We will be singing some amazing songs that declare the release from fear and the acknowledgement of God as the One who delivers us from our sinful ways. Here are the songs and their links to YouTube for those of you who would like to hear them right now!
- Open Up the Heavens, (YouTube link)
- No Longer Slaves, (YouTube link)
- Be Thou My Vision, (YouTube link)
- Whole Heart (Hold Me Now), (YouTube link)
- Your Love Never Fails, (YouTube link)
Open Up the Heavens
Key Scriptures:
- Exo 24:17,
- Rev 22:1,
- 2 Cor 3:7-18,
- Exo 33:18,
There he was, crying out for the glory of God to be revealed to Him! It wasn’t enough for God just to answer his prayers, or to assure Moses of the favor he had with Him. Moses needed God to reveal His glory to him, and God said alright, I will!
In the song Open Up the Heavens we join together in lifting up the bridge where it joins with Moses’ voice in saying, “Show us, show us Your glory. Show us, show us Your power..” To cry out to God for him to reveal His glory is in essence to ask Him to bring salvation and blessing down from heaven.
The word glory means “weight” (the Scriptures play on this theme a few times, like in 2 Cor 4:17 where Paul says that the light suffering that we endure will result in the eternal weight of glory beyond comparison), and if we use this idea to understand what we are saying when we cry out to the Lord for His Glory (weight) to be revealed it makes a little more sense (to me anyways). For God’s glory to be among us, according to this definition, then we would feel a substantial, tangible weightiness of His presence and power with us! It would be like the example found in 2 Chron 7:2 where the priests could not even enter the temple because the Lord’s splendor filled the temple (also see 1 Kings 8:11, Ezek 43-44, Ezek 10:4, 2 Chron 5:14). It is the undoubtable, inexpressible, life-changing, heaviness of the presence of God, and I will certainly be found guilty of crying out for this glory to be in our midst each and every time that we gather for corporate worship!
One more thing about God’s glory is that it is light and the result of the Spirit’s ministry in a believers life! Please look at 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 for a more in-depth study of what this means, but for now let me just say that we who have Christ as Lord and Savior have been blessed with the gift of his Holy Spirit. As such, we are free because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom! And when we walk in freedom it says that we reflect the glory of the Lord as we allow Him to transform us more and more into His image! The glory that shone from Moses after meeting with God on the mountain was a fading glory, but the glory that we have received from the Spirit is an eternal, unfading glory that will never fade away – Hallelujah!
So, yes Lord, “Open up the heavens, we want to see You!” Show us Your Glory!!
No Longer Slaves
Key Scriptures:
- Ps 32:7 (NIV)
- Heb 2:14-16,
- Isa 45:4,
- 1 John 4:18,
- 2 Tim 1:7,
“I am a child of God!” This is a lyric that is repeated multiple times as we sing this song declaring that we are not slaves to the spirit of fear anymore because we are sons and daughters of the living God, who has removed our fears and given us a Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind (see 2 Tim 1:7)!
I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but it seems as though we are living in a fear induced culture that has been impacted by its grip for far too long! The unfortunate thing is that it seems to have impacted the people of God just as badly as those in the world. This should not be! See, Jesus came into the world to share in our humanity so that He could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is the devil)through his own death and to “free those who their whole lives are held in slavery to their fear of death.” (See Heb 2:14-15). If you are a child of God and are reading this right now, please be freed from fear by the authority of Jesus, and start declaring who you are in Christ – a child of God!
Galatians 4:4-7 reassures us that we are adopted into the family of God! We are not slaves to anything anymore because we are the King’s sons and daughters. He chose us, He has given us eternal life in his name, and we are heirs of all that is God’s. What in the world should we be fearful of if this is the truth? I know that it is much easier to say than to practice, but please let’s stop living in fear and let’s start embracing the freedom that Christ purchased for us through his death – the freedom from fear’s tyrannical grip on our lives!
Be Thou My Vision
Key Scriptures:
- Ps 32:8,
- Ps 119:105,
- Rev 21:23,
- 1 Cor 6:19,
- Job 12:13,
- Gal 1:10,
- Rev 1:16,
- Rev 22:16,
One of the oldest hymns we have in print right now is Be Thou My Vision, and we get to sing this with the many other believers throughout the ages who have declared with one voice that God is my wisdom, true Word, that He is ever with me and I with Him, my treasure, my best thought, my light, first in my heart, heart of my own heart, my vision, my Ruler, my King of Heaven, my Great Father, my inheritance, my victory winner, and the Ruler of All!
