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[00:00:00] The 133rd psalm. Psalm 133.
[00:00:16] Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
[00:00:24] It is like the precious oil upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that came down upon the skirt of his garments like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion.
[00:00:42] For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life forevermore.
[00:00:52] Now this evening I want to take the last verse in this psalm. 133. I think I'm right in saying that we have already spent three evenings on this little 133rd psalm. We spent two evenings, if I'm right, upon the first verse and one evening on the second verse. And now we come to this last verse.
[00:01:25] You will remember those of you who've been in all these times that I said at the very beginning that this little psalm, one of the shortest in the whole psalter, might well give us question as to whether some who do not believe in the authority and inspiration of the word as we have it, as to whether quite a number of verses have fallen out of the psalm.
[00:01:58] To a critical mind it doesn't make sense. Brethren dwelling together in unity. And Aaron's beard and oil running down his head upon his beard to the skirt of his garment. What on earth has it got to do with brothers dwelling together in unity? And then dew coming down from Mount Hermon upon the mountains of zeal. It just seems absolutely extraordinary. And one feels, as Doctor Moffat used to feel, that perhaps quite a number of verses have fallen out and got misplaced, lost on the way. And that finally we have but a very poor skeleton of the original psalm. However, as I trust we've already seen in our previous studies, that is not so. The Holy Spirit with great care has composed this little psalm. And of course, the first great lesson was the oneness of the brethren. It is brethren. It's not anybody, it's not human beings.
[00:03:04] It is brethren. Those who have the same parent, the same source, the same origin, the same name. They are brothers. And these ones are living together, dwelling together in unity. Not just experiencing a high point of unity in some conference or some great sort of get together in the year, but they are dwelling together in unity. Now we spent quite a time on that. I'm not going to go over it because it's on tape and those of you who missed it can get those tapes. And then we spent a second, a third evening rather, but a one whole evening on the precious oil upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that came down to the skirt of his garment. And of course, we found that this is the precious anointing oil. It is interesting that the rest of the priests, it was sprinkled on them. But upon the high priest it was poured and it was never to touch the flesh. That's why it says it was upon the head. Came down the beard onto his garment. And you will remember that his garment he had on the shoulders the six stones. And six stones, onyx stones. With each one, one of the names of the tribes of Israel. All the people of God were on his shoulder, the government upon his shoulder. And then on his heart, over his heart he had twelve precious stones. And upon each one of those stones one of the names of the tribes of the twelve tribes of the covenant people of God, they were born on his heart. And the anointing oil upon the head united the body with the head. Isn't that wonderful? And we spoke at some length about the need of knowing the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Whether it is a second experience or not. I won't go over that now. I will leave it for you. Those of you who were not with us, to get the tape of that time, suffice it to say, there can be really no dwelling together in unity, apart from the empowering and anointing of the Holy Spirit. We need the right clothing to really be found together. We need power to stay together. We need power to overcome the problems and difficulties that would divide us or alienate us, or at least distance us from one another. And we need gifts to build one another up. It's not just that we want to all be together in a kind of disgruntled unity, a kind of, well, I've got to put up with you because God has saved you. Therefore, because God has saved you and he saved me, we two have got to stay together. But frankly, we would prefer to be a thousand miles away.
[00:05:52] This kind of thing, it seems to me, is not loving thy neighbor as thyself.
[00:06:00] What we need is something far more positive than that, that overcomes all that just, well, we've got to stick together. But really is a positive building of one another up in the Lord, a positive caring for one another, another in the Lord, I say, that cannot come apart from the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We may be one in the Lord, our position may be in the one Christ and he in us, thank God. But we need the power of the Holy Spirit if we're going to see that unity positively expressed. And if we are to be perfected into one that's the point. Fitly framed and growing together into a holy temple in the Lord.
[00:06:46] One thing just to say we're one is another thing to be perfected into one and to be to grow up into him who is the head, from whom the whole body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies. So on. Now this evening, the dew of Hermon upon the mountains of Zion, like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Let's just take a look at the actual text for a moment. Here we are given the second illustration, or key to brethren dwelling together in unity. It is introduced by this little word. In English, it is like, in Hebrew it is just a little one letter of the Alphabet, that's all. And it introduces exactly the same. Both these illustrations. In English we have. In my version, it is like the precious oil, and secondly, we have like the dew of Hermon, but in the Hebrew it is exactly the same. It is like, it is like we have two illustrations, two keys. Now we've dealt with one of the keys, which is the precious anointing oil that flows from the head to every member of the body.
[00:08:16] Now we have the second key, which is all to do with dew.
[00:08:22] Now, Dew being an important feature in the life of Israel, old Israel as well as modern Israel is given quite a place in scriptures. If you like to take your Bible. I mean, we all love to see the dew on a summer morning as we look out upon the lawn or whatever it is, it's lovely to see the dew. We feel it's a sign of good weather. It's something pleasant and nice. But of course, we of course have a lot of rain here, like last summer.
[00:08:55] You hardly need any dew with rain like that. But in the east, and particularly in Israel, Dew is an essential feature in quite a number of fields, and the Bible has very much to say about it. If you look at, for instance, Genesis 27 and verse 28. Genesis 27 and verse 28.
[00:09:30] And God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and new wine. Now, it's interesting. He does not say God gives thee of the rain of heaven, but he says, God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and new wine. Or again, if you look in deuteronomy, deuteronomy, chapter 32 and verse two, my doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech says, Moses shall distill as the dew.
[00:10:16] Or again in chapter 33 and verse 13, and of Joseph, he said, blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven, for the dew and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, and for the precious things of the growth of the moons and so on. But isn't it interesting, he says, about heaven again for the precious things of heaven, for the dew.
[00:10:50] Then again in the same chapter and verse 28, and Israel dwelleth in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone in a land of grain and new wine, yea, his heavens drop down. Dew again. You got the view. If you turn to judges and chapter six, you may have a little shock. Of course, you all know it, I suppose, those of you who ever had a Sunday school upbringing, judges 638.
[00:11:31] And it was so, for he that is Gideon rose up early on the morrow, pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.
[00:11:42] That's quite a lot of dew. And that's some little indication of the heaviness of the dew. In an area bordering on what we call the wilderness of Judea, Gideon lived on an area right over toward the east.
