Looking for the Hymn “Be Thou My Vision”?

Looking for a great recording of the hymn that this blog is named after – “Be Thou My Vision?” Here is a beautiful, unique version of the hymn by Andy Rogers, an intercessory missionary at Coleraine House of Prayer (C-HOP) in Ireland. Also, check out the C-HOP blog for more. This is a contemporary guitar driven recording and Andy is giving it away for free!

Click the link below for his ‘Ethno-Celt’ version here:

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http://songsinthenight.weebly.com

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Be still, my soul, and rest,
Your God is with you,
Be still, my soul and heart
God is singing over you.

God, sing into my heart
Of Your steadfast love,
God, sing into my heart
Of all that You are.
For I long for You,
To be one with You –
Fully Yours, Yours alone.

God, I long to rest
In Your perfect love.
God, I long to rest
In the knowledge of who You are.

I long to be with You,
To be where You are.
I long to be one with You,
Consumed only by You.

Come have Your way, God, come have Your perfect way in me. Burn up everything that isn’t of You, take me deeper. Deep calls out to deep, deep calls out to deep. Take me deeper in You, make me one with You. I don’t want anything of this world. I don’t care what they say, I WANT YOU, GOD.

Erase all in me that doesn’t long only for You. My soul aches for You, my soul longs for You in the dry and weary land of this fallen world.

Take me over and let the well of Your presence within me rush forth like a river, the river of You, the river of life, the river of healing, the River of Your Spirit, that very River of God that flows from Your very throne.

Come back, Lord Jesus. Return, Lord Jesus. Do whatever You have to do, just have Your way, be glorified in me.

“I am my beloved’s, And his desire is for me.” -Song 7:10

We can’t have a deeply intimate relationship with Someone we don’t talk to or spend time alone with. It’s a wonder that the God of the universe wants to be with us! That in itself is worth pondering on for a while. Ought we not pursue knowing this amazingly “other than” God?

Do you truly know Jesus? Do you have a relationship with Him? Do you spend time talking to Him, praying, asking Him what’s on His heart? Do you spend time in the Word, seeking to know who He is and His truth? Do you seek to live a holy life, not out of trying to be good to look good, but because He loves you and gave His life for you and you want to live for Him?

Christ didn’t die so that we could be saved at a one time moment in our lives and get a free ticket to heaven. We don’t just accept Christ and then go about our lives as we wish, even if we go to church on Sunday and pray occasionally when a difficult situation comes into our lives. Eternal life is knowing Him–that’s a relationship, on the inside of us coming forth outwardly, not the other way around. Even if you’ve had years of seminary or served in a church since such-and-such age or are on staff, do you have a personal you-and-God relationship with the Lord?

Jesus said that knowing God through Him is what brings eternal life to us. It’s not a head knowledge, study the Bible and memorize verses and go to church on Sunday type of knowing. It’s an intimate knowing–close-knit and growing closer as in marriage or the deepest of friendships. It’s to be the most valued and important relationship in your life. It’s about knowing Jesus like you would know your husband or wife. It’s like knowing God the Father as a child who lets go of all fear and rests in their daddy’s arms. It’s stopping your thoughts and not relying on your feelings and intently listening for the guidance and teaching of God’s Holy Spirit, who will help you to have communion with God and walk in love and holiness.

Do you know Him? It’s not worth being unsure about. Do you want to go to hell? No, no one does! We will all live forever–either with God in beauty and freedom from pain, or in unending torment. It isn’t a harsh message, it’s truth and I don’t want any to go to hell. More than that, God’s heart breaks at the thought of any living in torment forever. He wants that all might be saved from sin and death.

Do you know Him? Has your life changed since you declared yourself a Christian? Not just in how you act and how you speak and think or going to church once a week–that is not knowing the Lord. Do you spend time getting to know the very God who bought you through killing His own Son? Have you truly encountered Christ Jesus, bleeding and hanging from the Cross, His heart wide open in love and longing for you? Have you then turned away from living for yourself and turned to God and living for Him?

