Category: Homeschool

Desperate Enough by Zari Banks

4/13/2014

"I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah." ~ Psalm 3:4

I love the Psalms. Proverbs were my favorite until I was in the pit of desperation, but then I fell in love with the Psalms because I found rescue in them. Last week in homeschool we started reading the Psalms in the NRSV Bible and Psalm 3:4 inspired a flood of writing.

My testimony begins with crying out to God to rescue or kill me (if you haven't heard that podcast episode it's worth listening to). I was instructed to read the Psalms. There are a several lessons in this so let's dive in.

I realized I needed supernatural help so I called out to God. If you ever get in a mess but refuse submit to Him for help you'll never break through. I see this daily with people who come to me for prayer - they are failing full time but will not submit to God. I used to be that way. I refused to submit and failed for two years and lost EVERYTHING before I surrendered. Please don't wait until you lose EVERYTHING to submit. It's not worth it.
He answered with instructions. I know from personal experience that we usually want God to rescue us without us having to do anything. We want Him to bless the mess instead of allowing Him to clear out and rebuild. You won't find that system anywhere in the Bible. This life with God is a relationship and there's give and take, action and reaction. He's already waiting and has victory laid out for us through Christ but we have to take the first step of believing Him and reaching out in faith to ask for deliverance from whatever situation we're facing.
My obedience brought rescue and deliverance. Again being in the career and ministry I'm in I see people who receive instructions from God for deliverance - whether in the written Word or spoken by a prophet, angel or Holy Spirit - but they won't follow them. What if I'd told the Lord I've already read all 150 Psalms three or four times and chose not to obey? I could be dead today because the request for death came out of my mouth and the enemy would have loved to come into agreement to make that happen (John 10:10a). Praise God for grace because I was desperate enough to listen to His instructions. Also, Holy Spirit broke through my natural mind and gave me understanding that if I was told to read the Psalms AGAIN that whatever I needed to be rescued was in there and it was my responsibility to find it. You'd better believe that even while living in my car and hanging out at coffee shops and libraries during the day, I was studying five chapters of Psalms for about two hours a day for 30 days. And if you've read my book you see the first seven days are kinda whiny, but after that Jesus Christ is beginning to break through my ignorance and is transforming me from the inside.
Psalm 3:4 "I cry out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah." Most of us know that selah means to stop and think (meditate, chew on) what we just read. Do you do it? I did when I read this last week and this was what I wrote in the margin of the page: 4/7/2014 When I pause and think about this I'm reminded of 2011. You [Jesus] came through for me through the reading of the Psalms. I have a testimony about the truth of this verse (Hebrews 10:23, Revelation 12:19). I'm living, walking, talking proof that this verse is true.

Do you see why it was so important for me to read the Psalms? Back in 2011 when I was searching in just the first day of reading the Pslams He had already given me a glimpse of victory through this promise in 3:4.

There are promises of rescue, breakthrough and deliverance, provision, vindication and much more in these 150 chapters. Everything from loss, to bouts of depression, rejection, persecution, etc. is mentioned in the Psalms. The Lord already knew the messes we'd get into and prepared a way of escape. The pit of despair that I'd so fabulously constructed for myself and believed no one else could ever relate to is even mentioned in the Psalms (40:2). Seriously ... there's nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). There are so many people who get tied up in court cases and instead of wasting all that time, money and heartache we can try our cases in the Court of Heaven by believing and decreeing some of the promises from the Psalms. Are people lying on you? The answer is in Psalm 15. Do you have fear of death? The answer is in Psalm 91.

There really is no excuse for anyone to live a less-than extraordinary life. God has promised us too much. He's written an 800,000 word contract (Bible) and sealed it with Jesus' blood. He cannot go back on His Word (Hebrews 1:3, Numbers 23:19). Do you believe Him? Or are you going to wait until you lose everything to begin searching the Bible with insatiable hunger? Learn from my former stupidity. PLEASE. I'm begging you. When you read your Bible each day, don't close it until Holy Spirit breathes on it and speaks something to you (James 4:8, Ephesians 1:17, John 16:13, Matthew 4:4, Matthew 7:7). Unless you wait for Holy Spirit, hear and implement the revelation you will continue to perish for lack of knowledge. I don't want that for you. God doesn't want that for you. You don't want that either or you wouldn't be reading my work.

Copyright © 2014 Zari Banks, M.Ed

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#TestimonyTuesday 5/13/2014

Desperate Enough by Zari Banks

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