Psalm 8:1. It occurred to me this morning that every time I think, “Oh Lord,” I automatically start singing, “Oh LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). Pretty cool!

My Shepherd found me browsing aimlessly in His green pastures this morning, practically sleepwalking. I challenged myself to “wake up, O sleeper,” and laughed. I thought of the Shipmaster who came to Jonah and said, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God” (Jonah 1:6). Only my Shipmaster was the Holy Ghost, and the “sleeper” was I. The Mind of the Spirit called to the spirit of my mind, ask yourself and them, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not” (Jonah 1:6). Then I got serious, shook off the drowsiness afflicting me, and thought of all the very good reasons I have to “call upon [my] God … that we perish not.”

I saw His footprints in the sand on the banks of the still waters, and heard the promised voice behind me say, “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21; see Jeremiah 10:23 and 1 Peter 2:21).* I caught up to my Shepherd!  

As I reflected on the call to awake and arise and “call upon [my] God,” the Holy Ghost’s exhortation through the Apostle Paul came to mind: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:33-34). He said this in view of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:35-50) and the rapture (15:51-57), and the summary exhortation that followed his dissertation on Christ’s coming for us: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). You can’t do that sleeping!

I’ll be asking our church family to join me in a season of prayer and fasting for the President (1 Timothy 2:1-2). This call to prayer and fasting follows our Sunday evening prayer meeting, in which we petitioned GOD to intervene and expose any evil use of pedophiles by our government to blackmail or otherwise control political “assets.” We are naive if we think Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, is not going to mount a clever and vicious attack against our nation’s shift toward the Truth that makes us free, and the Spirit that brings liberty (Ephesians 2:1-2; 2 Corinthians 2:11; John 8:32; and 2 Corinthians 3:17). There is a stronghold of Satan embedded deep in our government and we must pull it down (2 Corinthians 10:4). The devils fortifying that stronghold are of the kind that requires prayer and fasting to cast out (Matthew 17:21), It’s up to us!

The Spirit moved. It’s time to go into the valley shadowed by His Cross. There, kneeling, He spoke to my heart by the words He gave to Peter: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 1:21). I heard my Shepherd’s voice: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). I did! I do!

At the table, we talked about the importance we always move in the direction of truth, that when we deviate from that well-lit path, we begin moving toward and into darkness. Darkness is the territory of Satan; darkness puts you into its power (Luke 22:53; see Acts 26:18 and Colossians 1:13). No good thing comes out of deceit! It strengthens the Devil and weakens the disciple. 

He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace, and as He filled my cup, He said, Jerry, with patience, run your race (Hebrews 12:1). I said, “Looking unto Jesus,” I will by your grace. Goodness and mercy followed as we walked into the Harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live as soon as the livestream can be set up.

https://rumble.com/v6w83lq-shepherds-pasture.html  

[*Jeremiah 10:23, “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” I’m grateful for this promise that at every juncture where multiple paths are set before me, He promised, “thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).]