[00:11:58] And really it's quite arid. So to have so much dew in a fleece that he could wring out a whole bowl of water is some kind of dew.
[00:12:10] Then Isaiah, chapter 18.
[00:12:15] Now you do realize that I'm only giving you the tiniest fraction of the references to Jew in the Bible. But here in Isaiah, chapter 18, verse four, you have another reference.
[00:12:30] For thus hath the Lord said unto me, I will be still and I will behold in my dwelling place like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
[00:12:47] Now the cloud of dew is something really quite interesting. I remember in Egypt we used to now and again get this extraordinary cloud mist early in the morning that just went through and left the trees dripping.
[00:13:00] Just a mist gorn up from the dew and then carried along. Quite extraordinary. There you've got it. Look at Hosea. If you can find Hosea. Hosea, chapter 14 and verse five and six, I will be as the dew unto Israel. Now listen to the consequences of being due to Israel. He shall blossom as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the grain and blossom as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. All this came out of one single statement, I will be as the dew unto Israel. Now, dew doesn't normally do that kind of thing. It may keep things alive. But what a wonderful promise that is that Israel will blossom. This is the Israel that has gone away from the Lord. This is the Israel that's got alienated from the law, that's become jaded, faded, barren, arid, tired and weary. And to this Israel, the Lord promises, I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall blossom as the lily, cast forth his roots as Lebanon, and a tremendous earth harvest comes out of it. Not only a harvest, but fragrance and shade and everything else for others. Very beautiful. Then also we have another interesting little point verse in Isaiah, a very mysterious verse, I might add, in Isaiah, chapter 26 and verse 19.
[00:14:54] Now, we have many different versions. It would be almost interesting to stop here and ask everybody to read what they've got in their different versions. But this is how it's rendered in thy dead shall live, my dead body shall arise, awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust. For thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead. Now, in the Hebrew, the herbs can be translated, delights, and in the new american standard Bible, I believe it is the dawn. In other words, thy dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth shall cast forth the dead. Now, the rabbis said that this was a reference to the great resurrection, and I think that must be so. And therefore you get a very beautiful talmudic phrase which probably lies behind a certain amount of the thinking of the Bible. On the matter of dew. We have this lovely talmudic phrase, the dew of resurrection.
[00:15:58] The dew of resurrection, meaning that there is a reference that in the end, when God acts, it will be like the reviving of things, bringing them back into life again. But what a lovely phrase that is. The dew of resurrection. It seems to me to get right to the heart of this whole matter. Now we come to our problems. Come back to psalm 133.
[00:16:22] Psalm 133. And this verse three, like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion. Literally, in Hebrew, it is like the dew of Hermon descending on the mountains of Zion, coming down, descending on the mountains of Zion. What does this mean?
[00:16:48] You see, all the experts tell us that the dew in Israel, which is such a feature in the dry season, which lasts for six, seven, eight months, is produced by the westerly wind coming in from the sea.
[00:17:10] And every day, without failing, which distills in a heavy dew during the night, it might interest you to know that on the coastal plain and right down to Gaza, which is desert in the beginning of Sinai or the Negev, 250 nights out of the 365 of the year have a heavy dew.
[00:17:42] And when you get into the hill country, 150 knights to 180 have this heavy. Now that 180 is six months.
[00:17:54] Now that really is some dew, isn't it, when you think about it.
[00:17:59] But our problem is that this does not say anything about westerly winds.
[00:18:04] Hermon is not in the west. Now, I don't know how up you are on your biblical geography or your modern geography for that matter, but Hermonim is in the north of the country and the mountains of Zion are in the south of the country, whereas we are told by all the experts that it is the westerly wind driving from the west to the east, which in fact does this. Now, those of you who know just a little bit about Israel will remember, especially if you've been there in the dry season, that literally, almost like clockwork, between 03:00 and 330 every afternoon from May till October, you can be sure that a breeze, a strong breeze, will start now, in actual fact. So again, the experts tell us early in the morning there is no breeze at all on the coastal plains.
[00:19:10] If you had smoke, it would go straight up. But the breeze begins about 09:00 but does not get to the hill country that is the mountainous part of Israel where Jerusalem is. Till about 03:00 in the afternoon. This westerly mass of air starts to come in and gets there at about 3330 in the afternoon, which is very, very welcome for everybody in Jerusalem. When you're dying of the heat, it's every single day without fail. And indeed, sometimes in the autumn, it can get so cool that you need to put on a woolly after 330, if you're up on the Mount of olives or french hill or mount scope or something like that. Now, the point is this, that then in the evening it distills as dew.
[00:19:59] But this gets us no nearer to what the Bible means, because the Bible says, as the dew of Hermon cometh down upon the mount of, of Zion.
[00:20:12] Now, very clever ones have pointed out to me, and it was pointed out years ago. I remember it very well in Egypt by a dear missionary who pointed it out to me many, many years ago. Oh, there is a simple explanation for this. You will find it in Deuteronomy, chapter four and verse 48, from Aroa, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even unto Mount Sion. The same is Hermon.
[00:20:43] You see it, verse 48 of chapter four of deuteronomy, and we are told by those who feel that the Bible explains, the Bible. Here is the key.
[00:20:55] The dew never did go right the way down to the south. The dew of Hermon remains on Hermon. All it does is it comes down from the peak to the orchards around. And this is very, very interesting, because in actual fact, the whole base of Hermon is covered with the most luscious apple orchards.
[00:21:18] And it really depends upon the dew very largely for those the fruit to ripen and to become as sweet as it is famed for.
[00:21:31] But our problem is very simple. If you look at Deuteronomy, chapter three and verse nine, it says which Hermon the Sidonians call Syrion and the Amorites call it senir. Now, here is our whole problem. If you don't understand any Hebrew, you can accept this explanation. But unfortunately, if you understand a little bit of Hebrew, the whole thing is exploded because the psion here is spelt with entirely different letters except the last n. And it cannot be the Zion. That's why it's psion. The other is Zion.
[00:22:17] This is Sion.
[00:22:20] And there's a difference. And it's almost certain that it is syrian, because Syrion, which is what the Sidonians call Hermon in Hebrew, is Siron.