He died for you so that you could know Him and spend your life getting to know Him more and more. Beloved, it didn’t stop at salvation. He wants to grow you closer to Him every day and to sanctify you to the greatest possible holiness and selfless love, but if you don’t let Him, He won’t force you. And by pursuing a relationship with Him, He will change you by His Spirit–it isn’t of ourselves that we can be good. We have no good in us. He wants a love relationship with you, friend not slave-servant. And by knowing Him you will grow more like Him, not by trying to be good in your own strength.

Jesus prayed this very prayer for you:

“…this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
…Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
(John 17:3, 24)

He wants us to know Him, to be with Him, and to behold His glory.

Do you know Him? Do not wait and wonder. Go to God.

If you know Him, do you spend time getting to know Him more? Come to Him, be with Him more. He longs to be with you–He loves you, He’s not mad at you, no matter what the lies of the enemy or what your feelings say. Engage in the relationship of a lifetime–of eternity!–the most precious one you will ever have.

The cry of His heart is for YOU!

Life as we see it naturally is nothing if we don’t have life spiritually through the only Way–Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6).

God by His own hand brought salvation to raise fallen man to true life. He sent Jesus to undergo the punishment we ourselves deserve. The very fact that human beings are fallen means sin, and sin means judgment, punishment, death. God had to bring death and punishment to atone for sin, so that life could come to us who are dead without Christ.

In John 12:24 Jesus speaks of the grain of wheat that must die before it can truly live and bear fruit. “Once the seed falls into fertile ground, the outer shell begins to open as it dies; and inside the dead shell, new life awaits. Then, in the right conditions, the new growth will begin to emerge” (quote from this page). If the seed doesn’t die, the new life of a plant could not spring forth. And so it was with Jesus–Son of God, Son of Man–who died and rose again, becoming the “firstfruits” of many.

To be part of the many, we too have to “die.” We must turn from our sinful actions, thoughts and desires–from self, turn to God. We repent [turn away] from sin and make Jesus Lord over our lives–He becomes the One we live for, whose desires we seek to fulfill; we are not lord over our own lives any longer. It is a continually process in our lives as believers, at any time in which we disobey God. We seek to live not for self–doing as we please, but for God alone. We live to obey our Father in Heaven, knowing that disobedience is sin and sin has consequences (Gal. 6:7-9).

So we have to die to truly live. We don’t live out of do’s and don’ts of religion to appear good, but we ask Christ to reign in us as we seek His grace in denying our own personal desires. It’s not that we are His robots in this, but it’s because we love Him and desire to please Him (or that we desire to desire to please Him! Ask Him, He will help you even to have the desire.) Even in times when we don’t see the eternal good in it, we can hold to His promise that the eternal glory far outweighs any suffering our obedience brings (Rom. 8:18, 2 Cor. 4:17-18).

We live as God’s yielded vessels, filled as He desires, broken and poured out as He desires. We, the children of God, live to do His will as His Holy Spirit leads us. In this there is true joy, in this we truly live.

“…those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
(Galatians 5:24-25)

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20)

To God be the glory as we deny ourselves and allow Christ to live through us as His yielded vessels of holy love expressed!

If #1: If you come to Jesus

If #2: And if you believe in Him

Then: Rivers of God’s living water will flow from your heart.

Let us continually come to You, Lord. Let us put off all unbelief. Let us be filled with Your Spirit and have rivers of Your living water flow forth from our hearts. Let an ocean be formed from Your pouring forth into us and pouring forth from us!

Do you really believe that God is rejoicing over you, that He really, really loves you and delights in you? Do you live your life with this truth embedded in your heart?

God is singing over you, delighting in you constantly. Even in your weakness, He loves you. Even in the midst of His discipline over your sin, He loves you. He knows all your weakness and failings, yet He loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

He sings over you as you continue to press through your pain, weakness and sin to pursue Him time and time again.

