“Father, I Adore Thee” (Coelho, 1972); Psalms 8:1; 5:1-3; 16:1-2; and 31:1-3a.

My Shepherd met me in my prayer closet and spoke Micah 5:8 to my heart. He led me into His green pastures and laid me down with this verse:

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

I’ve been thinking about Nebuchadnezzar this past few weeks, and this morning, I thought about His final revelation from God (at least the last one we find recorded in Scripture):

Daniel 4:37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

Have you ever gotten the sense that the “old man” is watching the “new man” and thinking, who is that?* How about when the reverse occurs, when the new man is looking at the old man and saying, what’s he doing here?Sometimes it seems like the “new man” in me looks objectively at the “old man,” and sometimes I experience what I would describe as the “old man” observing the “new man.”

I think Paul had an experience that goes way beyond anything I have. Well, at least with regard to the first example: the “old man” seeing the “new man.” I think we all have keenly felt the second.

Paul recorded an experience of seeing his glorified self 14 years earlier (2 Corinthians 12:2), and the Spirit recorded it in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.** He speaks of knowing “a man in Christ,” being caught up into paradise (See Revelation 4:1).***

The Apostle Paul testified that he could not tell whether the “man” he met was in or out of “the body” (2 Corinthians 12:2-3), and he wrote that this man heard things spoken in Paradise that are unlawful for a man to utter on earth (2 Corinthians 12:4). He said, now that’s someone I would be impressed with, but not with himself in the flesh.

Regarding himself “in the flesh,”  he had a similar moment of revelation that the Spirit recorded in Romans 7: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18).

Along the still waters, as I reflected on this, I thought of the many times in my life when I have encountered the “old man” and responded with revulsion, followed by repentance. It occurred to me that these were occasions of the “new man” reacting to the “old man.” The new man was born to God by His Spirit (John 1:11-13). Our spirit was created by God but corrupted in the fall. That’s why I need to be “renewed in the spirit of [my] mind” (Ephesians 4:23). This is done when my spirit is surrendered to the mind of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26). When I behave “carnally,” that is, “after the flesh,” when I ‘mind the things of the flesh” (Romans 8:1-11), the Spirit of Christ reproves the spirit of Jerry. This is an encounter between the “new man” and the “old man.”

Rarely, and only lately, have I had several moments when I realize the “old man” is getting glimpses of the “new man” and experience a sense of wonder. I’ve learned that when the “goodness of God” manifests in my mind and heart, and is expressed through this body, it is the “new man created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10; see Ephesians 2:8-10). It is no honor to the satisfying of the flesh (Colossians 2:23); it’s a glimpse at the glory that is ours in Christ (“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Paul was allowed to see the glory that would follow his humiliation.

I thought of Paul. Not only did Christ show him “how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16), but he also introduced him to the glory that would follow (2 Corinthians 12:1-5).

I remembered that what He has written by His Spirit was written for us upon whom the ends of the world are come (1 Corinthians 10:11; Romans 15:4). I humbly thanked my Lord Jesus, my Shepherd, for spending some time with me today to give me a glimpse into the glory that will follow.

In the valley, Jesus called: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). I remembered that “our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).

At the table, He anointed my head with His oil and stirred His grace into my cup. When David said his cup overflowed, I think he meant God’s provision was abundant. Jesus fills His vessel with His Spirit and desires that it should overflow into the world around us (Ephesians 5:18-21; John 7:38-39). Goodness and mercy followed as we entered the harvest together.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live around 8 am:

https://rumble.com/v7cdyt0-shepherds-pasture.html

[*The Bible says, “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:32). (It is concerning that the expression “old man” is used in a derogatory manner today.) That’s not the “old man” I’m talking about. The expressions “old man” and “new man” are used by the Apostle Paul to speak of our fallen, sinful nature (Romans 6:6). The “new man” identifies those who have been “partakers of the divine nature” by the new birth (2 Peter 1:4; John 3:3-7). He uses the two expressions together in Ephesians 4:22-24: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Paul describes being taken into the third heaven and given a glimpse of the glory that God has in store for all who have partaken of the “divine nature.”]

[**This experience is dated by Paul as being 14 years before he wrote 2 Corinthians. A biblically based chronology of Paul’s life puts the writing of 2 Corinthians at cAD55-AD56. 14 years earlier (2 Corinthians 12:2) puts us at cAD41-AD42. This is before Barnabas brought Paul to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). Paul was at home in Tarsus when he had this amazing experience.]

[***Paradise is now in the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). This is the place, the palace, of God’s throne (Revelation 4-5). It was located at the “heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40; Luke 23:43). It is the place of those held “captive” by death, who were delivered by Christ’s blood, and all of paradise was relocated to Heaven (Ephesians 4:8; see Psalm 68:18).]