[00:22:32] So it's probable that either Anar fell out or it is. In fact, in other words, this scion mentioned here is not Zion. Now, my next problem, the mountains. Zion is a very interesting phrase. And in this psalm 133 three, it is the only incident, incident of this use in the whole of the Bible. We read everywhere else, Mount Zion, Mount Zion, Mount Zion. But here we read of the mountains of Zion.
[00:23:13] What does it all mean? There is another very interesting little explanation. For those of you who'd like to pray about it and follow it through, it certainly got a lot. And one day we might think about it a little more. Even today, in Arabic, Hermon is called the mount of consecration. And in jewish circles, the cabalist circles, the mystic type of Judaism, they believe that Hermon represents consecration.
[00:23:42] Even so godly a man, as William K. Bishop K. Points it out that Hermon represents consecration. Now, if this is so, and Zion represents the overcomer, as bother me used to say, and Mister Sparks, Jerusalem is the people of God. But Zion is where the throne is, as government as the overcomer, then you have a very interesting connection between absolute consecration and overcoming. In other words, utterness and getting through.
[00:24:20] And the only way that you can get through is if you know what it is to be renewed all the time. No other way. Through. Now, that may be an explanation.
[00:24:35] However, I have one last thing I would like to say in this matter. Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel. It rises to some 9100ft. It is snow capped for much of the year right through to the beginning of June, and has great influence upon the rest of Israel. It is the largest single source of the river Jordan, which unites the north and the south of the country. You could almost say Mount Hermon. And the mountains of Zion, that is, the mountains around Jerusalem are united by the Jordan valley and the river of Jordan.
[00:25:22] Of course, the mountains of Zion, meaning the mountains round about Jerusalem and the mountains upon which Jerusalem is built itself is much more dry and arid than Mount Hermon. Now, those are all the technical sides.
[00:25:40] It is certainly true that Jerusalem is kept alive and fresh by the regular nightly dewfall throughout the dry season.
[00:25:50] Any of you who came with me to Jerusalem would know we would only have to go in for an. To visit somebody for half an hour and leave the car outside anywhere in Jerusalem, even on the driest part of Jerusalem, right on the edge of the wilderness of Judea. And when you come out half an hour later, you will find the car wet with dew. You'll have to wipe all the windows before we can even drive off. That's most remarkable. It comes every single night. And indeed, much of the vegetation of Jerusalem, since there was only one source of water other than those wells that have been cut out, catch the rainfall, the only actual source of refreshing comes from the dew.
[00:26:39] Now, what can we say about all this?
[00:26:43] One other little point I might make.
[00:26:46] The whole area around Jerusalem, its biggest harvest is grapes.
[00:26:52] Now, the Muslims don't, of course, drink alcohol, so they are not so keen on producing the vine. But in the old days, in jewish days, of course, they were very, very keen on wine and the vine and all those areas were heavily terraced and all the great wine growing areas. Now, the grape depends upon the dew to come to ripeness.
[00:27:25] And I think I would have to ask the Anajah, who is here from Ramallah, about the olive. But I am almost certain that my arab brothers and sisters have told me on two or three occasions in October that the olive also takes much from the dew to become fleshy and to ripen. Now, what can we say about this? Because it seems as if what we are told by experts isn't quite borne out by scripture. In which case, where on whose side shall we come down?
[00:28:08] But don't all look so surprised. I mean, I can only come down on one side and that is scripture.
[00:28:15] I have long since discovered that experts mouth their theories and are very interesting. But when they conflict with the Bible, sooner or later the Bible is vindicated and the experts change their theories entirely. At present, the experts say that although they do not always understand the exact action of Jew, yet it is to do in Israel with the westerly wind that come in.
[00:28:43] All I can say in this matter is that it may, whatever their theories are, whether in fact they will alter their theories. Psalm 133 connects the dewfall of the Jerusalem area with Mount Hermon in the north. Let it be said quite clearly, because some commentators try to get out of it by saying, I don't think it is necessary to have to feel that Hermon and the mountains of Zion, that the dewfall is actually connected. Well, I have to say that I think it is quite plainly connected.
[00:29:29] It says, the jew of Hermon falleth down or comes down or descends upon the mountains of Zion. So whether the experts will alter their theories in time to come, we shall see. But the fact remains that the Bible connects Mount Hermon in the north and the mountains in the south with the dewfall that comes to both. Now, what is the nature of the dew?
[00:29:58] It is. Listen.
[00:30:01] An atmospheric vapor condensed in small drops on cool surfaces from evening to morning. Doesn't that take all the romance out of dune?
[00:30:15] I will repeat it again. An atmospheric vapor condensed in small drops on cool surfaces from evening to morning. This is the Oxford Dictionary definition.
[00:30:29] You may well prefer the old word dew.
[00:30:35] It is quiet, gentle, hidden in operation, continuous and regular in the dry season in Israel.
[00:30:53] Above all, it is life giving.
[00:30:58] It renews, reinvigorates, revives.
[00:31:06] Weve seen this in some of the Old Testament references. For example, the reference ive read to you from Hosea, chapter 14 about the lord saying, I shall be as the jew to Israel, and he shall blossom with the lily and all the rest that comes out of it. In New Testament terms, the jew symbolizes the power of Christ's resurrection as we find it, for instance in Philippians chapter three, verse ten, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. The power of his resurrection. And another wonderful phrase in Hebrews, chapter seven and verse 16, the power of an endless life that seemed to me that describes the dew. The power of an endless life, quiet, gentle, hidden in operation, continuous and regular life giving.
[00:32:21] Now this is the work of the holy spirit.
[00:32:25] We have seen his work in verse two of this 133rd psalm as the precious anointing oil, the sort of oil that comes upon the head of the high priest that runs down upon his garment. Now, that aspect of his work is dynamic, dramatic, powerful in a manifested way. For instance, don't let anybody tell me that a man can be anointed and it's not manifested. It is absolute nonsense. He himself may not know it sometimes, although I think even he knows it himself, that something by the grace of God has come upon him and into him. But everybody else knows it.
