Open Hands Open Hearts

I knew I'd written on the subject of lifting of our hands in worship at some point. As I went searching for it had no idea it was well over a year ago. I've re-posted the original piece from March of 2010. How time flies.
Yesterday was an especially glorious day in our Lord's presence.Please don't take me as some super spiritual whoever. It's certainly not that way all the time.
I just finished one book, The Divine Embrace by Ken Gire and embarked on a journey with Ann Voskamp through One Thousand Gifts. Both authors are brutally honest in their presentations. That is the challenge of the day for me.
Almost half of my life has been spent in fear. My mother died of polio when I was almost three, she was thirty five years old. For most of the first twenty some years of my life, I was certain I would die before reaching that milestone. In 1970 a whole new Spiritual world opened up to me. Release from that fear among others began to unfold.
Lord your presence is once more so very real. Coming to accept my mother's death was a tremendous turning point. I'm not sure of the process that took place but I am extremely grateful that God took me down that road.

Jack Hayford is one of my favorite teachers of God's Word. Last night he spoke on what it means to extend our hands in Worship. I offer a brief outline of his talk, my you think on the points he shared.

Why the hands? What part of the body do I use the most?

His text was Romans 12;1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

First: I Reach beyond myself. Open hands extended offering my heart to receive.

Second: Ask for council, wisdom.


Third: Invite God's presence into every area of my life.

Forth: Surrender the up raised hands are the universal sign of surrender. I give myself, a living sacrifice.

Fifth: Embrace Taking to myself all of who God says He is, all he offers me by His Word and His presence.

Meditaion:Psalm 63:1-8.

This is my hearts cry.


Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Holy Hands

Have you ever wondered why God's Word talks about lifting our hands, Holy Hands unto Him. Depending on the spiritual roads you have traveled over the years, this practice may or may not be new to you.

My first recollection of anyone lifting their hands to the Lord was in the church of my childhood. Each Sunday at the close of the service the pastor would walk to the rear of the sanctuary lift both hands in a large V over his head and repeat the benediction.


Numbers 6:25 is the passage that comes to mind. "May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace." These were the words the Lord gave Moses to give to Aaron and his sons, with which to bless the Israelites. Jews to this day use this blessing. I challenge you to meditate on this verse and gain a new understanding of it's scope. We would do well to lift our hands and offer these words in prayer over our mates, our children, our friends and our enemies.

In a cursory search of the Scriptures I found more than fifteen references to lifting ones hands in supplication to the Lord.

Psalm 119:48 says "I will lift up my hands to (for) Your commands, which I love, and I will meditate on your decrees." How do we know His commands? By reading and meditating on His Word. Open, lifted hands, mean surrender.

1st Timothy 2:8 reads "Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or dissension." We can pray where ever we are.

Psalm 141:2 " May my prayer be counted as incense before Thee; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering." Their custom was to pray a minimum of three times a day.
My challenge is to find the other twelve plus scriptures that talk about lifting up of Hands, Holy Hands and re-evaluate your thinking on the subject.

The Lord Our Peace

The late David Wilkerson said it much better than I ever could so I share it with you.

THE LORD OUR PEACE

by David Wilkerson |

Knowing and believing in God’s character as revealed in his names provides great protection against enemy attack. God declared through Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). The implication here is powerful. God is telling us that having an intimate knowledge of his nature and character, as revealed through his names, is a powerful shield against Satan’s lies.

This brings us to another of our Lord’s names: Jehovah Shalom. We find this name mentioned in the book of Judges. Here, the Lord revealed himself to Gideon in the form of an angel (see Judges 6:22–24). What does this name, Jehovah Shalom, mean exactly? As a noun, the Hebrew word shalom means “completeness, health, welfare.” It implies being whole, in harmony with God and man, having wholesome relationships. It also indicates a state of being at ease—not restless, having peace both inwardly and outwardly, being at rest both spiritually and emotionally. In short, shalom signifies wholeness in a life or work. And as a verb, shalom means to be completed or finished, or to make peace.

