Saturday I had some news that laid heavy on my heart. All day, I kept saying, “I trust You God, I know You are bigger than this.” Rarely do I feel defeated but I really had had all of the negative I could take. I went outside and sat quietly because that always makes me feel close to my Creator! Sunday morning I was better but still felt a heaviness. I went to church and had a great distraction taking temperatures and greeting all my friends! But when we sang “Holy Spirit”, He lifted me! It was amazing. As my husband said, you could feel the energy of the Spirit when we started singing! Those words can describe the feeling in the gym better than I can. “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your Glory God is what our hearts long for To be overcome by your presence, Lord.” The Holy Spirit absolutely flooded that gym and filled the atmosphere! I don’t know that I have ever seen so many hands raised. Apparently, I was not the only one who needed that song!
The third song we sang was “The Blessing” by Elevation Worship. We sang this before the kids were going back to school and I wrote about how we were praying for a thousand generations. This time it spoke to me differently. The lyrics are, “The Lord bless you And keep you. Make His face shine upon you And be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you And give you peace. As we receive, we agree, amen. Amen, amen, amen. Amen, amen, amen amen, amen, amen. Amen, amen, amen. May His favor be upon you. And a thousand generations. Your family and your children. And their children, and their children.” Again, you could feel the power in this music! I could hear the emotions of the congregation when the song ended.
All the blessings contained in this song are either directly quoted from Scripture or inspired by Scripture. The purpose of the protection was to keep Israel in its covenant relationship with God. To make sure they did not fall. To help hold them up and protect them. Numbers 6: 24-26 was a blessing that God instructed Moses to tell Aaron to give to the people of Israel. “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” I believe the reason this song spoke differently to me Sunday is because it is the Living Word which means it is alive and it is a life giving word. The Bible is the living Word of God because it is the message given to us by the “living God”. Hebrews 3: 12, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” God is alive in this broken world and He works through His Word and the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6: 17, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.“ In John 6: 63 Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”
I felt God telling me that He is blessing me - even through tough times and He is protecting me. His gentleness and generosity is being poured all over me. It was what I needed to hear. Then we sang, “Amen, amen, amen,”. Amen is used as a response of group affirmation that we receive it! Amen was also used at the beginning of a sentence when Jesus was about to tell some truth. As I sang, “amen” Jesus was telling me the truth! He is blessing me and protecting me! And my family!
I came home and studied that blessing and “make His face shine upon you” means may His presence be evident in us. May others see Jesus in us. “May the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace. He is pouring protection, grace and peace on us. And not only for me but for my kids and their kids and their kids for generations to come. No matter what is going on in this broken world and no matter that my daughter is 3000 miles away, God’s got this! The Lord was Israel's Keeper. And He is my Keeper and your Keeper! The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Can I get an Amen?