Be Still, Heaven Rules

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Inviting Heaven to Rule in Your Mind"

"Show the Glory"

"When You Need Stability"

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Dannah Gresh: Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m your host, Dannah Gresh. Okay, I’m gonna guess that it’s just possible that you’re bothered about . . . something. Life isn’t going just so!

I’ve got just the thing you need. Now, I’m going to get pretty old school here. We’re talking some good stuff that settled hearts back in . . . oh the 1700s! Weary soul, soak in this.

Music: "Be Still My Soul"

Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still my soul thy best, thy heavenly friend,
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.¹

Dannah: Hmm, that’s good, huh? What a beautiful arrangement from the Norton Hall Band. The next verse is so comforting. Let me read it. It says:

Be still, my soul, thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake,
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Thy hope thy confidence, let nothing shake,
All now mysterious shall be bright at last. 

Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know
His voice to rule them while He dwells below

These lyrics remind our souls that God is in control, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We can be still and rest because God is on the throne. Heaven rules!

If we’re honest, it’s hard to let heaven rule in our minds, isn’t it? All those problems and all! So often lies overtake our thoughts instead of God’s truth. But it’s almost like there’s this . . . I don’t know . . . podcast that plays in our heads full of all the things that are wrong in the world, with us, and what might possibly go wrong tomorrow. Can you say anxiety!?

God is in control, and He is always good. But sometimes that podcast playing in our heads is just so loud that we forget That’s why we have to intentionally rehearse what is true. We need to play God’s truth in our heads instead of listening to that podcast. 

One of my favorite ways to rehearse the truth is to take what I call “holy girl walks.” Maybe you’ve heard of hot girl walks, where you get a cute athletic outfit, hydrate ever so properly, and you walk, and, get this: you talk to yourself. You tell yourself positive affirmations that maybe help for a minute or two . . . and then leave you discouraged again.

My holy girl walks are different. Instead of walking and telling ourselves how wonderful we are, we walk and tell ourselves how wonderful God is. We tell ourselves what is true about Him. We turn off the podcast full of lies that so often fills our head, and we turn to the truth of God’s Word. At our 2022 True Woman conference, I talked about what happens when we go on these holy girl walks. Let’s listen.

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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!

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!

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What a good thing it is to let heaven rule in our minds.

I’m still taking holy girl walks. I’ve memorized Psalm 91 and Psalm 92. I’m working on Psalm 30 right now. My mental state is so much better when I’m doing one of these. You might give it a try!

Again, this clip is from a message I gave at the 2022 True Woman Conference. You can find the full message linked in the transcript of today’s episode. Just visit ReviveOurHearts.com/Weekend to find it.

Well, one way we remember heaven rules is by “burying our hearts in the Word of God.” That’s how Pastor Chris Brooks puts it. We’re about to listen to part of a message he gave about God’s glory and greatness in Isaiah chapter 6. And I’m telling you, this message is delivered with conviction! It’s so encouraging. Let’s read the first few verses of Isaiah 6 together before we listen:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Wow, what a stunning description of God’s glory! Let’s hear what Pastor Chris has to say about it. 

Pastor Chris Brooks: I want you to see what Isaiah saw. Can you imagine standing at the doorpost, opening the door to God’s throne room? Can you imagine how radiant God must have looked. Isaiah fiercely and scarcely could look at Him, covering his eyes, barely looking over his arm, seeing the radiant beauty of God!

When you get a glimpse of that, ladies, you won’t fear what gossipers have to say. When you get a glimpse of that, you won’t fear whether or not God will keep His promise concerning your children. When you get a glimpse of that, you won’t fear what a doctor’s report might say.

Because what you know is that your God is bigger! I want you to get a portrait of this God. I want to get a portrait of this God who is great and good, who is all-powerful and all-loving, who cares for you deeply, who knows you fully, who has said of the coming of Christ, “And he shall be called Emmanuel” (see Matt. 1:23) being translated, meaning, “God is with us.”

God is with you. He is with you in the waiting room. He is with you in the tears. He is with you in the brokenness, and He is whispering in your ear, “Keep your eyes on Me, because I am bigger!”

Have you ever noticed that in the sideview mirrors of your car, you’ll often see that little note across the bottom that says, “Objects may appear different in this mirror than they really are.” They may appear further away, they may appear closer. You’ve got to be careful looking into that mirror. This is how life is. There are times when things may appear to be bigger than what they are. But I want to remind you today that God is bigger than anything that the enemy has sent against you tonight.

I want you to be reminded that He is greater, that God is bigger, and that He cares for you. The foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of Him who called (see v. 4) The foundations of the house shook at the declaration of who God is! The foundation of the house shook at the glory of the Lord.

And so, it is that the foundations of our lives should shake at the declaration of the glory of the Lord. Now, you may say, “Chris, of course the foundations of the threshold shook, because Isaiah got to see this amazing vision that I could never see.”

But the fact of the matter is that He has given us His Word. And ladies, I want you to know that every time you open the Word of God you are taking a glimpse of His glory. If you want to see His glory and in full expanse, just bury your heart in the Word of God.

Whenever you are starting to feel small and Satan is starting to feel big, whenever the problems of life seem to be gigantic in your heart and your vision, whenever what is going on in the world around you seems bigger than Jesus, just open up your Bible and you will be reminded of the glory of God and see how big He really is!

