In our darkest moments, God is not distant. Bill Johnson teaches from Psalm 91, and leads us deeper into trust in the Lord as we experience the nearness of His Presence and declare His goodness even in difficult times.
so the people who turn their affection
towards the ongoing manifestation of the
abiding presence of the spirit of god
those people dwell in a habitation that
even when it’s dark it’s only a
testimony of his nearness
all right
verse 1 of psalms 91
he who dwells in the secret place of the
most high
shall abide under the shadow of the
almighty
i will say of the lord he is my refuge
and my fortress
my god in him will i trust
surely he shall deliver you from the
snare of the fowler from the perilous
pestilence he shall cover you with his
feathers under his wings you shall take
refuge his truth shall be your shield
and buckler you shall not be afraid of
the terror by night nor of the arrow
that flies by day
nor of the pestilence that walks in
darkness
nor of the destruction that lays waste
at noonday
a thousand may fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand
but it shall not come near you
only with your eyes shall you look and
see the reward of the wicked
because you have made the lord who is my
refuge even the most high your dwelling
place
no evil shall befall you nor shall any
plague come near your dwelling
for he shall give his angels charge over
you to keep you in all your ways
in their hands they shall bear you up
lest you dash your foot against a stone
you shall tread upon the lion in the
cobra the young lion and the serpent you
shall trample underfoot
because he has set his love upon me
therefore i will deliver him i will set
him on high because he has known my name
he shall call upon me and i will answer
answer him i will be with him in trouble
i will deliver him and honor him with
long life i will satisfy him and show
him my salvation
this is a is a a wonderfully
well-known psalm
because of its the element of safety the
element of protection the elephant
element of of
vindication in a sense uh throughout
this psalm so i want us to go through
this because i believe there are some
specifics that the lord would want us to
take hold of today
especially in light of this that is
going on all over the world and
today is supposed to be the day where we
start a revival series
i am
i am
but we’re going to restart but i am this
is what i’m doing
this is just this is this is revival
flavored antivirus software is what it
is all right
he who dwells verse 1 this we’re going
to go through verse by verse all right
so please follow with me in your bibles
he who dwells in the secret place of the
most high shall abide under the shadow
of the almighty stop right there
he who dwells
you remember the scripture talks about
abiding in christ if we abide in him his
words abide in us when it talks about
dwelling in the shelter of the almighty
we’re not talking about a point of
theology we’re talking about a lifestyle
in other words it’s not just a verse
you’ve memorized it’s supposed to be
the developing of an ongoing lifestyle
of a consciousness an awareness of the
by abiding presence of the holy spirit
many people stop short of a divine
encounter because they’re satisfied with
good theology
the word is the invitation to meet the
person
this is not supposed to be just a verse
i quote that’s valuable
it’s supposed to be the endeavor of my
heart is the discovery of the manifest
presence of god upon me as a surrendered
son
upon me as a yielded vessel
he says he who dwells in the shelter of
the almighty shall abide under the
shadow
of his wings the shadow of the almighty
the shadow was a dark place
i’ll never forget i my grandmother my my
mom’s mom uh she was losing her eyesight
and uh and so many of us would read i
would take
turns reading to her uh from the
scripture she would memorize entire
psalms and my uncle would memorize books
of the bible they were just in into that
memory thing which becomes contagious
after a while you know
and i would sit down i remember she
wanted me to read her a particular book
by corey ten boom
and in this
book it was as i recall it was some sort
of a
of a devotional uh book that she had
written
and in this book she talked about
dwelling under the shadow of the
almighty and she made this statement and
i’ve never been able to shake it
thankfully she made this statement that
sometimes it’s dark
because he’s so close
sometimes it’s his
nearness that causes things to be out of
focus
it’s that shadow of presence and
sometimes we we mistake the moment that
we’re in
by by natural interpretation instead of
the realization of what scripture says
scripture says you’re in the shadow of
the almighty so the people who turn
their affection towards the ongoing
manifestation of the abiding presence of
the spirit of god those people dwell in
a habitation that even when it’s dark
it’s only a testimony of his nearness
verse 2.
all right
i’m back
i think
i will say of the lord he is my refuge
and my fortress and my god
in him i will trust i will say of the
lord is my refuge my fortress my god
and him
i will trust
this is the only
um
proactive
uh
position in the psalm one is implied
later but this one is the the action
point of this psalm and it’s i will save
the lord he’s my refuge my portion
in him i trust
i always take this and i turn it into a
personal declaration
god you are the one that i trust you are
you are my refuge and and for years when
i come to that
i don’t like the wording because i want
to make it personal
and then it hit me
the wording is chosen for a reason
we are still supposed to confess and
declare that he is our trust but this is
actually a confession we are to make to
one another
i will say of the lord
i will say of the lord he is my refuge
my fortress my god and him i will trust
so when i was thinking about this
here’s this passage in
colossians it says
let the word of christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom
teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms hymns spiritual songs
singing with grace in your hearts
to the lord what is that
it’s actually
a confession
of truth
scripture
and even in song it’s interesting they
would apply psalms him spiritual songs
psalms are biblical songs hymns are
things that were written in uh
things songs that have been written
spiritual songs of the spontaneous
and they actually there are times for
them to be sung to each other
which is not a practice that we that we
do but we should maybe learn how to do
it so here it says i will say of the
lord
there’s another place in isaiah 35 where
it says and i’ll just read it to you
quickly here it says that we say to the
one with weak knees with feeble heart be
strong take courage and the very next
verse says then the eyes of the blind
will be open
then the the ears the tongue of the dumb
will be loosed it’s it’s guarding what
we say to each other being
being intentional in our decrees to one
another is a huge part of this thing we
call faith
this life of faith this thing that we
call the faith that we are in this faith
in christ this walk with christ it’s the
it’s the caution but it’s the proactive
um position of declaring what god has
said what god is saying in this
environment and not feeding and fueling
uh this this fear element that is
gripping so many people’s hearts so
here’s the one
intentional action in this psalm is i
will say of the lord he is my refuge my
fortress my god and him will i trust
yeah i’m so glad that you watch this
video i do pray that it’s a great great
strength and encouragement to you
and i’ve got a verse that it really is
my cry for all of us and it’s psalms 20
it’s verse 4
may he grant you your heart’s desire and
fulfill all your plans
that’s my prayer that’s my prayers that
this would be the season of rich rich
fulfillment
thanks for joining us