He loves you, really truly loves you, His son or daughter! After all, God so demonstrated His love and delight in you by sending His Son to die for you, taking the punishment deserved by all of us because He wanted communion with us. That’s how much He loves you! For,

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
(John 15:13)

And,

“…whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
(John 3:15-17)

He loves you and laid down His life for you. He wants union and communion with you, the intimate relationship of Father and son/daughter and friend. We so well know the above verses, but have we truly and deeply pondered them in our hearts, allowing God to encounter us with all reality through His truth in them? Oh, how He loves us so!

May we seek to know the true depths and heights of God’s love and longing and the truth of His delight in us.

“The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:
‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.’”
(Jeremiah 31:3)

Further Study – IHOP Teaching Archive:

Beholding God’s Glory by Beholding His Emotions
The Father Heart of God
Wholehearted Love Starts Now

You endured the Cross for the joy that was set before You.

That joy was us for whom You died.

Help me to endure and live in the midst of whatever details are ever in my life, for the Joy set before me.

For that Joy is You…

Knowing You.
Loving You.
Being with You.
Growing in You.
Living for You.

No matter what is going on around us or in our lives. It’s all about You.

Help us to live worthy of Your calling, for Your glory.

“So there arises in the heart the desire and prayer for the Spirit of God to eject, crucify, and destroy every tendency of opposition to the Holy Spirit. Think not that thou shall attain the highest in God until within thine own soul a heavenly longing to be like Him who gave His life for us possesses thine heart.

Think not to come within the court of God with stain upon thine garments.  Think not that heaven can smile upon a nature fowled through evil contact.  Think not that Christ can dwell within temples seared by flames of hate.  No! The heart of man must first be purged by holy fire and washed from every stain by cleansing blood. Know ye not that he whose nature is akin to God’s must ever feel the purging power of Christ within?”

Yes, Lord. Do it. Purify us and purge us of anything and everything in opposition to Your Spirit and Your Kingdom coming and Your will being done. Make me a vessel of You, a vessel of Your holiness, Your truth, Your love, and Your glory. You be greater and I less and less, it’s all about You! Make me into a habitation for You alone, a dwelling place for You, God.

Prayer of Consecration from John G. Lake:

“Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You boldly in Jesus’ name. Take me as I am. I now give myself – my heart, my mind, my body, my time, talents and treasure to you. Fill me and possess me. I renounce all sins, self and satan. Jesus, sanctify me. Cleanse me, purge me, purify me. Your will be done in my life, on earth as it is in heaven. Let me manifest a faithful spirit, a pure mind and a sickless body to your glory. Amen.”

Lately God has been tenderizing my heart with reminders of His love. He has been deepening my revelation of just how deep and wide and high it truly is. By His Spirit this is transforming me. Less and less do the details of what this life will bring matter, and more and more my heart longs merely to know God and live for Him in every aspect of this life – no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like. The touches of His revelation upon my heart are softening me in His perfect, all-knowing way. He is preparing me for whatever His purposes hold during the next few months and beyond, and also as a vessel wanting to be yielded to Him alone.

Without Him I can do nothing.

God is blowing my mind as He paves the way for me to embark on this time of consecration and growth in Him (as I’m seeing it). His preparation for me seems to be touching every area in my life and needs. This so tenderizes my heart… I don’t deserve this and never could! We never deserved even the sacrifice paid for us by Christ on the cross, and yet He paid the price because He so desires the restoration of unbroken fellowship with His people. That is something we can never cease to grow past knowing—after all, His love is unending and so is He!

Let my heart beat in sync with Yours. Let me live for You alone… to fellowship with You, living for the glory of Your name.

All I want is You to have Your way:
You are the Potter and I am the clay.
All I need is You to have Your way:
You are Creator and I am what You’ve made.
(Misty Edwards – “Finally I Surrender”)