Who is the man that fears the Lord? —Psalm 25:12

Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,” but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God. A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother. In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.

If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.

“He himself shall dwell in prosperity…” (Psalm 25:13). God will cause us to “dwell in prosperity,” keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. “God is our refuge…” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.

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Journal DJR
Good morning Lord.
Thank you that you can cause us to live in prosperity (Psalm 25:13) … in all circumstances. Seemingly good ones or bad ones. Like those in the war zones of Syria and Iraq, being martyred and persecuted. Staying in a prosperity mindset in the face of those circumstances is certainly different than most of our “challenges” that we face in our everyday lives. But the source of the power to live in victory and prosperity is the same…. connection with you and living “Hidden with Christ in God” How to do that more consistently is our question today. We’ve learned that starting the day with connection is part of the answer. And reserving some time for what we’re calling a visit to the “holy of holies” is another part. But there must be more…

It is good that you are seeking more. It is a lifetime quest and you will never be totally satisfied. You will be satisfied as a young child rests with his mother after eating. But he is soon hungry again. That is how you are to live, hungering for more of me and what I have for you. And you will never exhaust my storehouse.

How do I keep from stumbling back into self will, self promotion and self preservation … those all come so naturally?

I have provided the answer and demonstrated how to use it. It’s called the Cross. It’s an instrument of death. I used it myself. Remember I said, “nevertheless, your will, not mine, be done.” You can live that way too. Connect with me and discern my heart … and then bring to the cross everything that would hinder you walking in what I am showing you. This might be even harder for you super blessed Americans than for your brothers and sisters in difficult places, because you have so many options. You are overwhelmed with blessings to the extent that you forget to count them.

When you walk with me in the secret place there is peace and no stress and you don’t have to push. The only pushing you have to do is pushing back all the things that distract you away from me and hearing my voice.

He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” —Ezekiel 37:3

In that day you will ask Me nothing. —John 16:23

When is “that day”? It is when the ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. “In that day” you will be one with the Father just as Jesus is, and He said, “In that day you will ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is fully exhibited in you, you have questions about many things. Then after a while you find that all your questions are gone— you don’t seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the point of total reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus, which brings you into complete oneness with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why aren’t you?

“In that day” there may be any number of things still hidden to your understanding, but they will not come between your heart and God. “In that day you will ask Me nothing”— you will not need to ask, because you will be certain that God will reveal things in accordance with His will. The faith and peace of John 14:1 has become the real attitude of your heart, and there are no more questions to be asked. If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your mind, but look for it in your spirit, your true inner nature— that is where the problem is. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. “In that day you will ask Me nothing.”

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…tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. —Luke 24:49

Pray without ceasing… —1 Thessalonians 5:17

Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.

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Journal, DJR
Good morning Lord,
This sounds so right … to pray without ceasing, to breath in and breath out prayer all the time. But my rambling mind just seems to run off on it’s own and soon I am far away from what I think would be called praying without ceasing. What’s the best way to proceed? I know I’ll never perfect this on this side of heaven and I’m so glad that you understand that and still accept me. But I do want to get better at it.

You are right. I accept you and I’m glad you want to get better at it. Because when you are breathing prayer in and out is when we are most connected. There are several things to do. Start your days with commitment to live this way. Then arrange some reminders to pull you back from the chaos of the thoughts of the world. Regularly spend some time in the “holy of holies” with me. You will develop a taste for it and it will no longer be work. Trust me on this. Discussion is almost useless. The Holy of Holies and prayer without ceasing must be experienced. So come on in. I’m waiting for you.

If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. —Genesis 13:9

…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33


When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “…seek first the kingdom of God….” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.

“…do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.

It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.

By your patience possess your souls. —Luke 21:19

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? —Romans 8:35

God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble…” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors…” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.

“Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you (Matthew 13:22).

“Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Thank you for always being there for me. With your grace and forgiveness of course. And also making me “more than a conquerer” Sometimes I sure dont feel like a conquerer, or look like a conquerer. In fact sometimes it feels like and looks like the opposite. What we’ve been learning is that feeling like a loser comes from getting our focus off of the goal, which is connection and relationship with you … and onto “goals” that we have come up with ourselves.

If you are connected with me and actively in relationship with me, you will see thru my eyes and hear thru my ears like I did because I was in that tight a relationship with Father.

So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. John 5:19 NLT

Then you can go thru anything as a conquerer. Even death. Like I did, And Paul and Peter and many martyrs thru the years and even today. I’ve asked them, and none of them said that I failed them. I surely won’t fail you either. I’ll be there for you. Always. We’ll go thru things together, and when you get here, we’ll have a party and you can compare notes with others who’ve gone before.