Inviting Heaven to Rule in Your Mind

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Here’s Dannah Gresh with solid truth you can take to the bank.

Dannah Gresh: When your faith is in God’s faithfulness, it will be a shield for you.

Nancy: We’ll hear more about what that means—and what it doesn't mean—today on the Revive Our Hearts podcast. It’s September 13, 2023. I’m your host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

We’re going to continue our walk through the letters to the churches of Revelation tomorrow. Yesterday we finished looking at the letter to the church at Thyatira, whose sin was tolerating immorality and false teaching. Tomorrow we’ll begin exploring Jesus’ words to the church of Sardis, a church that needed to “Wake up!” and “repent!”

Both of those churches would have benefited from putting into practice the words we’re going to hear today from the ninety-first psalm. And you and I can benefit from it too. Compromise usually creeps in gradually. The solution is to keep our thinking anchored to the truth of God’s Word.

Not too long ago, at a recent national True Woman conference, my cohost, Dannah Gresh, spoke on that very topic. Our theme was the simple phrase “Heaven Rules,” meaning God’s in complete control. Dannah had the task of helping us see how to invite Heaven to rule in our minds.

As we get started, let me try to paint the picture for you. She came out onto the platform wearing—shall we say—a more casual outfit, with sneakers, jeans, and a flannel shirt. Here’s Dannah.

Dannah Gresh: No, this is not my regular True Woman outfit! (laughter) This is my “holy girl walking outfit,” not to be confused with the “hot girl walk,” I would like to clarify. If you’re not on TikTok you probably don’t know about hot girl walks.

A hot girl walk is when you get a “matching set.” (I think that’s what they’re calling sweatsuits these days.) You hydrate properly—hydrating is a very serious thing for hot girl walkers. And you walk, and you talk to yourself. 

You say things like, “I am enough! I can do it! I can do anything good! I am poised for positivity!” (Mheh.) Now, I could dissect those scripturally, but I’ll just say this. Psychologists have actually done studies on positive affirmations, and they have discovered something that surprised them: they don’t work. (laughter)

There is an ancient group of people who practiced the art of talking to themselves in a way that did have efficacy: the psalmists. They talked to themselves, and as they talked to themselves, they discovered that it works. I’ve discovered that it works. How do I know that it works? Because I’ve tried it.

Over the course of the last five weeks, inspired both by my need as well as the hot girl walk, I decided I was going to start to take holy girl walks. Now, I did properly hydrate, but that’s where the similarity really ends, because, as you see, this is not a matching set. (laughter)

These are my “farm girl clothes,” because I live on a farm. My jeans, my walking shoes, this is my actual flannel shirt I walk with. (The goats have even taken a bite out of it.) As I walk, I’ve been meditating on the words of Scripture.

I want to tell you something: in just five weeks, God’s Word has changed me radically. I have learned that memorizing His Word and meditating on His Word in a more intense, powerful way is an experience with God that moves us beyond studying to where the Word of God can penetrate your heart and your mind. 

Instead of having a crazy mind, you can have the mind of Christ. It’s taught me something—well, I already knew it, but it’s reaffirmed—that my emotions, my thoughts, and the headlines do not get to be the boss of my mind.

Jesus Christ gets to reign and rule in my mind, and in yours, if we let Him, if we invite Him. So today, I want to invite you to experience what I’ve experienced, and to invite Heaven to rule in your mind.

Now, let me give you the best example I know of one of the psalmists who did this, David. Psalm 42 is very familiar. Let me read to you what David wrote in verse 5: 

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation and my God. (vv. 5–6a)

Now, I want you to think about this: when did David talk to himself, and why did he talk to himself? Well, when he talked to himself was when he felt downcast, when he felt depressed. Has anybody felt a little downcast these last few years? Yeah . . . all one of you. The rest of you are not paying attention. (laughter)

Anxiety and depression have increased by twenty-five percent the past few years. We’re just trying to keep our hearts above the headlines, right? For me, I've never been a fearful person, and I can sleep like a rock. I love it. Except, in January that changed. I started waking up about fifteen minutes after I was asleep, terrified . . . I mean terrified!

Terrified of what? Nothing in particular, but if I’m honest, almost everything. That’s when the podcast that plays in my mind, that I don’t really want to play in my mind, plays. Does anybody have one of those? The podcast that plays, “You’re not enough. You’re never going to be enough! If you were a real Christian you wouldn’t be experiencing fear right now.”

