A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. Impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.

But this time it was a sound . . . my ears dialing into what was around me. Rousing me. Pricking my attention. Causing me to climb out of a sleepy, internal-driven existence—even for a few moments.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD GIVEN: DECEMBER 6, 2020

Listening. That was the point of the walk I took around my housing community. I didn’t know that when I headed out. It started out like any other walk. A break in my day. A short time to shake off things . . . but too often these days, to walk around in my thoughts.

And then at some point, a sound happened. It was . . .

Like when you’re on a walk alone, lost in thought,
then hear a tinkling something.
A hint of a noise that softly awakens.
A cool breeze that you hadn’t noticed before encircles you, sweeping by,
closer, then upward to a neighbor’s balcony
where it gently nudges an unobtrusive wind chime.
It rings, bashfully.
Airy, shiny, merry like silvery tinsel dangling on the limb of a holiday tree.
Then you stop and look and listen.
Aware for the first time—probably in a long time—of the sounds around you.
The swish of a bird’s feathers.
A car door subtly closing.
Hurried footsteps across the street.
Murmuring voices drifting from a backyard.
Your soul smiles, quiets, and releases.

THE STILLED—YET ENGAGED—SOUL

So just how much have I been missing, despite my seeking Him, keeping in His Word, and listening to biblical teaching? The LORD is recalibrating my hearing. Fine-tuning the frequency. Rousing me from a sleep-awake dimension. What about you?

There are levels of awareness. In the natural world and the spiritual. Too often we may think we’re aware when really we’re not fully aware (hearing, engaged) at all.

Think of how little aware you probably are when doing the rote things of life—making the bed, getting a shower, turning off the lights before heading out the door. How many times have you later wondered if you really did unplug that hair dryer before you left the house or closed the garage door?

Stopping . . . waiting . . . stilling our souls. That’s what’s needed. Even for a moment to realign, regroup, hear what might have otherwise been missed.

Just like that tinkling wind chime that alerted me to other sounds and woke me from my daily drudge thinking. The sound was in the natural—but with a spiritual lesson . . .

We can distance our souls from the outer chaos and demands and be quieted within while striving through the natural in Him.

Awake in Him.

Awake in His Word.

Awake in His Holy Spirit.

Awake in our Messiah, Jesus (Yeshua, His Hebrew name).

THE STORM MAY BE AROUND US, BUT HE IS IN US, WITH US.

The issue then is spiritual—especially in this hour that we’re in.
It’s critical that we stay aware and alert in the spirit.
Tune into God, take every thought captive. Keep awake in Him.
So our ears aren’t dulled even in the mundane moments of life.

Consider these scriptures . . .
 

Matthew 13:16, Jesus says . . .

But blessed are your eyes,

because they see; and your ears, because they hear.

Matthew 7:24, Jesus says . . .

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine

and puts them into practice

is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

James 1:19 says . . .

This you know, my beloved brethren.

But everyone must be quick to hear,

slow to speak and slow to anger.

Isaiah 28:23 says . . .

Give ear and hear my voice,

Listen and hear my words.

May the Lord anoint your soul’s ears, fine-tuning them to His frequency so that you’re not caught unaware or distracted or derailed in this hour.

CREDITS: Lighthouse with lightning photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares soul-to-soul watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.

This time He marked the season with a scripture (several subsequently) . . . it’s a definite wake-up call.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1
 

© desireofmysoul.faith (.com & .org) & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 3 to 4 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD GIVEN: NOVEMBER 10, 2020

T his time the watchword was 2 Timothy 3. It hung, suspended in the air over my prayer chair when I awoke that morning. It loomed large.

We’re aware of the times—particularly that scripture—but when God does a mini billboard in your room, it’s a heads-up. It cements things. We. Are. In. Those. Days. It’s not a matter of “application” . . . it’s real and it’s now..

Prior to this, I’d been reading Isaiah, followed by Jeremiah, some Ezekiel, Hosea, then Ezekiel again. After revisiting 2 Timothy 3, I felt prompted to go back over Hosea for a comparison of the two.

But unintentionally I had started to read Titus 3 and found that it plays into the Hosea/2 Timothy 3 comparison as well. And with that, I soon realized that Ezekiel 22 and Jeremiah 22 also mirrored the “reminding” wording of Titus 3.

So let’s do some unpacking to hear from the Lord.

First, keep in mind that Hosea’s audience was the Northern Kingdom prior to its Assyrian captivity. His prophecies were fulfilled within 30 years of their delivery. Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah warned the Southern Kingdom (Judah) before their descent into Babylonian captivity.

Paul’s letter to Timothy refers to the days—the season—that would unfold immediately before the return of Jesus and the consummation of all things. Eerily, the three prophets of Israel/Judah along with Paul’s clarion call were voices crying out to a people whose sins and soul condition mirrored today’s world.

