The Shelter, Refuge, Streams, and Shadow Man Who Unifies

¹ See, a king will reign in righteousness 
   and rulers will rule with justice. 
² Each man will be like a shelter from the wind 
   and a refuge from the storm, 
like streams of water in the desert 
   and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.Is 32


Theme Song: Behold our God 


Dear Father,
     I praise You that there is a message regarding our relationship with fellow believers in these verses. You in us and we in You...we are able to portray Christ in us to each other and so be strengthened and encouraged to find you in our Spiritual family. Help me to abide in Your Words and not stray from Them.
In Jesus Christ,
Amen


     There is a marvelous blessing that the Father has bestowed to His children: He has given us one another. This blessing is tasted as we find in each other, Jesus Christ: the Hope of Glory. 


Surely the King of Righteousness reigns among the hearts of His beloved and He is to them a Shelter, Refuge. Stream, and Shadow.


He is our Shelter


      He is a Shelter from the heat of the day: the "fiery darts of the evil one", the "breath of the ruthless which is as a storm driving against the wall", from the "wind and the waves", and from the "pestilence that stalks in the darkness". Surely the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower to which the righteous may run and be saved.


⁵ Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. ⁶ It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.Is 4:6

He is our Refuge

     His place of Refuge is found in the Eternal Arms which are our strength each morning. Surely when the toils and sorrows of the morning darkness fall upon us, His arm of salvation is extended in love that we may cling to It and ever be renewed and strengthened as He feeds us with His daily Bread. We are as the fugitive scape goat traveling far outside the city of this world and rather suffering with Christ outside the camp, bearing the disgrace that He bore. He is our refuge, yes, even then, He is our place of peace and safety. No enemy can come near the beloved for they are ever hidden in Him

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy him!’Deut 33:27

He is our "Streams of Water"

     He is to us Streams of Living Water from which we may drink and never thirst again. He brings streams out of the dessert ground and gives life to our soul even as our mortal bodies falter and fail. There is no true Fountain apart from Him and in Him may all our fountains be. "There is a river whose streams make glad the City of God, the Holy Place where the Most High dwells". His streams come to us in the dessert as we are parched and know no other flowing source but Him. These streams are as glorious comfort flowing from the throne, as a rushing river which dissolves whatever hardness remains in us, and as filling of the Spirit which results in the bearing of His good fruit.

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as^[c] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7

He is our Shadow

     He hides us from the fowler's snare and from the heat of the evil outcry rising from the earth. He hides us under the "shadow of His wings" and in the "cleft of the  Rock". He puts His Words in our mouths and brings us to the place of abundance. When in the midst of fires, His Hand lies over us that He may be our Shadow. Even as we walk in His light, the shadow that we reflect is Christ and brings glory to the risen One rather than to any earthly being. We reflect Christ as we abide in His shadow and are not burned through the refining fires that He places in our path. 

¹⁶ I have put my words in your mouth 
   and covered you with the shadow of my hand— 
I who set the heavens in place, 
   who laid the foundations of the earth, 
   and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”Is 51

      There are so many times, dear family, when we have grieved the Spirit by whom we are sealed for the Day of Redemption. We have grieved Him by refusing to be led by His gentle whisper, but rather "fled on horses" each in our own direction. The conscious abiding in Christ is a way of life, humble and narrow, that we rarely find ourselves in. It is not even an isolated life-changing event, but rather a life-changing event that changes our perspective towards every task laid before us, large or menial. His filling changes our perspectives towards each soul whom we encounter. We no longer only regard their mortal body and mind, but we regard their souls, lost or found, and His filling should give us a love and compassion. The humility that His Spirit brings to us will shield us from the offenses of the world, great or minor. No longer do we succumb to irritation, anger, jealousy, hopelessness, despair or even fleshly pleasure, useless speaking, and earthly entertainment. His filling of the Spirit is a circumcision of the heart, done not in the flesh by the hands of men, but done in the Spirit resulting in a new heart and a new mind. 