[00:33:18] No one is going to tell me that. A believer, however stupid, can't tell the difference between an anointed preacher and unanointed preacher, or between an anointed leader and an unanointed leader, or an anointed member of the body and an unanointed member of the body. The fact of the matter is, when this anointing comes upon a person, something happens. Even when the anointing came upon Saul and those silly men that were with him prophesied, their intent and motives were evil and murderous, but they all prophesied. When the anointing came upon the. Upon Balaam's ass, he prophesied.
[00:34:01] I mean, there is a manifestation in this matter of precious anointing oil. Now, some people say, well, I've never. Yes, but you see, there comes a new authority in your prayer. You begin to take hold of things in prayer, to do that before or in your whole way with the Lord. There is a definiteness, a clear cutness that was never there before. You see, this anointing brings with it something that is quite manifested. It's manifested in a public way. Any man or woman who is anointed by the spirit of God.
[00:34:33] It is manifested very soon in a public way. Of course, I've said dramatic. I know a lot of damage has been done to the use of gifts by this kind of artificial, dramatic use of them. I didn't mean that. What I mean is this, that the anointing itself is dramatic. A man may be just so dull and so heavy and so wooden, and then suddenly one day you get him back and he's a different man. It's dramatic. I can tell you all kinds of people I've met for. I'm convinced about this matter. I've known people you couldn't have fellowship with. I know they were believers, but you couldn't have fellowship with them. You just had to spend the time of day with them. That's all about this and that on the other. It was all very hard going, and then suddenly they come and they're full of fellowship. They're hungry, they're alive. You don't have to. They don't have to say to you, listen, I went to such and such a place, and God has met me. You can see it. You know, it's dramatic, it's dynamic. Something has happened to them. They have come into a living way with the Lord. Now, that is the aspect we talked about in verse two. Now we see the Holy Spirit's work in renewing, reviving, keeping alive and fresh and vital. Now, don't you think we need this, too? Oh, my.
[00:35:55] I mean, how come brethren dwell together in unity when we're all getting jaded and faded and weary together? Doesn't it become an awful bite? I hear someone open their big mouth. I know exactly what they're going to say. I know the very phrases they're going to use.
[00:36:12] You know the kind of thing. Brother so and so will get up at 11:00 and open the meeting. All the times I've heard about, especially in dear brethren assemblies, they say, where we're a led of the Lord, but we know brother so and so will open the meeting at 11:00 every Sunday. And brother so and so, another brother, will close the meeting at 12:00 led of the spirit, of course, but I mean, it's always the same. We. Oh, Lord. Oh, how Jade. It was wonderful in the day, in the heyday of the moving of the Holy Spirit. It was all alive. It was wonderful. But now we've got used to each other. Now, my dear friends, if we're all butterflies moving on from place to place, we can escape this. See, if I come into this company, I listen to everybody. Oh, I say, it's wonderful. Such phrases, such language, such intimacy, such directness. When I've been here ten years, I almost know myself. I could say, shut up, brother so and so. I'll say it for you.
[00:37:04] And I've no doubt that some would say it to me. Oh, shut up, brother, so we can say it for you.
[00:37:10] We know you so well.
[00:37:13] We know you inside out.
[00:37:15] We know almost how you'll put it.
[00:37:18] Now, I say that this becomes a source of irritation after a while.
[00:37:23] It sure does.
[00:37:29] It becomes a source of irritation after a while because we think, oh, word doesn't sound so. Shut up.
[00:37:35] I've heard it all before. Why can't we have something fresh?
[00:37:39] That's the dew.
[00:37:42] That's why this whole matter is connected with brethren dwelling together in unity. Because if you and I want to stay together in unity, the dead leaves have to go. The dead wood has to be cut out. It's all the time. It's got to be kept anew. Of course, we shall say sometimes the same thing, but it's in life. There's a vast difference when it's in life, when it's in death, when it's just a mumbo jumbo or whether it's just a little phrase or two that we've used for years and it just comes out hardly. And it's in life. It is the worship of an adoring heart.
[00:38:18] Now, I say that this is a very important matter. This is the Holy Spirit's work, renewing us, renewing us, keeping us new all the time. Not novel, but renewing us, reviving us, keeping us alive and fresh and vital.
[00:38:43] It is a quiet work. It's not dramatic.
[00:38:49] It's quiet, it is gentle. This work of the Holy Spirit is a very gentle work. You know, when the Holy Spirit anoints us, he really does sometimes nearly knock us out.
[00:39:02] Dennis, whenever he writes to me, always signs that the head of the Lumean God bless you as much as you can take and not knock you out.
[00:39:12] But I mean, although it's in Dennis's way of fun, it is so true, because when the Holy Spirit really comes upon a person, there are times when you can burst.
[00:39:25] I have known when I've said, no more, lord, no more. I can't take anymore. Now, maybe you've never had an experience like that. Well, you've still got it to come. Don't give up.
[00:39:37] It may come to any of you. But the fact of the matter is this, that's dynamic now, this other work of the Holy Spirit is very gentle.
[00:39:50] There is no one here who has ever heard the dew fall.
[00:39:57] You have never heard plop. I thought, ah, the dew. Did you hear it? It fell a moment ago.
[00:40:06] You have never heard a rushing sound of wind. I thought, the dew's here, praise the Lord.
[00:40:13] No, no. It is so gentle, so hidden in action.
[00:40:19] No one sees the dew form.
[00:40:23] You can stand out in the open and you will not see it hidden in action. One moment, not there, the next moment, it's there.
[00:40:35] This is the work of the Holy Spirit in renewing and quickening and keeping in life. It's inward hidden so often in its operation, always known in its fruit.
[00:40:52] Don't let me. Don't let anyone misunderstand me on this matter. That this is so hidden that you never see it in a life. You can tell a life that has the dew of heaven upon it because the dew always has something to do with the ripening of fruit in Israel, and you see it in a person's life. They may be in the battle, they may be in the conflict, they may be in the storm, that there's fruit in that life which is ripening by the inward, gentle, consistent, regular, continuous work of the Holy Spirit. Now let's go on and say a little more. Let's look into the scripture a little more. Together let's underline this vital necessity of being renewed daily.
[00:41:38] Will you take your bible? We'll start in the New Testament, and then we'll go to the old.
[00:41:42] Let's take two corinthians, chapter four and verse 16 to 18, all such well known words. Now don't shut off, but listen very carefully to these well known words. Wherefore we faint not? Did you hear that, you who are fainting? Wherefore we faint not?