HOSEA & 2 TIMOTHY 3 & EZEKIEL 22

Critical words/images from Hosea (chapters 1-12) that relate to our times, to the current soul condition of humanity:

1. walking in spiritual adultery
2. having a faithlessness—a spirit of prostitution leads Israel away
3. demonstrating no love or acknowledgment of God—only cursing
4. lying, committing murder, stealing, adultery
5. breaking all bounds
6. spilling bloodshed that follows bloodshed—and stumbling day and night
7. ignoring the Law of God—exchanging their glory for something disgraceful
8. having an arrogance testifies against them
9. their sins are exposed, crimes revealed—deceit, thievery, robbery
10. acting senseless
11. speaking lies against God
12. following their deceitful hearts

 
The call: return to God, maintain love and His justice.

2 Timothy 3—its key descriptions of the last days’ mentality. They’ll sound quite familiar, in line with Hosea’s calling-out:

1. lovers of self
2. loving money
3. boastful, proud, abusive
4. disobedient and ungrateful
5. unholy, without love, unforgiving
6. slanderous
7. no self-control
8. brutal
9. not lovers of God
10. having a form of godliness but denying its power

 
The call: continue in what you’ve learned about God, love, patience, perseverance, and the sacred writings because “all Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.”

Ezekiel 22 echoes both Hosea and 2 Timothy 3 loud and clear:

 
1. shedding blood
2. idolatry
3. oppressing strangers, orphans, widows
4. despising God’s holy things, profaning Shabbat (His Law)
5. slanderers
6. sexual uncleanness
7. steeped in bribery, taking interest
8. conspiracy among prophets, tearing prey
9. making no distinction between the holy and the common
10. oppressed the stranger without justice
 
The call: Hear, pay attention, for the time is coming when the Lord will deal with these indignations.

GOD WANTS: TITUS 3 & JEREMIAH 22

Titus 3 says to remember this:

1. be obedient—ready to do what’s good
2. slander no one
3. be peaceable, considerate
4. show true humility toward all humanity

Jeremiah 22 shows us what it means to know God:

1. do justice and righteousness
2. save those robbed by their oppressor
3. don’t mistreat others or do violence to the stranger, orphan, widow
4. don’t shed innocent blood

BROKEN SOULS: WALK THE RESTORATION

Humanity is fractured. You. Me. And everyone else. God made a way to repair that broken relationship with Him and with one another.

Here’s the 4-1-1 series on how your soul can be restored: God’s Roadmap to Heaven:The Broken Bridge, followed by the Roadmap to Heaven: The ABCS of Salvation Also, the third part of that short series is a Grow in the Lord resource, recommendations for solid biblical teaching/radio, etc.

CREDITS: Lighthouse with lightning photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares soul-to-soul watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.
 

When chaos rises like a whirlwind . . . God’s Word reminds us where to stand and who we are: His living stones, voices crying in a spiritual wilderness.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD GIVEN: JULY 2020, THEN AGAIN LATTER PART OF OCTOBER 2020

Living stones. That’s who we are in God’s hands. Alive in Him, called to speak His words, walk in His ways, for His glory.

It’s not easy in a world at odds with Him. And as these end times accelerate, there are spiritual minefields everywhere. I believe that’s why the LORD gave me this scripture back in July 2020 . . .

Truth is nowhere to be found. Whoever turns from evil becomes a target (prey). The LORD looked and saw no justice and was displeased. —Isaiah 59:15

If we stand in and with God, there will be repercussions from the world around us.

That reminded me of a scripture (Isaiah passage below) He’d given me early last year (2019) or before, when I was tweaking Combat Zone: Rules of Engagement.

Don’t fear (be shaken, swept into conspiracies) what people fear (call conspiracies)
nor give strength to it
or be awed (shaken terribly, oppressed) by what awes them.
Let G-d be the object of your awe (trembling holy fear) . . .
consecrate Him.
He alone is to be your sanctuary.
—Isaiah 8:12-14

What does that look like in 2021—and how does that dovetail into being His living stones? It goes like this . . .

Remember that the LORD is the stability of our times (Isaiah 33:5-6). Not the world or mainstream media or your checkbook. G-d and Him alone is your rock-solid foundation.

Therefore, per I Samuel 12: 7, 16 & 21 . . . hold still, stand and see what He will do, don’t turn aside.

Pause in the stillness of His presence, humbled.

When it’s time to move, move in His stillness—not the world’s energy, chaos, freneticism, reckless meandering, cacophony.

