From the desk of Steve Shultz:
It always returns to "prayer" being the basic of life for everything. There is so much power, peace, growth, rest, intimacy with our Lord as we pray to Him...the list is long of its benefits. This word by Tiffany Ann Lewis will be a great encouragement to everyone, no matter what your circumstance or situation is. As Tiffany shares in her article, we are hidden in the "cleft of the Rock" and "the same portal of prayer that Jesus had is only a whisper away."
Here are also a couple of great prophetic resources that will encourage you along with this article.
Blessings,
Steve Shultz, Founder and Publisher
The ElijahList, Breaking Christian News and Prophetic.tv
http://www.elijahlist.com
Tiffany Ann Lewis:
"The Same Portal of Prayer that Jesus Had is Only a Whisper Away"
"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."—Psalm 91:1
The Hebrew word for dwell here is yashab and it means to sit, stay, remain, dwell; yet so often in the midst of turmoil, this is nearly impossible to do. It's basic survival, when we are in turbulent times, the storms of life (like lay-offs at work, bad medical reports, unhappy homes etc.), to fight to stay alive. But the Kingdom of God is super-natural, not natural, and the Kingdom way is, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).
Beloved, when the devil is huffing and puffing and threatening to blow our house down, we need to get under the shadow of the Almighty. You see, in this God-space the devil can't mess with us. We have the mind of Christ and are hidden in Him. Here, in the secret place, we are sheltered under the shadow of His wings.
But How Do We Get There?
Through the Portal of Prayer
All of the disciples of Jesus eventually say, "Lord, teach me to pray," and there are countless books on the subject. Today, I don't want to look at what the Lord taught us to say; instead, I want to look at where the Lord taught us to stay.
When the disciples asked Jesus this crucial question, they were in "a certain place" (see Luke 11:1). Scripture doesn't define where or what this "place" is, but by definition it was a place or portion of space that is marked off from a surrounding space or an inhabited place.
Throughout the Gospels we see that Jesus often withdrew to the mountains to pray. Now, before we go sprinting off to the mountains, let's recognize that it's about withdrawing to a space that is simply separated from another, a sacred space if you will.
God is omnipresent; He is in all space at all times. He is always with us, but we may feel like we are not always with Him. However, we can immediately change that and step into God's space through prayer by switching our mental focus. It might be just for a moment to catch our breath, it might be for an hour, or maybe the Lord is calling you away for a full day. Either way, prayer is like a ladder which we can climb, in the Spirit, into His secret abode.
It's not as complicated as it might seem. When we look at the many examples of prayer in the Bible, we read that so-and-so "said to God..." or, "and God said..." Prayer is simply dialogue between God and man—communication between Heaven and earth.
It's interesting to note that the Jewish Sages suggest that Jacob's ladder is a metaphor for prayer. Every letter in Hebrew has a numerical value, and the word for ladder, which is sullam, and the word for voice, which is kol, share the same numerical value. How cool is that? In prayer we lift our voice to God and He responds to us with His voice. It is like a ladder where dialogue between Heaven and earth goes back and forth, up and down.
Now, what was the significance of Jacob's ladder? Interpretations abound, yet looking at it in Hebrew it is simply staggering. The word used here for ladder is sullam (Strong's #5551). There are other words that could have been used for stairway and ladder, but here, and only here, the word sullam is used. Sullam comes from the root (salal) which means: cast up, lift up, and exalt.
1 Peter 5:7 teaches us that we can lift up or cast our cares upon Jesus because He cares for us. So many times we don't want to bother God with the little cares of our lives. But that is just a lie, a fiery dart that the enemy throws at us. Remember always that Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem...How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Matthew 23:37).
He wants...yes, wants to gather us. He wants to gather us when we've lost our job. He wants to gather us when we're disappointed and we've lost our hope. He wants to gather us when we've lost our loved one. The Almighty wants to hold us and hide us in the shadow of His wings and wipe away our tears. Allow Him to gather you and hold you today. Even though it hurts, don't let the pain cause you to run away. Be still and find your refuge in His arms of love.
"You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance...Selah."—Psalm 32:7
It's not surprising that our root word (salal) also appears in 1 Samuel 23:28 referring to King David's hiding place when he was in the wilderness, Selahammahlekoth (Strong's #5555). This word means: rock of escape, rock of hiding, refuge, the cliff of escapes, or the cliff of divisions. This brings the hymn "Rock of Ages" to a whole new level, doesn't it?