Once more, I’m driven to ask, “What does this particular name of God have to do with me and with the church today?”

Shalom cannot be earned. We’ll never receive the Lord’s shalom until we realize, “This is serious business. This is God almighty I’m dealing with, creator and sustainer of the universe. How can I continue taking him for granted? Why do I still test his grace, living with this lust as if he is deaf and blind to my secret acts?” Do you tremble at God’s Word? Are you ready to obey everything it says? If so, you’ll receive the revelation of Jehovah Shalom. He’ll come to you personally as “the Lord, your peace,” filling your spirit with supernatural strength against every enemy. You can’t earn this kind of peace; it’s a gift from God.

Are You Ready?

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus.

Much has taken place in our world in the last few months, quickly bringing us closer and closer to the "Day of the Lord". Enemies are closing in on Israel, our own country along with many others is facing economic collapse. All over the world disasters are hitting hard and fast along with the ongoing wars in North Africa and the middle east.

Again I ask are you ready?

Not just are you physically prepared as I talked about last time but are you cont inuring to seek the Lord to bring increased strength into your heart and life.
Is the love and comfort of our Lord your daily companion or do the news headlines cause that horrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Our Lord desires for us to know His peace, His sustaining power, His great love with a surety that does not waver.
Once again with the prophet Joel 2:1.
I say "Blow a trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming surely it is near."
As you are ready for whatever is in store for us, are you encouraging others to prepare, spiritually?

Hebrews 13:5&6 says, Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." so that we confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid what shall man do to me?

Can we say as Job 13:15? "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."

We are not promised physical comforts but we are promised peace. John 14:27 "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Crisis Nears

If you have been following world events at all it is quite clear the things are not going well on many fronts.
Many have been warning of coming inflation, which has already hit us deeply at the gas pump, the grocery store and many other places. For many years we’ve been warned to get out of debt, how many have listened?
Some have encouraged storing food and staples for coming crisis. Will it be war on our soil? Will it be loss of electricity, as Texas has already experienced this winter. Will it be oil and gas prices so high that trucks will not be able to deliver goods, leaving us without staple food items?
I could go on but my main purpose in writing this is to encourage each one of you to be sure that you know where your strength to live through the times we are facing comes from. If I dwell on the state of our world, especially the middle-east or on the multitude of illnesses and troubles of so many, fear and anxiety would take me down. My great hope and comfort comes in the knowledge that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob holds all this in His grasp.
Our only hope in the days to come will be trusting in His Word. The only way to do that is to know what it says and put it into practice. Knowing the Word...written, but also the Word as our Savior-King. It will take knowing Him more intimately to trust Him more fully. How do I do that? By asking Him to teach me, to reveal its truths, so I will know He holds me no matter what is going on around me.

"God's Word on Marriage"

I was asked to share with the Mothers of Preschoolers at my churh. The topic I was given was "What it means to have a Godly Marriage". What that might look like. The following is what I shared with them from God's Word.

Although my husband and I have a really good marriage and do seek to set a good example we are not by any means perfect, so I want to take you to the only place that holds the perfect pattern, the Word of God.

To begin though, we must poses the key to this whole process. That is the knowing that our individual life belongs to God, that we have placed our trust in the work Jesus did on the cross to purchase our pardon, forgiveness for our sin, that He died, rose again and went back to Heaven to let the Father know he had paid the price for us to be able to have a viable relationship with Him and go to be with Him one day. None of what I’m going to share with you will do any good without that initial step. All you have to do is ask.

God’s plan for marriage starts out in the positive and perfect, sadly it ends on a rather negative note.

Let’s take a look at parts of the first three chapters of Genesis.
Gen 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Gen 2:15-18 15Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."
18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”
The King James says leave and cleave. Cleave is a really strong word according to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. “To part, divide or pierce by force, as with a cutting blow to split or separate.”

