Hi there. My name is Richie Seltzer with Revivalist Culture. I want to welcome you to God Today. Today we’re going to talk about one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It’s Psalm103. I remember I might’ve been two years old in the Lord and I was in Perth, Australia helping out YWAM with an event called, Impact World Tour. And so basically it was an all-out assault on a city in the best way, Kingdom of God assault. Basically we were preaching the gospel in different locations all over the city for over three weeks.
And so one of my roles during that time was to build stages. And I was on a fast, I did a seven day fast that wasn’t eating anything. I was only drinking water and I’m working out in the Australia sun every day, building these stages. To say I was tired, was an understatement. Then on top of that, we had all these Hawaiians and Polynesian Islanders who were helping out with the Impact World Tour, and they had these huge buffets of food. And the only AC to get out of the heat was in the buffet area. So everyday I’m fasting and I’m going in and I’m smelling this amazing food. But I remember on this particular day, during the lunch hour, I went in, and instead of eating natural food, I realized man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And even as I was hungry for this natural food, I was even hungrier to hear the voice of the Lord. It wasn’t out of works, it was out of a hunger. I wanted my heart to stay so much more aware of His voice than any other need, and just more aware of the need to hear His voice than anything.
See, in the Kingdom, if you’re not hungry for God’s voice, then you eat more and you get hungrier more. In the world, if you don’t eat, you get hungry. In the Kingdom, the more you eat, the hungrier you get. I remember that day, I heard the Lord so clearly, it was almost audible, but it was in my spirit. He said, “Go to Psalm 103.” And I went to Psalm 103. And as I began to read Psalm 103, it says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name, and forget not all of his benefits. Bless the LORD, O my soul, who forgives all of your iniquities, who heals all of your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.” When I read that verse, it started to kind of shift a little bit. And then the very next verse felt like it was completely out of place. Like it shouldn’t even be in the flow of the song. It’s almost like a song, singing a certain melody and a certain type of lyric. And then all of a sudden they throw in a different melody or a different lyric. And this next verse just seemed like it didn’t fit in the flow of the song. The next verse, it says this, “He made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the children of Israel.” And then it goes right back into the same flow about blessing the LORD, O my soul. He forgives all your iniquities.” The next verse, right after that one, it says, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.” It’s like Graham Cooke, who used to say all the time, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. It goes on to talk about how the Lord is gracious. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our iniquities from us,” talks about the mercy of God again.
I remember as soon as I read that, all of a sudden I realized, hold on, you told Moses, Moses said, show me your ways that I might know you. All of a sudden I realized, hold on, we can’t know you unless we know your ways. Immediately, I remember God spoke to me in my heart. He said, “Richie, David’s getting ready to give you the keys to my ways so that you would know me.” The next verse, after God showed Moses his ways and the children of Israel His acts, the very next verse, God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. See that’s the ways of God, the ways of God is that He’s merciful and gracious. All of us at different points will fall short, and if we don’t have this revelation, that God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, then when we mess up, we’ll run from God like Adam and Eve and hide, rather than to Him. But if you know that He’s merciful and gracious, when you mess up where you need to go is to the Father. If you know His ways, then you’ll know Him. God is merciful today. Come to His throne of grace through Jesus Christ. He loves you. Don’t let anything keep you away from Him. He’s calling you to the table. Father, call every single person to the table of your grace, to your throne of grace, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.