“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”

“My God, My God… the expanded truth…!

Much of what I write contains expanded truth, truth expanded by additional understanding brought, I absolutely believe, by the Holy Spirit through the scriptures. He takes what we have known or believed and puts it with something less known from the Word in order to expand or make clear something Jesus said or experienced. I believe His efforts have eternal ramifications. They are protective as well as preparative.

Jesus called it, “All truth” as guided to by the Spirit of Truth. John 16:12-13. It is always to be understood as superseding or expanding what we already knew, even what we thought according to Jesus’ own words!  My God, My God…! Jesus said, “He [the Spirit of Truth] will disclose to you what is to come.” “To come,” That is, what is expected of you and what you can expect!

Do you believe Jesus knew the thoughts of those standing around the Cross witnessing His crucifixion?  So often we read of Jesus knowing what thoughts were in the hearts of those listening to Him. Why would it be any different on the cross? His awareness might even be heightened. And so He cries out! 

Psalm 22:1-2 NASB77 “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Jesus is still speaking as the Father would have Him speak!

John 8:28 (NASB77)
²⁸  Jesus therefore said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”

Read on as the verse Psalms 22 1-2 continues, “Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.” David the Psalmist recognizes he is speaking against his own possible deliverance by his groaning exclamation of God being unfaithful, of God forsaking? Do we see that? Jesus knows better!!!

Jesus on the cross, knows what those observing are thinking. “It is a lie, He is a fraud!” They are very aware of this song of David, and how the rest of it goes. Is Jesus reminding them? Now would be a good time yes?

Psalm 22:3 (NASB77)
”Yet Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” David’s heart knows, and now his own words come into alignment.

In verses Psalm 22: 4-5 David declares the trust in God his forefathers had. In verse 22:6-8 we see David examining himself in light of men’s opinions. “I am a worm… despised…sneered at… mocked…” just as Jesus was during the Passion and on the cross.

In Psalm 22: 9-18, we see the prophetic description of the crucifixion. Christ is experiencing the prophetic fulfillment, as He points to it in exclamation!

Again, a positive shift, as we see the words of David in 22:19-31 become more uplifting and faith filled. Praise and deliverance is expressed.

In Psalm 22 we see important understanding that I believe Jesus was absolutely pointing to when He cried out the opening phrase of Psalms 22:1 “My God, My God…”

So why this psalm? Look what comes next. Psalm 22:19 (NASB77) Imagine Jesus thinking this.
”But Thou, O LORD, be not far off; O Thou my help, hasten to my assistance.”

Psalm 22:24 (NASB77)
”For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Neither has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” David was concerned but is Jesus?

For centuries, we have called Jesus forsaken for various reasons, mostly because He said the words.

In Jesus’ life, in this moment, He IS the afflicted of Psalms 22 and is pointing to it! He is afflicted with OUR sin, as well as with horrendous wounds by mankind’s hand. “Neither has He [God] hidden His face from him [Jesus] ; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” Psalms 22:24 NASB. [added for clarity]

Are you seeing what I see? Jesus was NOT forsaken by the Father! His quoting the opening verse of the Psalm 22 scripture is meant to clarify to observers, to Jews, who Jesus is! It is prophetic confirmation, especially to Jews, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and the son of David! See this through Jesus’ eyes.

The Father did not look away because of sin!!! (Man’s traditional assumption) How could he have faced Adam and Eve? How would He know our desperate need? The enemy uses this to stab us with rejection thoughts and hopelessness.

Father God does not look away because of our sin!!! Instead God looks for what is in our hearts when we sin. Is there remorse, praise, appeal, is there repentance? “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him….” Job 13:15 (KJV) What will be in our hearts in the coming troubled times, or right now?”

Daily, do we have reverence for Him in light of and with a vision of our place in His future kingdom?