[00:42:03] But though our outward man is decaying. Aha. Dear ones, those who are extreme charismatics amongst us, will you please note that though our outward man is decaying, we cannot stop our teeth falling out, our hair falling out, our eyesight failing. Sometimes the Lord comes in and touches it, but we are decaying. Now, this could be, for many people, a source of very real discouragement. And I have no doubt that some who are beginning to get a little older, especially as you get in your late twenties and early thirties, you begin to feel a kind of discouragement coming, that there is an unrelenting well, we'll put it a relentless work of decay going on in your body, and therefore you become weary, and you become discouraged, and you feel you don't really want to look too much in the mirror, you know, and all the rest of it. But the Bible says this, wherefore we faint not. But though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.
[00:43:23] Then it goes on. For our light affliction, which is, for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly, an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
[00:43:42] Now the accent of this wonderful little passage is on this. Our inward man is being renewed day by day, day by day. Renewal. Daily renewal. Dew of heaven. Quiet, gentle, hidden in operation.
[00:44:04] Life giving, continuous.
[00:44:08] What a wonderful word.
[00:44:11] Look again. Titus, chapter three.
[00:44:16] Titus, chapter three and verse five.
[00:44:21] Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of of the Holy Spirit through the washing and the renewing. It's not enough to be born again. It is not enough just to be born again. Dear child of God, to be born again is the most wonderful thing in the world. But you must also be renewed by the Holy Spirit.
[00:44:51] This is a continual, consistent, regular ministry of the spirit to us, keeping us alive. Oh, that. We knew it. Do we have to go from conference to conference, from prayer and Bible week to prayer and Bible week? Shall we go from high point to high point? Sort of. Oh, I had a marvelous time. Now I feel ready for the next two months. And we go on for two months and then we start to go down. The old motor starts to run down and we think, oh, God, if only you'll bring brother so and so back or so and so back may he lay hands upon. May something happen and I'll get a new steam.
[00:45:30] Now, you know me well enough to know that I believe in a real experience of the Holy Spirit, and not just one that isn't a real initial experience, but there are many experiences. But there is a quiet, inward, consistent, continuous ministry of the Holy Spirit. If you do not know that your life will be a whole strain, you will just go up and then slowly down and then up and then down. It will be such a strain, you and I, we need to know not only those great incomings of the Holy Spirit, those anointings of the Holy Spirit. We need to also know the being renewed by the Holy Spirit. Well, let's go on. Look at John chapter four, although it's not in the quite the same vein, it has, I think, some little commentary on this. John 414. Listen to these words of our Lord Jesus to the samaritan woman.
[00:46:33] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. Now here is used the thought of a spring, see, not just a well where the water gathers in the east you have these well, I suppose you had it here in this country as well before we had piped water. You have wells where water seeps in and just gather. You let a bucket down and take it out. You also have the kind thing which is a spring. It bubbles up and bubbles down. It's fresh all the time. Now this that the Lord gives to you is not a well that you have to continually go with bucket down and pull up a bucketful of living water and have a drink. This is something that springs up and down now. Not always in the same strength. Now, this is where some people make their great mistake, you see. Because they think all the time. That everything should be absolutely level all the way through. But no, there are winters to be gone through as well as springs. And summers, spiritual winters. When there's a time of contraction. Where the frost does its hard work in us. Where all kinds of things drop off. Are seen to be dead and are left behind. And then there comes a new spring and a new summer. There is a further expansion, a greater growth. This is a spiritual law. And it is so with this wonderful spring of water springing up. Some has spring right up. And sometimes it drops, but it's always there.
[00:48:13] What a wonderful thought of renewing. Have you found the spring within you? Here's the Lord found the Holy Spirit within you. As the spring springing up unto eternal life. It goes right back to this psalm. Like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of sion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing. Even life forevermore. Eternal life springing up unto life eternal.
[00:48:43] Tremendous. Or again, look at Colossians, chapter three and verse ten.
[00:48:49] Colossians, chapter three, verse ten. Have put on the new man. Which is being renewed unto knowledge.
[00:48:57] You put on the new man. Which is being renewed unto knowledge. Now, in the new american standard Bible. It says you have put on the new man. I think he says something like this. That your new self. That's right. That is being renewed to true knowledge. Right. Being renewed to a true knowledge. Now will you notice therefore, that this being renewed has something to do with the mind?
[00:49:28] It has something to do with the mind.
[00:49:34] Well, look at that in another moment. Look at romans twelve.
[00:49:40] You'll see it much more clearly there. Romans twelve.
[00:49:43] Two.
[00:49:46] Be not fashioned according to this world. Now listen. But be ye transformed. Formed by the renewing of your mind. That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Brother said to me the other day. That in his studies. He found that this word acceptable. Would be much better rendered suitable. And I think that's beautiful. Something that is suitable to you. The good and suitable perfect will of God. But how can anyone prove what is the good and suitable and perfect will of God for them. Unless they have been delivered from the fashion of this world.
[00:50:40] And transformed by the renewing of their mind? Now, this is where we come to this whole matter of weariness and jealousy. It's all in our mind. If you and I live according to the old mind and the old man and the old ways and the fashion of this world. In the new, we are all the time like fish out of water.
[00:51:06] We need to be transformed by the renewing of. When a person, when truth breaks into a person, when they come to a true knowledge, each successive step, each further illumination, enlightenment. It's as if we're freed from something and brought into a new way with the Lord. Transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's in our mind, isn't it, that so much of the problem is. Don't you think so? I do. I know that my mind is the thing that makes me tired. I'm not part.
[00:51:41] But I find that my mind is all the time arguing, discussing, telling me what is right. It's the real old tree of the knowledge of good and evil, always weighing up this and weighing up that and saying, this is better than that and do this. And this is the logical thing to do. And I get so tired because so often my mind is in conflict with the mind of God. He says, do this. And I. I mean, I do that. That'll be the end of me.
[00:52:14] Or go this way. And I say, no, Lord, it can't be right.
[00:52:19] My instinct of self preservation tells me I can't do that.
[00:52:23] Too much, Lord.