Don’t turn from His ways, voice, leading

LIVE THIS SCRIPTURE: 1 PETER 2:1-5

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, of all deceit, hypocrisy and envy,
and of all the ways there are of speaking against people;
and be like newborn babies, thirsty for the pure milk of the Word;
so that by it, you may grow up into deliverance.
For you have tasted that Adonai is good.
As you come to him, the living stone,
rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him,
you yourselves, as living stones,
are being built into a spiritual house to be high priests set apart for God
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him through Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah.

OUR DESIRE, OUR PRAYER

Make us a voice crying out in the wilderness, to those surrounding us, those lost in the enemy’s darkness.

Make us carriers of Your presence, ignited with the flame of your heart.

Your Name is our Strength. Your Name is the very breath of our souls.

Help us stand in You and become a unified army, marching shoulder-to-shoulder, focused on You, working as one, followers of our Messiah, Jesus (Yeshua) to the glory of G-d the Father.

CREDITS: Lighthouse with lightning photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

A divine spark. A flashed image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.

This word—given on Rosh Hashanah 2020 (Judaic year 5781)—is weighty. Critical for your walk with God so the beating of His heart becomes the beating of your soul’s heart.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD GIVEN: SEPTEMBER 19, 2020

Justice. God impressed that word three times on Rosh Hashanah. I’d taken my seat at service—with the co-vid distancing and required mask. It was a Messianic Jewish synagogue, Shabbat morning.

Right off the bat, the LORD flashed an image that lingered for a while. A runner, one knee down, the other bent, hands steadied at the starting line, ready for the command to GO, run the race.

We’re called to run like mighty men . . . aligned with His ways . . . running to gain Him, our crown.

They charge like warriors;

they scale walls like soldiers.

They all march in line,

not swerving from their course.

—Joel 2:7

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run,

but only one gets the prize?

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last,

but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

—1 Corinthians 9:24-25

But in that race you’re running—in Him—stop at checkpoints. Is  your race being run well? Justly?

JUSTICE. JUSTICE. JUSTICE.

That’s what God requires. Of course, in our court system. But what does that mean in day-to-day life?

It means doing rightly per God’s Law. Being equitable. Having rightly balanced measurements in your daily decisions and in your dealings with others.

A righteous man knows the rights of the poor—but a wicked man doesn’t understand such knowledge. —Proverbs 29:7

Help the oppressed, the robbed, and plead the cause for the afflicted and poor—and don’t mistreat the stranger, orphan, widow, or shed innocent blood or avoid paying for services rendered. Is this not what it means to know God?—Jeremiah 22

Do what He told you to do—do what is good in His eyes, do what He requires of you, walk in justice, mercy, and humility before God. —Micah 6:8

Let His just ways roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. —Amos 5:24

Don’t treat your parents with contempt or mistreat the fatherless and widow, and don’t slander or get involved with sexual defilements, usury, or unjust gains. Do not forget God, the King of all. —Ezekiel 22

Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bringing justice to the fatherless, pleading the widow’s cause. —Isaiah 1:17

The oppressor of the poor insults his maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors Him. —Proverbs 14:31

Because . . .

To the Lord your God belong the heavens,

even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

Circumcise your hearts, therefore,

and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

For the Lord your God is God of gods

and Lord of lords,

the great God, mighty and awesome,

who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

He defends the cause of the fatherless

and the widow

and loves the foreigner residing among you,

giving them food and clothing.

—Deuteronomy 10: 14, 16-18

CREDITS: Lighthouse with lightning photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares soul-to-soul watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.

This time, it was a dream that fused end times with a double-digit scripture.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD GIVEN: MAY 23, 2020

A dream with three parts. I saw a scripture up ahead. I kept looking at numbers and knew I had to remember them.

The double 5s seemed odd at first, but I knew that’s what I saw. So in the morning, I checked my Bible and read the fire-flash word:

Who then overcomes the world?
Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
—1 John 5:5

Later in the dream, I was hurrying to get dressed, then heard someone knock on my door. The person said, “The King is coming.”

That jarred me, excited me. But as I rushed to finish getting ready, another knock sounded on the door. Again the voice said, “The King is coming.”

A tremendous feeling of urgency flooded my soul and body.

The doubled 5, the double knock, the double announcement. The doubling underscores the clarion message . . . and reveals a division: We’re either on one side or the other. With Him or not. We’re either ready for the call, our oil lamp (spiritual image of the soul infused with His Holy Spirit) filled and prepped for His coming—or not.

It comes out of nowhere. Seemingly.

Like the quiet. The hidden, subtle cracking beneath the earth’s surface.

Sensed by some—maybe.

But only with ears rightly tuned, down to the ground,

can you hear the tearing . . . the pulling . . .

the eruption about to be birthed.

RED ALERT: BE READY NOW

DO SPIRITUAL BATTLE—PUSH THROUGH

The quintessential scripture that furthers the alarm is from the Book of Matthew (Chapter 25)—Jesus taught about the end times and the soul condition of those calling themselves His followers. The parable is about wise believers and the foolish so-called believers.

