He will cover you with His wings.

I love this scripture, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps 91:1) He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge. (Ps 91:4)

I usually consider that a promise from God that He will be with me when I trust in Him. I can literally see Him covering me with protection. It’s a very secure and comforting feeling.

But I’ve also come to understand that it’s not just about me as an individual that He covers. When we unit as a body and meet together to experience the presence of God, we actually gather in the secret place of the Most High. That place where we worship and praise Him, where His presence is sweet, becomes His secret place.

It’s secret because others can come in and sit right next to you and not enter into it. Only those whose hearts are open and hungry for God will feel His presence and know He is near. Others may benefit from the covering of His wings, but never enter the secret place.

But God’s not very good at keeping secrets. He says, Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. His secret is out. It’s up to you to enter in.

The kingdom of God is all about loving each other.

Loving other people is not an option. Jesus said, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:39) It’s right up there next to loving God with all your heart. It’s a huge deal. And notice, He didn’t say you should love your neighbor as yourself, He said you shall. In other words, if you’re going to live in His kingdom, you will do this.

Loving other people is not always easy. But when God says you shall love them, He gives you the means to do it. He’s not telling you to do something impossible. When He puts His Spirit in you, you are filled with the capacity to love other people the way He wants you to.

If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you’re good to go. Just ask Him to help you love. If you don’t have Him, ask, right now. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit. You get everything you need for light and life. (Galatians 5:22)

Loving people gets easier when you remember that you are not perfect. It’s only the grace of God that covers your own sin. Look past the problems and see into the person that God sees. Then love. Just love.

The righteousness of God brings peace and joy.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17) The kingdom of God is not an external reality as we know kingdoms. It is the presence of God within us. And God manifests Himself as righteousness, peace, and joy.

The righteousness of God convicts us of our sin. It is the mirror that He holds up to show us all the blotchy areas that need cleaning up. He does not condemn us, He just helps us be clean. By confessing our sin, we become righteous before Him. The more we allow Him to show us our blotchy areas, the cleaner we become.

With a guilt-free heart, we can truly experience peace and joy. When we live with unconfessed sin that we know we have to deal with, we may have times of being happy, but not true joy. That joy comes from God. Peace comes from knowing our hearts are right with Him.

As we grow closer to Him and let Him convict us of sin, unforgiveness, and bad attitudes, our hearts become more and more pure, and like a crystal bell, we begin to resound with His joy — the kind of joy you can have no matter what happens. Don’t pull back from conviction. You need it to live in peace and joy.

There is so much more to learn.

God definitely has levels of inclusion when it comes to the kingdom. He told the disciples more than He told the crowds because the disciples were hungry to learn. A harsher way of putting it is not casting pearls before swine, so to speak. There are people whose hearts are not open to the truth of God and will reject it, or worse, twist it.

God reveals the deeper truths to those who really want to know. But they have to be ready for it. Jesus said to Nicodemus, If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12)

We learn the deeper things of God a little at a time. As we take in one truth, it becomes the foundation for the next. For precept must be upon precept,precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line. (Isaiah 28:10)

Do you want to know the deep things of God? Then become a willing student. Meditate on the Word and think about His truth. Ask for more. There is so much that we don’t know, but could know if we only pressed in. It will be like being in the inner circle with Jesus teaching you one on one. How amazing is that!

Your frustration may be leading you to a greater destiny.

Is life making you a little crazy? Is everything feeling constricted and hard to cope with? There are never easy answers to life’s problems, but maybe God is trying to get your attention. Maybe you were meant for more.

You were born with a destiny, that is, a plan from heaven for your life. I don’t think that means that God has a rigid blueprint and once we miss it we’re lost. No, I believe that God knows exactly who we are. He knows all about our mistakes and detours and He has accounted for all of that in our personal life plan.

No matter where you are in life, you are still on the way to destiny. Frustration may be a way to get you to turn to God so He can show you what He wants for you. Surrender to Him. It may mean going the extra mile where you are before anything changes. It may mean that everything gets turned over. It’s ok. Give your life to Jesus and let Him bless you.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jer 29:11) Praise God!

God’s blessing will pass from generation to generation.

Your amazing faith and faithfulness to God will bless your children and your children’s children. When God establishes blessing, it continues to bless the line of the faithful. We see this so clearly with David and Solomon.

David was dearly loved by God. So much so that God blessed Solomon in a way that no other person has ever been blessed. He granted Solomon anything that he asked for. This came directly from the blessing that came from David. Solomon said to God, You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You. You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, (1King 3:6)

Again in Isaiah, God says: I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring. (Isa 44:3)

This is a wonderful heritage to give to your children. The blessing seems to be as great to the children as it is to the parent. However, the children are responsible to walk worthy before God. Solomon’s blessing was not continued when he failed to live faithfully. But if faithfulness is maintained, there’s no reason for that blessing to not go on forever!

**************************************************************************The Key of David, by Diana Symons                                                                                             A story that’s been told for thousands of years…  The Bible’s Book 1 Samuel tells the story of David’s life – from an obscure family to an unlikely king, from shepherd to warrior, from champion to king-maker. What does it mean for a man to love God and be loved by Him? This book explores what it means to be human in the light of the Kingdom.

I don’t think we need to be afraid of where we learn good lessons. The old me used to think that if the lesson didn’t come from the Bible, then it wasn’t truth. I don’t think that any more. I think that the truth of God is out there and everyone is able to see it. They may not understand that it comes from God, but they understand the truth.

So now, when I read stories where I recognize truth, I don’t get defensive for God. Even stories that we grew up with show us right and wrong. My little friend, Mai Mei, writes about the things she learns from princesses. She even linked to something that I wrote about The Kingdom of God Is Where Authority Meets Humility.

Even princesses can teach us what is true.

I like what she says. “Belle teaches me to not look at the outside. Pocahontas teaches me to walk in another shoes. Mulan teaches me to not think I am limited as a girl. Rapunzel teaches me to dream.”

Those are good things. Those are things that God wants to bless in us. I love that. Just because the lessons come from fairy tales do not mean that they don’t have truth. Those are great ways to talk to your kids about what God is like and what He wants for us.

God made you for His glory.

Do you know how much God loves you? It’s so amazing, so fantastic to consider the love of God for you. He really, truly loves you beyond reason. He made you because He loves who you are. He LOVES who you are. He claims you for Himself.

Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him. (Isa 43:7) Can you imagine that ? He made you for His glory. That’s just amazing. You are made for the glory of God!

You are His glory because He made you perfect through the blood. You are perfect and glorious in His sight, right now, not in some future time when you go to heaven. He sees you as you truly are and He loves what He sees.

When you get a hold of that, you can go boldly before the throne of God and delight in His presence. You can stand with Him without feeling guilty or unworthy.  He makes you more than worthy. He makes you perfect and beautiful. So much so that you become His glory. That is an identity that you cannot develop in yourself. Only God can do that. Be happy in knowing how much you are loved and shine on!