Thursday, August 20, 2009, 9:31 a.m. – I sat down to have my quiet time with the Lord this morning when my daughter called me. She called us yesterday from a parking lot where she had pulled off the road because she was experiencing extreme dizziness and could not drive. She is 4 months pregnant, though that may not be related. We picked her up and took her and her car home yesterday evening. Then, she called me again this morning because when she got to work, she was dizzy again and her eyes were blurring. Her eyes were dry and burning, she stated.
She teaches music at a local elementary education school. She knew she couldn’t teach. She was very concerned, so she made a doctor appt. So, I took her to the OBGYN doctor who then has referred her to an ENT doctor. She has an appt. in the morning. She is now resting here at our house and is under my care.
While I was sitting in the doctor’s office with her, I had this song in my head:
Word Of God Speak / MercyMe
I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say
Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness
Word of God speak
I'm finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice
Then, I read Jeremiah 50 aloud to my daughter, stopping along the way to emphasize certain verses and to talk about their practical application to today.
My Understanding: The Lord is using a real life experience with my daughter to illustrate a spiritual truth from his word. I am representing God and my daughter is representing the true church, i.e. the people; the temple of God, in particularly the church in the USA where we live. She often also represents the people in the USA. My daughter calling me is representing the church calling upon God during a time of sickness, distress, hardship, etc. She was dizzy – faint; pale; weak. Her eyes were dry and burning. Eyes are the windows into the soul. Spiritual eyes are what help us to see spiritual truths, but hers could not stay open because of their dryness spiritually, so she was not able to see spiritual truths. Her spiritual eyesight was failing. She realized she could not drive, i.e. she had no control over her own life so she was calling on God for help.
My daughter teaches music at a local elementary school. The words to this song fit so perfectly! It begins by stating “I’m finding myself at a loss for words.” My daughter found that she could not teach because of her dizziness and her failing eyesight. Then, the song continues by stating that the “last thing I need is to be heard, but to hear what You would say.” She would have been teaching (to be heard) today if she had not been stricken with this illness. Instead, she listened as I read God’s holy word to her and explained its meaning as applied to today. God sometimes has to bring discipline into our lives so that we will stop and listen to what he has to say instead of us being the ones doing all the talking.
Then, the song continues by calling upon God to wash our eyes to see His majesty. My daughter’s eyes were dry and were burning. So, I offered her a bottle of artificial tears, which she turned down because she said she had saline solution that she could apply to her eyes. What I saw here is that God will have to use outside means to bring tears of repentance to our eyes. He will have to bring us under judgment, i.e. divine discipline, to get us to the place of coming to God in tears to seek His face. Then, once God has washed the eyes of his daughter – his church - so that she can see, she will see the majesty of the Lord her God.
Continuing on in the song, it states: “I’m finding myself in the midst of You beyond the music, beyond the noise. If my daughter had not gotten ill today, and if her husband had heard his phone ring so that he would have taken her to the doctor instead, then I would not have had the opportunity that I had with her today. She would have been in the music and the noise teaching music in an elementary school. And, it definitely would have been noisy. Or, she would have been with her husband. As it was, she was lying down on the examining table in the doctor’s examination room quietly listening to me reading her the Word of God and explaining its message. She was free from other distractions. She was free from other influences and dependencies upon man. She just listened quietly to God’s words being spoken (read) aloud.
Lastly, in the song, the person is calling to God to “please let me stay and rest in your holiness…” My daughter was resting in my presence in the examination (heart examination for the church) room and she is resting here at home with me now. Because she could not teach, she could not drive, she could not see, and because she was weak and faint due to this illness that was brought upon her, she rested quietly in my presence and she listened to God’s words speaking to her.
This is what it is going to take for much of the church to come into God’s presence. God is going to have to remove them from their comfort zone, from their jobs, health, ability to drive, to speak, to teach, to be dependent upon man, and to have control over their own lives so that he has them in his presence, coming in tears to seek his face, turning their faces toward God, and binding themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant with him that will not be forgotten, as it is now. Then, a search will be made for her guilt, but there will be none, for God will forgive the remnant that he spares from this judgment. The Lord brought this judgment because his people would not listen and they would not obey their God. God has work he wants to do among us. If the only way he can get it done is to bring us to our knees, that is what he will do, because he wants us to be in intimate relationship with Him.