[00:52:25] Good and suitable your will. Good and suitable and perfect. No, no, I think I've got a better idea of it, Lord, than you.
[00:52:35] I know whats good for me and suitable for me and perfect for me.
[00:52:40] And then we get very, very distant as far as the Lord is concerned. Were left, as it were, to our own ways, our own resources, our own energies, our own mind and all the rest of it.
[00:52:53] Its an important point.
[00:52:55] We need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Now this due is the renewing of our mind. You see, Ken, look back to the day you were converted. In that moment you were for the first time in newness, you had a new mind. You had new thoughts. Oh, you were only just beginning. Do you remember that for the first time you began to trust the Lord and the joy of trusting the Lord? And do you remember that when you did something that your mind, your old mind said, don't be stupid. But your new mind in the Lord said, yes, yes, yes, that's the mind of Christ. You did it. And you found such blessing and such life, and you were overjoyed. Your heart bubbled over. You didn't know who you could tell quickly enough about what the Lord meant to you. You found and you were transformed by the renewing of your mind.
[00:53:44] Unfortunately, as we go on, oh, dear. We fall back from that and we start to do what comes naturally or many other things. The ways of this world take over. And then we become somehow or other fated and weary and all the time tired and disgruntled and empty and discontented. And so it goes on and on. Look at Ephesians, chapter four, verse 23 and 24. You've got the same thing again.
[00:54:17] And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, that after God have been created in righteousness and holiness of truth, that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Now, our minds are very important. Some believers tell us we shouldn't use our minds.
[00:54:34] They tell us the mind spells death. Well, there is an old mind that does spell death. But there is a very important emphasis in the word of God on the renewing of our mind.
[00:54:46] And when we have a renewed mind, it's as if for the first time, we see it to be logical to trust the Lord.
[00:54:56] We see suddenly that it is the most rational thing in the whole world to do the will of God. Because if you do the will of God, all the provision of God is yours. All the protection of God is yours. All the resources of God are yours. All the energy of God is yours. The very resurrection power of Christ is yours if you do the will of God.
[00:55:17] And this is what we find again and again. We do the impossible when we trust the Lord and we come out with more life and more joy and more fullness than we ever had when we went in. But look at these other people who draw back.
[00:55:30] They say they can't do this. They can't do that. It will kill them to do this. This is too much for them. Oh, they can't. Can't be doing. They draw back. Draw back. Drawback. Drawback. What happens within six months? They're dead.
[00:55:43] Dead. Dry branches withered, jaded. The more they draw back, the less life they have. The less joy they have, the less fullness they have. Isn't it interesting? Get out of the will of God and there's no provision. You're left to yourself in the will of God. You've got everything due of heaven. This renewing is of the utmost importance.
[00:56:07] It's absolutely necessary if we're to go on to the Lord's end. Do you want to go on to the Lord's end? I do. I would love to go on right to the Lord's end. Now, if you're going to go on to the Lord's end, I'm going to go on to the Lord's end. This matter of the dew of heaven is of the utmost importance. We've got to know the renewing of the Lord. Not just from month here and a month there, but we've got to know it continually.
[00:56:32] Now, look at the old testament. And you find it just as exciting in the Old Testament. Look at psalm 103.
[00:56:40] Psalm 103, verse five. Wonderful psalm. I suppose everybody here knows pretty well who satisfieth thy desire with good things. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. Now, this doesn't seem to quite tie up with decaying. Oh, yes, it does.
[00:57:01] I know people who haven't got their own teeth. But they've got a good deal more energy than some of the young people here.
[00:57:08] That's putting it crudely.
[00:57:11] Decay is doing its work, but they've got energy.
[00:57:15] Their youth is renewed as the eagle.
[00:57:19] They've got stamina.
[00:57:21] They've got stamina. They've got spiritual guts. To put it again very crudely, they've got what it takes to go through. Why? Because they've got an experience of this gentle, hidden, quiet ministry of the Holy Spirit. Renewing, renewing, renewing. They are. Their youth is renewed. The eagle in the inside. They're always young. Lovely to meet young people.
[00:57:47] Always a blessing, isn't it?
[00:57:50] Someone comes in, dances in, full of life, full of gaiety. Well, it's lovely when we don't get old spiritually, you know, all sort of arthritic and rheumatic. But so many of us. Oh, my goodness, we're very good to be five, six years old in the Lord. We're real rheumatics in bath chairs, you know, sort of with ear trumpets. We don't anymore hear the word of the Lord, you know. What's he saying?
[00:58:15] The Lord has to bawl at us before we even get a single word from heaven. We've lost it. We're old. We're no longer young. We're not those who've got a keen hearing, keen sight, keen senses full their life, their limbs full of life.
[00:58:32] Oh, that God could renew our youth. Like the eagle. The eagle is an extraordinary bird. In a few moments it can soar almost a mile into the air. I have seen eagles in Sinai and in Galilee that have been right down on the ground. On one occasion we stopped with one great big creature. It was actually a vulture. But on the road in front of us, the most ungainly thing you've ever seen. Six foot wingspan. Dancing about like a dance of death on the road. Until it lifted up and within moments it was a speck above us with four others.
[00:59:12] Youth like the eagle, strength like the soar into the heavens. Now some people want to have an experience that will catapult them like Cape Kennedy out into outer space. Spiritually, you know, it'll vroom when they're off, but you'll never get that way by spiritual experience. There is a need of an anointing. But dear child of God, there is also this need of the continuous, consistent ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now lets just look at a few more scriptures here. Look at psalm 51. Have you ever prayed like this? Psalm 51 and verse ten.
[00:59:55] Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a rite spirit within me.
[01:00:03] Sometimes when we've fallen away from the law, we need to pray, renew a right spirit within me. Now in both these instances, psalm 103 and this, psalm 51. The word is a very simple word in Hebrew that just means to make new or to renew. As simple as that. And I have thought of also psalm 23, verse three. You all know it so well, you never think of that. He restoreth my soul.
[01:00:30] Does the Lord ever restore your soul? What does that imply? That there are times when our soul is drained, but he restores it.
[01:00:40] Now if we keep in the way of God, we're going to have battles and we're going to have conflicts and there are going to be terrible pressures. But thank God, there's also the restoring of our soul.
