Be still, my soul

Matt. 3:17 says, “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Jordan says, “Get a hold of that will you, because Paul, when he says ‘you’re accepted in the beloved,’ takes us back to this special moment of the Father’s public pronouncement of His Son being the one in whom He is well pleased.

“The Lord Jesus Christ did not preach one sermon, He did not work one miracle, He began His public ministry with the approval of the Father. He had that up front before He did anything. And He lived out of a consciousness of the fact of who He is and who He was. He lived out of the identity He had as the Christ, the Son of the living God.

“Matthew 12:18. Quoting Isaiah 42, He says ‘Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.’

“In chapter 17, when they go up on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus ‘was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
[3] And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
[4] Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
[5] While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
[6] And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.
[7] And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.’

“When Paul says ‘we are accepted in the beloved,’ that’s just simply saying that the Father, when He looks at us, sees us in Christ but He sees us in the beloved one in whom He’s well-pleased.

“Do you understand today you’re accepted by God? You are acceptable TO God.

“You know, feelings of rejection, alienation, are some of the most painful and damaging emotions. They lead to distorted images of your own value and the unfruitful coping patterns people develop. They become deeply embedded in our personalities. We look at ourselves and we see the tempers, the peevish minds, the rebellious thinking, the coldness, the barrenness--even in the business of life.

“We sense what the song writer said, ‘Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.’ We see that in ourselves and we begin to think that God looks at us that way too. It’s because you’ve spent all that time thinking that way and you slide back into that.

“When you’re out trying to seek the approval of men, you know what that is? That’s really idolatry. You’re giving men, people, whether it’s you or someone else, the position that only God ought to have in your life. The antidote is this complete forgiveness and acceptance in Christ and you just simply resting in that perfect identity that God gives you in the beloved and the love of God to you in Christ Jesus.

“Romans 8:35 is a passage if you’ve never memorized, you ought to be getting this passage into your frame of reference. This passage can absolutely transform your life this week!

“What does tribulation do if you’re walking in the wisdom of God’s Word, living in God’s grace? It works patience! If you’re thinking about yourself the way God thinks about it, instead of saying, ‘Here’s trouble coming into my life—God’s after me, God’s trying to get me, God’s going to nail me!’ You think, ‘Wait a minute, I’m accepted in the beloved, God has equipped me, whether it’s personal problems, economic problems, or peril, or sword, or nakedness, all the things that we fear.

“ ‘I can stay with the word, stay with who I am and that will work some experience.’  You’re just listening to a bunch of yoyos on the news media who are trying to get you to tune in so they can go to the bank, cash in on the commercials they’re selling you. That’s all that is. You can get caught up in the dust and the fluff out there and act like God’s forsaken you. You act like if you don’t get your way in it, God’s forsaken you. You let all that stuff crowd in your mind and you forget who you really are. You’re out there getting slaughtered and yet you’re more than conquerors through Him that loved us!

*****

“Exodus 28:36. What’s the first thing you notice when you notice people? You’re supposed to say their eyes. So he’s going to take this plate, this little crown or nameplate, and put it right across this high priest’s forehead and it’s going to say, ‘Holiness to the Lord.’

“Have you ever noticed you got this blank space (your forehead) that would be a good place to write things? So God writes across Aaron. Every time they looked at Aaron, he’s going to go into the holy of holies, into the presence of God and represent Israel and across that he’s got ‘Holiness to the Lord.’ That’s why it’s called the holy crown.

“When he goes in, it’s in him who is God’s righteousness, that they had acceptance. Just as Aaron would go in and it’d be the holy crown upon his head, the first thing they would see (even with all the beautiful garment he had on), the thing that stood above all the rest was his forehead. When you and I stand before God we have on our forehead, ‘Accepted in the Beloved.’

*****

“One of the greatest illustrations of this in Scripture is a young boy by the name of Mephibosheth. A couple of years ago at a conference they sang a song about Lo-debar and I became conscious that a lot of folks didn’t know what Lo-debar was.

M was one of the sons of Saul. When news came to the palace that Saul had been killed and his son Jonathan died in battle, people in the palace panicked. They were afraid David was going to come to seize the throne and would kill all the sons and grandsons of Saul and wipe them all out.

“So a nurse took Mephibosheth (he was 5 years old and was the son of Jonathan, the one who David loved as his own soul—they were soul mates) and ran and when she did, fleeing with the 5-year-old, the boy fell and he became lame in both his feet.

“The little boy was crippled and they ran to a place called Lo-debar and hid there. The name Lo-debar means ‘place no pasture.’ You remember ‘my lord is my shepherd I shall not want, he leadeth me beside the still waters’? Well this was the place of none of that. No provision from God.

“They’re down there in exile. David is king now and he said, ‘Kindness for Jonathan’s sake.’ You see, that little boy became lame because of some bad news based on a lie. They thought, ‘David will come and kill him!’ But David had made a covenant with Jonathan to do good. He would have come and blessed Israel and taken care of them.

Mephibosheth said, ‘You’re doing all this for a dead dog like me?!’ and David said, ‘No son, you’re not a dead dog. You’re going to be one of my boys. I’m going to sit you at my table and you’re going to be just like one of my sons.’

“What did we read in Ephesians 1 about adoption? You take somebody who’s not your natural child and put them at the table and treat them like they are—give them the same status. David adopted Mephibosheth.

“In the story, Saul is like Adam. He was king and lost his kingdom out of unbelief and rebellion. Jonathan is like the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the opposite. He was the perfect one.

“David is a picture of God the Father and Mephibosheth is a picture of the sinner. Crippled, lame in both feet, can’t walk and got that way because he got a bad message based on a lie. He thought God was out to get him; God was out to destroy him.

“It turned out David had just the exact opposite in mind. He said, ‘I’m not after your life. I’m looking for you to show you kindness, to take care of you, to restore you to all the things that your granddad lost.’ ”