You know, so often the enemy will come at us, he will assail us, he will attack us, he will attempt to get us defeated and discouraged to keep us from looking to the Lord. But if it is the Lord that we will look to again and again and again, it is the Lord who will give us His mercy. Oh how wonderful it is to know that we can be reliant upon Him, that we can be reliant upon His truth, upon His power, upon His glory; that we can be brought forth in the way that He does provide and that the Lord is most gracious in His mercies! Oh what a blessed thing it is to be able to trust in our God!

     So often as believers in the Lord, we fail to receive from God because we fail to believe in God. We will be put in desperate straits by the Lord in order to cry out unto Him...instead, we resort to the arm of flesh and are overwhelmed by the same. But God never intended that we would be yielding ourselves to the arm of flesh but God has intended that we will be yielded to Him: that is, the Lord has intended that we would look unto Him, believe in Him, and trust in Him all of our days. For it is indeed a wonderful thing to know that our God is able, and as we are looking unto Him, that He will uplift us and take us forward, that He will uplift us and give us life, that He will uplift us and give us His peace. Because when we will be reliant upon the Lord, we are relying upon the truth, we are relying upon the strength, the power, the glory of who He is. Oh, what a glorious day it is that we can be renewed in our God, that we can be uplifted continually as we put our faith, our hope, our confidence in Him!

     You know, the Lord desires that we would find in this life that there is nothing else that is our hope, there is nothing else that is the refuge, the strength, the glory that we have need of. And the Lord desires that we would be continually crying out unto Him, believing in Him. But the enemy, in his efforts to drive a wedge between us and God, will have cruel people rise up to make slanderous remarks, to make scathing remarks, to make scornful remarks towards us, implying, “Where is your God?”; implying, “Where is this great God that you believe in, if you are in such a circumstance?” But you know, when men will rise up in such a way, that is not the time for us to crumble and fall down to their lies, to their accusations, to their scorning and scoffing. But that is the time for us to rise up in faith and in hope and in confidence, knowing that our God is able. For when it is the Lord that we will look unto, we will find ourselves uplifted continually. And when it is the Lord that we will believe in, we will find that our God does provide.

     Turn with me, if you will, to Psalms the 4^th chapter. This is such a good Psalm. It says, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?” (vv. 1-2). “Leasing” is lies. And it’s saying that these ones are trying to shame the one that believes in God. They are loving vanity and they’re seeking after lies, and these are the ones that will come against the true believer.

“The Lord desires that we would find in this life that there is nothing else that is our hope, there is nothing else that is the refuge, the strength, the glory that we have need of.”

     Going on in verse 3, it says, “Know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.” So we see that the Lord is the One who is full of mercy; the Lord is the One who will tune His ear to hear when the righteous cry unto Him.

     It is important that we seek to remain in right standing with God, because to do so, lends God’s ear unto us. When we go off and do our own thing, do our own way, do as we please, when we please, how we please, we do not have the Lord as our audience. That is, when we cry unto the Lord, the Lord is not going to hear us as He would if we are walking close to Him, if we are seeking to walk uprightly, if we were seeking to please Him. Because the Lord will lend His ear unto those who will walk in righteousness.

     It says, “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still” (v. 4). In other words, settle these things before you come to the presence of God so you do not offend God with worldliness, so you do not offend God with scoffing and scorning or with pride or with vanity or other things that are a vexation to God.

     It says, “Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased” (vv. 5-7). And he says, “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety” (v. 8). So we see, that the sum conclusion of it is, that it is God who will cause his heart to be glad, it is God who will cause him to be uplifted, rejoicing; it is God who knows that he needs His delivering hand and offers him the same. And then he will be able to lay down in peace and sleep because God will make him to dwell in safety.

     You know, in treacherous times such as we live in, what a glorious thing it is to know that as we are trusting in God, that we can dwell in safety, and as we are believing in God, we can know what it is to have His peace upon us, to have the safety of who He is, to have the guidance that He delights to bring us forth in. Oh, what a wonderful, beautiful thing it is, to be dependent upon God, to be dependent upon His mercies, to be dependent upon His life! And what a blessed thing it is to be able to walk forth in the realm of righteousness of our God! God does not desire us backing up from the way that He ordains, but He desires us pressing forward that we will be in His righteousness.