But note that in verse 5 of that chapter, He says that they all got drowsy and slept. The wise and the foolish.

This is a shofar-heralding moment for believers in modern times. We’ve been asleep, drowsy, spiritually lazy, distracted, double-minded, earthly focused.

Time to wake up, sleepy heads! (And I’m definitely talking to myself as well.)

Then the Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins (bridesmaids),
who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom.

Five were foolish, and five were wise.
When the foolish took their lamps,
they didn’t take extra oil with them;
but the wise ones took oil in flasks with their lamps.

Now while the groom was delaying,
they all became drowsy and began to sleep.

But at midnight there finally was a shout:
‘Behold, the groom! Come out to meet him.’

Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.
But the foolish bridesmaids said to the wise ones,
‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

However, the wise ones answered,
‘No, there most certainly would not be enough for us and you too;
go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’

But while they were on their way to buy the oil,
the groom came, and those who were ready went with him
to the wedding feast—and the door was shut.

Yet later, the other bridesmaids also came, saying,
‘Lord, lord, open the door for us.’

But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I don’t know you.’

Be on the alert then,
because you don’t know the day nor the hour.
—Matthew 25:1-13

CREDITS: Lighthouse with lightning photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares soul-to-soul watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.

A red-alert word-image kicked off my New Year’s Eve, 2020.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 2 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD GIVEN: NEW YEAR’S EVE, JANUARY 1, 2020, MIDNIGHT PST PRAYER TIME

Strength. At midnight on January 1, 2020, my prayer time started off with a word-image, a red alert.

I saw the word STRENGTH running down vertically—with the letter S lying horizontally on its side, looking like the diacritical mark tilde: ~.

Then the word transformed into a sword—and back to just the word and then it became both: with the letters of the word STRENGTH forming the sword. The side-lying S formed the sword’s curved hilt or cross-guard (which protects the hands in battle). The rest of the letters formed the blade.

Since a sword is a biblical image for God’s Word (the Bible), particularly in Ephesians 6, I instinctively began praying for His Word to be my strength . . . within me and in my hand to do battle as He leads.

At first, I wasn’t sure if the word was for only my soul or for the body of believers corporately. But I understood one thing: it was a big heads-up. Getting through whatever was coming would take two things: His strength, His Word.

We must stand in Him, dig deep into His Word . . . for His Word is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. It is the only way we will be able to decipher truth from the enemy’s slick deception and slippery lies.

While listening-singing praise to worship music, I was reminded of Psalm 1.

Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the Law of the Lord,
And on His Law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.

But when I reached for my Bible, it randomly opened to Psalm 21. These particular verses mirrored God’s strength-sword image:

Adonai, may the king find joy in Your Strength.
For the king trusts in the Lord and in the lovingkindness of the Most High, that he should not be shaken (falter).
How greatly does he exult with Your salvation.
Arise, exult yourself, Adonai, with Your Strength; we will sing and praise of Your Might.
—Psalm 21: 1 (2),8 14

CREDITS: Lighthouse with lightning photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com.

A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares soul-to-soul watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.
 

This watchword shook my soul—and my physical surroundings.

 

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

 

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 

READING TIME: 2 MINUTES.

 

WATCHWORD GIVEN: JULY 3, 2019 at 1:50 am PST

 
 

God’s powerful, immeasurable vastness astonishes me. Enthralls me. Frightens me. Humbles me. I am finite . . . from dust. He is the Great I AM.

 

Shaking. That was the watchword the LORD had me pray in those wee hours in early July 2019. The focus then and going forward—even into the end of 2020—has been Psalm 29.

 

The Lord had led me to pray, reflect, breathe in, and exhale Psalm 29—peering into the words, the meanings behind the words, and burrowing in-between the letters—over and over and over and over and over again. And I haven’t stopped.

 

Peering into these scriptures about His weightiness and holiness continues to silence me, moving me to repentance on new and unexpected levels.

 

Psalm 29 is for this time. An hour like none other before it in history, when the birth pains of what is coming alert us, awaken us from our slumber. Seven times the psalm speaks of the voice of the Lord, giving us a window into His depth and power.

 

Orthodox rabbis sense the shift toward end-time events. Messianic Jews/Christians recognize it from biblical prophecies. Whether God moves soon or, in His mercy, waits another decade or two or three, one thing is clear:

 

We have turned a corner,
and there is no going back to the way things were.
We are on His divine trajectory.

 

This is a soul-call . . . to deeper reverence for Him, acknowledging His might, the awe that is Him. The unknowingly knowable One. The hidden-yet-revealed One. The unseen-yet-seen-with-the-eyes-of-the-soul One.