[01:00:51] We will be renewed if we keep within the will of God. But if we get out of it, nothing.
[01:00:57] Now I want you also to look at Isaiah 40. Here we come. Nearest, I think, to the heart of this whole matter in the bible of renewing. Psalm 40 from verse 27 31. I will read it. Why sayest thou, O Jacob and speakest, O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord and the justice due to me has passed away. For my God, hast thou not heard? Hast thou not known the everlasting God? The Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint and to him that hath no might, he increaseth strength. Now what a wonderful promise that is. He never faints and he's never weary. And there's no searching of his understanding. But those who are faint he gives power to.
[01:01:58] And those who have no might, he increaseth strength. Now go on.
[01:02:07] Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.
[01:02:12] But they that wait for the Lord, but they the wait, for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
[01:02:28] It's interesting, isn't it, that the promise is first like eagles. If you can't manage that, you'll run and not be weary. And if you can't manage that, you'll walk or not faint. But at least you won't faint.
[01:02:47] Isn't that a wonderful promise? It's far more wonderful than perhaps we realize. Years and years ago in Egypt, I remember an old one of those dear old missionaries saying to me about this word that in Arabic, in the classical Arabic that she had in her old Testament, she said, you know, the word is not they shall renew their strength, but they shall exchange their strength.
[01:03:14] And she said, I think it has a real connection with the Hebrew. Now, of course, old Arabic and Hebrew are reasonably close together, but I've never, ever looked it up till today. And I was tremendously excited. When looking up this word renew, I found that it wasn't this simple word we had in Hebrew. To make new, to be, to be renewed, to renew. But it was the word. Listen very carefully to it. It is this word to substitute, to cause, to succeed, to change for the better, to renew. And listen to these marvelous instances of its use. If you want to follow, you can do it.
[01:03:56] You could well, go, really. Study them. On your knees.
[01:04:00] Genesis 35 and verse two. Then Jacob said unto his household to all that were with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. And the word change your garments is the same Hebrew word. Change your garments. Get rid of them. Put new ones on.
[01:04:20] So that dear old missionary was probably right. Exchange your garments. Change them. Not just renew, but change. How wonderful. Now there's another wonderful word.
[01:04:31] Genesis 31 and verse seven. Listen to this.
[01:04:40] And your father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times.
[01:04:45] Same word changed my wages ten times.
[01:04:51] He that waiteth on the Lord shall change his strength.
[01:04:57] Now, I think that's far better than being renewed. It means that somehow he will substitute his strength for my weakness.
[01:05:09] What I call strength. He will take it away, and he will give me his own. Or again, you've got it in a very well known passage. Psalm 102 and verse 26. You probably all know this because it's quoted in Hebrews. They shall perish, that is the heavens. But thou shalt endure. Yea, all them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them.
[01:05:36] And they shall be changed. Here is the same hebrew word again. Now isn't that exciting? I don't know if it does anything for you. It does a lot for me. Because what it means is that this waiting upon the Lord means that in the most marvellous way his strength becomes mine. He substitutes his energies for mine, his resources for mine, his strength for mine, his wisdom for mine. He gives himself well. Now there's no doubt that the purpose of God, if it is to be fulfilled, that is brethren dwelling together in unity, there will ensue very great conflict and very great battle.
[01:06:24] There will be unrelenting pressure upon any of those who are going to give themselves to the realization of the purpose of God. That's obvious, isn't it? The building up of the body of Christ, the completion of the house of God, the preparation of the bride must and will involve us in not only violent assaults and battles, but a continual pressure upon us, a wearing of us out by persistent uninterrupted pressure.
[01:06:59] Many servants of the Lord listen to me and I don't, when I say servants, I don't mean people like myself, only, you know, who sort of travel around preaching, but all of you who are really given to the Lord to do the will of God, whether in jobs or whatever, many servants of the Lord, good soldiers of Jesus Christ who would never give way under ferocious attack and onslaught, collapse through weariness, just weariness, because we all know it on the natural level that when a person gets weary and jaded they become discouraged and depressed.
[01:07:47] Then all kinds of dark ideas begin to come and before you know, long before you long, you collapse, you give up, you draw back. Now if the enemy came with a violent attack upon you and you knew it was the enemy, you would stand it, you would take the Lord, you would endure the storm and you would come right through.
[01:08:13] But when it is all the little nagging things like children crying all night or suddenly one child after another gets me or somehow or other at work, another load is put upon you, someone gets the sack or someone walks out and a whole great load comes on you. Or the. All these little things, do you think it's coincidence?
[01:08:39] Do you really think it's coincidence if you're involved in a tremendous battle for the completion of the house of God? I don't. If there is an enemy and there is, if there is a satanic hierarchy and there is, if there is a kind of spiritual headquarters planning satanic strategy, and there is, then it seems to be most reasonable to believe that if they know we are involved in something to do with the completion of the purpose of God. Every single thing about us is taken into account.
[01:09:14] This one will be got down not by the big things, because we recognize them, but by the little tiny things. And then this one and that one and the other one and the other one until we hardly know what's happened. But there are casualties all over the place.
[01:09:31] Just a general atmosphere of weariness and tiredness. Now, this is why the matter of renewing is so important. It is a daily matter. It is to do with the mind.
[01:09:47] It comes through the Holy Spirit. It always results from dependence upon the Lord. You see, people say to me straight away, then how does this happen? I tell you, by waiting upon the Lord.
[01:10:02] And that is the one thing that many of us find no time for.
[01:10:11] I cannot wait upon the Lord. I have no time.
[01:10:15] Already I've had to cut this out and cut that out and cut the other out. You don't think I can wait upon. But you know, five minutes waiting upon the Lord will probably mean 5 hours of renewing.
[01:10:29] Just to be still.
[01:10:31] Just to be. It is the most essential thing in the whole world.
[01:10:35] But we don't see it, and nor does the enemy let us. He knows it. Far too valuable to let anybody see that. So he says, you can't do it. You can't do it. Out of bed. Go on. Get on with it. Quick. Out.
[01:10:47] Read the scripture.
[01:10:49] One verse. That's my quiet time. Out down the road, off to work. And then. We're so tired. Oh, dear, dear, dear. I can't face that Bible study tonight.
