The Lord had us read Psm 1 and then gave us this Word:

“In other words, do not take advice and guidance from unrighteous persons says the Lord.

A righteous person is one who walks in the way of the Lord, a person who acts in a “certain way”.

An unrighteous person is by default a wicked person. There is no middle ground says the Lord. You are either righteous or not, wicked or not.

Just as a man cannot serve both God and mammon, he cannot be both righteous and wicked.

The council of the wicked can never lead to righteousness. If you are a righteous person, who does stand in the council of the wicked, it does not turn you into a wicked person, it simply makes your righteousness ineffective. When your righteousness is ineffective, the Lord cannot bless you, hence ‘blessed is the man who does not stand in the council of the wicked’.

By the same token; blessed is NOT the man who stands in the council of the wicked.

So, who are the wicked? Are they demonic looking people with horns sticking out of their heads? How do you spot them? It’s simple; they are the opposite of the righteous. So by the very fact that they are not righteous, they have to be wicked. So the easiest way to know if they are righteous is what?

Their fruit.

Matt 7:16 ‘ by their fruit you will recognize them’ So it is a very simple discernment. The fruit being produced by people will immediately tell you if they are righteous or not. You cannot make a judgment, for it is not your place to judge, but you can make an observation based on your knowledge of the truth. The Lord did not say ‘don’t be in the presence of the wicked’. You cannot be a light to the world by avoiding it.

The key is not to mastermind with or take advice from unrighteous people. Your primary council is the Holy Spirit says the Lord.

Having said all this, you are entirely responsible for your own fruit. You cannot point fingers or blame others for the fruit in your own life. Whatever circumstances and conditions have blossomed in your life, has been caused by the seeds that you have allowed to be planted.

You must take responsibility for that crop. Just as the farmer who gets an unsatisfactory result, if there is fruit that you don’t want to repeat, you must start over. Tear out that fruit and discard it. Thus eliminate that thought and behavior. Prune that tree back to the roots- now start adding food, the Word, to those roots. Shine life giving light, through the Holy Spirit, onto that tree, nurture it with righteousness and expect a bumper crop of big fruit that is sweet to the taste, life giving and attractive to others. So much so that they will want to know how to get some for themselves. And so the truth will spread and the number of those walking in righteousness will multiply.

What is my fruit?

I have provided a complete formula which you have never completely followed says the Lord. As you know there is no condemnation from Me, just disappointment at the undeveloped potential. The formula is your guide. Like any other ‘recipe’, if you do not use it or you miss out certain ingredients, it does not work. Your body works to a formula. Suppose it says today ‘ well I guess I won’t bother with the breathing today’ what would happen? Precisely, every part of the formula has to be applied to make it function and bear fruit.

My Formula will keep you on track. That way, you are standing in My council and not that of the wicked. Do not concern yourself with times or schedules. Do concern yourself with right thinking followed by right actions.

As I have said before many times, everything is spiritual. The spiritual battle is waged at a vibrational level. Your words and thoughts set up that vibration. So again, prayer ( spoken thoughts) is your only weapon in that realm. Use it unceasingly. Pray without ceasing. It requires total focus and constant remembrance of its importance.

Every inclination towards anger takes you away from your connection with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not function in an environment that is hostile. By allowing others to evoke bitterness or anger, you are cheating yourself from the power of your divine connection. When anger or similar feelings arise, recognize them immediately for what they are, the fleshly worldly side of your nature attempting to gain control of your thoughts and actions causing you to behave in an ungodly manner.

Apply the truth to the situation ‘ what does the Word of the Lord say?’ Once you have meditated on that , the way forward will be clearly defined.

Everything you do must be done from a standpoint of love. The enemy cannot abide in an atmosphere of love. Acting in love is an ‘act of resistance’. It is taking the very essence of evil and pushing it away with a force so powerful, it wins every time. God is love. Take steps every day to demonstrate the love of God to people.

By focussing on the spiritual connection with the Lord, you can slow time down. Things do not ‘rush by’ in the supernatural like they do in the natural. The goal is not to live a supernatural life hidden away from the world, but to live it in the midst of the chaos, providing a calming loving influence.”

After the Lord gave us this Word, we meditated upon it and made the following notes:

Maintain unwavering faith. Work with the Lord through His Word and His principals to co-create that reality. Allowing your faith to waver means that you are believing a lie. Once believing a lie, you have moved over to ‘the council of the wicked’  and out of the range of blessing.

It is good to study the formula that The Lord gave us . It is printed under the tab ” about us” on the home page. We must fit everything else into the formula with no compromises. The world will tell you otherwise, the circumstances will tell you otherwise. This is all the council of the wicked.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resisting is an ACTION.

RESIST. It is not going to be easy, but resistance causes terror to the enemy and he will not walk away, he will FLEE says the Word.

