Message Bearer Memo

By Ryan Shaw

As the New Year is under way I have noticed that it is somewhat common for pastors and leaders to provide a “New Year’s challenge” or some kind of word from the Lord for the upcoming year. I have always thought this interesting as I’m not sure that God keeps time the same way we do in terms of linear thinking, but I guess He also relates with us in our understanding and we definitely think with a calendar in handJ. So, though I wasn’t desiring or planning on doing this, I want to bring us, as message bearers committed and working towards going into all the world with the gospel and taking as many people with us as we can, a word for the New Year that I sensed the Holy Spirit drop into my heart.

It comes out of Psalm 27:4, where David declares: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”

I sense the Lord is calling us to raise the bar in our own hunger and thirst for more of the Living God. We live in a generation that is longing to “see” a demonstration of those who not only talk about God and are even passionate about God, but those who have met with, and consistently meet with, the Living God. Is this the drive in our heart? Is our first priority in life and ministry to be a person who is thoroughly seeking after more of God and being able to confirm it by observing our daily schedules, and seeing extended time in God’s presence given its rightful place?

The three primary portions or categories in this scripture that relate to three specific actions on David’s part and on our part are that of dwelling, beholding, and inquiring. 

To dwell in the house of the Lord, or Temple, in those days meant that you were most likely one of the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers or other form of Temple worker. This very job caused you to consistently “live” in the Temple and afforded you the opportunity, but also the responsibility of performing the various religious rites, etc. David, however, was none of these. He was the King of Israel, not a Temple worker. He didn’t “have to” go into the Temple. Yet his heart longed for the place of drawing near to the Living God in such a way that he basically said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “God, I really don’t care that much about this King role, all I want to do is be with you. To learn of you, to understand your ways, to catch your heartbeat, to grow in character and godliness, and to lavish upon you all that you deserve from the depths of my heart.” And he was committed to finding the secret of doing this, not for a week or two, but for ALL the days of his life.

The second desire of David’s heart under the heading of the “One Thing” he sought, was to “behold” or to engage in adoration and worship. He says that this is one of the three things that, “I desire above all else in my life.” The word “beauty” used in the NKJV is actually the word “delightfulness”. David hungered to ponder, observe, and view the delightfulness of the personality of God. He wanted to experience it for himself and not just read or consider what someone else might think about it. He was a master student of the emotions, personality and the character of the living God and this is why God calls Him, “A man after my own heart.” He could not have done this, however, without devoting significant time to this endeavor.

The third category of what he sought was then to inquire in God’s Temple. Again he was not a regular Temple worker. Yet he knew that this was the place that God “lived” and thus wanted to be there as often as possible. He also knew that this was the best place to receive divine guidance and direction and to do so meant doing the prerequisite of “inquiring” or asking. David was beloved of God for many reasons and one of those was that he consistently “inquired” of the Father. Do we go to Battle? Should we proceed in this way or that way? David was a man who rarely stepped out without “inquiring”, and the one time he did, disaster struck.

Why am I highlighting these things? Well, first of all if you’re anything like me, you want to know God deeper than you do now. You want to become more of a student of His word and thus His heart. You want to experience regularly the utter exuberance of a heart that cares for nothing in this world more than worshipping Jesus with complete abandon. You want a fuller measure of the Spirit in your life. You want to know His voice leading in daily guidance and direction and so want to learn to “inquire” in such a way that His heart is moved to respond.

I believe strongly that His word to us at the beginning of this New Year is “Come up here! Let me show you great things that you never could have imagined. Let me teach you about my heart. Let me enjoy you as you enjoy me. Last year was good, but I have so much more that I want to show you and unveil to you.”

All of this is also in the context of our campuses. I wonder if this is His cry for many believers around us on campuses who love God, but are struggling under the question, “Is this all there is to this Christian thing?” They want more of God but they don’t know how to go about getting it. When our hearts are sprung wide open to hungering and thirsting for God we also become open to Him shaping us and exploding a subsequent vision for those who have no access globally to the gospel within our hearts.

An example of this comes from a fall Abandoned Devotion gathering held at Berkeley in California. A student who led worship at the gathering came because he was the one to lead worship, and because he possessed a passion for prayer, but had no desire for the nations. Through the five hour gathering of worship, praying for global concerns, and hearing challenges about reaching the world, his heart was pricked.  He left the gathering with a commitment to “GO” and vowed to make immediate changes in his future plans as a result. In a five hour time period of dwelling, beholding, and evidently inquiring, this young man went away having his heart shifted dramatically.

Let us pray together and ask God to increase our hearts obedience to being about this “One Thing” and impart it into the lives and hearts of others we interact with around the country and world. “Lord, take us further in you this year than we’ve ever gone before. Mature us in the Spirit and deepen us as those who dwell, behold and inquire!”

Ryan Shaw