Isn’t the good news really about the kingdom and so about its inhabitants? Can their character be different than Christ’s? Do we not read that Jesus came to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? See Matthew 4:23, 9:35, and especially Matthew 24:13-14 (NASB77) “And this gospel of the kingdom [about enduring, saving love] shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” Doing this [preaching this specific message] brings a conclusion? It sounds like it. If not the end then the beginning of the end. We are to obediently preach it around the world and then the end comes. We initiate the end according to Jesus.  This is our part and glory in Christ.

Jesus knew how the kingdom works will then work for us! He was sent to teach us! We must “work it” as Jesus did. This not about getting saved. It is about staying saved. It is after our reconciliation to God by the blood of the Lamb. Then by obediently following Jesus, we then qualify as obedient citizens. Father God is waiting on us each to do just that!

1 Samuel 15:22 (NASB77)
²²  And Samuel said, ” Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”

Through David’s song, PS 22, which Jesus knew they knew, Jesus is declaring the divinity of the moment, NOT that He feels or thinks in any way that He has been forsaken.

“He who hears, let him hear.”

What we have thought to be true is being clarified by the Holy Spirit for our sake to strengthen us lest we doubt at some more critical time, by “feeling forsaken”.

Have you felt forsaken? I lost my beloved wife Janis 3 years ago this coming December 12th after thousands of interceding prayers had been prayed for her around the world. Neither she nor I was forsaken!

“I want her with Me,” was spoken to me 24 hours before her passing.  In our grief can we accept, The Lord gives, the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord!  Or will our tragedy be a dagger in our hearts toward God and His very existence? “Betrayed” believers are serious candidates to be lost in the Apostasy when God has not betrayed them at all!

Janis arriving in my life was a divine event. Living with her was divine, really it was. Her departure must also precipitate a divine reverence in me toward Father God, along with the hope that I will accomplish His divine will for me in the earth while I remain. This is a will for me that Janis believed in and supported. It is a will I might have forsaken out of my love for Janis. Why might that be? Because when the Lord said, “I want her with Me.” He also said, “I can’t trust you with her.”

“I can’t trust you with her.” WHAT Lord? No response. Janis passes. It was weeks later on a Saturday morning as I awoke, now alone, thinking about such a troubling word. You can imagine why. He then said, “You have it all wrong. You cannot do what I have called you to do and care for her also. I cannot trust you with her … so I want her with Me.”

His calling in me, the task He has shown me, was more important to Him than all the good Janis represented in this life, to me or to Him. Everybody loved Janis! He…loves everybody!

Now you know why I am absolutely dedicated to this rescue mission. He has trusted me and  taught me for such a time as this and by His grace I will NOT let Him down.

You are more important than me, just as the 12 were more important after “The Word” lived, taught, died and was resurrected. The future inhabitants of eternity are likewise in our hands and hearts.

Can we accept the fact that God’s people are to be swept up in the flow of the darkness to come and some in the Apostasy, just as Joshua and Caleb were swept up for 40 years in the desert because the other spies came back with a bad report? Bet on it “follower” and be ready for it you enduring over comer! They ended up leading. So will we!

Oh loved ones, we are never forsaken! Jesus was never forsaken even for a second!

Let us never forsake; not just in the face of death but in the face of life and its challenges, a far more subtle threat.

The Apostasy has already begun. Falling away is not always sudden. Life itself holds a dagger for our hearts.

We have been given a means of escape. Do we know for sure what it is? The kingdom requires its use, its keys. Maintaining a kingdom-like heart is our daily escape from destruction.

We are to go beyond our initial reconciliation by the death of Jesus. In fact, Paul says, “…we are saved by His life!” in Romans 5:10. In Romans 8:2, and John 3:36. we find more of the expanded clarity we must grasp. Read them…. please.

Strengthen your personal spiritual foundations, be a house built on the Rock and all the characteristics of that Rock. Ask any builder. The foundation is critical but then you have to build the house on it by the rules that apply. Paul says, “…we are saved by His life!” Romans 5:10 NASB

The next post, “Bad guy, bad day or the bad guy rapture!”

“If we remain in His grip, how far from His heart can we be!”

Michael

    Exit Strategy

   We initiate the return of Christ!  (The E-book)

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