WHERE DO YOU PLACE YOUR TRUST?

Five years ago I watched Bill Johnson online, the former Senior Pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California. He gave a message based on Psalm 115. It so stirred my heart that I took notes. The essence of Psalm 115 is that we become like whatever we worship.

This blog asks the question: What do you put your trust in? What are you worshipping?

Is your trust in your job? Or perhaps your trust is in money or maybe your family. But  as believers we know we are to trust in the Lord.

Psalm 115:9-11
9. O Israel, trust in the Lord!
            He is their help and their shield.
10.  O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
            He is their help and their shield.
11.  You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
            He is their help and their shield.

Note that verse 9 calls the nation to trust in the Lord. Verse 10 calls priests to trust in the Lord. Priests in the New Testament are believers. Us! See Revelation 1:6 and 5:10.

I think of the verse in Nahum 1:7. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who trust in him.

Psalm 115:4-8 speak about the idols we can make. When idolatry is mentioned in Scripture, adultery is frequently mentioned in conjunction with it. Idolatry is in the spiritual realm; adultery is in the physical realm. It is a betrayal of devotion.

Psalm 115:4-8.
4.  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
5.  They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
6.  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
7.  They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk;
            and they do not make a sound in their throat .
8. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Now that can be a frightening thought! As verse 8 says, we become like what we trust, what we worship. Yikes!!!

Making this applicable today we need to answer the question: Are we trusting in any thing more than God? Where are we placing our worship?

Prophet Bob Jones was a major prophet in the United States for more than four decades. He has gone on to be with the Lord but I’d like to provide a testimony he gave from an experience with death in 1975. Suddenly he was no longer on earth and then he had an experience with the Lord. Here is a portion of his testimony that is specific to the discussion of Psalm 115 in this blog. Bob gave this testimony in 2006 while at a conference in Albany, Oregon.

“I was in pain on the earth and blood was shooting out of my mouth like a geyser.

“And all of a sudden I wasn’t in pain anymore.  This Man, the Parakleet, stood by my side, the Holy Spirit; we started walking.  And as we walked, I saw a Man who was white light. All white light was around Him, but He was the whitest of all white lights.  He had His hands out.  As I came into that white light, there came a feeling over me like I had never known before.  I asked the Man beside me, ‘What is that?’  The Man (Holy Spirit) said, ‘It is the love of God.’  I said, ‘It’s just so wonderful, it’s so glorious.’  And He said, ‘That’s what it is; it’s the glory of God.’  I said, ‘How can it be both?’  It’s in John 17.  The love I had with the Father, the glory I had with the Father.  So that was the greatest experience I have ever had.  Just enveloped in His glorious love.  That’s possible down here.  The glory of God is coming and it is going to be in His glorious love. 

“I noticed another group of people on my left side and they had like a conveyor belt underneath them.  And they were wrapped up in all different kinds of things.  And I looked at them and I asked this Man, ‘Why are they wrapped up that way?’  And He said, ‘They were wrapped up in the earth with their gods.’  Its the gods they worshipped on the earth, that followed them into death.  They were on their way to hell with their gods.  I saw a man wrapped up in dollar bills.  I saw a man wrapped up in his sod or grass, his yard was his god.  I saw a man that had no body, he was just one big head.  He was an atheist, he worshipped himself.  He was his own god and going to hell with it.  I saw all manner of things who people worshipped on the earth, who they are going to spend eternity with. Well I worshipped the Lord and I am going to spend eternity with Him.   But these others that don’t, are going to spend eternity in total darkness with their god.  And their gods will be their tormentors, not a hundred thousand years, but eternity.

“So I looked at that line.  It was so horrible and everyone when they came there, they recognized Him.  Their eyes got big, and everyone that is going to hell has had a witness in one way or another that there is a God.  And everyone of them willingly denied Him. For each 2 in the line that I was in, there was 98 in the other line.”

Link to entire testimony:
http://www.thequickenedword.com/rhema/BobJonesTestimonyAugust81975DeathExperience.htm

In Bill Johnson’s sermon he gave an example of an individual who had known the Lord for 50 years. This man only connected with the Lord for two minutes at the end of praise and worship. Another person had known the Lord only three years but he got into the presence of the Lord many hours each week. Guess who became more like God? The one who had spent more time in the presence of Lord.  As John 4:24 says, God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

John 4:23-24
Jesus says, The hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Notice that God is not seeking worship. He’s seeking worshipers. He’s seeking people. Why does God look for people who worship? Because we become like whatever we worship. If we have idols, we’ll become like those idols. Spend time with the Lord. You will become more like Him. Trust in Him and not in anything else.