“One Thing!”
“One Thing!”
“One thing have I desired from the Lord and that will I seek after, To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To see the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His Temple.” Psalm 27:4
David had this revelation and made it into a song of worship. We don’t know what the melody but we have the words to worship God with and make up our own melody song to Him.
“One thing” ill. If God said you have one thing you may ask Me and I will give it to you. What would your one requests be?
- King Solomon = God came to Solomon in a dream at night ask Me for anything! ASK – what did he ask God for? Wisdom but more specifically he asked in Hebrew for sha- may meaning to
Hear, listen to, obey
God was pleased and gave him more. His kingdom started out great but then he got away from the “one thing most needful” and his life ended not finishing well. How did he get away from this? The same way we do. We run and do our own thing rather than wait and listen to get God’s instructions.
“seek after” – intentional
I can’t stress enough how important to bring yourself to be still before the Lord and just listen and journal your thoughts and scriptures that resonate in your heart.
- Quakers call it “centering”
- Navigators Jesus is the hub – all ministry flows outward.
PIC here.
“Dwell in the house of the Lord” - awareness of Presence
Ill. 2 disciples heard Jn Baptist say of Jesus “Behold the Lamb of God”, when they heard this, they followed Jesus. Jesus asked them, “What do you seek?” Rabbi, where are You staying?” “Come and see.” = see how inviting Jesus is to us.
The “House of the lord” today is the body of the born from above person. I cor. 3:16 “do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
- You probably already knew this? Today the question becomes “Do I believe this?” If I do, then what is the evidence I really believe this?
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Our words are the containers that release faith or doubt into our lives.
When we believe in our heart and release faith through our words, we enter a place called rest.
One of my favorite scriptures is
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In repentance and rest is your salvation, In quietness and confidence is your strength But you would not . . . Isa. 30:15
Israel was not willing to trust God alone but they instead trusted in horse power than in God. Let’s look closer at what God is telling us to do in this powerful word.
In repenting – re = do over and Pent is like a Penthouse – the top floor of living. In changing your way of thinking to God’s higher way of thinking is YOUR SALVATION – deliverance, healing, preservation, rescue, victory.
Change your way of thinking to God’s way of thinking and then REST in what God’s says and rest – trust in the Lord with all your heart in spite of all the oppression from the enemy.
How? Get a Word or promise from God about what you are concerned about, then pray that scripture in conversation with God and after that pray in tongues about it until you come to a place of “entering His rest”, which is confidence you have talked to God – He has heard you and you now are trusting that He is handling it.
After you get a Word from God THEN you get attacked by the enemy
REST = Resisting Everything Satan Throws at you!
“above all take the shield of faith, lift up over all, the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts, flaming missiles of the wicked one.” Eph. 6:16 kjv/amp
Shields were originally made of wood and covered in animal skins. Later some shields were metal. Before battle shields soaked in water so when fiery darts dipped in tar and set on fire hit water-soaked shields they would burn out.
Point: Faith will outlast a fiery dart from the enemy.
Worry, fear, anxiety will burn out when it touches faith.
to Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have desired from the Lord and that will I seek after, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
“to behold the beauty of the Lord” what is this? Go back in my Bible to highlighted verses 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14.
Ill. Like Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet we behold the beauty of the Lord. We behold that He is delighting in us not because of our love for Him but just His love for us! We are mesmerized that He is THE way, THE truth, and THE Life. This love that God has for us is greater than we have yet to experience. It remains unexplored territory that is off our map about God.
Ill. Alexander the great led his armies in victory after victory and his conquest finally brought him to the foot of the Himalayan mtns. He wanted to go beyond these intimidating mountains but at that time no one had gone beyond them and knew what was on the other side. Yet his vision was go beyond these mountains. His senior officers were troubled by his vision because they had gone to the edge of their map.
There was no map for the new territory Alexander wanted to possess. These officers had to decision to make. Would they be willing to follow their leader off their map or would they live within what they knew?
Following the HS can present us with the same dilemma. While He never contradicts His Word but He often contradicts my understanding of His Word. To follow the HS we have to be willing to go beyond what we know and follow Him off our map.
The church has too often loved according to our intellectual approach to the scriptures. WE too often trust in programs rather than in dependence upon the HS to lead us. When our focus is not seeking His face – we end up doing the best we can for God rather than experiencing the unexplainable supernatural power of God.
Last part of Psalm 27:4
“One thing have I desired from the Lord and that will I seek after, To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To see the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4
An encounter with the beauty of God will leave us with more questions than answers.
Of all that King David did in his adventuresome life, he said this was his “One Thing”. Do you think it should become our “one thing” too?