Living in the fear of the Lord (2)

After meditating and seeking to live in the fear of the Lord, I can see Psalms 119 is full of important prayer templates for us to practice Jesus’ teaching , “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are brothers…. Nor are you to be called ‘Teachers,’ for you have only one teacher, the Christ!  Even just one section, verses 33 to 40, these 8 verses are good enough for anyone to have a simple start.

Psalms 119:33-40 (NKJV)
Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.
Establish Your word to Your servant, Who is devoted to fearing You.
Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.

The first half of these 3 verses are the prayer requests asking God to teach me the real definition or meaning of his commands and laws. Then give me understanding, explaining them in more details as God’s way is not our ways. The third request is the key, make me walk in them. This Bible study method or formula is so clear and simple, everybody can understand and practice.

The second half will be somehow harder to fulfill, this is the Holy Spirit gently and kindly advising us what our heart should respond; “keep it to the end“, “observe it with my whole heart” and “delight in it“. Only few will observe it with all my heart. Therefore, the subsequent verses is going to help us achieving it. The prayer patterns are “Turn away my eyes“, “revive me” and “devoted to fearing You“. The Spirit does not force anyone into obedience or holiness, we are always free to choose. It may take a long time, depend on the heart posture. Even a year ago I couldn’t find anything important from my memory of Psalm 119, except the impression of very long chapter. Maybe my heart is too hard, it took me years to have real desire and resonance with these words. I am afraid I still don’t know much, have to keep practicing and reading, then my heart and soul can be renewed in increasing measure, as 2 Peter 1:8 stated.

The examples below are simple ways we can apply Psalm 119:33-40 as prayer template. In this way we can increase our knowledge from the great Shepherd and Teacher, Christ. The body of Christ has suffered very badly due to the lack of knowledge, as it is written in Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

First, take Matthew 5 verse 38, 39 (NKJV) “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. This is not easy to practice and we often want to skip it.

But we can pray; Teach me, O LORD, the way of “not to resist an evil person“, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding to identify what king of people is an evil person and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. I have to confess I don’t feel like to know if someone slap my cheek, I have to turn the other to him also. Perhaps, my heart is still quite far away from the Lord.

For Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. It is very foolish to assume we know the narrow gate without seeking the Lord.

We can pray; Teach me, O LORD, the way of “Enter by the narrow gate“, And I shall keep it to the end. Whenever facing difficult choice, asking the Lord, Give me understanding and knowledge to choose the narrow gate. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. But walking through the narrow gate means suffering and persecution, we can pray psalms 123 for mercy;

UNTO You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorn of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud.

For Matthew 7:15-20 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Jesus told us to watch their fruits, but what is the good fruit? I think we should pray, Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your separating good fruit from bad, so I can identify them. When I was meditating this, immediately I got the answer, it is in the next paragraph; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” It suddenly become clear to me, doing God’s will is the mark of a true believer, as Jesus said in Matthew 12:50 “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Lots of nice people fail to understand this, they are somehow ignorant of what is God’s will.

If they keep praying verses 36 and 37, things could be different;
Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.

And it is written in James 4:13-16 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. We have underestimated the seriousness of God’s word so much that we don’t think about this verse before doing or planing anything.

In the end, it is prayer that will renew and save us, Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

God’s will is hidden from many

The way to understand God’s will is praying the Psalms, as per Ephesians 5:17-19 (KJV) Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

There is a dependence of the subsequent verse here; “understanding what the will of the Lord is” achieved by, “be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms“. Being filled with the Spirit is achieved by Speaking to yourselves in psalms. In the book of Psalms, the prayers and conversations are spoken by the Holy Spirit, as it is written, Acts 4:25 (NIV) You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? I find this quite true and simple, whoever does not like to read or pray the Psalms despise the Holy Spirit!

When God’s people get together, they should hear the Holy Spirit speaking through Psalms, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 14:26 (NKJV) How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. We can hardly see this in any modern day church because too much sin have grieved the Holy Spirit.

The way to understand the will of God is hidden in the Lord’s prayer, Matthew 6:10-11 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. There is another dependence of subsequent verse here; “Your will be done” is achieved by asking God to “Give us this day our daily bread“. This bread is every sheep’s spiritual food, which is the same as our Lord’s, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work”.

This is hidden for those who has no fear of God, nor respect for the word of God, they only view it as two separate verses, and bread is for stomach. Many God’s people are stuck in this condition, they are deceived, but they will wake up when judgement and tribulation bring revival to their area.

It may not sound difficult to ask the Lord for what is His will for me to do today, but most of us still can’t hear it clearly. We like to have all things planed out. Maybe some of us are still not fully prepared to pick up the cross, deny the self and follow Him. Anyway, I have to keep seeking and learning how to do the will of God, for I have missed many in the past.