Does anybody have a podcast like that, that seems to flip on at the most inopportune times? And before you know it, you’re three hours into the night, and the only thing that will put you to sleep is a good piece of peanut butter toast! (laughter)

Well, what happens when you don’t sleep is your emotions start to get more unhealthy. Your body starts to get more unhealthy. It’s really been a difficult year for me, and I’ve found that our emotions have a voice.

Sometimes that voice gets turned up very loudly. We do have the right, in Jesus Christ, to turn that podcast off and to listen to a different voice, the voice who has the reign and rule in our hearts and in our lives.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said something so concisely. When that podcast turns on, he says, “Most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.” Stop listening to the podcast, friends! Start telling yourself what is true!

 

That’s why David talked to himself. When did he talk? When he was depressed. Why did he talk? To remind himself what was true. And what does he turn to? He doesn’t turn to, “Oh, David, you’re half-enough. After all, you’re the king, dude!” No! “Put your hope in God! Yet I will praise Him, my God and my Savior.”

He’s not speaking positive affirmations to himself. He’s taking himself off of the throne of his brain, his mind. He’s taking his focus and his thoughts off himself and redirecting them to where they belong, on God!

And ladies, we’re not very good at that sometimes, when the podcast starts to play. And today, I want to remind you to put your hope in God. I want you to experience what I’ve experienced these last five weeks. I want to invite you.

Listen, I’m not a wimpy woman of God. But even those of us in leadership, even those of us who are moms—maybe especially those of us who are moms—need to remind ourselves sometimes that we need to think the right thoughts and invite God to reign and rule in our hearts and minds. I want to invite you to do that today.

We’re going to do that by taking a holy girl walk. Would you go on a walk with me? I’m going to walk you through Psalm 91. Psalm 91 shows up in a section of the psalms that we refer to as Book IV. The theme of Book IV in Psalms is, “The Reign and Rule of God.” Is that appropriate for us this weekend? Yeah.

Book IV is a collection of psalms that don’t fail to notice the brokenness of our lives and our world, but they remind us to look at the brokenness through the lens of God’s magnificent sovereignty. In other words, these chapters are about Heaven ruling.

So, let’s start. Psalm 91, find it in your Bibles. I’ll find it in mine (although I don’t really need it, because I do have it memorized at this point). Praise the Lord, that’s what happens when you take holy girl walks, and you think about the Word of God all the time.

Let me read to you the first two verses: 

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
   will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
   my God, in whom I trust.”

I want you to scribe with your pen, if you will, and circle or underline the words, “the Most High.” Right here at the very beginning, the psalmist is turning his focus off of himself and turning his focus onto God. Instead of using flattering words to get him through, he is looking at God Most High—the Most High!

The word there in the Hebrew is elyon, a word that means “high,” but the word refers to that highness in relation to the lowness of other things. So it not only reminds us that God is high, I am not. He is God; I am not. God is high, nothing else is above Him. What a wonderful, powerful truth that we need in a world that is as broken as ours is, amen? He is high.

This is what has happened as I’ve been starting to take these holy girl walks and meditating on these Scriptures. The Lord has me exploring new facets of the different words. I thought to myself, “I wonder when the first time was that the term elyon or El elyon—the God Most High—was used?”

We see it in lots of places in Scriptures, including the book of Daniel. But I wanted to know, when was the first time? So I looked, and I found it in Genesis 14. In fact, go ahead and keep your finger in Psalm 91, but turn back to Genesis 14 with me, if you will. I want you to see these words with your own eyes.

Now, what has happened is that there has just been a great war. Four kings fought five kings. The four kings won because they were led by a fierce king called Chedorlaomer. And in the battle, Abram gets news that Lot, his nephew, has been taken as a prisoner of war.

So, Abram decides to take three hundred or so of his shepherd men and go get his nephew Lot from the four kings (who beat the five kings) that were led by a fierce king, Chedorlaomer . . . and Abram wins! Heaven rules!

Sometimes that’s a comfort for us in our suffering. Sometimes, my friends, it is a victory cry, because Heaven rules! And in this case, it was.  If you’re looking at Genesis 14, as I am, look at verse 19. 

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High [the first time we see the words in the Scriptures], Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” (vv. 19–20)

Ladies, we’ve got to live like we believe it! Sometimes when that tape starts playing in our head, we forget. We need to remember that He is the God Most High, the Possessor of Heaven and earth. He alone is above all things!

Even when everything else is falling apart, He is holding it together. When we are in over our heads, it’s still under His feet. He is the God Most High, and we need to remind ourselves of that and remember what is true.