This hymn is written by an unknown author, but the person who put it to pen was definitely a prayer warrior who was familiar with crying out to the Lord for the fulfillment of his needs! As you read through this old hymn you will recognize right away that it is a prayer to God with such statements as; Be Thou my vision, Be Thou my wisdom, Be my True Word, etc. May this be the cry of our hearts 13 centuries later and forever more!
In Psalm 32 we find a great comfort to all who want the Lord’s direction and leading in their lives. Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will guide you with my loving eye..” And again in Ps 119:105 we see these words, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” So, we can rest assured that if we look to God to be our vision and guide through life He will answer us and fulfill that desire!
Whole Heart (Hold Me Now)
Key Scriptures:
- Ps 40:1-5,
- John 10:28-30,
- Gen 1:1,
- Rom 5:15, 20,
- Ps 142:1,
- Phil 4:23,
- Heb 2:14-16,
Oh how I love this song! This song is fairly new to me, but as I have been listening to it and practicing it my heart is moved each time I do! The opening line itself is such a wonderful expression, “Hold me now in the hands that created the heavens,..” God is the creator of heaven and earth, and you and me, and He is the One that is holding out His hands for us! We have access to our Father at all times through the love of Jesus Christ, and as such we can come to those hands for comfort and healing. Sometimes we just need held, we don’t need a lecture, we don’t need more information, we don’t need a plan, we just to feel that someone cares and that we are in His embrace.
Psalm 40:1-5 is a great passage in the Bible that correlates with the message of this song. In this passage it says that God “lifted me out of a pit of destruction and set my feet upon a rock. He gave me secure footing! If you have been born again you know that God did the work of delivering you from a life of misery and destruction and set you on the secure footing found in Christ Jesus!
We sing, “Once I was broken, but You loved my whole heart through..” God loves our whole heart through, He is crazy about you, He is jealous for you, He cares for you! “Healed and forgiven” is another declaration we make through this song and I pray that you have experienced the healing and forgiveness that happens when we come into a relationship with the God of the universe through Jesus Christ! It is available to all who call upon that Name to be saved, so call out to Him now! Don’t wait.
I have come to really appreciate one of the lyrics that says, “Lifted up, and my knees know it’s all for Your glory.” As we come to God in prayer, we bow our knees to Him in a posture of pleading for His help. As we do this the Scriptures tell us that God hears our prayers and lifts us up! So, when we get lifted up out of the despair that we are in, then we need to recognize that it is for the glory of the Lord that He is delivering us, so we need to be sure to give Him all the glory and praise due His name for lifting us up out of that situation! The main way we do that is by giving our whole heart in surrender to His Lordship in our lives, and by singing a new song of praise to Him (see Ps 40:3)!
Your Love Never Fails
Key Scriptures
- 1 Cor 13:8(a),
- Isa 41:10,
- Matt 28:20,
- Rom 8:28,
- Ps 30:5,
- Heb 13:8,
- 1 John 4:18,
So, a lot of the songs we are singing this week have to do with breaking the chains of fear in our lives, and surrendering to God. Your Love Never Fails is such a good song to tie all of this together, because it is only through a revelation of the love of God over us that we will ever find deliverance and freedom from anything! His love is the key to walking in freedom and forgiveness, security and faith, vision and victory! It’s his love that makes all the difference.
1 John 4:18 tells us why this is so, “…Perfect love casts out fear…”. If we have been perfected in love then we will more readily and freely be able to cast off any fear that creeps into our lives. We can remember that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God, and with that truth present in our minds then we will stop making fear-based decisions and instead we will make love-based decisions for the glory of God!
So, sometimes we will have pain through the night, but the child of God who has been perfected in love knows that joy comes in the morning (see Ps 30:5). Isaiah 41:10 assures us that God is with us, strengthening us, helping us, and upholding us by His saving right hand! With all of that as the backdrop, God says, “Don’t be afraid!…Don’t be frightened, for I am your God!”. Do you hear what He is saying child of God?
Let’s allow the perfect love of God that never fails (see 1 Cor 13:8{a}) to cast any and all fear out of our lives forever! He is worthy and deserves our surrendered worship of Him through consistent patterns of communion with Him.
Finally remember that God says all things work together for good to those who love Him (see Rom 8:28). This should also act as an extra measure of comfort for those of us that struggle with fear and anxiety. We don’t need to over analyze and fret about every situation in our lives because we can trust that God is going to work out all things for our good and His glory in the end!
Summary statement
As the Lord opens up the heavens and reveals His glory to us, we accept our identity as His children, and will experience more and more of His provision in our lives through whole-hearted surrender that allows His unfailing love to transform us into His likeness each day!
God bless you!