 

So no matter what lies ahead for this world,
you’ll know where to fix your eyes.
You’ll know that He is on the throne—the one and only Mighty God.
He sits above the flood . . .
meaning kings and kingdoms come and go, but God reigns.
He alone is steadfast, the stability of our times.
He won’t be surprised or shaken by the turning of things.
Yet, promising to be your shielded cleft in the storm,
your strength, your blessing,
your peace and completeness . . . your shalom.

 

He alone deserves PRAISE and WORSHIP.

He alone is HOLY.

He alone is GOD.

He shares His GLORY with no one.

 

All of Psalm 29 appears at the end of this short post (next). But these particular images mentioned in the psalm spoke to me, stirred me, quieted me:

 

ADONAI’s voice over the waters . . . the GOD OF GLORY thunders . . . ADONAI over the rushing waters.

[His might hovering over His creation.]

 

His voice in power, in splendor, cracks the cedar, flashes fiery flames.

[The magnitude of His voice alone stills my soul. It was His voice that thundered over Israel’s enemies—panicking the Philistines (1 Samuel7:10) and breaking down the Assyrians (Isaiah 30:31).]

 

His voice rocks, shakes the wilderness, convulses the Kadesh desert.

[The sheer force of His presence changes everything. The desert quakes—the Hebrew likens it to pain (חיל), a woman in travail, as in Jeremiah 6:24. ]

 

During intercession, my prayers sought the LORD to shake the wilderness—shake us out of the wilderness, the wanderings, the soul’s wilderness wanderings.

 

Shaking us . . . with testings for faithfulness.

 

Just a few days later—during Friday night shabbat dinner at a rabbi’s house—that shaking took on physical dimensions. The glass chandelier swayed and shimmied, the artwork shook, the glass dining room table moved from side to side, as did our chairs. Kind of like a Disney ride.

 

An earthquake tremor, not that typical for Las Vegas. At least in my longtime living here. But I sensed that it was underscoring the Psalm 29 prayer—which continues to stand in the forefront throughout 2020’s tumultuous times.

 

PSALM 29: THE HOPE

 

When you read-pray the psalm (aloud even!), note the call to acknowledge GOD, assigning Him the rightful place in your soul/life, ascribing to Him power and glory—and to praise His power, might. And to pray, asking ADONAI for strength and shalom (a completeness, peace.)

 

A psalm of David:
Give Adonai his due, you who are godly;
give Adonai his due of glory and strength;
give Adonai the glory due his name;
worship Adonai in holy splendor.
The voice of Adonai is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
Adonai over rushing waters,
the voice of Adonai in power,
the voice of Adonai in splendor.
The voice of Adonai cracks the cedars;
Adonai splinters the cedars of the L’vanon
and makes the L’vanon skip like a calf,
Siryon like a young wild ox.
The voice of Adonai flashes fiery flames;
the voice of Adonai rocks, shakes the wilderness,
Adonai convulses the Kadesh Desert.
The voice of Adonai causes deer to give birth
and strips the forests bare—
while in his temple, all cry, “Glory!”
Adonai sits enthroned above the flood!
Adonai sits enthroned as king forever!
May Adonai give strength to his people!
May Adonai bless his people with shalom!

A divine spark. A flash image. A scripture suspended before me. This series shares soul-to-soul watchwords that I believe the Lord has impressed on me for this season, hour, moment that we’re in.

This image/word was given three different times over an eleven-month period. Believers are called to unity . . . even in a world whose division is growing.

“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

READING TIME: 2 MINUTES.

WATCHWORD DATE: This word was birthed from one given much, much earlier (2016), but it became prominent the week of July 15, 2019

Division. Out of nowhere, an image appeared before me. I’d been sitting on my couch, reflecting on some national news when the LORD flashed a map of the US—with a big jagged split, slightly angled left to right, down the center.

About two weeks or so passed, then I received another image. It was similar to the first . . . except the center break in the nation-image was caved in, sunken, nearly deluged.

[Eleven months later—June 3, 2020—the image appeared again. The gulf in the division was even greater.]

SCRIPTURE WATCH: PHILIPPIANS 4:9

On August 2, 2019, two weeks after receiving the split-nation image, the LORD gave me this scripture two times from two different sources within moments of each other. The anticipated rise of a divisive season before me, this scripture underscored how to stay standing even in a turbulent season.

As for the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,
practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
—Philippians 4:9

Be steadfast

unshakable, disciplined, running with horses (vs. faltering to keep up with the footmen Jeremiah 12:5)

Walk in Him

yielded, humbly, serving, devoted to His Word and prayer

Stand firmly

no compromise, no wavering, no doubts

Act per His ways

nobly, righteously, purely, your faith in action

Keep your mind focused

on what is good, pure, right, lovely, just, true

As we do . . . regardless of what comes, no matter how the winds blow, our souls will have a lighthouse—His Word, His face, His faithfulness—to guide us into His safe haven where His strength enlivens and carries us through.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
—Isaiah 43:2a

CREDITS: Lighthouse/lightning photo by. Michael Krahn on Unsplash.com

Walking God’s bridge.