     Even today, there are some of you, you are in terrible shape, you are living in fear, you are living in doubt, you are living in unbelief, because you have listened to the lies of the liar, because you have paid heed to those who are scorning and scoffing, and you have grown very weak in your faith and confidence in God. That is not the way to go. The way to go is settle things before God even today. This is the day to cry out unto God, to believe in God, to present your needs to God and know that He is able: know that He is able to hear, know that He is able to answer, know that He is able to deliver and bring forth, know that it is the Lord who is our healer, that it is the Lord who does restore us and give us His strength.

“God does not desire us backing up from the way that He ordains, but He desires us pressing forward that we will be in His righteousness. ...This is the day to cry out unto God, to believe in God, to present your needs to God and know that He is able.”

PRAYER:

Father, we come before you even now, in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord, knowing that you are well able. And we ask you to take away the sins that we have committed through doubt and fear and unbelief by backing up from that which you desired in our lives and giving way to lies, giving way to scoffing and scorning. Father, we confess that we have failed thee. We ask thee to forgive us, sanctify us, and renew us in righteousness, because we desire to be your people, we desire to be trusting only in you.

Furthermore, we present unto you our petitions, not because we are mistrusting but because we are trusting. Because we know that it is you alone who is our help, it is you alone who will cause us to dwell in safety.

Father, we commit unto you those problems that have come into our lives because of our falling away, and we ask you even now to deliver us of those demonic powers of sickness, of those demonic powers of doubt and unbelief. We pray right now and ask you, dear God, to break the bondages that have been put against us, to break the oppression of the oppressor, and to free us from that yoke of bondage.

We come against the spirits of cancer, we come against the spirits of diabetes—we command them to be gone in Jesus’ name. We thank you that you hear our cry, we thank you that you hear our plea. We pray also against the spirits of heart problems, oh, so many heart problems that are a vexation and a torment. We pray, dear God, that you would heal us of these things and bring us forth in righteousness.

We pray also, dear God, that you would help us in those areas where we have succumbed to lusts, and help us overcome all the demons of lust and wantonness that have sought to devour and destroy our testimony. We command those things out in the name of Jesus and thank you that through you, we are uplifted and renewed.

We come against the crippling devils of arthritis, of rheumatism—we command you to leave right now in Jesus’ name. We come against the forces that are causing mental anxiety and oppression and command them to be gone from our minds. We thank you that it is you who is our healer, that it is you who does deliver us, that it is you who does restore us. We thank you that we can trust in the almighty power of who you are again and again.

We come against all the spirits of respiratory problems, of lung problems that have assailed the people of God—we command them to get off right now in Jesus’ name. Every spirit of affliction encamped in the area of the lungs, we command all of those devils to be ground to powder, to be cast out, and to be banished.

We thank you, dear God, that it is you who is the one who is able, that it is you who is the one who is triumphant, that it is you that we can look to and believe. We thank you that we can trust in your healing power, that we can trust in your delivering hand. We thank you even now that you know every affliction, that you know every sickness, that you know every oppression that seeks to destroy your people. We thank you that it is you who has delivered, even this day, and continue to deliver and heal as we have our confidence renewed in you. We thank you that it is you who will cause us to lie down, to dwell in peace, and to sleep, oh God, and dwell in safety because you are our maker, our keeper, our God.

We thank you that it is you who is the triumphant, who is the victorious, who is the glorious, the one true God. We thank you that it is you who has done these beautiful, marvelous things because you are so wonderful, so merciful towards your people. We thank you that it is you that we can be continually looking unto, dependent upon your mercy. We thank you that it is you who is healing afflictions in the knees even now, because of those continuing mercies. We thank you that it is you who does raise your people up, who does strengthen your people that we can go forth. We thank you that we can be victorious, triumphant, remaining in you.

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