#387: Mentoring Moment: Inhabit

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Today.

The training and encouragement that CJ has for you is on the theme inhabit. So, cj, why don't you share with us today?

Yeah, you know, you've all, you know, been alluding to, you know, just that.

The Lord inhabits our praises. And Psalm 22:3.

Says this, yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. And I wanted to also look at the King James version, because this is where, you know, we get kind of our theme today. That word, it says, but thou art holy, O thou that inhabit Esther, the praises of Israel. That word inhabitist comes from the Hebrew word yashab. That's Y, a W, S, H, A B. And that word simply means to sit. And so I mentioned earlier that sitting would be very relevant for us in what we're looking at today.

And the thought here is that God dwells, reveals himself where his people praise Him. And I love this one. Apparently one Japanese translation says this about this verse. It says, quote, when God's people praise him, he brings a big chair and sits there. I love that. And it made me wonder, too. You know, I want you to imagine the feeling, have you ever gone someplace.

And there was no place to sit?

Have you ever been in a situation where there was just not enough chairs? And so you're either standing around or maybe you left? Maybe it just was like, yeah, there's no chair, and I don't want to stand around for an hour, so I'm going to leave. And I just wonder, just that feeling. Just kind of grab that feeling for a second. What's the feeling of there not being a place for you? What's that feeling of you not being able to be comfortable? And I want you just to think maybe, maybe this is just a little glimpse of how God might feel when there's a lack of praise or honor. It's almost like we gather, but let's just say it's all about us. And we've ne. We've left no place for God to sit.

And I want us just to consider that our praises as we lift up our praises to the Lord. And of course, there's no shortage of reasons to praise Him. And I want you to actually even be thinking about this. In fact, if you have your Bibles. Go ahead and. And have your Bibles open somewhere in the Psalms. Just anywhere you want in the Psalms. Just open your Bibles. And here, in just a second, let me give us a chance just to, you know, as we're unmuted, just to lift praises. And sometimes we're. We're given.

I like to say, kindling for the fire, you know, in the Psalms. You know, it's like we can piggyback on. On praises lifted up from David or the other psalmists, and it. It begins to well up in our own souls as well. And so that's why, you know, have your Bibles open to the Psalms. But Jack Hayford, who recently passed away, by the way, he. He was the pastor for years at a church out in California called the Church on the Way, Wrote books, had a radio program. Listen to what he says here. He says, praise creates a dwelling place for God in man's present situation. I love that. So no matter where you are here this morning, let's say you come with turmoil. Let's say you come with some stress. Let's say you come with a mild case of depression, melancholy, maybe not. Maybe you come with excitement in your life. Everything's going well. You're. You're aimed in the right direction.

No matter where you're at.

We can be lifting up praise. And God wants to meet us in our present situation. In fact, he wants to sit down, down with us. And I want you just to imagine this concept with your writing. Imagine beginning every writing session with a time of just praise. And what you're doing is you're almost like fluffing the pillow.

On the chair, or you're. You're getting the chair ready. You're preparing a chair for the Lord to sit. In fact, he's enthroned. He's sitting on a throne. Now, we know he always sits on this throne. He's. He's there. He's not going anywhere. In fact, no one's going to take his throne. But it's as if we're saying, you're welcome here, Lord. You're welcome here in my writing. In fact, I want you to reveal yourself and dwell right beside me so that we write together. So that.

Whatever you want me to write on, you're right next to me. You're not far away. I've created a place for you to feel welcome. You're always welcome here. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And so I want you to go ahead and, Shelly, you can unmute everyone.

And I want us just to.

Just to begin praising the Lord. These could come from your own heart or something you're reading in the Psalms, maybe another portion of Scripture, but just begin lifting it up. Psalm 150 says, Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heaven. Praise him for his mighty works. Praise his unequaled greatness. Those are just the first two verses of Psalm 150. And so let's go ahead and just lift up. Father, we praise you for this new day, this fresh start. Go ahead and just begin lifting up praises. You can type those or you can say them out loud as well. I think there's something powerful about saying out loud to where we can all hear it. And of course the Lord hears it, whether it be in word or spoken or written. But just begin lifting up praise.

