The joy of The Lord IS MY Strength
Title: Strength
Medium: Colored Pencils
Artist: Alicia R. Shipe

Did you hear? Did you see? Do you know? Can you comprehend? How did that happen?

Revelation 3:18 – I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.¹⁹ As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹ To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ²² “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ ”

The Bible is a living organism. It breathes life into the reader but only with the counsel of Holy Spirit. The depths within the pages are as far and wide as the expanding of Heaven itself.

When Jesus says He leaves the 99 for the One it is more than we have come know this far. He pushes away from the multitude to seek The Will of The Father. His personal compassion keeps Him bound through His trust in the Father’s Love to the purpose for the people of His own accord. He seeks after Himself as God admonished Him. What happens if He doesn’t see Himself at first?

This is part of the mystery of the gold. The multi-step process of the refining of the gold serves that purpose. Purification is beyond cleansing with water. The depths of the water eventually become the heights of the flames of the fire, sometimes in reverse order. As the heat grows, the impurities become consumed and melt away into the stages of matter; gas, liquid, (then when cooled either by air or water) solid. When He looks into our being He can see the process God has undertaken with us because He has been through it. He can see how our essence (spirit, soul, light, darkness) has and is responding to the move of Holy Spirit.

John 5:22-25 – For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. ²⁴ “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. ²⁵ Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

Do not be discouraged. If Jesus cannot yet see Himself in you, He turns a cheek. Though He turns His cheek to the enemy, the enemy is too consumed with hatred to realize Jesus is listening. He hears the clamor of the cowardice and the complainers but also the courage in the hearts of those of the 99 that have followed Him as He went after the One; looking for Himself through those that possess a heart and soul for Him.

Genesis 3:8-10 – And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam 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 Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

John 10:27 – My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 

There is a stark difference between these two passages besides Old Covenant and New Covenant. In one, our kind [Adam and Eve] hid themselves at and away from the voice of God due to ungranted knowledge which brought in the feelings of guilt and shame. In the other partial passage, the analogy of part of our process shows we follow at the known voice of God’s authority. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He was tempted as us for us in order to seek to save. After finding us He, through Holy Spirit, leads us away from the enemy’s camp. [This is a good spot to reread the accounts of Jacob with Laban and the growth of his stock/wealth…contemplate our return with Teachings about “without spot or wrinkle”]

When Jesus turns the other cheek, He listens to the rhythm of God’s Heart in those near Him and those on their way through the following of Him. He knows us up to and past the extent of our human thoughts and emotions (Luke 5:22). We term it telepathy today but it is knowing Himself and knowing who has followed Him by the urging of Holy Spirit and who is only seeking His power. Another form, as we call it, is telekinesis (fidgety habits) or reading body language. It is knowing Himself and seeing that which God has placed in us by The Sacrifice of Jesus and the urging of Holy Spirit. When He hears us He knows us; when He knows us He sees us; when He sees us He prays for us so Holy Spirit can begin to teach us and start our transformation process through the abundance of The Christ, The Lord of the Hosts.

What can He see in you today? What has He revealed to you through Himself today? What do your eyes know?

-Alicia R. Shipe-