Get Real

Ps 51:1-6 "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:

according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my

transgressions.

(2) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (3)

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. (4)

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:

that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou

judgest. (5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother

conceive me. (6) Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in

the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom." (KJV)

How do you see God?

How do you view your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?

How REAL is Jesus to you today?

Something that the Lord has been speaking to my lately has been the need

for the Body of Christ to move from a religion-based faith to a

reality-based fatih.

This may hurt some people's feelings, but I am convinced that much of what

we call faith and trust in God is really a superficial learned responseˆ

rather than a genuine internally driven moral conviction born out of an

intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe this mentality and condition has been the instrument that has

effectively stripped the church of it's power and impeded the progress and

the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

But David said in Ps. 51:6, "thou desire TRUTH in the inward parts...

Truth = 'emeth-

1) firmness, faithfulness, truth, sureness, reliability, stability,

continuance, realism

God wants us to GET REAL where it counts the most...IN OUR INNERMOST

BEING!

In this Psalm, we find David- who it is said "Was a man after God's own

heart."-now having to respond to the TRUTH that nothing is hidden from the

eyes of God.

We see Davidˆ after having been confronted by the Prophet Nathan regarding

his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the conspiring to mured

Uriah the Hittite- NOW having to evaluate the condition of his own heart

and in doing so his very relationship with God.

A man, who from his youth:

? had known the presence of God

? had led Kings into the presence of the Lord

? had experience the manifest miracles of signs & wonders

? had known the voice of God and the sweet fellowship of communion with

Him

Yet now we see David, a broken man, crying out for mercy to the God that

He had forsaken by following the flesh rather than Him who had been with

him all along.

Something had happened:

? between his being anointed king by Samuel

? between the days spent tending his father's sheep

? between slaying lions, bears and giants

? between trusting God while fleeing for his very life

I believe that somewhere along the way he had busied himself with the

things of God to such a degree that he had somehow alienated himself from

the Person of God.

For however long that it was........God ceased to be REAL to him!

How else can you explain a man, who as a young boy, ran out on a

battlefield to face a giant with nothing more than a sling shot and a few

stones while declaring, "you come to me with a sword and a spear, but I

come to you in the name of the Lord!"

There was an awareness. There was the tangible conscious presence of God

in his life. The was a knowing that God was there. It was REAL.

For all the times of extreme light, David suddenly found himself overtaken

by darkness. What had been so REAL in the light had become hidden and

obscured by the DARKNESS. AND THE DARKNESS WILL CAUSE YOU TO ACT IN WAYS

THAT YOU WOULD NOT ACT IN THE LIGHT.

Ps 143:1-6 says, "O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in

your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your

servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. The

enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in

darkness like those long dead.

So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. I

remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider

what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts

for you like a parched land. Selah."

Prov 2:13 speaks of those, "Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in

the ways of darkness;"

Isa 5:20 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put

darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and