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee; let the water and the Blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure.
He is the Rock we run to, a strong tower forever. Please notice the Strong's concordance number, 5555. Five is the number for grace. It's as if the God of the universe has orchestrated all this so that we might hear Him say "grace, grace, grace, grace" ringing out in our times of need, when the dark cloud seems to remain over our head and we don't know what to do. At times like this, the devil comes at us with doubt and fear to steal the seed of God's Word that was sown in our hearts—the grace that we have received freely. However, in the shadow of His wing the devil can't touch it.
"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). We need to hear this dialogue, beloved. The entirety of the Bible is God's Word; it is something that God has said, it is His dialogue to us. Jesus Christ is this Word in the flesh. He manifested on earth what God spoke in Heaven. Check this out, here, under the Shadow of the Almighty, the Holy Spirit manifests the Father and the Son to us, personally, and brings to our remembrance all the things that He said (see John 14:21; 26).
He is not a man that He would lie, and the Holy Spirit was sent to us in order to remind us of that. God said by His stripes we are healed. God said His children would not be starving for bread. God said, My peace I give unto you. God said...God said...God said.
"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His Word do I hope" (Psalm 130:5). After spending this time in the Spirit meditating on the words of His Truth, we will emerge empowered and speak to the mountains that stand in our way with shouts of Grace, grace! Be thou removed sickness; be thou removed hatred and bitterness; be thou removed depression; be thou removed lack of (fill in the blank).
We will have renewed strength to lift up our shield of faith to extinguish the fiery darts the enemy throws at us that say, "It's impossible," and shout words of the great grace we have received in Christ Jesus. "With God all things are possible! My God is with me, Immanuel, and under His shadow do I dwell. He is for me and not against me, He is faithful and on His promises do I stand!" Amen, Amen and Amen!
Selah...
Selah
The root runs deeper still, O hallelujah. The word selah, which we associate primarily as a musical term indicating some sort of pause is also from the root word (salah). May we hear what He is saying and stop, taking a mental pause to pray and climb this spiritual ladder into His presence. It is our lifeline, beloved.
We don't have to complicate this; Jesus said simply to "...pray to your Father who is in the secret place..." (Matthew 6:6). As we still our souls, as we take a mental pause, we can climb that metaphorical ladder into the heavenly realm of the Spirit. Here in His presence, in the shadow of the Almighty, the light of His Word and His truth shine through the darkness that surrounds us. This light penetrates our present circumstance and hope shines through. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it" (John 1:5 NLT). hallelujah!
Lo, I Am With You Always, Even to the End of the Age...The Master
In Jacob's dramatic dream, he encountered a ladder that stretched from Heaven to earth with angels ascending and descending on it. But even greater than that, Jacob saw the Lord Himself standing above it all and heard Him speak, "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until have done what I have spoken to you" (Genesis 28:15).
Beloved, we need these types of encounters, not for the hoo-ha of it all, but because we need to hear the voice of the Lord in the days we are in. This is the daily bread we need to survive. Therefore, we need to position ourselves for such encounters by taking a spiritual selah, a mental pause separating ourselves from the ordinary.
When Jesus was facing His darkest hour, He once again turned to prayer. After much asking, seeking and knocking, Heaven's door opened to Him: "An angel appeared to Him from Heaven, strengthening Him" (Luke 22:43). Prayer didn't take the circumstance away. Beloved, sometimes even though we pray, the situation remains. Jesus was strengthened to walk on so that the Father's will would be done through Him at Calvary. Truly, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Beloved, the same portal of prayer that Jesus had is only a whisper away for you, too.
"O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice..." (Song of Solomon 2:14 KJV). Here in the cleft of the Rock, in the secret places of the Spirit, the dialogue between Heaven and earth takes place. Under the Shadow of the Almighty, the Lord Himself reminds us that He is good, that He is our God, that He cares for us, and that it is His good pleasure to supply all of our needs according to the riches and glory found in Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen.
Tiffany Ann Lewis
Dancing with the Flame of the Lord Ministries
Email: tiffanyann@tiffanyannlewis.com