So Psalm 150, verse 6. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Amen.

Praise the Lord. I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with his godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord. All who delight in him should ponder them that Psalm 100. 111, verses 1 and 2.

Psalm 149. 1. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.

May a new song be sung today.

In the hearts of these kingdom writers.

Psalm 97:1 says, the Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. And I can just praise him. That no matter what's going on around us, no matter what's happening in the world today that we like or don't like, we can know that he reigns and we can praise him.

Oh, thank you, Lord, for reigning.

Come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the Lord is a great God, a great king, above all gods. He holds in hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands come formed the dry land. Two Psalm 95, first few verses.

Oh.

Yes, Father, we agree with the psalmist that you are a great God. You're a Great God.

Psalm 113, beginning with verse 3. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations. His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord, our God.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, who is like you, O Lord.

So I want you guys to just.

Consider, you know, even as you're writing today and tomorrow, I want you just to consider pausing and.

Just lifting up praise. And again, you can use the psalms or other passages as fuel, as sort of a kindling to start a praise session. And there's no time on this. You know, it could be five minutes, it could be two minutes, it could be a 10 seconds. It's just being mindful of God wanting to inhabit the praises of his people. We're preparing a big chair, as the Japanese translation says, for God to sit. And isn't it comforting to know that he could be sitting right next to us, guiding our words, guiding our planning?

You and I both know that the only reason we endeavor to be Kingdom writers is because God has called us to this. He's put it in our hearts, he's given us this desire.

And as we write words that honor him in that way, we're praising him as well. And so what better way to prepare.

A place for him to sit and to be comfortable in our midst? And so this is just a small example of. Of what I think could happen. We. We really could just go on and on, whether it's reading psalms or just lifting up our own personal praises of things that we could think about. And so.

That'S what I have for you today. Just remember, God is inhabiting. He is living in. He is sitting, he is dwelling among and revealing Himself to you as.

The inspiration behind your writing. And I'm excited to see what he continues to do today and into tomorrow in this. This virtual writing retreat.

Yeah, it was just so beautiful just to hear all the voices and singing or singing. I felt like. I felt like singing. Right. The psalms are like songs, but saying His Word and speaking those, it's like. It is so powerful. And right now, actually, CJ is working on a book for writers about praying the Scriptures. So stay tuned. It's. It's just powerful. There's nothing more powerful that we can do than to combine that His Word and prayer. Right. But praise is part of that. Praise is part of prayer. And so that was just so beautiful. And I just. I love those little glimpses of, like, heaven even. Like, what is heaven going to be like, you know? So thank you all for participating in and sharing. And cj, why don't you pray over us?

Oh, Father, We. We do praise you. You are worthy of every ounce of praise that we can muster, every ounce of worship. And I ask, Lord, that you would inhabit the praises.

Yeah.

Of these Kingdom writers. I ask Lord, that they would send your presence to each hour of writing, each session I pray, Lord, that even as they continue to write words, they'd be praising you for anything accomplished. I was thanking you yesterday, you know, for finishing a. The introduction to the little book that I'm writing, and.

Just thanking you because, you know, you go into these sessions and you're just not sure what's going to get done. You're just not sure how distracted you're going to be.

And yet you lift up that prayer and say, lord, whatever you desire.

Whatever you want me to accomplish today, help me, give me strength, give me clarity, and to be able to look back and, and see what was finished. I just praise you and I just ask that you would guide and direct each person here today that they would be able to look back and say thank you for every word, thank you for every idea that I was able to.

Finish.

Or for giving me a new direction. And I just pray, Lord, that we would honor and glorify you, Lord, in everything that we do accomplish today. And we just ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.

So if you ever feel stuck, just try it. Just stop, open up the psalms and just set your timer even for like maybe five minutes, one minute, whatever, two minutes, and just start reading the psalms, just start praising the Lord and see if there's a shift that happens. So thank you, CJ for sharing this with us.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

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