What you think about yourself is not really that important. A. W. Tozer said this: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” We’ve got to meditate on and remember and remind ourselves that He is the God Most High.

Now, it’s there in that place—acknowledging the God Most High—that the psalmist says, “I’m going to dwell there.” I want to land on that word “dwell” for a minute. As I was walking, I was thinking, “Ah, the word ‘dwell’ is interesting. At the end of this holy girl walk, I’m going to go back to my hobby farm, which I love, where my pillow is so comfy and my sofa is just so.” Like, I’m comforted, and I want to go back to it. 

The idea, the invitation here is that God is saying, “Come back to Me, bring your thoughts back to Me, dwell here with Me every moment, every day—return.”

When your thoughts wander and that podcast turns on, make an intentional choice to dwell, return to the thought of the God Most High. What I’ve learned is that as you dwell, intentionally choose to turn your thoughts to the God Most High, then you start to abide.

Here’s what I learned about the word, “abide.” The word abide has a little bit of a nuance, a little bit of a difference from the word “dwell.” Because I wondered, Isn’t [the passage] repeating itself? No. The word abide means “to stay.” You never left!

And sisters, as you begin to dwell on God Most High, you will find that your mind and your heart wander less. They go not so far. The tape, the podcast, that plays in your head, the volume isn’t so loud and you stay in the presence of God . . . because you’ve never, never left!

This isn’t easy, because sometimes our hearts and our lives and our circumstances take us places that we don’t really want to be. But consider this: there is some disagreement over who wrote this psalm and when it was written, but what Bible scholars agree on is this: that those in captivity in Babylon would have sung these words when they were in captivity. They were living where they did not want to live, in circumstances where they did not want to be, having walked into places where their feet did not want to go.

Where have your feet taken you where maybe you didn’t want to go? Where do you live that you’re like, “Uuh!” There, in that place, dwell on the God Most High. Abide in the Almighty there, in that place. 

I’ve discovered that when I dwell, I will abide. It naturally leads one into the other. Now, what is the psalmist doing in these two verses? He is reminding himself what is true. Because, girls, we have amnesia when that podcast plays, don’t we? We get amnesia real fast. We forget who God is and we get so hyper-focused on ourselves.

Are you preparing your heart for those moments? Are you preparing your heart so that when the disaster happens you’re able to dwell and abide in God Most High? Because let me tell you what happens when you do that. You can see it starting in verse 3: 

He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions,
   and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. (vv. 3–4)

I wish I could keep going, because this is so good, but I’ve got to stop and tell you something that God just helped me to see as I was walking and thinking about this verse.

I have peacocks on my farm. They’re cute; they come to my back deck in the morning for peanuts. For one season we had a little white peahen, her name was Roxie, and she was quite the character! She liked to watch me write books. She would sit on the deck and stare at me while I typed on the sofa.

Well, she went missing. I was sad; I missed my companion. While I was still kind of hoping she might return, but mourning her loss, I was having a day that the podcast played very, very loudly. You know those kind of days? And I thought, I’ve just got to get out of the house. Maybe if I go out of the house, maybe I change the setting, my mind will change. 

That’s not really how it works. That’s why we need to dwell on the Most High God. Once I got out there I just said, “Jesus, I need to know that You’re real. I need to know that You see me. I need to know that You care.” And just then (it was dusk), I looked up and far down the pasture I saw this little white dot on top of a post of the pasture field. And I thought to myself, Could that be Roxie?!

So I began to walk up there—it’s about two acres. All the animals on the farm followed “Mom,” there in the pasture; I’m on the outside. They’re all following: the fat donkey, the little mini-goats, the llamas. The horse got there before I did and was pushing against this little white peahen.

Now, that wasn’t right, because Roxie was sweet, but she did not suffer the other animals on the farm; she was very flighty around them. So I knew something was wrong. I pushed the horse away, and I just looked closely, thinking, Okay, what do I do here? White peahen, acting weird. 

And then I saw two little beady black eyes and a tiny little beak sticking out from under her wing! I carried her back to the barn, and right away I thought of this verse: “He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge.” 

Listen to me: if a thirteen pound, frail bird will stand firm against a fifteen hundred pound horse, I want to tell you something, your God is immovable when you have need of shelter! (applause)

But I want you to see something else, as I was walking, this is what happens. Listen, I want to encourage you, don’t study so hard, but meditate on words, on pieces. Ask God’s Spirit to just really teach you, and as I did. The Lord taught me something about feathers that I want you to see.