     As the Spirit goes about His circumcising sanctifying work, God has given us a great blessing that we ought never to neglect but that I (and many of us) have overseen. This blessing is the knowledge of Christ and all of His blessings through one another. 

²⁵ Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.Heb 10

     Jesus has given us His Word concerning His relationship towards all of His flock. As we are brought to dwell in Him more and more through the Spirit, the same path of the soul is occurring in other believers. Surely we are all on this path of being in Him more and more. As we are brought to Him, His glory is bestowed upon us. It is the very glory of God imparted to His beloved by which we are made one with each another. It is not the glory of any man or any leader that unifies the people of God, but rather the glory of God Himself. This glory brings His people to complete unity. THIS UNITY IS WHAT PORTRAYS TO THE WORLD THAT THE FATHER SENT THE SON TO BE THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. And herein lies the importance of our understanding of His Words. As we are brought to Him, His glory is imparted to us. This glory WILL unify us, and the world will see our unity as a sign. This sign will be clearer to them than the miracles of the sick being healed, the physical resurrection of human beings, and the long awaited voices from heaven. The unity of God's people is a symbol to the world of the love of God for them. God has loved the world in the way that He has loved His own sinless Son, Jesus Christ. Why does God impart His glory to us? He imparts His glory to us because He has loved us as His children.

 ²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³ I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

   ²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.John 17

     As we are brought to Him, He will be to us a Shelter, Refuge, Stream, and Shadow. As we hide in Christ, He will impart to us glory and power to do the work of the Father just as His food was to do the Work of the Father. 

³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.Col 3

     Thus we are no longer our fleshly selves, though the flesh wages war against us. Our flesh has been destroyed. Our lives are hidden so that Christ may be glorified in us and among us. As Christ is glorified in us, our lives will portray the attributes  of God. Our lives will display the Shelter, the Refuge, the Stream, and the Shadow of Jesus Christ. Our bodies become the temples of the holy Spirit where His glory dwells. As we portray Christ in this way, we will be drawn to one another in the same way that we are drawn to Christ. But the condition is that we must portray Christ in this way as we die to self and abide in the Words of God. The only way in which we will be unified is if the glory of God manifested in the Shelter, Refuge, Stream, and Shadow of Christ are revealed from our lives. Every glory of man broken down from us and every glory of the Father imparted to us will make our lives as beacons and fortresses for our Christian family. YOU FIGHT NOT ONLY FOR YOURSELVES BUT FOR THE JOY OF THE BRETHREN. 

²⁴ Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.2 Cor 1:24

     There is a miraculous work that the Spirit has done in the regenerate, to cause them to hear the Shepherds voice and to listen to His Words. As you speak the Words of God, the true sheep will hear. They will hear with trembling humility. Surely there are short periods of time when the sheep are led astray and fail to heed His voice, but it may be that Your words from the Father will bring back the straying sheep to His only Good Shepherd. You have the Holy Spirit's residence in the regenerate soul on your side. 

³ The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”John 10

     Why do we teach the commands and the laws of God as though we were able to simply hear and obey? We teach them because the true sheep will hear and obey by the power of the Spirit of Christ. "His commands are no longer burdensome for he who is born of God has overcome the world". 

¹¹ Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.Deut 30

    For all of the people of God have been given the Words of the God, Jesus Himself, to dwell in their mouths and hearts, through the Spirit, that they may obey Them. 

³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
   after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
   and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
   and they will be my people.
³⁴ No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
   or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
   from the least of them to the greatest,”
            declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
   and will remember their sins no more.”Jer 31

      The conclusion of this writing is that we will all know Him and He has blessed us to know Him through each other. He brings us to Himself. He bestows His glory on us because He loves us. This glory of God in us is shown through the blessings of Christ (His Shelter, Refuge, Stream and Shadow) and unites us. This unity is a symbol to the world of God's love for them. As we speak God's Words to one another, the righteous ones will hear and obey. 

This link is for a blessed painting of "The Broad and Narrow Way": 

Scriptures are in German but you can figure them out.