[01:10:59] Prayer. Couldn't face it.
[01:11:02] That job I was going to do. No, no. Visit so and so. I couldn't do that. I'm tired.
[01:11:08] So, of course, next day we say, it's no, good Lord. You know how tired. I know you understand. I won't wait upon you. Now, the Lord does understand. He doesn't want us to wait upon a state like that. So, bro. My dear child, I understand entirely. But don't you understand it's your own welfare?
[01:11:25] If you could only see that to wait on me for a few minutes would bring a whole different attitude. You could be renewed in mind.
[01:11:34] You would understand. It's not for me. It's for you.
[01:11:38] You are spiting yourself, not me.
[01:11:43] You see, the Lord wants the dew of heaven to come upon us.
[01:11:49] That's his desire.
[01:11:52] But we often are so silly that we have no time for the quiet working of the Lord.
[01:12:00] Now, if you and I could learn this one little lesson, it would transform many of us.
[01:12:07] I believe it would transform all of us. For it is really a matter, as weve said often the enemy gets advantage in this question of our unity, not by the great frontal attacks, but by reducing us to a weary, heavy, sluggish, faded state.
[01:12:29] And then when that happens, we are robbed of joy, of peace. We are paralyzed as far as contributing goes functioning. And even the discharging of our responsibilities given us of God, we find we cannot do. Many times we drop out, sometimes without any warning. And the effect is precisely what the enemy intended. Greater strain is put on the others and they in turn become weary, more weary, more tired. And so it goes on. For the enemy's knocked us all out, not by a great frontal onslaught, but by simple preference.
[01:13:09] The scripture talks about the wearing out of the saints in the latter days.
[01:13:15] Now, I dont think were yet there, but my dear friends, if were feeling it now, what is it going to be like in another ten years?
[01:13:23] It also speaks about the love of the many.
[01:13:27] Waxing cold. Listen, because iniquity is multiple.
[01:13:35] Now what does that mean? Unless it means that there is so much iniquity that the very atmosphere is filled with antagonism and it wears out the saints.
[01:13:49] Now, if we know these things from the word, the most important thing for us is to wake up to it, that this is a spiritual thing, it's not just a natural thing. Now I'm all for when a person is genuinely tired, they come back. It's a good thing just to go to bed.
[01:14:08] If you're really that dog tired, as sometimes happens, it's best not just to try and be the great hero and the champion, just give in and go to bed. But it's an altogether different thing and we soon find it. When we start cutting one thing up, then the next, then the next. Then the next is the thin end of the wedge. Before we know where we are, what happens in our spiritual life? We're not more alive, we're not more joyful. We have not more peace. We have less and less and less. We cut out more and more and more. We have less time, less joy, less peace and less life.
[01:14:44] What is the answer then to the whole thing?
[01:14:49] We must never forget that within the will of God. For you that is when you, let me put it another way, when you remain within the will of God, within that position there is a provision of renewing.
[01:15:09] If God has given you a tough job to do, God will see that you know the dew of hell its there for you. Therefore you justify, if you will only give time, wait on the Lord. And wait for the Lord.
[01:15:27] So simple as that.
[01:15:30] Outside of his will there is only greater weariness and emptiness and alienation.
[01:15:43] So we come to the end of this psalm.
[01:15:47] We need to remember those words which are a commentary on what I have said this evening. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not upon thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths. We lean upon our own understanding after him so many things, not realizing that it is the enemy. Now, what does God promise? Promised, he says, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Now isn't that marvellous? It's a commanded blessing. What is the commanded blessing? Eternal life. Oh, that's what I want. So this renewing is commanded by the Lord himself, life eternal. It reminds me of that wonderful scripture that if we sow to the spirit, we shall of the spirit reap life eternal. If we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh weep corruption unto death.
[01:16:51] This is a matter of the mind. Follow the way of the world, the fashion of the world. That doesn't just mean clothes, the fashion of the world means the whole outcome.
[01:17:02] The way the world sees things, the worldly outlook. Follow it and it leads to death.
[01:17:11] Follow the mind of the spirit, leads to life.
[01:17:16] This was a, is a marvelous psalm, this little psalm 133. It seems to me that this last little phrase for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life. Whatever more actually is a conclusion to the whole psalm, going right back to brethren dwelling together in unity. As if the Lord saying, where brethren dwell together in unity, there the Lord I have commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Where brethren know the precious oil upon the head running down upon the beard, down to the hem of the garment. There I have commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Where they know this quiet, continuous ministry of the Holy Spirit, renewing, quickening, empowering, keeping in life.
[01:18:05] There I have commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. In the end, thats what this weary world in all its sin and emptiness is looking for. Not meetings, not words, words, not hymns, not great songs and all the rest of it. What the world is looking for is life.
[01:18:31] And when it sees in other human beings lives that have been changed by the power of God and are alive, they know the Lord. There's joy in their hearts, there's peace in their hearts. Then I believe the world begins to take note, don't you?
[01:18:50] May God make us like that. It doesn't mean we don't have troubles. My word, we shall. It doesn't mean we won't have problems. We shall. But then we have provision.
[01:19:01] If there are going to be problems, there is also provision. Let us find the provision. Don't let's go back in this year of 78, but let us go forward strongly, firmly into all that the Lord has for us and he will be with us. Shall we pray, Father, we just spread this out before the O Lord. There is not one of us in this room that doesnt need renewing. We feel it, Lord, so often in our hearts. These days are days of pressure, days of relentless wearing out of thy children by the powers of darkness. Lord, we pray that thou help us, help us to be open, as it were, to one another more. Lord, when these things happen in our circumstances, to ask for prayer, to share with one another, we may be covered. Lord, we want to be kept in life, not just one or two of us, but all of us. Lord, we want to be people who know the renewing of that dew of heaven so that we're kept alive so that there's fruit, Lord, ripening for thee, o father, so that there's fragrance for others, shade for others. Lord, thou alone canst do this. Teach us to wait for thee, and wait upon thee so that we may change our strength. We may mount up with wings as eagles run and not be weary, walk and not faint.
[01:20:40] Lord, then we commit this into thy hands, these studies, upon this little psalm 133 wilt thou, Lord, engrave it upon our hearts and in our life together as thy people? We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