This is a wing feather; it’s strong. We use these to write with because they’re strong. Look at this down—beautiful, delicate, gentle, comforting. The gentlest part of our God is where He wants to shelter you. 

It’s powerful, it’s immovable, but it’s safe, and it’s healing, and it’s comforting. How do you get to that place? You get there by dwelling. You don’t dwell on the podcast; you dwell on the Most High. He wants you to dwell in that place!

And then, ladies, it goes on to say . . . listen, this is a word I really needed so badly!

You will not fear the terror of the night. (v. 5) 

Well, I did; I was. Nights were long, and they were hard! But as I have started to dwell and abide in a different way, I’ve started to have victory over that.

Last week, seven days ago, I woke up with that fear and I thought, You know what? I don’t need the peanut butter toast!

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
   will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my [strength],
   my God, in whom I trust.” 

And ten minutes later, I was sleeping like a baby—in the comfort and the safe place of my Father’s wings. Ladies, this works. How many of you have known that kind of comfort and that kind of safety? When your mind wants to play the podcast and instead you turn to the truth and the Word of God, and you focus and you meditate on the God Most High. 

How many of you have known that in your life? Then why do we forget!? Today is your invitation to stop forgetting and to remember, because listen to what the psalmist says here, 

You will not fear the terror of the night,
   nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
   nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
   ten thousand at your right hand,
   but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
   and see the recompense of the wicked. [Why?]

Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place
   the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
   no plague come near your tent. (vv. 5–10)

Dwelling positions us to be under His wing.
Dwelling positions us to be in His comfort. 
Dwelling positions us to overcome the terror of night and the arrow that flies by day. 

I don’t know what terrifies you, I don’t know what arrows are coming at you right now, but I know this: if you will choose to dwell on the Most High, you will not have to fear those things! He is above them.

Look how He protects us! 

He will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
   lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder,
   the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. (vv. 11–13)

Now, here’s where I want to say something, because I think that many times we read this psalm and we want it to say what we want it to say. Does anybody ever do that with God’s Word? We want to read this, and we want to say, “Oh, yeah, I’m a Christian, so no bad things are ever going to happen to me! That’s what this psalm is promising me!” That’s not what this promises us.

Some of you, the tape is playing really loudly right now, you’re saying, “Oh, no, God wasn’t a refuge. The cancer did come; my husband did leave; my child is a prodigal. Where were the pinion feathers then? The angels did not lift me up above those things.”

You see, we want to read this psalm, and we want a “bye” from all the hard things in this world. We want to believe that we’re going to be the exception to everything going bad and everything being difficult. But, hold on, we’ve got to read this in the context of all of Scripture.

Jesus said—it’s written in this Book—“In this world you will have trouble” (see John 16:33). You will have trouble. Don’t let Satan twist these verses. And he will, because he tried to twist them for Jesus.

These verses are the very verses that when Jesus was in the desert, Satan wanted to tempt Him. So he took Him to the pinnacle of the temple and He said, “Throw yourself down. Won’t the angels take care of you?!” (see Matthew 4:5–6)

Jesus did not allow Satan to twist and distort Scripture, and I’m begging you: don’t do that! The very reason we need the angels is because we’re going to have trouble! And when we do, we can dwell in the shelter of the Most High.

Here’s the thing, we tend to want the reputation of Daniel, we just don’t want the lion’s den, right? (laughter) And we want the miracle, but not the heat of the fiery furnace.

Listen, it was in the lion’s den that Daniel discovered just how powerful God was and that He reigned and ruled over the mouths of lions! It was in the fiery furnace that the three friends found that God was with them in the heat—in the fire.

And it’s been in my year of terror that I have discovered how comforting it is to live under the pinions and the wings of the Most High God! There are lessons that we learn about God in these hard places that we just don’t learn on the easy days.

There are pieces of God’s character that we experience in the lion’s den and in the fire and in the terror of night. He wants us to learn them, and He gives us an invitation to experience Him in them. 

How does this psalmist end this psalm? Well, here’s what I think is so cool. You notice how in verse 14, it’s in quotations? That podcast that was playing in his head that caused him to begin to dwell on the Most High, when David started to talk to himself . . . This is what’s happened to me in these last five weeks as I’ve started to talk to myself about the God Most High (not myself), as I’ve dwelled on Him, as I’ve abided in His presence. I have experienced exactly the reason that the psalmist put these words in quotations.