She teaches music at a local elementary education school. She knew she couldn’t teach. She was very concerned, so she made a doctor appt. So, I took her to the OBGYN doctor who then has referred her to an ENT doctor. She has an appt. in the morning. She is now resting here at our house and is under my care.
While I was sitting in the doctor’s office with her, I had this song in my head:
Word Of God Speak / MercyMe
I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say
Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness
Word of God speak
I'm finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice
Then, I read Jeremiah 50 aloud to my daughter, stopping along the way to emphasize certain verses and to talk about their practical application to today.
My Understanding: The Lord is using a real life experience with my daughter to illustrate a spiritual truth from his word. I am representing God and my daughter is representing the true church, i.e. the people; the temple of God, in particularly the church in the USA where we live. She often also represents the people in the USA. My daughter calling me is representing the church calling upon God during a time of sickness, distress, hardship, etc. She was dizzy – faint; pale; weak. Her eyes were dry and burning. Eyes are the windows into the soul. Spiritual eyes are what help us to see spiritual truths, but hers could not stay open because of their dryness spiritually, so she was not able to see spiritual truths. Her spiritual eyesight was failing. She realized she could not drive, i.e. she had no control over her own life so she was calling on God for help.
My daughter teaches music at a local elementary school. The words to this song fit so perfectly! It begins by stating “I’m finding myself at a loss for words.” My daughter found that she could not teach because of her dizziness and her failing eyesight. Then, the song continues by stating that the “last thing I need is to be heard, but to hear what You would say.” She would have been teaching (to be heard) today if she had not been stricken with this illness. Instead, she listened as I read God’s holy word to her and explained its meaning as applied to today. God sometimes has to bring discipline into our lives so that we will stop and listen to what he has to say instead of us being the ones doing all the talking.
Then, the song continues by calling upon God to wash our eyes to see His majesty. My daughter’s eyes were dry and were burning. So, I offered her a bottle of artificial tears, which she turned down because she said she had saline solution that she could apply to her eyes. What I saw here is that God will have to use outside means to bring tears of repentance to our eyes. He will have to bring us under judgment, i.e. divine discipline, to get us to the place of coming to God in tears to seek His face. Then, once God has washed the eyes of his daughter – his church - so that she can see, she will see the majesty of the Lord her God.
Continuing on in the song, it states: “I’m finding myself in the midst of You beyond the music, beyond the noise. If my daughter had not gotten ill today, and if her husband had heard his phone ring so that he would have taken her to the doctor instead, then I would not have had the opportunity that I had with her today. She would have been in the music and the noise teaching music in an elementary school. And, it definitely would have been noisy. Or, she would have been with her husband. As it was, she was lying down on the examining table in the doctor’s examination room quietly listening to me reading her the Word of God and explaining its message. She was free from other distractions. She was free from other influences and dependencies upon man. She just listened quietly to God’s words being spoken (read) aloud.
Lastly, in the song, the person is calling to God to “please let me stay and rest in your holiness…” My daughter was resting in my presence in the examination (heart examination for the church) room and she is resting here at home with me now. Because she could not teach, she could not drive, she could not see, and because she was weak and faint due to this illness that was brought upon her, she rested quietly in my presence and she listened to God’s words speaking to her.
This is what it is going to take for much of the church to come into God’s presence. God is going to have to remove them from their comfort zone, from their jobs, health, ability to drive, to speak, to teach, to be dependent upon man, and to have control over their own lives so that he has them in his presence, coming in tears to seek his face, turning their faces toward God, and binding themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant with him that will not be forgotten, as it is now. Then, a search will be made for her guilt, but there will be none, for God will forgive the remnant that he spares from this judgment. The Lord brought this judgment because his people would not listen and they would not obey their God. God has work he wants to do among us. If the only way he can get it done is to bring us to our knees, that is what he will do, because he wants us to be in intimate relationship with Him.