Now I don’t want you to go home and tell your husband that he has to cut all ties to his parents, yet there is a balance to be sought in the relationships we maintain with our parents and for me with our children. Those words could also apply to wives and our relationship to our parents. Do you as a couple give in to demands of parents on either side over and above what you know is best for your family? This is an issue that can cause great difficulty in a young marriage if not settled early on.
I’m not talking about genuine needs of our parents. As Paul wrote to Timothy:

1st Timothy 5:8 (Amplified Bible)
8If anyone fails to provide for his relatives, and especially for those of his own family, he has disowned the faith [by failing to accompany it with fruits] and is worse than an unbeliever [who performs his obligation in these matters]

The Fall of Man
Genesis 3: 1-19 1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"
4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
10 He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."
11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
12 The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Adam and Eve failed the test. Adam did not listen to God and thus did not instruct his wife strongly enough, she in turn lead him astray and the perfect world God created was changed. God proceeded to talk to the serpent and then to Eve and then to Adam, listen.
Genesis 3:14-19 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
16 To the woman He said:
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
I’ve read this portion in the New King James version for a specific reason. Look at Verse 16. There are five things in this little verse that God states. Multiplied your sorrow and your conception, pain in childbirth, your desire will be for your husband and he shall rule over you. Not only will there be multiplied sorrow in general but also I would suspect, for sin, as I’m certain Eve had, but it says multiply conception, my obstruction friend says this means multiple births. Even with all this difficulty the woman’s desire will be for her husband and he will be the leader, rule over us.

There are two major places in the New Testament where marriage is addressed in light of the order of things in a marriage. Ephesians 5:22-33

Marriage Like Christ and the Church
22 Wives, )be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the (AZ)head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
26 so that He might sanctify her, having (BE)cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
30because we are members of His body.
31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.
32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
As you see in verse 31 the command from Genesis is repeated. This portion of scripture I believe is speaking to a believing couple, husband and wife are believers. Submission has gotten a bad wrap over the years due to abuses and misuses of the words I just read. Men have used it to keep their wives and children in subservient and abusive situations. A woman should never stay in this type of situation and seek help. There is great comfort and protection for wives and children in these verses. The order of authority in the home is Christ, first, husband next then wife and children. We understand respect for authority under the law of the land, the policeman says stop, move over, go around and we obey, for a simple illustration. Do we as wives give our husbands that same kind of respect? One simple way the order of authority is very helpful to me is that it gives me the right to say no in all kinds of places and keeps me safe from intruders. Because I know I’m not going to buy any big ticket item without my husband’s okay I can choose not to talk to a sales person or maybe even choose not to answer the door if the situation looks uncomfortable.

God’s word also speaks to the wife whose husband is not a believer. Listen to what Peter has to say on the subject.



1 Peter 3 (New King James Version)
1 Peter 3:1-6
Submission to Husbands
1 Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. 3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.
Changing our husbands is God’s job, not ours. Am I a manipulator, a nag in regards to Spiritual things? What is our outward and inward attitude? Outward care of our bodies, yes and along with that a gentle quiet, cooperative, unselfish attitude. Am I paying attention? Eve failed at this point, do I? Are his desires your desires? As a new friend shared last week “Make his passions your passions.”
That brings me to the Proverbs 31 Woman.
This woman is the ideal wife, and this passage has had whole books written about it. My point in reading it to you is that as we seek to allow the Lord to work the principals we have already talked about into our lives and our marriages we will become this woman by His grace. The center portion of this Proverb addresses a different era but the principles still apply. We are to be helpers, keepers of our homes.

Description of a Worthy Woman
10An (M)excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far (N)above jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
13She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.
14She is like (O)merchant ships;
She brings her food from afar.
15She (P)rises also while it is still night
And (Q)gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens.
16She considers a field and buys it;
From her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17She (R)girds herself with strength
And makes her arms strong.
18She senses that her gain is good;
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hands grasp the spindle.
20She (S)extends her hand to the poor,
And she stretches out her hands to the needy.
21She is not afraid of the snow for her household,
For all her household are (T)clothed with scarlet.
22She makes (U)coverings for herself;
Her clothing is (V)fine linen and (W)purple.
23Her husband is known (X)in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
24She makes (Y)linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.
25Strength and (Z)dignity are her clothing,
And she smiles at the future.
26She (AA)opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27She looks well to the ways of her household,
And does not eat the (AB)bread of idleness.
28Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
29"Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all."
30Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who (AC)fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.

