and is All-Powerful.  He has never and will never fail; therefore, we can be assured that we can live without a sense of lack in anything.  We can live knowing that He is Our Father, and we are His children.  We can live knowing that Jesus is preparing a place for us and coming back for us.  We can live knowing that we have authority and power over the enemy.  We are, through Jesus, more than conquerors!

Rejoice!  Today would be a great day to decide that you will no longer allow the conditions of this world to shape your attitude.  You will allow God’s Spirit and Word to guide and inspire.  Be Who He Says You Are!  Victorious!

Have a fantastic day, and remember, Jesus is coming back as He said, and that final Sunday will come!

Psalm 55:22 – “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered this morning, my heart overflowed with joy and sadness.   Sadness because of deception that has blinded minds.   Deception is robbing true salvation from many.  Deception is distracting from our mission and commission.    Deception in one area leads to deception in other areas and can destroy a person’s life.

I had Joy because Jesus is Lord.   He is risen.   He is coming back.  He lives in us.  He has sent the Holy Spirit.  He hears our cries for help and for His person, presence, peace, and power.

The cry of the Psalmist in 51:10-19 gives us a pattern of life, attitude, and purpose.   A clean heart, a renewed spirit, a new infilling of the Holy Spirit, restored joy, peace, and focus. 

Psalm 55:22 instructs us to cast the things we worry about upon God, and as a result, He will sustain us.  “…He will NEVER suffer or allow the righteous to FEAR WANT.”    Did you hear that?  We live much of our lives out of a sense of lack, need, or want.   That’s not God’s plan.  He wants us to live in a consciousness of provision.

I encourage you to read, devour, and meditate upon the Book of Colossians.   It is filled with who God is, what He has done, who we are, and what we have in Him.  It identifies the total defeat of the devil and our total freedom in Christ.

Colossians 2:10-15 reveals that Jesus, through the Cross, annulled the bond of our sins.  He nailed it to the Cross.   Jesus put the devil and his hordes to open shame.

Chapter 3 gives us the desired pattern of life: putting on Jesus and putting off the things of the flesh and corruption.   Do we think about how we think, act, and speak?  What do our thoughts, actions, and words reveal about us?   They reveal how much or little we know God, and His Word, our position.  It reveals our level of faith and expresses our expectations.

We are “in” Christ and “in” Him; we are more than conquerors.  In Him, we have All authority.   In His Name, we can heal, deliver, and pulldown strongholds.  Why not now?  Why not today?  Why be satisfied with and frustrated by our spiritual impotence?   Let’s be who He says we are Today!

I sometimes become nostalgic, and my mind goes back to some of the memories I have stored in my heart.  I muse on them, picturing myself there and feeling the warmth of the moment.  My heart overflows with joy.  I look back on my victories and even some of my setbacks and muse on what I learned and how I can do and be better in the Lord.

God has never failed me yet, and He never will!

Have a victorious day in Jesus; this is your day!

Psalm 34:7 – “The host of angels (both host and angels reflect the plural) encamps round about them that worship Him, AND delivers them.”

Today, as I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God, the realization of God’s protection and provision filled my heart.  I mused on the thought of being conscious of the presence of angels.  I wonder how conscious we are of their presence.

We declare that God is our defense, and that is right; He is.   But do we understand that the angels are ministers to and for us?  That’s one of their primary responsibilities.

Psalm 34:7 speaks powerfully to that reality.  What a revelation that we treat with nonchalance.  Psalm 34:15-19 is worthy of memorization and being quoted to ourselves daily, maybe hourly.  Consider the reality that “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their cries.”

If that is true, how can we ever say God doesn’t answer or speak to me?   Psalm 34:17 informs us that when the righteous cry out to God for help, God Hears!  (1 John 5:14-15).  The God who hears delivers from ALL (not some) ALL our troubles.

Psalm 34:19 reminds us that, as Job declared, our days are numbered and abound in difficulty.   Even in that reality, we have the promise that God delivers us for ALL (repeated phrase) ALL our troubles.  

We should take David’s declaration as our guarantee (Psalm 37:25).  “I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.”  God is our today help.  (Psalm 46:1).

We should take the directives and promises of Philippians 4 as our personal guarantee.  We should become worshippers and focus on God and goodness.   We should come to know, believe, receive, and embrace the truth that we can and will do All things through Jesus.   We need to embrace the revelation that every need is and will be supplied according to God’s Riches, which are without limitation.

I encourage you to begin expecting the angels to be present in your life.  In that state of conscious awareness agree with God, openly, and orally declare God’s promises.   The Word is a powerful weapon in your mouth. 

Today would be a great day to challenge every doubtful thought and replace them with hope in God.  Today can be your day to experience God’s fullness and best.  Why Not Let the Angels do their work as ministers on your behalf?

Have a victorious day in Jesus; He desires you to be victorious!