Unfettered.

Unmuted.

Dauntless.

© desireofmysoul.faith (.com and .org) & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

The soul . . . that’s the thing. The breath of God within you and me. Your soul partnering with the body to work out and work through its journey. Trudging up craggy slopes, resting along quiet waters, battling spiritual foes, pondering defeats, embracing victories.

Desire of my Soul explores that seesaw journey via the lens of God’s Word, traversing the Bible’s inner crevices, rappelling off steep cliffs into its living water.

The Bible is our instruction manual, history, present, future. God’s words through many spirit-led writers, drawing us into the hidden, His deep. Piquing our curiosity of what’s said and how—as well as what’s been left out.

It’s intentional travel. Unfettered. Moving along a divinely structured footbridge. Dauntlessly following God’s story, His telling, His plot and subplot threads. Connecting what God revealed along a Glory bridge formed with Judaic and Hebraic beginnings that stretch forward, harmoniously unfolding to its mirrored Messianic side.

Both sides of His bridge are unmistakably One. Intertwined.

Come . . . leave the mundane and embark on a journey where your soul will go to itself, within itself, and for itself, for a higher purpose in Him.

Connected upward, yet pulled downward.

That is the battle within your soul.

But it’s for a purpose. And it’s good.

© Desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

Combat zone series is the foundational post for soul basics.

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

Italians might wish a newborn“benvenuti alla luce”—welcome to the light—but whenever I see a baby, one of my first thoughts is “Welcome to the battlefield.”

The dynamics have begun. Within that little body lies a great commission . . . its soul’s journey, purpose, identity.

It won’t be easy because the soul-body (a uniquely fused form for physical/spiritual life) will engage in a no-holds-barred tug of war vs. resting in a holy balance.

I know that battle well. More than likely, you sense it too. It is, after all, the stuff within all of us residing on this side of heaven.

IN A BEGINNING

Mine, that is. One word kept popping up through my life: soul. And it’s been unshakably linked to my longtime awareness of God and my relationship with Him.

My earliest recollection of God’s presence . . . hearing Him on some level and having a deep desire to be with Him (and return to Him) . . . started around age four. I’d think of Him, spend time in quiet places outdoors to be with Him, and sometimes lie across the bed for an afternoon nap, asking if I could leave this world to be with Him.

But every time I’d wake up from my childhood hoping-to-be-with-God naps, there I was. Still here. I’d get sad and cry because He hadn’t taken me.

I believe that was my young soul reaching for what it instinctively hungered for: Him.

But it’s been a long and

w

i

n

d

i

n

g

road since then—with a hiatus or two (or more) from that earlier panting for Him.

A seriously real spiritual battle had pulled my soul in various directions, trying to eclipse Him and derail me from His plan and goodness, from the Light of the world.

But then . . . He stepped in. And the deep-dive into my soul’s restoration in Him began—again.

Those back-and-forth soul struggles can get frustrating, right? Understanding what’s going on behind the scenes of your soul’s battle can help.

So here’s the game plan for this series:

1. Scan the perimeter of what’s warring within and without.

2. Step into the soul-body tango—and your soul’s three nuances.

3. Learn five rules of engagement to finish your race well.

4. Consider the soul dynamic within a Fellini film—via a film noir lens.

WHAT’S WARRING WITHIN

Let’s discuss basics—some pretty amazing basics at that.

Your soul is breathed from God. It holds the identity of what God made you to be in Him vs. the illusion that whispers to you from the world and other sources.

An unseen God and an unseen soul. Both real, tangible in a unique and mysterious way. Both hidden, yet sensed, felt, and evidenced in this physical world.

Your God-breathed soul is called upward to Him—but its visible vessel, the body, is made from the earth (dust to dust) and is tethered to this world.

Like in a theatrical production, both players (soul and body) move downstage. The power struggle begins. The soul’s battle-heavy glory work ignites.

And a cast of characters join in and muddle your soul story with a gazillion subplots—many opponents on many soul-body battlefronts, spiritually and physically.

(1) the world—earthly, mundane, carnal, temporal pursuits

(2) your DNA

(3) outer impacts—cultural/environmental

(4) relationships—family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, congregant members, etc.

(5) life encounters/experiences

(6) your since-the-beginning-of-time adversary, satan

And let’s not forget free will. After all, humanity’s plan (way of thinking, choosing, thinking) is what got us in trouble to begin with—i.e. the Garden of Eden.