Refuse to retreat. The Lord continuously reminds us “DO NOT focus on past wrong actions, you cannot re-plant dead fruit”

The Lord said to us “do not concern yourself with the PROCESS. Do righteously and focus on the OUTCOME  by FAITH and I will take care of the process”

The world and everything that exists was created by the WORD. You and I have creative power by our WORDS (as the scripture says ‘by your words you will be condemned, by your words you will be set free’)

The Book of James says much about the tongue. “…….if a man is never be at fault at what he says, such a man is a perfect man’

Now if the whole creation is subject to the law and authority of God, Satan must be too, right? The Lord gave the enemy the legal right  ‘to dwell in darkness’. Now when we, even by default, speak doubt, fear and unbelief, we create darkness by the very words we speak. And who has the legal right to dwell there!?

Therefore, speak LIGHT at ALL times.

When a thought of despair enters your head and wants to make its way into a spoken word. STOP. Speak light. Fill yourself up with the WORD of God and then speak it.

Our lives are filled with ‘useless’ harvest. We spoke those things into being and are surprised they ‘sprung to life ‘?

The Word says God sowed wheat and the enemy came at night and sowed tares.

Have you seen a tare? It looks JUST like wheat. But only by their ‘fruit’ will you know them. Sow the WORD.

Sometimes we pray for years and years and see nothing, and we pray more and get into despair. We cry ‘Lord Lord- why? Lord when? Lord! How long? But the Lord will answer and say “for too long you speak with a forked tongue. A spring cannot bring forth both bitter and sweet water. You cannot serve both me and mammon.”

We seek desperately after ‘things’ and it is not bad things we seek, by all means, but we become like the church in Revelation. ‘We lose our first love.’  We profess and we pray and we worship, but we are in ‘agony’ in our souls. We think about money day and night. Bills, payments, student loans, mortgages and the list is endless. Did the Lord not say “I will never leave or forsake you?” But we strive and we struggle in our soul. But we should draw a line in the sand and say ‘no more!”

Yahuwah! I seek your REST. Lord deliver me from this incessant striving in my soul! I seek you. I seek YOUR WILL. Give me rest so I can hear Your words to me, your direction to me.

I submit my desires to Your desires. My will to Your will. My wants to your perfect plan and now Oh Lord, set me free from ‘want and striving and the wrestling in my soul’. I will then be able to see and think and speak clearly and know the direction in which I should go.

Psalm 27 is a remarkable Psalm. It has “7” thoughts to it. David starts with ” Yahuwah  ( the LORD)  is my light and my salvation- who shall I fear? And then he continues “what can man do to me? Even if an army besieges me my heart will not fear”

The psalmist David is first emphasizing the  foundation of life. The Lord is my salvation. He is my light. He is saying; do not worry about your life ; do not fear,  you are safe.

Now what is the very next thing he says by the guidance of the Spirit?

This one thing I ask of Yahuwah ( The LORD) . This one thing I seek. That I will dwell in His presence all the days of my life. (NIV) The K.James says ‘tabernacle/ house of the Lord’ . The Hebrew translation reads ‘presence’. Then David continues ‘that I may gaze upon the beauty of Yahuwah and to seek Him in His temple’

The 3rd element to the Psalm goes right back to  ‘ in the time of trouble, He shall hide me.’  He is saying to us; when you seek to dwell in the presence of the Lord, you can ‘rest’. He will hide you in times of trouble.

Then the Psalm continues with the 4th element ‘ sacrifices of joy / music’

Only in the 5th part he makes a ‘request’ to the Lord.  “Hear my voice when I call, be merciful to me and answer me…..”

Then he says : ” teach me YOUR WAYS’ and then lastly “ WAIT on Yahuwah and He shall strengthen your heart, wait on  Yahuwah”

The Psalmist says it twice. The first ‘waiting’ is followed by ‘he will strengthen your heart’. Why? We get impatient and cry repetitiously to Him, but when we wait He will strengthen our hearts. Then he concludes again with: ‘wait on Yahuwah’.

We should seek the Lord for who He is first, and then He will give us the desires of our heart. We wait on Him because His ways is higher than ours and His seasons and times are NOT known to us.

How do we enter into this rest? We seek His face and we desire to do righteously. As Psalm 1 says BLESSED is he who does not stand in the council of the wicked. We seek to do that which is right according to the Word of the Lord and if we stumble, we repent and he will restore us immediately.

BLESSED is the man who does not stand in the council of the wicked.

If the devil speaks lies and doubts and fear and failure to us and we believe those and speak the same lies in return, we become unrighteous. Unrighteous in what we say and do and now the Lord cannot bless us. None of our projects or dreams or plans, as we are by ‘default’ unrighteous by what we speak and believe. He will NEVER take his love away from us as He is forever faithful, but His blessing will not rain upon us in our unrighteous actions.

Let us RESIST falling into speaking lies of doubt and failure and live righteously before Him and He WILL bless our plans, our actions, our hopes and dreams, for He DELIGHTS in the righteous.

He loves us even when we fall into doubts and fear. The blood of Christ has already saved us from eternal damnation forever! But now we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and seek to be right in what we do and say.

God is faithful and the LAW of His word says ” I WILL BLESS YOU”,  then He will.

There is no ‘small’ thing that you have to believe in. Be bold and courageous. Always remember, God is eager to bless that which magnifies Christ. Your ‘new project, your new job, your plans………

Amen!