Why did he put these words in quotations? Because now he’s starting to hear the voice of God in his head, because this is God speaking to him. And he says: 

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
   I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
   I will be with him in trouble;
   I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
   and show him my salvation.” 

Do you hear all those sweet promises from God? He’ll deliver you. He’ll protect you. He may not deliver you from, but He will deliver you through. He will answer your cries. He will be with you in trouble.

 

On those nights when I couldn’t sleep and I turned to Psalm 91, I could feel Him there, in the presence of all that fearfulness. He’s rescued me! He will honor you. He will satisfy you with His salvation. Have you experienced some of that? Has anyone experienced that kind of God Most High in their lives? I certainly have these last few weeks.

How do we get there? I want to be very careful about this. Are there any Type A girls in the room? (laughter) Okay, this is for you. You need to hear this. It takes one to know one; I need to say this. It is not your dwelling and your abiding that makes all that happen. Those are pieces of it, they position us to receive it. 

But so many times in my life I think it’s my dwelling and my abiding and my Bible study. You know, I’m one of those girls who has to fill in all the blanks. Are you one of them in Bible study? Look at verse 4: “His faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”

His faithfulness, not yours. It’s not your faith in your dwelling, not your faith in your abiding, not your faith in your faith. That’s not what gets you to the place where you experience the Most High God. We are helpless! He is the Most High Helper, it’s His faithfulness. It is a shield and a buckler for us. When your faith is in God’s faithfulness, it will be a shield for you. 

That’s where we have to put our faith. Turn with me once again to Genesis 15. As I was walking last week and just meditating on this, I thought, I want to go back to that passage where “the Most High” was first spoken. I just want to see what’s around it. I want to see what God might have for me.

As I walked, God just led me to this. So look at chapter 15. This is just after we first heard the names El elyon. This is one of the most significant pieces of Scripture in Genesis, and it has incredible implications for you and me today. Let me read what happens next in Abram’s life.

In Genesis 15:1, Scripture says: 

After these things [that would be after that battle, after he heard the word El elyon, the God Most High] the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 

God’s faithfulness is a shield. He is the shield, there’s nothing we can do to shield ourselves. But Abram says, “How God?” Because if you know the story, everything hasn’t turned out the way that he had hoped, the way that everything doesn’t turn out for us the way that we hope. He, too, has had things in his life that don’t look quite right.

In verse 9, God said to Abram, 

“Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 

Now these words don’t mean anything to us, they sound like a shopping list to us, you know, but to Abram they meant something because this was covenant language.

Now, our language has no category for this, we don’t speak in terms of covenant language, but Abram knew this is the highest, holiest relationship and, “The Most High is asking me to have that kind of relationship with Him.” He would have understood the significance of it, and he would have been incredulous!

He probably would have also been fearful, which is probably why God started out with, “Fear not.” A covenant meant that, “We are going to be so faithful to one another that, if the covenant is broken, there will be severe consequences.”

To signify the severity of those consequences, they cut the animals in half and they put them on two sides. Then the two parties would walk through those bloodied pieces, and when they did that they were saying, “May I be as these bloody pieces if I break this covenant.” Would you be terrified?

I’m so faithless sometimes to the God Most High. My sin is so ugly. I think Abram was shaking in his sandals, but look what he does. Look what God does. God knows that Abram probably can’t be faithful, and so look at verse 12, after the sacrifice was built: 

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. 

Wait? What? Hold on. Isn’t something holy supposed to be about to happen here? Isn’t this amazing covenant going to happen? Yeah, and God knew Abram wouldn’t be able to hold up his end of the bargain, so He puts him to sleep. And then look at verse 17, this is a holy verse.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

When we look at Scripture overall, we can see that God often appears as a fire or a flame. God Himself walked between those pieces while Abram slept, saying, “If this covenant is broken,” and it will be (He knew it would be), “may I be as these bloody pieces” . . . and He was. My Jesus, Your Jesus, was bloodied because we are so often faithless. In the darkness of night, when the arrow comes, we get so faithless, we get so fearful.

We let the tape play, when the invitation is that we would rest in and dwell in and abide in the presence of the Most High God. Ladies, I’m inviting you to do that. The work is finished. Type A girls, you know, there’s not much you can do. Rest in Jesus Christ, rest in the finished work of God!