For her worth is far (N)above jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.

Girls Night Out Devotional

Psalm 19:14 ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight oh Lord my strength and my redeemer.”
I've thought much about what to share with you tonight. I could share my sordid testimony, my failures and defeats of which there are many, but there are two things I’d like to leave you with. The first is the fact that God's Word is your lifeline, your greatest source of strength, your dearest friend. The second is that you never know what affect your life, your words; your attitude may have on another individual. We’ll talk about that in a few minutes.

These are very difficult days we are living in. I believe according to Scripture we face even more trying times in the near future.
As believers and Americans we are so very spoiled. What we have in our hearts may one day soon be all we have to maintain our faith and our witness. How much longer will we have the privilege of gathering like this in a public place? It may be a lot less than we think.

As I said at the start; God's Word is your lifeline, your strength, your best friend. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" John 1:1 Jesus is the Word. Ps.119:11 " “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee". I want to encourage you to do just that. When times get tough, what is in there will come out. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” Luke 21:4. My encouragement to you is read the Word, absorb it, and memorize it. If you’re not there, let me give you a way to get started.

My goal daily is to spend "Time Alone with God" no, it doesn't always happen. My biggest problem; distractions. I truly believe one of the strongest tools of the enemy is that 12 letter word.

No matter the circumstance there is always something to draw me away from that "Alone" time with the Lord. One of my favorite devotionals comes in my in box each morning, therein lays the problem. That is the1st distraction and it goes down hill from there. Read my e-mail, check on Face Book, check the bank account, and see if my favorite blogger has made an entry overnight!! Get a fresh cup of coffee------- on and on it goes.

I do have a plan though, to pray Ps119:167 "Let my cry come to You oh Lord, give me understanding according to Your Word”, read the devotional, open the Word, read, and pray, not necessarily in that order.

There are days it doesn't happen and I’ve come to the place of believing God does not condemn me for giving in to the distractions or just plain not opening my Bible on any given day. J just starts again. "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the World" John4:4 The power of the Holy Spirit within each believer is so much greater it’s a matter of choosing not to allow the distractions of the world keep us from that sweet fellowship. I've learned not to make a ritual out of any of this because if I do it doesn’t last; the Lord will lead you as to what is right for you and your circumstances.

Back to a little more detail on my plan, read the devotional, then start with10 verses in an OT book and 10 in the NT, 10 verses of a Psalm and the Proverb of the day. You have any idea how long that takes? I timed it one day, reading out loud to myself, max 10 minutes. Can you find 10 minutes a day to spend with your best friend, Gods Word? Then I seek to at least pray for my husband, children and grandchildren. Isaiah 54:13 is my recommended minimum. Then Col 1:9-14 "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; 13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; 14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins."

Of course I have a list, some days I get to the list other days I don't, I do try to remember those critical things like surgeries, and stuff like that.
Ps. 119:104&105 says, "Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."

God has a plan for each of our lives. Phil 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” No matter how far we stray, He is always right there to bring us back to Himself.

My journey with the Lord began with my mother. She died of Polio in 1947, just before my third birthday. I’ve been told that she prayed for a child for seven years, I didn't stand a chance as far as being dedicated to the Lord from before I was born.

Jump ahead 14 years, one of my best friends and her family repeatedly invited me to attend church with them, a different church than the one my family attended. Finally after many refusals by my parents, they relented and allowed me to attend a "Revival Meeting" with her and her family. Their persistence paid off, their love for me did not stop just because my parents refused to allow me to attend their church. That was the night that the Father drew me to Himself and I made that initial step of committing my life to Jesus. He took my prayer seriously and did not let go, even though I did not follow very well. Lots of poor choices, it took a number of years to bring me to my knees in recommitment.

