I apologize for not updating this in the past couple of weeks, but it has been a busy couple of weeks.

First, we finished the fast on 7/7/07. It was a good thing, Raegan and I went over to The Monastery and enjoyed some Harp & Bowl worship. This was incredible, led by Chris Carter, a long-time friend of my family’s.

Second, Raegan gave birth to our son on July 12, 2007 at 4:51 am. He is absolutely amazing. His name is Ezra Selah DeWitt, and he was 8 lbs 7 oz at birth, 20 inches long. We have a bunch of pictures up at Raegan’s photo album. If he was green and french he’d look almost exactly like this:

Lastly, I bought a 2005 Chevy Suburban. The car seat we got just wasn’t cutting it in the Honda. It was a really nice car seat, and I liked it a lot. So we got a bigger vehicle.

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With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;

Isaiah 26:9

Often times I will lay in bed at night, unable to sleep. I used to lay awake for hours, thinking about all sorts of things. When I was 12 or 13 I asked my dad about this, and he gave me this advice: “It’s one of three things; an attack by the devil, a prompting from God, or just life. If it’s an attack, then read your Bible. That is exactly what he doesn’t want to happen. If it’s a prompting from God, read your Bible. He may be trying to show you something, or get you to pray for something. If it’s just life, then read your Bible. That will calm you down, and it’s good for you, and it might just put you to sleep.” That worked for quite a while, and in my twenties I finally was able to go to sleep without hours of tossing and turning.

Just recently, my sleeplessness has returned. This is definitely different, however. I spend a lot of time unable to sleep when I go to bed. I mostly just pray, and talk to God about different things. It has been good, but there’s something different about it. I believe it’s because my soul is desiring God.

In the mornings, many times I hear God say “get up”. He’ll tell me to take a shower (yes, God tells me to take a shower), and then whispers other little things to me. No earth-shattering prophecies of who the next president will be, but rather life-shattering revelations of who He is, and who I am in Him. “I love you.” “I desire to be intimate with you.” “I like you.” When I start the day out this way, I seem to hear Him throughout the day. When I ignore the “get up” command, I rarely hear Him the rest of the day.

I believe that there is a difference between your soul desiring God at night and your spirit seeking Him in the morning. There is definitely a difference in my flesh. At night, I can’t sleep. My body cannot go to sleep. So my soul desires God. Not the worst thing to do, in fact, it’s much better than pretty much anything else I could be doing at that time. I also could count swirls on the ceiling (I have excellent night vision) or I could get up and do some work. meh. However, in the morning, my spirit seeks God. That’s pretty cool. Seeking God is one of His favorite games, because then He allows Himself to be found. Your spirit knows how to seek. My flesh, however, is perfectly capable of sleeping in the mornings. I believe that’s one reason God tells me to shower. He has grace. But despite my body and soul not desiring God, my spirit seeks Him. When you subject the soul to the spirit, then your heart is right with God. When your soul is not submissive to your spirit, then your heart is not right with God. And your body just wants to sleep.

Now please don’t misunderstand. I believe it is great for our soul to desire God, AM & PM. I believe desiring Him through the night sets you up for a great game of Hide-and-Go-Seek Seek-and-Then-Find in the morning. And it’s a wonderful game.

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So here I am, day 16 of a 40 day fast. Over the last 5-6 days I’ve really been slacking, not keeping up with my morning readings, not praying, getting to work late, and just generally not being spiritual. Recharging and Resetting by David Sliker is a post where he speaks about the spiritual lull he’s going through, and calls us in similar circumstances to refocus.

So this morning I got up early (5:30 am) and took a shower, got dressed, and read my Bible. That was good, but I’ve been convicted about my lack of bona fide prayer. So I went to pray. This is about 6:30 am, with my intent to be leave for work about 6:50. 20 minutes of prayer should be good. Well, I say maybe two sentences of prayer, and promptly doze off. At 8:12 I wake up and rush off to work. Very frustrating.

I used to judge Peter, James, & John. Yup, I would criticize and condemn the three disciples who were closest to Jesus. Why could you not even stay awake one hour to pray with Jesus? Couldn’t you see that he was going through something rough? What kind of friends were you? Sadly, I know exactly what they were like. They were just like me. Heck, Jesus was asking them to wake up during the night… I can’t even stay awake after getting a decent night’s sleep & a hot shower. If I had been there with them, Jesus would have shaken my shoulder and I probably would not have even budged.

It’s pointless to compare ourselves to other people, whether we’re saying, “I would never murmur and complain like the Israelites if I was being fed manna” or “I could never call down fire from heaven like Elijah.” Both of those comparisons are wrong, and they’re prideful. The first statement is pride in that you’re saying “I’m better than them” and the second statement is false humility, where you’re saying “I’m so bad God can’t do XYZ in my life.” Who are you to limit God? Not only are you (and me!) just like the Israelites, full of murmurings, complaints and backbitings, but we are also exactly like Elijah, “who was a man with a nature like ours”. It’s not that Elijah was great, it’s that the God he served was great. Guess what… we serve the same God.