It doesn’t take much to stir up an inner battle that impacts your life with others and with God—instead of doing what the soul-body should be doing: stirring up its entire being to love and serve Him.

(1) our hearts (the seat of our emotions and thoughts) are deceitfully wicked—and so God searches the heart, tests the mind to give us according to the “fruit of our deeds” [Jeremiah 17:9, 10]
 
(2) standing before God’s holiness, our most “righteous” acts are like filthy menstrual rags. Our sins (missing God’s holy mark) cause us to be withered like a leaf, carried away like the wind [Isaiah 64:5(6)]
 
(3) our imaginings (rooted in our hearts) are evil from youth [Genesis 8:21b]
 
(4) none of us are righteous [Ecclesiastes 7:20, Psalm 53:3-4, Psalm 14:2-3, 1 Kings 8:46, among many others].

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Plenty, actually. But let’s take it gently. Getting more understanding starts with a grasp of your soul nuances based on what the Hebrew reveals.

READ PART TWO NOW. COMBAT ZONE SERIES: PART 2—SOUL NUANCES

PHOTO CREDITS

Light in cave crevices photo by Joe Gardner on Unsplash.com

[Combat Zone is a foundational post for this blog. The original article was created/posted in 2009, but for easier reading divided into four posts much later.]

Connected upward, yet pulled downward.

That is the battle within your soul.

But it’s for a purpose. And it’s good.

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

SUGGEST READING THIS FIRST. COMBAT ZONE SERIES: PART 1—YOUR SOUL

READING TIME: 3 MINUTES.

Ancient Israelites as well as those in the Second Temple period—including the first century with Jesus (Yeshua, his Hebrew name)—have long embraced a soul-body perspective.

Even philosophers from Homer to Plato and Socrates and onto the Hellenistic period and beyond have peered into this mysterious soul-body relationship.

This series explores that spiritual-physical interplay in daily life and pulls from the Bible’s Hebrew wording as a gateway to deeper understanding of biblical text.

And because film/literature can help visualize the human-soul story, I later on (in a linked post) lightly explore a character in a Fellini film, Nights of Cabiria, via this soul lens. An unconventional approach? Maybe.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to it.

DISSECTING YOUR SOUL

Looking deeper, inward

The first stop: three revealing Hebrew words for soul that are used interchangeably throughout scripture.

The words that I’ll discuss in a moment—neshama/nishmat, ruach, nefesh—magnify things for us in certain Bible passages, when considering the context.

And they do something else. They’re a tutor teaching us that the soul . . .

(1) is breathed from God
(2) is unseen like a breath or wind
(3) can rise (to the things of God) and descend (away from His goodness)
(4) houses understanding and thought
(5) has emotions
(6) has a desire to cleave (negatively or positively)
(7) has an awareness of self
(8) is eternal and shares responsibility with the body for its actions/decisions (thus one of the needs for a bodily resurrection—more on that in another post)

Now let’s unpack it.

Soul Nuance #1: Breath of life, soul, attached to God

Neshama [neh-shah-mah ]—soul, God’s breath of life [in Hebrew, nishmat chayim נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים] that He breathed into Adam per Genesis 2:7. That divine breath animated, enlivened the body and sparked the soul’s dimensions. It gave Adam’s body—as it does yours and mine—life.

Think of it. That breath is your closest contact with God, His soul to your newly breathed soul. It’s His holy breath (nishmat) residing within you. How miraculous. A profound, loving gift from the King of Kings, the Ruler of the Universe. The One who sits High and lifted up on His mighty throne.

Soul Nuance #2: Wind, breath, spirit, and also used for feelings/emotions, inner feelings

Ruach [roo-akh] rises and descends—designed to move (like the wind) with the flow of God’s divine presence, His Shechinah, dwelling within. You hear the wind, feel it, but can’t see it. In Genesis 6:17, God brought the flood upon all flesh having the “spirit/breath of life” (ruach chayim, ר֣וּחַ חַיִּ֔ים).

Genesis 7:22 uses ruach again to speak of the breath of life: Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life in its nostrils (nishmat ruach chayim be’apav, נִשְׁמַת רוּחַ חַיִּים בְּאַמָּיו) died.

And in Psalm 33:6: By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and with the breath (ruach) of His mouth, all their host.

Since ruach is also used for feelings/emotions and inner thoughts, consider this: As your life goes this way or that, upwardly seeking Him or not, so this ruach (spirit/wind/breath) rises, descends. So . . .

The question then is, will you hear His voice and follow Him, drawing the entire soul-body upward, aligning your inner thoughts with His, surrendering to Him and His leading?

Or will your flesh—which is tethered to this world, made from the earth, dust to dust—run the show and derail your soul destiny with God?