My point being you never know the influence you are having on the life of another human being. Don't give up, keep praying, allowing the Lord to keep doors open that maybe you would just as soon shut because it's hard. God will bring others to Himself in His time and they will remember your deeds of love, your kind words of encouragement, your friendship even if your beliefs are not in sync. The important thing is to----"Keeping your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." Hebrews 12"2.

Do you realize that we have eternal life, whether we believe in Jesus or not?
All mankind will one day spend eternity in one of two places Heaven or Hell. It's our choice, to believe confess our sin of unbelief, choose to believe that what Jesus died on the cross, that His bodily resurrection is the truth, repent of our sins, confess them, make a conscious decision to turn around and go in the opposite direction, follow in obedience with open confession before men of our decision and being baptized, in that order. If you have made the choice to be a follower of Jesus my prayer is that you will grow in grace and truth, seek Him in his Word and Prayer and Love those around you with the Love He has given you. Jesus said “If you love me you will keep my commandments”. John 14:23.

Walking and Leaping and Praising God

This weekend a section of scripture was opened to me in a way that had never occurred to me before.
Having recently received an order from Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries, Bonny Lake, WA, www.elshaddaiministries.us I discovered in the package a tri-fold pamphlet entitled The Amidah or “The Standing Prayer”. I am not going to quote all 18 sections of the prayer but I’d like to share with you Pastor Mark Biltz’s commentary on it.
“Composed around 450BC by the 120 Men of the Great Assembly including Ezra and Nehemiah at the time of the rebuilding of the Temple, it was to be said while standing, three times a day at the hours of prayer 9am 12 noon and 3pm.” The prayer is not found specifically in scripture, as I read it out loud to myself and to the Lord scripture came to mind with each section. Included are the following topics or designations:
God of History, God of Nature, Sanctification of God, Prayer for Understanding, For Repentance, For Forgiveness, For Deliverance from Affliction, For Healing, For Deliverance from Want, For Gathering of Exiles, For the Righteous Reign of God, For the Righteous and Proselytes, For the Rebuilding of Jerusalem, For the Messianic King, For the Answering of Prayer, For the Restoration of the Temple Service, Thanksgiving for God’s Unfailing Mercies and For Peace. For the full text, google Amidah text.
I give you all that to get to what the Lord opened to my heart. Once more quoting Pastor Biltz, “In the book of Acts we find Peter and John entering the Temple at the hour of “”The”” prayer referring to the saying of the Amidah. It is literally called the hour of “The Prayer” in the literal translations. Here we have a man, who according to the Scriptures was: (Acts 4:22 “For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed.) Do you realize that meant Yeshua probably walked passed him a minimum of 100 times in the temple and never healed him! This happened after Yeshua died at around 33 years of age and this man who was only 7 years older that Yeshus had been lame from his birth.(Acts 3:1&2 Now Peter and John went up to together in to the temple at the hour of the prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;” Every Jew would love to be “standing” during the “standing prayer” So here we have the Holy Spirit at the specific time of the Amidah strengthening the man’s ankles! (6 Then Peter said , Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk . 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up : and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength . 8 And he leaping up stood , and walked , and entered with them into the temple, walking , and leaping , and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God:”) God was waiting for all to be gathered in the Temple so at the very moment of the Amidah, perhaps at the praying of the 8th section For Healing, standing perhaps for the first time in his life for the “standing prayer.” For 40 years he had heard or said this prayer, always wondering if it was true! Do you know this was the prayer they were saying right before the Spirit fell at Pentecost! It was the 3rd hour, the time of the morning prayers! Remember this was written hundreds of years before Messiah, remembering Yeshua had also just risen from the dead!!”
Back in the 70’s we used to sing the chorus “Silver and Gold have I None”, the impact of those words and the events surrounding the saying of them has a whole new meaning. God’s timing is always perfect even when we don’t think it is.