Psalm 17:15 is my declaration, too!
15As for me, I will continue beholding Your face in righteousness (rightness, justice, and right standing with You); I shall be fully satisfied, when I awake [to find myself] beholding Your form [and having sweet communion with You].
To behold means to perceive, to be aware of. His "face" is the Hebrew word, "paniym", which means: face or presence! Righteousness is the right-standing that we have with God because of the precious Blood of Jesus of Nazareth. "I shall be satisfied" is the Hebrew word, "saba`", which means: to be fulfilled, to be enriched, to have in excess. "When I awake" is the Hebrew word, quwts", which means: to wake up (abruptly), to rise. "Thy likeness" is the Hebrew word, "temuwnah", which means: the embodiment, the manifestation. That is being aware of HIS presence daily! We are NOT alone as believers in Jesus of Nazareth! Nothing can separate us from HIS presence! I like the Message Bible for this:
15 And me? I plan on looking
you full in the face. When I get up,I'll see your full stature
and live heaven on earth.
In Matthew 17 we see again the transfiguration of Jesus. When He and Peter, James and John came down from the mountain they were greeted by a multitude who were all wondering why the disciples of Jesus were not able to deliver the demon possessed boy. After Jesus delivers the boy, His disciples ask Him why they were not able to deliver him. His answer was this in verse 20:
20He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust]. For truly I say to you, if you have faith [that is living] like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
They had "little faith" or, as the KJV Bible says, "unbelief". Some people get hung up on verse 21, but we need to realize that verse 21 is NOT in the original text. It was added by the translators because they THOUGHT it would make things clearer. Prayer and fasting has nothing to do with casting out demons. As a believer in Jesus of Nazareth, you and I have the God-given authority to cast out demons in the Name of Jesus! In order to have the confidence it takes to DO that, we need to increase our faith. The Word of God says that faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing the Word of God! (Romans 10:17) If YOU need to fast and spend time in prayer in order for the Word to get down inside of you to cause faith to come, then by all means DO IT! Whatever it takes for you to put the Word of God first place! But it is not the fasting and prayer that casts out demons! It is the Word of God spoken in the Name of Jesus with faith, trust and confidence that it MUST come to pass that will get the job done! Even though His disciples spent all day with Jesus, they STILL didn't have the faith necessary to do this. Start right now building your faith level in every area of your life so that WHEN you need it, Faith will be strong! AMEN!
2 Chronicles 14:2 is something that becomes increasingly scarce as we continue in the Old Testament!
2And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
Because Asa followed the Lord, he could call on Him as he did in verse 11:
11Asa cried to the Lord his God, O Lord, there is none besides You to help, and it makes no difference to You whether the one You help is mighty or powerless. Help us, O Lord our God! For we rely on You, and we go against this multitude in Your name. O Lord, You are our God; let no man prevail against You!
...and expect the One, True, Most High, Living, Almighty God of the Bible to answer him! He did! When we, who have a better Covenant with God, based on better promises than Asa had, follow after Him and obey His Word, we can fully expect Him to confirm His Word in our lives! That gives us the confidence to put our own lives aside and see to the needs of others, which is what our Father intended for us to do! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