Soul Nuance #3: Life force, soul, self, a person, rested breath, living (breathing) being

Nefesh [neh-fesh], taken from the Hebrew root nafash meaning to rest, similar to Exodus 31:17 where God tells Moses what to say to Israel about the Shabbat and how He rested (nafash) after six days of creation.

Genesis 2:7 reveals that God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the soul of life/breath of life (nishmat chayim), so man became a living soul (nefesh chayim).

Want other scriptures? Read these after this post: three more scripture examples.

Like a glassblower, God’s action of exhaling a soul is like
the breath [neshama/nishmat] leaving His lips,
traveling as wind [ruach/spirit],
coming to rest [nefesh/nafash] in the vessel [our body].

—A poetic image about God breathing the soul into Adam (my inserts in red)—from the 18th century Italian-Jewish philosopher/writer, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.

The nefesh is often translated as self, suggesting it has an awareness of the physical world and of the body. It also has a yearning, a desire, appetite, and a cleaving (attaching itself either negatively or positively), per some rabbinic thinking.

That self-factor with a desire to cling is an important characteristic. Especially if the soul (nefesh) cleaves to things/desires mirroring those of the downward-focused, earth-tethered body, because it can wind up blocking the soul’s upward call (God’s desire).

Now add in what Rabbi Pinchas Winston (a lecturer/author on Torah philosophy) basically describes about the nefesh in his teaching of Exodus 35-38: it [nefesh] sets out to control and manipulate its physical surroundings in an attempt to “create a sense of self-reliance and security.”

No wonder that globally-and-generationally-known rabbi (who was so much more)—Jesus, the Messiah—taught this 2,000 years ago about dying to that negative self and turning your soul and body to God, surrendering to Him, serving Him, loving Him:

“Truly, truly, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,

it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

—John 12:24

READ PART 2b NEXT:

COMBAT ZONE SERIES: PART 2b—THE BODY FACTOR
 
 

RESOURCES

Hebrew wording based on Tanakh Hebrew for text and Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon.

Greek word for soul and spirit from Strongs on https://biblehub.com/greek/5590.htm

PHOTO CREDIT

Quirky man with magnifying glass photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash.com

Combat Zone is the foundational post for soul basics. The original article was created/posted in 2009, but for easier reading, later divided into more posts.

The soul. The body. Let the games (and battle) begin.

© desireofmysoul.faith & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

Combat Zone is the foundational post for soul basics.

SUGGEST READING THE SERIES IN ORDER. COMBAT ZONE SERIES: PART 1—YOUR SOUL

READING TIME: 2 MINUTES.

U nlike the soul breathed from God, your earth-derived body has a different agenda. It has an appetite and cravings for our physical world/natural realm. (Hello, Garden of Eden debacle.)

As noted by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz—teacher/author, famed for his edition of the Talmud:

“The body is blind . . . it has the physical power but doesn’t have the understanding, the inner side . . . the soul, on the other hand, has all understanding [my note for clarification—it’s not visible but sees spiritually], but it doesn’t have the physical power to do it.”

Steinsaltz says the soul-body combination is powerful, being able to do everything: feeling, thinking, saying.

But it’s not that simple. He says with the creation of man, a lump of matter, of earth, God inserted a soul. That resulted in two different and separate entities whose usage later is far more complex—and in daily life takes on a more “symbiotic coexistence of two elements.”

Symbiotic in that the soul and body are working together and influencing each other . . . creating a type of combined entity.

You, me, today: This soul-body union can cause us to travel a rigorous obstacle course.

The question remains, will the soul get its earthly partner (the body) to look upward—or will the God-breathed soul be duped or falter and be pulled downward, eyes off God and His ways?

Introducing perhaps a more familiar term: In Judaic fashion, Jesus/Yeshua used the terms soul and body—as in Matthew 10:28 (ESV).

“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

New Testament writers [followers of Jesus, the Messiah], like pharisee-turned apostle Saul Paulus, later called the body’s world-tethered component the flesh—referring to the physical body and its self-driven characteristics.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion [degrading, vile, lustful], evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” —Colossians 3:5 (ESV)

“For those living according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit [of God] set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit [of God] is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it doesn’t submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” —Romans 8:5-8 (ESV)

But I say, walk by the Spirit [of God] and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
—Galatians 5:16-17 (ESV)

The dynamic-duo struggle, body and soul, is real. It’s part of the refining, spiritual, and God-designed journey down here.

But does it have to be so chaotic, such a Wild West ride? Depends. And that brings us to part three of this series—how to navigate the battle within and without.

 
READ PART 3 NEXT: COMBAT ZONE SERIES: PART 3—RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
 

Combat Zone is the foundational post for soul basics. The original article was created/posted in 2009, but for easier reading divided into four posts in 2020. Judaic scripture number references used