01 - DWELL (Dwelling with God)

Text: “The one who dwells in the Most High's secret place stays at rest in the Almighty's protective shadow. I say to Yahweh, "My refuge, my mountain stronghold – my God, in him, I put my trust." For from the fowler's trap, he pulls you – out of death's threat, he saves you. In his feathers, he wraps you – under his wings, you find refuge – a shield, even a wall, is his faithfulness and truth.” (Psalm 91:1-4, Inspiration Translation).

Theme: God is shaking the nations for a purpose.

Intro: God is shaking the nations for a purpose. He wants us to run to him for shelter – he is the unshakeable one. All who find refuge in him will be unshakeable like him. Hebrews teaches us what the Lord is doing in these last days: he’s shaking everything that can be shaken (Heb. 12:25-29). In other words, whatever is not eternal, will not last.

The Lord reminds me of a gold panner who shakes a gold pan to find gold. Gold is heavy. So when the pan is shaken, only the gold remains. Today, I want to share some practical points about how you can dwell with God.

1) The nations are shaking, and the wind is blowing, but God offers us shelter (Ps. 91:1-4).

Recently, the Holy Spirit has been drawing me to Psalm 91 – the classic Psalm that celebrates Yahweh’s protection.

This Psalm reveals the secret to God’s protection.

Most Christians think if you just recite Psalm 91, it will protect you. They think of it as some kind of magic.

Reciting Psalm 91 is powerful because it is God’s Word.

But doing the Psalm–putting its secret into practice–that’s where the real power is.

The secret of Psalm 91 is revealed in the first verse (Ps. 91:1).

Last week, I did a video on it called “How to Stay Safe, God’s Way.”

I’m not going to share everything in that video, but you can find it on my YouTube Channel: Glen Gerhauser (https://www.bit.ly/holyfireyoutube).

Simply put, the secret is dwelling with God intimately.

This week, I’ve been building on that teaching, and I made an infographic called “How to Stay Safe, God’s Way.”

You can find it @ https://www.brisbanefire.com/infographics

The infographic is different from the video because it gives five pointers on how to dwell with God.

And today, I want to cover the first two: 1) Draw Close and 2) Worship.

But before I cover those two points, I want to share a prophetic word the Lord gave me this week. It gives insight into what God is doing at the moment.

I don’t think it will surprise you. Rather, I believe it will give us some confirmation and realisation that the Lord is above all––the Most High.

Last week, after we found out that Anna didn’t have COVID, I went on my annual prayer retreat.

I spent a good amount of time worshipping.

Basically, the Lord had me practice all these points I will be sharing about dwelling with him.

2) Draw close (Ps. 91:1-4).

The cry of God’s heart is that we would draw close to him.

The temptation for us is to worship him from afar like the Israelites did when Moses set up the first Tent of Meeting (Exo. 33:7-11).

Moses drew close to God––right into God’s shelter––his tent of meeting.

However, Israel worshipped from afar.

I was at Caloundra (Sunshine Coast) for my annual prayer retreat. The weather bureau issued a strong wind alert on the first full day. Throughout my time there, there were unusually high winds. Then, on the day I left, it died down.

Due to the strong winds, there were dead branches everywhere. The waves were wild and high. Clouds were passing through quickly, and one storm after another was rolling in. Whatever was not secure was blown away.

Out of the winds, the Lord spoke to me, saying,

“High wind alert. Strong winds have been blowing and will continue to blow. Seek shelter in me. Every branch in me that is not securely attached will be blown away. This season is all about drawing close to me. Through these winds, I am testing everyone’s connection with me. Religion will not keep you safe. Zeal is not sufficient. Lots of activity will only make you weak. You need to find your satisfaction in me. I am the secret place of shelter.”

There’s more to this prophetic word, but I will share more of it next week.

So, how do you draw close to God?

Hebrews 10:19-22 holds the answer.

What do you see in those verses?

3) Worship (Rev. 4:8-11).

Worship––this is my last point for today.

How do you dwell with God?

The first thing is to draw close.

The second is worship.

John the Apostle gives us a clear picture of what is happening in God’s throne room, his dwelling place.

There is continual, non-stop, 24/7 worship.

We also see this picture in the Ark of the Covenant.

God dwells between the wings of the cherubim. The picture is that the cherubim surround God’s throne with worship.

Anna and Valerie dropped me off at the place I was staying for the prayer retreat, and I didn’t expect what would happen to me right when they left. Encounters with God often happen suddenly.

I played an old worship album called Intimacy by Vineyard Worship.

It has songs by worship leaders Scott Underwood, Brian Doerksen and Brent Helming.

There’s something very special about the album. The songs come out of the move of God in the 90s, and Lindell Cooley would often play them in the revival in Pensacola.

When I turned on the album, I began reading Psalm 25:1: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul, O my God, in You I trust…”

As I read that, I began to weep before the Lord. And I wept for about an hour as I worshipped God.

I felt the Lord very near to me. I felt his closeness and intimacy. I know he is there even if I don’t feel him in that way. But this was very tangible. In my mind, I was clinging to Jesus’ feet like the woman with the alabaster jar (Luke 7:36-5).

I was weeping because I was worshipping Jesus and bringing all my pain to him.

I was weeping because I was so grateful for Jesus’ grace, mercy and forgiveness.

But most of all, I was weeping because I love Jesus so much.

At that moment, I didn’t want to minister, preach, pastor or write––I just wanted to be with him. Everything else faded away.

The weeping continued through much of the retreat. Soon it turned into waiting, writing and warfare – but it all began with worship.

And I guess I want to encourage us to engage in heartfelt and raw worship when we are alone. God dwells with his worshippers.

Conclusion: So today, we’ve seen that the nations are shaking and there’s a strong wind blowing, but God offers us shelter. And we can practically dwell with him––finding refuge and safety in him––by drawing close to him and worshipping.

Now, I want to play a couple of those songs on the Intimacy album and just practice drawing near and worshipping. You don’t have to weep, but let’s be real.

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