Be encouraged, men and women of God. You are not alone.

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Saturday’s reading was Isaiah 42. The first thing I noticed about this was that Isaiah 42:8 is the words to the first song of Catherine’s that I heard her play. It’s a good song - if you know her, get her to play it for you.

The next thing that stood out was Isaiah 42:22-23. Here the prophet is describing a situation where the Israelites have been swayed by false religions (snared in holes), their purity and favor lost (robbed and plundered), and under spiritual bondage (hidden in prison houses). Isaiah laments that “they are for prey, and no one delivers; for plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore!’”

It’s not a rhetorical lament though. For in the next verse, Isaiah says, “Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?” This rings true with Ezekiel 22 that says God was looking for one man to stand in the gap for a nation. Whether we stand in the gap for our nation or for another person in our family or church, there are some specific things we should do.

First of all, the people are “for prey”, and we are called to deliver. We have been given the authority by Jesus Christ to deliver people from bondage. (John 17:2; John 17:22; Matt 28:18-20; Luke 9:1). Jesus himself said that we have been given the authority to forgive sins and to retain sins (John 20:23). So we can actually deliver people from their captivity. I’m not saying that I have the Book of Life in my bedroom and I blot people’s sins out with a Sharpie, but we have been given the authority to represent Christ here on earth. He has completed the work, and now we just have to release His work. So when we pray for deliverance, we are simply saying “Release the work of deliverance that you completed on the cross.” Jesus is beside the Father, and Jesus says “yup, Nathan is covered by my blood. I set the captives free. I have granted Nathan authority to represent me on earth, releasing my completed work. So Father, honor His request and deliver that person.” God then does it (John 16:23). It’s simple.

The second thing we are to do is to restore that which has been plundered. This means restoring the blessings of God. My pastor Clay preached on the blessings of God from Psalm 112, and he pointed out that God will bless the righteous with riches and favor so that we may pour out those blessings on the needy. Satan has stolen those blessings as much as possible. So, to restore, are we supposed to write checks to everyone around us? I don’t think so… I will let God lead you in that area. What we are supposed to do however is to speak blessing into a person’s life. We should speak favor over their life, and speak prosperity into their life. The authority comes from the same place as in the previous paragraph, and so we can use this authority to bless them. God will bless them, and that will restore them.

So we have been given authority to represent Jesus on earth, releasing His finished work to those around us. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear?

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Malachi 4 is the second reading. This chapter contains a warning for the wicked, but for the righteous this passage drips with wonderful promise of prosperity and blessing. This is the famous passage about turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and vice versa. The Sun of Righteousness will arise, and there are a number of things promised to those who fear the name of God:

• Healing
• Go out
• Grow fat
• overcome wicked

Whatever infirmities afflict us now, when the Sun of Righteousness arises, He will heal us. Whatever is keeping us bed-ridden will be done away with. We will have strength, and will “go out”. We will not be confined to our rooms, or our houses, or our churches, but we will go out into our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, our countries, our world. We will proclaim the good news, people will see us. City on a hill kind of exposure. We will not fear exposure, we will not have our light hidden under a bushel.
Then we will grow fat. We will prosper. God will bless us in our endeavors. We will succeed in business, we will not hunger or thirst for lack of provision. David said in Psalm 37:25 that he has never seen the righteous forsaken, or their descendants begging for bread. We will be prosperous, and will leave something for our kids! We will not just have enough for ourselves, but our grandchildren will be provided for.

Also, we will grow spiritually fat. I don’t mean soft, I mean healthily storing away energy for times of hardship. This does not mean that we can neglect our daily time with the Lord, and does not come against the mannah principle of needing daily sustenance from God. What this means is that we will have a wealth of understanding of who Christ is, and we can draw upon these reserves, a tree planted by the river, who always has the source of life right there. The leaves are always green, the fruit is borne in due season. When hardship comes, we can stand firm in our sure foundation, putting our confidence in Christ.

Lastly, we will overcome the wicked. Developing this spiritual depth (Deep calls to deep) will involve going to the secret place, seeking refuge in God. There is a place of refuge and rest in the storm, and the wicked will rage even more the closer into our refuge we go. But their raging is in vain, because we are in a safe place, dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91 talks about this hidden place, and also talks about how many dangers and trials are happening even as refuge is sought. A safe place in the middle of an even safer place is pointless. A strong tower in the middle of a garden is silly. God prepares a refuge in the presence of our enemies, right in the heart of the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23). The garden is in the strong tower.

Next up - 1 Kings 17

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