I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. (Psalm 18:23-26)
Are you wondering like me who is the guy the Lord is revealing himself to as blameless? As pure? I’m thinking it could be a while before I see the blameless side of God! And the pure side? Well… But wait, there may be a key here that can give us a little hope. “According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight“
We know that God sees that which we don’t. Thankfully he also sees in us where we are going in our walk, not just where we are right now. So if the Lord is revealing himself to you as pure it may be He is revealing to you a living expression of purity to help form that which is in you, but is still immature. When we received salvation we became a new creation. The old man is dead. We received in that exchange all we need to walk out a lifestyle of the fruits of the Spirit. So it is not that we don’t have the fullness of the nature of God living in us now. The challenge for most of us is that we have not had an expression of that before us to pattern our lives after.
You may be shouting “Amen” with me right now. You haven’t had anyone really guide you through what this looks like. And you don’t
feel God revealing himself to you as anything! So as we encounter the loss of loved ones, sickness, financial struggles, and broken relationships how do we navigate those times in partnership with the Lord and walk steadily in the Spirit when we don’t know what it looks like? There is a big list in Hebrews 11 of people that seemed to figure it out. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Hebrews 11:35
These men and women were walking out Romans 8:25 “But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” We are exhorted to remember God’s blessings throughout our lives to remind us of his faithfulness. And it encourages us to believe for that which we are desiring to see in the days ahead. But that which truly works hope and eager expectation in our hearts is to see that which has not materialized yet, but is coming. To see in the Spirit! So like most of us you haven’t had a mentor to disciple you through the pitfalls of life? It’s okay. The Holy Spirit is a pretty good mentor to pattern our lives after. And we have to learn to see what the Spirit is modeling for us to walk out in our day to day lives. When we see a vision of what God desires to do we can be specific in our prayers, agreeing with God’s plan. It is nearly always completely different than any option we had considered.
We don’t get excited many times about the days ahead because we expect things to be the same as they have always been. We don’t expect God to do something new. To surprise us. ”Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? (Isaiah 43:18-19) “I will do a new thing!” We need the Spirit to see what he really has for us, “for you have not passed this way before”. We need our spiritual imagination unlocked. God’s desires for us can’t be seen any other way. And He loves to reveal it to us! “Shall you not know it?”
The key then lies in us pursuing vision in the Spirit through prayer. Removing any sin or hindrances to us seeing clearly the kingdom of God. And then pay attention to how God is revealing himself to you. It is in noticing what God is doing in us at the moment that we can be intentional in our prayers and where our time should be spent to receive all that he desires to release to us. In addition God exhorts us to ask him to reveal himself to us in new ways. What aspect of his nature do you desire to see? Ask him to reveal it. Be specific.
If you are unsure where to start, this Psalm is perfect. God responds to David’s prayer with all the fury of a valiant warrior fighting for his son, pouring out the fullness of his wrath against David’s enemies. Would you like to experience the consuming, jealous love of a Bridegroom for his bride? Of a father for his child? Ask him. He really wants to show you!
Have you ever seen a scene like this? It seems to take your breath. You just want to sit there and gaze at it for hours. Makes me wonder about a moment in history that I may have misread. I’m talking about Moses. He came down from the mountain after having been in the presence of God and his face was glowing with the radiance of God! I remember the people being afraid of him and not daring to look at his face. Though this expression of the Lord’s countenance resting on a man is an unusual event at the least, I wonder if it was only fear that caused their reaction? Could there also have been an element of beauty that they found shining on this man just too much to bear.