Do you know why I started holy girl walking? Because I am a workaholic, a Type A girl. Erin Davis calls me and her, “A Type double-A girl!” (laughter) And so, walking was my way of saying, “I’m going to go for a walk. It might take me an hour, an hour-and-a-half to walk. I’m going to dwell on and abide in God while I do this. And the rest of the world I’m going to entrust to the God Most High.” 

Walking is my way of resting, and I want to tell you what’s happened. I’m different . . . in five weeks. My emotions are settled. My emotions were a wreck six weeks ago. I was fearful and anxious and very, very tired and grumpy.

I’m sleeping at night—not every night, not all nights—but when that terror wakes me up, I know what words to speak, and I speak them to myself. I speak to myself about the God Most High. And I have to tell you about the bonus; do you want to know about the bonus? 

Eight years ago I injured my back terribly, and this year without sleep that injury was becoming so acute that I was losing ability significantly, and I was in chronic pain. I did not know how I was going to do this weekend (six weeks ago).

But somehow in the course of five weeks of walking, and abiding in and dwelling in the Lord, He has healed my back miraculously! (applause) Heaven rules! Do you know why He healed my back? Maybe it’s because I was walking, I don’t know. You guys can all figure out the physiology of that.

But I know this, it was because I was hungry for Jesus that I chose to dwell on God Most High, that I received a wonderful gift from the Lord, and I am so thankful for it! Ladies, I am inviting you to experience this—the emotional stability, the peace in your heart and your life.

And do you know how you do that? You stop the tape playing, and you start talking to yourself and reminding yourself who God is . . . and you rest in it! What does that look like for you? How do you need to rest?

Maybe your house doesn’t have to be Pinterest perfect. Maybe, when you invite friends over for a meal, you don’t have to impress them with six courses. Sometimes the InstantPot is quite fine! Make space in your heart and in your life for dwelling on God. Are you doing that?

Listen, you know what? If you are really addicted to your work and your performance and your perfection, start holy girl walking. Take your feet away from the work. As you walk, you’re not walking away from something, you’re walking to the God Most High!

I just want to ask, are there any Type A girls in here who needed to hear that they need to rest in Jesus today? I want you to stand up, if that’s you. You need to dwell in the shelter of the Most HIgh, you need to abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

You need to stop having faith in your faith, having faith in your Bible study, having faith in your abiding, having faith in your dwelling. You need to start today!—commit today that you’re going to start to have faith in His faithfulness!

Father God, I pray for these women. We stand before you saying, “Father, we believe so often the lie that it’s all up to us. Forgive us, Lord. It’s the podcast that plays in our head: we have to do it, we have to be everything, we have to fix it. Lord, forgive us for believing that.”

I pray for every woman standing here right now. I know what it looks like for her to rest in You, but would You just speak to her heart and invite her to the experience that I have just had with You these five weeks, walking with You? Teach us to rest and replace the message in our mind with the only truth we truly need: that Heaven rules, and You are the God Most high! Amen!

Nancy: Amen. That’s my dear friend and the co-host of Revive Our Hearts, Dannah Gresh, praying that all of us would turn down the volume on the negative messages playing in our minds, those negative “podcasts,” as she called them, and instead dwell and abide in the shadow of the Most High God. 

That message is from our recent True Woman conference. Our theme was the whole concept that Heaven Rules. Thousands of women came to Indianapolis from all over the United States and the world, to be reminded that God is completely in charge. He’s King. He’s sovereign. 

“Heaven rules” is a phrase from Daniel chapter four, and over the years it’s been a source of great encouragement and help for me. It’s also the title of a book I've written: Heaven Rules: Take Courage, Take Comfort, Our God is in Control. 

If you’ve listened to Revive Our Hearts over the last couple of years, we’ve talked a lot about Heaven Rules. But up till this month we haven’t mentioned the new discussion guide that goes with that book. This is designed to help you learn to believe that Heaven rules—and then to live as if it’s really true, because it is!

This month, as a thank-you for your gift of any amount to support the outreaches of Revive Our Hearts, we’ll send you the book Heaven Rules along with the discussion guide to go with it. 

To make a donation, simply visit ReviveOurHearts.com and click where you see “Donate.” Or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Ask about the Heaven Rules book and the discussion guide when you call.

When you lived at home with your parents (or maybe you still do!) did you ever sleep in, only to be awakened by your mom or dad saying, “Wake up!”? Tomorrow, we’re going to hear about a church Jesus had to tell, “Wake up!” and it was no laughing matter. I hope you’ll join us tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts.

This is Revive Our Hearts, where we invite you to find greater freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.