Dannah: “God is bigger than anything the enemy has sent against you.” What an encouraging truth! Heaven rules, friend. We serve a great and glorious God. That’s Pastor Chris Brooks bringing the Word. Listen to his full message by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com/Weekend and choosing today’s program.

Well, we’ve been talking about heaven ruling in our minds and hearts. God is on His throne, and He’s sovereign over even the smallest details of our lives. But do we really believe this? And if we do, then do we live like it? These are the questions Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth asked in her series on Daniel. In this book of the Bible, the king Nebuchadnezzar loses his sanity because he refuses to believe that heaven rules. It was pretty rough. Thank goodness, there’s a better way. We don’t have to lose our sanity! Here’s Nancy on living like heaven rules—because it does.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Now, do we really believe that heaven rules? And do we live as if heaven rules or earth rules? How would our lives look different if we really did believe that heaven rules?

Let me give you some thoughts from the book of Daniel, and this is just to get you started. I want you to come up with some of your own. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we will resolve to live as holy people of a holy God rather than assimilating into the culture around us. Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food when he was a young teenager in Daniel chapter 1. Do you think that prepared and equipped him for a lifetime of temptation? Heaven rules. It causes us to resolve to live as holy people. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we won’t panic or despair when it looks like the enemies of God are winning, or when hard things happen, or when our freedoms are threatened, or when comforts are removed from us. Think about Daniel and his friends being taken into captivity as young teenage boys, threatened when they refused to obey the king’s evil edicts. They didn’t panic, they didn’t despair, because they believed that heaven rules. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we will have courage. We won’t give into pressure to conform to compromise to bow to the gods of this world. And when necessary, we will be willing to courageously resist evil and evil laws. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we will be praying people. We’ve seen that in the book of Daniel an amazing prayer life that’s been opened to me, as I’ve been studying Daniel. Because if there is a God and He rules, then you better be asking Him for help and for answers, looking to Him rather than looking to the government or the king or anyone else to meet your needs. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we will be people of hope versus people who are perpetually outraged against the culture. I thought of this recently, just a few days ago, when I watched a video that was one of the most frontal assaults I’ve ever seen on truth and God’s design for gender and sexuality and family. It was heartbreaking. We see things like that and we can go on a rant on social media, or we can pray, “Lord have mercy and give us wisdom, insight, skill, sakal, to shine Your light in darkness.”

If we believe that heaven rules, we will be humble people. We will have a right view of God and a right view of ourselves and others. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we won’t feel we have to control the people or the circumstances around us.

If we believe that heaven rules, we will serve faithfully wherever God puts us, even in a pagan environment. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we will be steadfast and calm when our culture is chaotic and out of control.

If we believe that heaven rules, we will believe that God can change the heart of the most proud, ungodly leader, as He changed Nebuchadnezzar’s heart. I can still remember my dad saying there are no tough nuts for God to crack, and he believed that because he had been a tough nut. God softened his heart and converted and changed his life. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we’ll believe that He can change the leaders’ hearts, including leaders today. I don’t know that there are too many who are a whole lot worse than Nebuchadnezzar was—proud, arrogant, wicked—but God can change their hearts. 

If we believe that heaven rules, we will see every crisis in our world and in our lives as an opportunity for the impotence of the gods of this world to be exposed and for the greatness and the power of God to be displayed. It’s an opportunity for people to see how powerful God really is.

Now, I want to say one more thing here, if you don’t believe that heaven rules, as King Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way in Daniel chapter 4, you may lose your sanity. He did. I love that verse in chapter 4, verse 34 where Nebuchadnezzar says, “I looked up to heaven and my sanity returned to me.” You may lose your mind if you don’t believe that Heaven rules, because you can’t make any sense out of what’s going on in this world. But if you feel like you have lost your mind and you want to know how to get it back, look up to Heaven. That’s when our sanity returns. 

Dannah: That is so good. That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth with words of encouragement for us. I want to live like this, don’t you? Let’s be women who look up to heaven. When your thoughts run wild, look up. When your circumstances are unsettling, look up. When your heart is fearful, look up to heaven. 

Remember that hymn we started with today? The words are true, friend.

Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide,
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

We can be still, even in the hardest circumstances, because heaven rules. There is such rest in this truth. I hope you’ll rest in Jesus this weekend as you go to church and worship, and as you look to the week ahead. You can’t see what the coming days hold, but your God can, and He’s ruling over all of it.

Well, I hope you’ve been encouraged by the words “heaven rules” today. This little phrase is also the title of a book Nancy wrote. In that book, she dives deep into many of the topics we discussed today. I’d love for you to study it for yourself and even make it part of your personal time with the Lord. That’s why we’re making available a copy to everyone who makes a donation this weekend. Your support of any amount helps us to reach more women with biblical content like you heard today. We want each and every woman to know the God who rules over all. 

If you’d like to donate, you can do that at ReviveOurHearts.com/Donate. Be sure to ask for Nancy’s book as well so we can send that as a thank-you gift. 

Hey, join me and Nancy starting on Monday on the Revive Our Hearts daily program. Nancy’s going to wrap up our study in the book of Esther. Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

¹“Be Still My Soul,” Norton Hall Band, Still Our Refuge ℗ 2021 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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