My Utmost for His Highest

During seeking, a daily devotional called “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers caught my attention, Here are the first few passages;

(Jan.1) I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. -PHILIPPIANS 1:20

My utmost for his highest. To be all for God; to act with boldness, expressing Christ in every word and deed. This, Paul says, is how to walk through life unashamed.

The journey isn’t a journey of reason or debate. We can’t think or argue our way through it. It is a journey of surrender, of abandoning ourselves to God, absolutely and forever.

There will always be good reasons not to. We debate with God, telling him that we are concerned for others, that if we start on the journey, our loved ones will suffer. Really, we are worried for ourselves, for our own comfort and safety. We tell God he doesn’t know what he’s asking.

(Jan. 2) Have you ever set off on an unplanned journey, taking, as Christ instructed, no thought for your life, no thought for what you would eat or drink or wear (Matthew 6:25)?

“Where are you going, and what will you do?” If you begin to live for God, people will ask you this all the time. But if you are living in the way Christ wants, you won’t have a logical answer: there is none. You can’t know what you’re going to do; you can’t know what God is going to do. All you can know is that God knows. This is what it means to trust entirely in him.

I think this is true for those who surrounded their life, “You can’t know what you’re going to do; you can’t know what God is going to do. All you can know is that God knows. This is what it means to trust entirely in him.”

As I continue reading, many words don’t make sense to me. I don’t know whether they are correct or not. This book has more than 100 thousands words, and I guess some of the remarks and opinions of Oswald Chambers are good, some are partially good, some maybe inaccurate and others incorrect. But it will take lots of time to correctly identify which part is good and helpful.

Many sermons or articles are also talking about God’s will, but they usually have more errors than truth, some almost irrelevant. I have to conclude, learning from men’s ideas or teachings on the will of God would bring more confusion than true knowledge. It’s much better to seek Him directly.

Teach me your ways

After meditating it for several days, my eyes opened a little more. “Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God;” is in Psalm 143, near the end of this book. Before chapter 143, there 4 verses saying “teach me your ways” in Psalm 25, 27, 86 and “Teach me Your statutes” in Psalm 119 was repeated 8 times. What does this telling us? We have to learn God’s way directly from Him first.

Psalms 25:4 Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. This verse is not merely for repeating, it teaches us how to learn from our only one Teacher —- the Christ. When Jesus said in John 15:5-6 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. We can ask the Lord and pray something like this, “Show me Your ways of bearing fruit, O LORD; Teach me Your paths for me to abide in You. Without such prayer, we don’t know how to identify the fruit correctly.

Many prayers are not answered because people do not abide in Jesus, as he said, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. I am not sure I bear much fruit, maybe only little. When I look back, I didn’t seek the Lord to teach me and show me everything. Now I can see I have not learn any lesson from Isaiah 66 verse 3, “He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol. Just as they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations, When I fail to seek God for everything, the default option is choosing my own ways.

For example, 1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. I rarely ask the Lord to teach me how to make “requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone“, my own ways are either forget to pray or no real intention to pray.

I didn’t realize Psalm 119: 36 and 37 can help us to practice the word; “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Whenever facing temptation or having difficulty to focus on things above, we can take this sword of the Spirit, as often as we need;
Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.
This is the way to fight spiritual war, Just as Jesus did in the desert when he was tempted, and we are called to imitate him and doing the same.

One vital application of Psalms 25, 27 and 119 is testing the spirits, for it is written in 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. We can pray like this; Show me Your ways of “testing the spirits”, O LORD; Teach me Your paths of how to check “whether they are of God“.

We also need to test false apostle and false doctrine, as Jesus said in Revelation 2:2, 6 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; … “Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Again We can pray like this; Show me Your ways of “test those who say they are apostles and are not“, O LORD; Teach me Your paths of detecting “the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate“.

We don’t know how many have embraced the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus hate and thus perished. Many have ignored Jesus’ warning, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. ” Very few have heeded the warning in 1 John 2:26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. Too many of us don’t even care to ask the Lord, “how to identify those trying to lead us astray?”

All the Epistles are talking about the will of God, they are done by prayer and meditation, asking the Lord to teach us his ways. We used to begin with reading the scriptures and try our best to obey them, but sooner or later some will discover the truth, we are incapable to obey Jesus’ teaching without seeking and getting help from the Holy Spirit. We have to go to the great Shepherd and learn from Him directly with prayer, that’s the purpose for God’s people to meet together. Matthew 21:13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” We have missed too many things, I have to re-study the Bible and ask the Lord to teach me everything I read.

Let’s pray Psalm 25 and 27 (NKJV) and Wait on the LORD. Try to bring our heart into agreement;

TO You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me.
Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the LORD, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses!
Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.
Consider my enemies, for they are many; And they hate me with cruel hatred.
Keep my soul, and deliver me; Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You.
Redeem Israel, O God, Out of all their troubles!

THE LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the LORD will take care of me.
Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.
Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!