BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

July 1992 This is the first article by Dennis Burke to be published in BVOV. In Position to Be Blessed! by Dennis Burke The valley of blessing. Wouldn’t you like to be living there today? Wouldn’t you like to be in a place where you’re so blessed that everything you do prospers? You can be. It doesn’t matter what kind of trouble you’re facing. The bank may be coming after you to call the note on your house. The devil personally may be coming after you to destroy your household. But if you’ll hear and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, you’ll pass right through those adversities into blessing. That’s what happened to Jehoshaphat. He was surrounded by enemies on every side. Things looked grim. Then, the Spirit of God spoke to him through a prophet. “And he said, ‘Listen, all you of Judah...and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s”’” (2 Chronicles 20:15, "New King James Version"). Now, that by itself is a great word. The battle is not yours, but God’s. Yet the prophet didn’t stop there. He continued and said: “‛Tomorrow go down against them.... You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you.’” Position yourselves. In my times of meditation, the Lord has spoken those words to me over and over. Position yourselves. That’s what I believe God is saying to us today. Position yourselves properly in God and you’ll finish in the place of blessing just as surely as Jehoshaphat did. How do we go about this business of positioning ourselves in God? Psalm 1:1-2 will help us get started. It says: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” If we want to be blessed, we can’t allow ourselves to get in the position of receiving ungodly or wicked counsel. Now, wicked counsel is not just counsel that comes after a satanic meeting. The original English word wicked means “twisted.” Counsel that is wicked is twisted—twisted from the truth of the Word of God. All you have to do to be caught in wicked counsel is to start adopting the attitudes and opinions of the world. For example, there is ungodly counsel circulating today against the Body of Christ. This counsel says, “Look at the Body of Christ. Man, the Body of Christ is a failure. We’re all messed up. God must be upset and frustrated with us because we don’t do anything right.” But do you know what? God doesn’t say that at all. God is in love with the Body of Christ. Sure, He doesn’t like some of the things we do. But His faith is toward us. He remains faithful to believe what He has declared about us. Psalm 1:1 continues to warn us against adopting the attitudes of the world by advising us not to “sit in the seat of the scornful.” The attitude of scorn will knock us out of the position of blessing. To scorn is to mock. For some time now the prophets (or spokesmen) of the world have been trying to mock, ridicule and embarrass men and women of God. I refuse to be influenced by their scornful attitudes. I will not align myself with the prophets of the world, regardless of whom they’re criticizing. * * * continues on page 22 * * * BVOV : 21

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