SCRIPTURE: "Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation". Psalm 5:1 (KJV)

As many of you know, I have taken a week to seek the Lord's leading in this ministry and I have to tell you, it wasn't easy. I don't how many times throughout the day and night I would cry out, "GIVE EAR TO MY WORDS, O LORD, CONSIDER MY MEDITATION".

Can I tell you that although the Lord is attentive to our cries and truly is truly concerned about our cries, He is not always "moved" to do anything different in our lives - just be cause we cry out to Him. (scripture about the still small voice) I can't help believe that David had possibly felt some of what I was feeling during those late night hours when the shadows would come and the lights were dimmed and I had not yet heard from the Lord. Saturday, Sunday, Monday... "COME ON LORD... You see me here and I am serious about this. I need to know your heart and hear your voice SOON! Monday is just around the corner. I need to have something decided by then Lord - talk to me! Can you imagine? Me, a mere human, giving the Lord "a time-table" from which to work.

It's not that I believe the Lord is stubborn or callous or heartless... He's just sovereign. He can and will work His good pleasure in my life and in this ministry as He so desires as long as I am "in tune" with Him. That was the rub. I wasn't in tune. I hadn't sought Him out throughout several months of working tirelessly and regimentally doing what I knew had to be done - and quite frankly, when you get the horse running and your rounding the stretch to victory... it's not the time to say, "WHOA NELLY!!!" "Let's go back to the barn and have a chat." "I need to know 'your' desire before we cross that finish line and you win this thing." That would be foolish - wouldn't it?

In the heat of battle - just as the men are topping the hill - ready to seize their initiative, is not the time to pull back and say, "Hey you know, I really would like to know if the way I'm doing all of this, is just exactly what the General was looking for". In fact, that one could be deadly as well as foolish couldn't it? And for all of you who are sitting there with the notion that "retreat" is sometimes a necessary option in the heat of battle... I hear you - and I'm going to get back to you on that one before we're through.

But our text here today tells us that David needed God to hear him. How I needed to hear from God... but nothing came - at least not like you would think. I mean I was expecting - okay, hoping for some awesome validation from the Lord so that I could come back to you today and report with a, "THUS SAITH THE LORD" attached to it. Nothing... Nothing at all.... at least like that.

But there "was" that chapter in Psalm 5 nagging my spirit as I pushed it aside day after day and night after night seeking a WORD FROM THE LORD... ever gently tapping the timeline I had set for Him to give me a decision. Can you believe it? Thinking that for my much speaking and continued asking He would come to the door and give me what I wanted - just because I called in the midnight hour. But I found a verse in Ecclesiastes that set my mind straight on that and here's what it says:

"Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few." Ecc 5:2 (KJV)

Uh-oh... another confirmation on His Supremacy and his Sovereignty in my life - in everyone's life who is yielded to Him.

"Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation".

Just what am I looking for here Lord? What will you give me to assure me Your will for this ministry and for me in the coming years?

Nothing! I became depressed somewhat and even wondered if God had heard me at all. Perhaps my nudge to pull aside and seek Him was realized too late and some wonderful thing He had for me He gave to some one else and I missed out.

And finally I felt a presence of the Lord as I heard the Spirit of God recite to me the words...

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."
Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)

So as I read on through the chapter of Jeremiah 29 I found these words...

"Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jer 29:12,13 (KJV)

Sound confusing? Contradictory? It's not. I told those of you who were saying that "retreat" is sometimes a necessary option in the heat of battle that I would get back to you, and this is it.

That word "retreat" can mean:

"the forced or strategic withdrawal of an army or an armed force before an enemy, or the withdrawing of a naval force from action."

It can also have the meaning of:

The act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion; a place of refuge.

You see, God wasn't interested in David's words or his meditation as much as he was about his spirit. He was looking for that same spirit of those marines and army soldiers who had connected with the hearts and minds and were ready to lay down their lives to reach the top of that hill and go over the top and claim victory. He was interested in a man who once played his harp "in the Spirit" and touched the very Hem of God's Throne. He was interested in a young boy who killed a bear and ripped a lion in half with his bare hands because he KNEW THAT HE KNEW that the Lord was with him. I mean, it's safe to say that David had no clue that a bear or a lion or even a mangy old Giant Philistine was going to get in his way, but he didn't have to retreat, because He knew in is spirit, that the Lord would never fail him.

In closing for today, let me just tell you that we have a tendency as humans to see our life as so huge and so overwhelming that we think we need to go into covert OPS with the Lord and "sync" out time pieces and make sure were right on target for where God had planned for us to be right at this point in time. We forget that God was the one that coined that term "on the fly". he is big enough and powerful enough that he can readjust thins in your life and even totally change them and you will never even know it because your "in the flow" allowing Him to work "on the fly" and the outcome is VICTORY all the way.

Oh I'm not done yet... but we'll have to continue this in tomorrow's edition of In The Garden.

Let's pray.

Father, I don't often see the way you've planned for me because I'm too busy strategizing and planning and working it all out in my own mind. Teach me the importance of trusting not just those awesome times when you do come to me and make things so crystal clear... but to so connect in my spirit on a daily basis that I know that I know that I know that whether I see any result or not in this worldwide ministry, that you are working and that your WORD will not return unto you void. I continue for you, In Jesus' Name, Amen.